The Myths of Rafael Benitez
Along the Fields of Anfield Road the two camps of Anti-Rafa and Pro-Rafa have become as distinct as Team Andre and Price. Similarly some of the press coverage of the managerial abilities of "The Spaniard" has been of a standard only usually found in the gossip columns of the daily tabloids. Reading Rafa's ship continues to sink on LSMedia today made me decide to dispel the myths in true Rafa Benitez style by sticking to the facts.
I will split this discussion into two parts, Tactical and Transfers and try and hopefully show the whole picture rather than the Sky Sports' agenda.
Tactical
So Rafa Benitez, 'The Tinkerman", Zonal Marking, Too negative and all those myths. Where have the foundations of these been formed and have they been taken as gospel in a sport that is supposed to invite much debate and opinion? Let's answer these one by one shall we.
'The Tinkerman' - Does Rafa Benitez warrant the name of 'the tinkerman'? Does he rotate too much? Is Rotation Bad? Well there was Media uproar when the bold Benitez stopped the media from having their Rafa Rotates for 100th game in row headline a few years back when he stopped the run at 99 games. 99 games in a row without playing the same team, that really is a lot though isn't it. Well Alex Ferguson who rests players rather than tinkers has just recently gone over the 100 games in a row barrier without keeping the same team. So the league champions and Champions League Finalists managed to go the entirity of last season without playing the same team for consecutive games. So rotation mustn't be that bad after all. So if rotation isn't bad why is used as a stick to beat the Liverpool Manager with? Aston Villa showed the perfect example last season of why rotation is needed in the modern game, with them succumbing to tiredness and dropping away at the business end of last season. This season United have made an average of 5.6 changes per game, Chelsea 4.9, Arsenal 4.7 and Liverpool only 3.4 changes per game. It also helps United and Chelsea when you have £15m players to call on in reserve, but that will be answered in the next section. So, decide for yourself, Is Rafa a 'Tinkerman.'
Zonal Marking is bad apparently as well. Now when talking about all these things lets not just look at four months but the whole of Rafa's reign. We are told man marking is better than zonal marking, or is this just because when man marking fails a player is blamed, usually a different player everytime unless you're Titus Bramble, whereas when zonal marking fails the system or the manager is blamed. So by cumulutive effect, Andy Gray and co can blame Rafa and his system more than an individual player. We also get told that space doesn't score goals, people do. So why do most teams operate some form of zonal marking by standing by the post for corners. Surely if man marking was so effective and a post having the inability to score a goal by itself would not be held on to to retain a clean sheet. We can then come to the most important piece of evidence. Step forward three times golden glove winner Pepe Reina. That's right, the Liverpool goalkeeper who for three consecutive years kept more clean sheets than any other goalkeeper in the premiership despite that dreadful zonal marking system in front of him.
Rafa Benitez is also too negative and too cautious apparently as well. Mainly because he doesn't play two up front. But how many top teams do play two up front anymore and is it just a matter of numbers forward that means whether you are negative or not. The 4-2-3-1 formation gets a lot of criticism, but it is a dynamic formation that can change from 4-5-1 in defence to a 4-2-4 in attack quicker than a Pepe Reina clearance. Our play may have been lumbersome and depressing at times this season, with some down to unknown reasons, but it doesn't mean that Rafa is a negative manager. He may have to play cautiously at times as any manager would, but when the team plays the way Rafa wants the team to play week in, week out as last season then we become far from negative with scoring 4 against United and Real evident along with many other results. We also finished the season as top scorers in the Premier League last season on 77 goals scored, nine more than Chelsea, United or free flowing Arsenal could score.
Transfers
We keep on hearing Rafa has spent a small country's GDP on players since he became manager of Liverpool FC and they were all rubbish players he brought as well. Once again this is not completely true. Rafa Benitez has spent around £225m gross on players. Wow, that's a lot you may say, but that would be like looking at your bank account and only looking at the expenditure and not looking at how much you earned that month. He has also recouped over £150m from player sales. So that is about £75m net spend. That couldn't even get you Ronaldo, or to put it in Liverpool terms, his net spend over his entire reign as Liverpool Manager is the near enough the same as the prize money and TV revenue we received from last season. So the backing still has been far from what should possibly be expected of a club of Liverpool's standards. He also had to take a club that was 30 points behind the leaders in 2004 to the highest total number of points by a runner up last year and only 4 behind the eventual champions. It has been a big gap he has had to make up.
Recently however, Rafa has had the joy of working under two custodians who make Scrooge look generous. Since the Americans walked into Anfield, without the spade they promised, Rafa has had around £20-30m to spend net on players. So despite the TV revenues increasing to the tune of around £30m for their first full season in 2007/2008 they have failed to back the manager sufficiently. In the same time we have paid over £80m in interest to RBS and Wachovia which is more than Rafa's transfer spend since 2004. I haven't even gone onto individual players yet and you can see that any decent results in the transfer market would make Houdini look like a kid with a £1 magic set. We can break that down further to look at player investment since May 2008. Since then we have made a profit of around £4m. That means there are 13 other teams in the Premiership currently, including those that spent a year in the championship, you have spent more than us in that time. The three teams that we are supposedly challenging for 4th place are the teams that top this monetary table as well.
We could be here all day debating the success of players, but compare the players that have graced the Anfield pitch during Rafael Benitez's tenure and you will see there have been a lot of successes, more than just Torres. There are of course failures in there as well, but no manager is perfect. There are plenty a bad signing for many other managers that Benitez is judged against. So to briefly mention those that made an impact such as Garcia, Alonso, Reina, Torres, Mascherano, Agger and many more. But Insua is rubbish apparently, despite getting capped by Argentina at the age of 20. Lucas is poor despite being a Brazillian international, being one of our best players this season and was Brazillian league player of the year before he signed for us. Even N'gog gets criticised despite only being a 20 year £1.5m buy who has a strike rate of a goal every 125 minutes in the Premier League this season. What is that in comparison to the great player that is Michael Owen I hear you say. Well Michael Owen averages a goal every 250 minutes in the Premier League this season. I could go on.
The main thing Liverpool supporters should be doing at the moment is invoking the Spirit of Shankly, getting behind the team and trying to force the custodians who are destroying our club out of Anfield. Until then lets leave media agendas, witch hunts and disrespectful comments about our own manager to Sky.
Details of Transfer spend and Revenues can be found here http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/pdfs/sport/liverpoolbankmanager.pdf. This was produced before the January Transfer Window and the sales of Voronin and Dossena which I have edited the values of used in the article above.
Paul Gardner
© 2008-2010. LSMEDIA is written, designed and produced independently by the students of the University of Liverpool.
Comments
Very good article, but I really can't agree with the net spend idea. Whether he has recouped the money from transfers or not, if a manager spends, for example, £11 million on someone adjudged to be a 'flop' (as Babel is by every Liverpool fan I know, not just the media) then that is £11m poorly spent. Otherwise it is like saying you won the lottery, spent all the money on a bag of sweets and claim it wasn't a waste.
I'm not a Liverpool fan, but I do agree you are best sticking with Benitez. I was watching the Stoke game in the pub and some of the tellyclappers in there were crying out for 'that Hiddink or King Kenny'. Judging by what some reds who went to Stoke were saying though, the support is still very much pro-Benitez.
@Joe Keggin - Babel may not have been a resounding success, but he certainly isnt a flop. Birmingham just bid 8 million for him or is that the price of a flop in todays market?
Joe, we have always had to sell to buy so the net spend idea should be the main point. The best analogy about net spend can be found in this article here:
http://timesonline.typepad.com/fanzine_fanzone/liverpool/index.html
"Benitez has spent money, in just the same way as someone with a Ford Focus on the drive may have “spent” £45,000 on cars in the past six years - ignoring trade-ins, part exchanges and the big loan outstanding. Nevertheless, cars having nothing to do with the lunacy of the Premier League, in spite of his apparently sizeable outlay, nobody would ever expect the driver of the Focus to compete in a road race against the feller in the big house with the £45,000 car on his drive."
Last night the Liverpool players used last night cost a total of £77.5m (approx) whereas the Spurs players used last night came to a total: £125.6m (approx). This obviously doesn't tell the full story, but there is a book called Soccernomics which goes into things more. From 1998 - 2007 (when the book was published) there is an 89% correlation between highest wages at a club and their position in the league. This covers for things like getting Gerrard for free, but having to pay the biggest wage to keep hold of him. Liverpool at the last published accounts in July 2008 had the 4th highest wage bill. I think we can expect this to be 5th behind City now or even 6th behind Spurs as well. Therefore we shouldn't expect to win the league with that level of investment on the pitch which is something Balague talked about in a recent article in the Mirror.
Babel has been a flop, but so has Nani at United who cost more. But United and others have been able (Before united's problems have started to show) to spend this on a many players and can get away with it. Djemba Djemba, Kleberson, Veron and so on. Something people look at rarely as well is that Rafa does well in selling players on, usually at a profit. Its like trading up in the property ladder. We couldn't afford a Torres at first or couldn't afford Alves, so we have bought players like Bellamy to do a job and then sold at a profit to get a better version, this is were the net spend argument is important and why when people talk about him buying 70 players or so is not a point that should be used to have a go at him with, but something that should show that he gets rid if they don't perform and doesn't let a load of players hang around like Diao, Le Tallec et al had done previously.
There is still a split with Rafa and he has made mistakes but people should debate about these and not the myths I have dismissed above.
The important thing for me though is that we couldn't replace Rafa with a top manager as we wouldn't be able to back him. I love Dalglish, but he has been out of the game too long and I wouldn't want fickle fans to start calling him a 'fat Scottish B*****d' which will inevitably happen. Hiddink or Mourinho wouldn't want to ruin their reputation with us as they wouldn't be able to buy players. Plus Rafa understands the Liverpool Way, he understands the fans in a way that makes him the best man to lead us through the troubled times and out into a future without Hicks and Gillett.
I take your point and completely agree about the 'trading up', which is vital in long-term. It's just that a lot of people use the net spend idea to excuse bad buys. For instance when Everton bought Bilyaletdinov (who I actually think could be a great buy), concerns were raised about the price of £9m (approx.). A couple of people said that it didn't matter because it was only from the sale of Lescott, so effectively was a risk-free transfer; it is this attitude that I disagree with.
They are two different issues though, but people generally say well Rafa has spent over £200m and we still haven't won the league without looking at the big picture. Net spend shows how much the real amount of money they have had to spend is. Still doesn't say if you spend it wisely. Having an average spend of £18m a year compared to the gross spend of £40m+ is key, because we couldn't actually go out and buy a £30m or £40m player unless we sold someone. Quality is judged differently, but part of that is down to expectations as well. By logic a £20m player should be better than a £5m player, but at Liverpool there is this expectation that the £5m players should still be world class players. Unfortunately though at that end of the market you take more risks, by taking someone who hasn't settled elsewhere or is young or may even be deemed past it. They may do a job, but then again they might not. For instance we signed Morientes for just over £6m. He had been at Monaco 2 seasons before where he was top scorer and helped them get to the final. He is a big name player and you would think he would be a bargain at that price, but he just didn't settle in the English game. We sold him for a £3m loss when it didn't quite work, but then he started hitting bag fulls again for Valencia. Some players just can't cut the premier league. All the scouting in the world doesn't compare to actually playing here. Its no coincidence that Premier League players particularly English ones then attract a premium on their price. When you are then shopping in the bargain bin for some of your squad players it becomes harder to buy those with Premier League experience.
Because of the demands of success in the permier league nowadays fans sometimes don't give players a chance to settle. Players like Henry and Ronaldo took a season or so to get used to things, and usually a full season is the measure to see if a player can cut it by at least showing some positive signs. Every transfer will have risks, some more so than others regardless of whether its from player sales or not. If anything there is probably more of a risk if you are getting the money from a player sale, because people expect the incoming player to be better than the outgoing player, particularly in the case of Alonso and Aqualani. Every manager will make poor signings, it doesn't make them a poor manager. Failing to get rid consistently of those poor players when you have the means to replace them is.
Also, an example here of what Liverpool fans do best.
http://www.clickliverpool.com/sport/liverpool-fc/127694-liverpool-fc-fans-show-of-strength-inspires-win-over-tottenham-hotspur.html
You make a persuasive argument, but I think that the following point from your starting paragraph "Reading Rafa's ship continues to sink on LSMedia today made me decide to dispel the myths in true Rafa Benitez style by sticking to the facts" was a little misleading considering that Declan's article expresses opinions that are consistently supported with factual evidence and support.
Things like tinker man, out of the race for 4th if we got beat by Spurs and bad signings were not opinions based on factual information though. The comparisons with the signings as well there were comparing some squad players to previous first choice players, Degen and Finnan, N'gog and Owen, and are unfair comparisons.
Deemed unfair by you, but comparisons have been made rather than unresearched accusations. Both of your articles are expressing opinions that are backed up by facts, maybe not every single claim but in large part the arguments you both make are supported with evidence. So my only question is why you have chosen to alienate Declan's article, one that puts forward an opinion based on fact, when your article is doing exactly the same thing.
We have been poor, yes I agree with that, its pretty obvious that, but re-read what I said above you, those comparisons or statements are not factual. 'Tinker man' is opinionated and when facts are shown it can be shown that many more rotate more than Rafa and that 'tinkering' isn't necessarily bad, so its an unfair observation to place at Rafa and not at all based on facts. Wont get 4th, definitely opinion and no fact in there whatsoever. I suppose it is a fact that Owen and Finnan have done better than Degen and N'gog for Liverpool, but you could take any player that has played 5 years for us regularly and his now in his 30's or retired and say they have achieved more than a 2nd choice right back who has been plagued by injuries or a 20 year old kid who is just breaking through into the team. Suppose it is a fact in some ways, but don't see how that is helpful to anyone. Rush was better than Owen, but then that doesn't mean what Owen achieved at Liverpool was then awful (without taking account of Owen's lack of loyalty).
I haven't alienated Declan's article as it is there on the home page next to mine to be debated as well, but I am putting my opinion across as I see it, and how I feel Declan's opinion (even though is entitled to it) is not helpful to the current situation.
Have a watch of this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1ScT3xjzQs
That is what Liverpool fans do.
Interesting article. The fact that Liverpool are under achieving in relation to their aspirations and the fact many fans such as yourself stick by the manager is a breath of fresh air in many ways in a day and age where managers are not given the time to rectify a difficlut situation when most people assume by changing a manager all their problems are solved, yet in reality quite often the case is that results momentarily inprove but the problems within the club remain for a considerable time. That said i quote you from one of your responses to the initial article:
'Rafa understands the Liverpool Way, he understands the fans in a way that makes him the best man to lead us through the troubled times and out into a future without Hicks and Gillett.'
The Liverpool way is an honest and straightforward way of playing football laid down by Shankley and taken forward by Paisley and Dalglish etc ingrained in players who regradless of their profile were willing to work hard as individuals and as a team to acheive the best for the club. The current string of players dont appear to have the desire to fight for the shirt. Although this may not be assisted by the fact that Rafa continues to change the side there is no continuity in team selection. Compare this to the current success of someone such as Birmingham City who have been able to pick the same side for 10 games plus. While they may not have the quality of players Liverpool posses they have a consistency of selection and this in itself helps build confidence which is born out by their current results.
Historically Liverpools way was to spot talent in other clubs and bring them into the Liverpool fold developing them into the Liverpool way of playing. Added to this they also brought through their own youngesters such as McMannaman and Fowler, etc. The current situation however is more based on buying over hyped, over priced and highly paid players who dont appear to have the desire or commitment to play for the shirt.
Surely the cost of the player is irrelevant in one sense, what is relevant is his desire to fit into the Liverpool way and give everything to the club and help it achieve its goal of winning the league title for the first time in many years. In terms of your concern of what the fans may call Dalglish if he is not successful, Dalglsih's success both as a player and as a manager is far greater than anything Rafa has achieved to date with Rafa. So if anyone is to be called a fat B********* its Rafa not Dalglish.
The inportant thing is that it is undeniable that Liverpool as a club shaped the success of British clubs in Europe and this was based around its success in its own national league. It needs to get back to achieving those successes in its own national league and taking this forward into Europe.
http://www.liverpoolstudentmedia.com/rafa%E2%80%99s-ship-continues-sink
You have completely missed the point of everything I have said, haven't you. No current Liverpool manager should ever be called a B*****d, but Rafa gets called that by some now, and believe me, so would Kenny regardless of what he has done for the club. Yes, you are right Kenny has done more for the club than Rafa, but that doesn't mean Rafa is bad.
Rafa also has brough in many players with the belief of the Liverpool Way and those that haven't get shipped out soon enough if possible. Players like Reina (who was brought to tears after seeing the fans guard of honour on Anfield Road as the coaches entered the ground on Wednesday), Mascherano, Kuyt, Torres amongst others and previous players such as Alonso and Arbeloa. Look at what we can achieve when the players and fans work together like against Spurs and Stoke with players like Kyrgiakos fighting for the cause. Yes there are some players who don't show that passion such as Babel, but you will find these at every club, and his distance from the first team shows Rafa realises this, but with the financial constraints on our club we need to know that if we sell we can a suitable replacement in otherwise we are left short changed. One thing with Rafa as well, he wont pay over the odds for a player if he doesn't think its worth it, nor have we got the money to so its never really been about buying over priced, over hyped players. Although I suppose we did buy the over hyped Kyrgiakos for £1.5m because we couldn't afford the under rated Michael Turner for £4m.
On the Young players, I agree it would be great to see more of them coming through, but you can't just magic a Fowler out of thin air. It requires a good set up and great scouting to spot say a 14 year old kid and then 5 years or more before he breaks into the first team. So you can't judge Rafa on that for a while yet, particularly since he only got full control of the Academy in spring last year with his new contract. Arsene Wenger needed time for them to come through and players like Fowler came to the club because of Dalglish's influence but he wasn't manager when Fowler broke through. So you have to give Rafa time on that, but the academy now looks very promising. Kenny has an ambasadorial role there now, Didi Hamman is a coach there as well and there is players like Laura Dalla Valle and others who look like great prospects. Not only that you have the likes of Darby, Kelly and Eccleston starting to be on the fringe of the first team more now. If you go and watch at the academy as well now you can see they are being trained to develop as team players according to how the first team plays. This is similar to what Wenger does where he would tell young players that they would be the next Henry, not to put pressure on them, but to show where they would fit into the team in the future.
On the Birmingham point you completely ignore what I said that Arsenal, Chelsea and United have rotated more than Liverpool but are still doing better. Rotation is an essential part of the modern game with the amount of games there are. Its alright to try and keep the same 11 players for 38 league games, but when you add cup games in, it is hard to keep the same 11 players fresh and injury free for nearly 60 games, or for 3 games a week. Liverpool have consistently under Rafa Benitez finished the season very strong and something you will probably see again and Birmingham may encounter the same problems that Villa did last year and early season high flying newly promoted teams such as Ipswich and others have encountered in the past in the Premier League.
Yes, we do need to improve in the league and Rafa has a say in that and can improve things, which no doubt he is working on, but its going to be very very difficult under the current owners to achieve that with the lack of support Rafa or any other manager would get.
*Dalglish success both as a player and manager is far greater than anything Rafa has achieved to date with Liverpool.
Sorry its been a long day!
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