NY_Saint wrote:
The whole gross v net spending argument is pointless as the fact is he has spent £220m mostly on players who have not developed. The footballl we have played under Rafa has been as just as inept as under Houllier .
Inept football? It delivered the Champions League trophy to Liverpool. It delivered another CL final appearence. It should have delivered the league title last season.
I just feel the whole "We don't have the funds" attitude of Rafa and many others failed to address the fact that from top to bottom there was/ is a lack of leadership and judgement. But ultimately I feel that the coaching/ management is flawed.
Flawed management that delivered two La Liga titles and a UEFA Cup win with Valencia. Flawed management that delivered a CL win, an FA Cup win and another CL final appearance for Liverpool.
95% of managers would fully accept those kind of flaws.
Especially when you look at player development.
When I analyse this I find the following:
1) Everton coached Rooney to become a 30mil player.
2) Berbatov cost Spurs around 11mil. Spurs then coached Berbatov to become a 30 mil player. The inital figure Spurs paid for him is approx the same as what we spent on Kuyt. We also spent roughly the same on Babel.
That is utterly ****ing stupid. Rooney wasn't
coached to become a £30m player, Everton just got very lucky that a great talent joined them and shone. If that was done by coaching then every player would be coached to do that and the world would have thousands of magnificent players. We don't know why some players achieve brilliance while most don't, but it aint the coaching.
Tottenham didn't coach Berbatov to become a £30m player. They bought a player for £11m million, played him for a couple of seasons. The inflation that being a successful PL player and a massive mistake from Fergie resulted in him going to United for £30. He wasn't coached to make an improvement, Tottenham just allowed him to shine in a way that United cannot and Fergie just bought a dud.
We rejected a bid of 9mil for Babel (which including what we have spent in wages on him adds up to be a huge loss) and how many clubs would pay 30mil for Kuyt?
Moyes, Redknapp and Ferguson have made plenty of 5hitty deals just like those. It's moronic to cherry pick great trades and while ignoring the bad deals they've done.
Liverpool's two best deals under Benitez were signing Torres and keeping Gerrard even though Chelsea were desperate to sign him. You're talking about £90m that Liverpool could make if they sold them two. Does Benitez not receive any credit for that?
We have had season after season of Rafa telling us we have less money so have to develop our own players to compete, but how many of them have actually developed under his coaching system?
He was at Liverpool 5 seasons. Benitez was up against Fergie's Man United, Abramovich funded Chelsea and Wenger's Arsenal. He was up against those sides without the same funding CFC and MU were given and without the backing that Wenger has. Any coach can only do so much.
Alonso - Great first season, major dip in form and we fail to get the best out of him until he feels the need to be in the shop window for his dream move to Real (after Rafa trying to sell him to buy Barry)
Bought for £10m and sold for £30m. Bad Benitez coaching, obviously.
]quote]Bellamy - Signed on the back of a good season only to fade away and sign for City.[/quote]
Bellamy's an excellent player but an idiot. Benitez did okay to see that his lunacy couldn't be ridden and he was sold for a small profit.
Alonso is the only one of the above who we turned from a 10mil player into a 30mil player and it was Rafa poor management that instigated that.
Yup, when Everton and Tottenham sell a £30m player they deserve praise for great coaching. When Liverpool do the same it's bad management for making a player go to the hell that is Real Madrid.
Which brings another issue, when all the world could see we needed to reinvest that money into buying a striker why did we buy an injured midfielder? And why given Rafa's constant "We have no money" bleat did he decide to spend 17mil on a right back who can not defend? At least Johnson can attack though.
Bad Benitez. Chelsea, United and now Citeh can do exactly the same thing while also bringing in the needed striker. It's all Benitez's fault that Liverpool can't do the same.
We really need a manager who can sort out the whole coaching system.
Players play in their natural positions.
Get training to consist of actually playing football and getting to know the movement of your team mates.
Use man marking when defending set pieces.
And actually use a bit of man management, praise players for showing skill, flair and imagination.
Play and develop the youth players and don't drop them the week after they have played a good game. (Infact don't drop players at all after they have had a good game, unless they are unfit of course)
What you need far more is the owners who can provide the funds to compete with Citeh, United and Chelsea on an even footing.
Or if they can't provide the funding they need to let the manager know they won't have the funds, not bull5hit them in the way that they have Benitez.
Unlike some I don't think bringing the King back into the post would be wise but something has always stuck in my mind from what he says in a book I have. When posed the question of what we did in training that made us so good he answered "We play football."
Wow, how profound.
Is the "King" Shankly? How many European Cups did he win?
