Arguments in favour: - Persistent failure to mount a serious Premier League challenge as Liverpool are usually 15-20 points adrift in by January; Excessive rotation of squad and inability to decide on his best XI; Poor quality of football with not enough of a effort to pass through midfield; Overly-cautious approach away from home; Tendency to lose to lower league sides (e.g. Barnsley, Burnley); Indecisiveness about whether to play Gerrard on the right of midfield, in the centre or in a free role off the striker(s); Poor purchases in the transfer market, e.g. Kuyt, Voronin, Kewell, Bellamy, Sissoko.
Arguments against: - In 3½ years he has led Liverpool to success in the Champions League and FA Cup as well as finishing runners-up in the Champions League and Carling Cup; He has not spent as much money as people seem to think – Liverpool have only two players who cost more than £12m (Torres and Babel) compared to Chelsea who have ten and Manchester United who have eight; Liverpool will be best served by stability and giving Benitez time in the same way as Manchester United persisted with Ferguson when he was struggling.
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Rafa, in fairness has a couple of things going in his favour. First of all;point of order, he did not buy kewell. kewell is one of the few remaining elements of what was a significant houlier hangover. second; rafa does not spend that much money. if you take transfers out into account he has only spent a fraction of what Manu and chelski have paid for players. 3 of the top 10 tranfers of all time were by ferguson at united and one of those was veron. sir alex has had his fair share of transfer clangers in his time too but always had plenty of cover and moola in the bank. also, with regrd Sissoko,he is a young player with plenty promise. ronaldo wasn't exactly convincing when he arrived at united but he was given plenty scope to mature as a pro which he did.also, last summer was the first time that liverpool had any significant money to spend.i think it takes more than a couple of summer transfers to transform a team. thirdly; agger is out and hypia is past it. liverpool were doing fine until the agger injury. the lack of cover here has been the under-rated root of liverpool's problems this season as far as i'm concerned. blaming injuries can be a cop out but no one can deny the impact of that one and the significance of the dearth of adequate cover which could perhaps be blamed on rafa or a lack of money (esp after christmas).
finally, rotation. everyone talks about the rotation system as if he rotates the whole team. he rotates strikers and wingers which are the problem positions and also where most of the new players play. i think he is searching for an elusive combination that works. crouch seems competant so play crouch, full stop. kuyt is fast, bring him on with 10 min to go to harass defences as far as i'm concrned. vorinnin was good in world cup, don't know what his problem is.perhaps he's allergic to the scouse accent or something? i don't know. torres is the first striker that the pool have bought that was any good since thay brought Rush back from italy. owen and fowler were home grown, heskey cost 11m the same week henry was bought for 10m. the woes of the liverpool supporter are endless, but there is a loyalty there and rafa deserves one more shot for one more season as well as support from the owners. look at the probs chelsea had when they had probs with roman/special one. these things need to be reolved quickly and business resumed as normal.also he has done alot of good unseen work such as reform of the youth academy which must not be ignored. maybe we're just cursed!
This one was too good to pass up so I will add my 2cents worth. Firstly, does anyone remember making a profit (realistic) on any player sale? I certainly dont and this suggests that Liverpool are a mediocre team in terms of quality. No big teams tend to look at our players with envy. Secondly, the rotation policy is the one case that I agree with Rafa. Surely those fringe players should attempt to persuade Rafa by their performances that they are worthy of a start. I believe his intention is to keep 95% of his squad alert and ready. The lack of player quality or performance cannot be solely his burden. Sure he could buy quality but then we need a budget like that or ManU or Chelski. Fair point was made that Liverpool don't usually spend BIG. Thirdly, losing to lesser teams irritates the hell out of me. There is either a lack of confidence or maybe just quality that becomes evident in these cases. I think it's both especially when you look at the stats and every game you have 15-20 chances and only score 1 goal. That is truely wasteful. There is something intrinsically wrong and it can't be blamed on foreign imports as this works well for the other top sides. I believe that some of the recent rooted problems stem the departure of not a player but the coach, Paco. To be manager and coach in current times is unheard of and this has coincided with their slump in form. Could be coincidental or not??
To conclude, there is no better man at present to guide liverpool higher. I would give him one more season although the performances will inevitably lead to the sack if they neither get 4th place nor Semi finals at least in the Champions League. Liverpool have gone backwards in recent years despite their claim to trophies or finals. Look at Villa, Everton and City or even Portsmouth. They can't all be punching above their weight. Something has to give...
£4 million (approx) profit on Sissoko! To Juve - not bad. The eye injury he sustained in the CL v Benfica knocked him back at a vital point in his progression.
In the meantime Masch and Lucas have come in and done well. Both are vastly superior passers of the ball and that's the reason he went.
The two keys to this seasons poor showing are Agger and Paco. we may never learn why Paco left but it has affected the team. He was the guy who geed guys up before games.
Rafa's big mistake was wasting time on Heinze meaning there was no cover at CB until Skrtel came in January (and rapidly got injured!).
There's no one better to lead liverpool at the moment and the sooner club gets stability at the top, the better.
Rafa should not be fired. He is one of the best Liverpool managers United have ever had.
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