Rafael Benitez

[markjazzbassist]

3 hours ago, pete0 said:

Allan. Out performed him last season. 

Ancelotti said Davies was the player most like himself. Ferguson and Alladyce put him straight in. Koeman stopped him going to the kids world cup as he wanted him around the first team. All bar Silva have rated him. Find it mad our fans don't get behind him.

Agreed everyone wants hotshot spainiard and wants to off our academy kids.  Other teams back their academy and kids and give them a chance to shine.  It’s unfortunate we don’t do that here.  Davies was excellent last year.

[Hafnia]

I'd have Davies as an option from bench and that's it really.  Lacks mobility and strength.  Like the lad alot but he's not good enough to be a regular starter.

[Bailey]

On 05/09/2021 at 08:53, Romey 1878 said:

I don't think I've been impressed with Sancho once when I've watched him tbh. He's looked very ordinary.

I haven't seen anything that impressive from him yet either. I don't watch a lot of German football so I am only judging him by England standards which probably explains it!

23 hours ago, SpartyBlue said:

This is always so strange to me. Why do we think new players equal improvement year after year? If this were true then the level of football in the Premier League would rise year on year and teams would be far better than they were 5 or 10 years ago. It’s a mentality that doesn’t exist to nearly the same degree in other sports. The Chicago Bulls changed very little when they were winning their six titles, as one example. Having a team that is used to playing together that improves as a unit can be just as valuable or more so than new signings. I’ve seen no evidence that you simply get passed by all your competition if you don’t match them in signings. 

I agree.

An Everton example I will use is how the David Moyes team managed to keep going at a certain level year after year despite the big money coming into the league. We probably had the most settled squad in the division. It was a really good unit, that could overcome a weak link here or there. When that side started to fall apart, so did we.

[Matt]

On 05/09/2021 at 17:26, markjazzbassist said:

Agreed everyone wants hotshot spainiard and wants to off our academy kids.  Other teams back their academy and kids and give them a chance to shine.  It’s unfortunate we don’t do that here.  Davies was excellent last year.

Except we do, more than most as it turns out. Are we going to have to revisit this whole topic again? I'd rather not to be honest, it's been done to death.

[dunlopp9987]

Realized his mistake with the 5 at the back, made the change to bring Gomes on, and has us sitting at 10 points. 

Also, we went down 1-0 to both Burnley and Soton and came back to score 3 unanswered. You can see it on the pitch after the match, there's a real cohesion between the coach and the players.

Love what I'm seeing so far. Well played, Rafa.

[Btay]

Joint first. Undefeated. Joint third for goals scored. No complaints here.

Tactically we look much more organised, we know how we can hurt teams. Ride the wave guys.

[Bailey]

I think today was the first clear example of cautious Benitez. It could have cost us.

Massive credit for the changes he made though, they were exactly what we needed... just 60 minutes sooner.

[pete0]

1 hour ago, dunlopp9987 said:

Realized his mistake with the 5 at the back, made the change to bring Gomes on, and has us sitting at 10 points. 

Also, we went down 1-0 to both Burnley and Soton and came back to score 3 unanswered. You can see it on the pitch after the match, there's a real cohesion between the coach and the players.

Love what I'm seeing so far. Well played, Rafa.

He'd deserve credit if he changed it before we went one down. Clear as day it wasn't working in the first half. Why wait until the score?

[Bailey]

I'll also add that I am not sure what the thinking was behind Godfrey being the central CB. 

That changed much sooner, maybe after around 30 minutes or so, but I couldn't see the benefit of doing that given how we played and with the strengths and weaknesses of those 3 players.

[dunlopp9987]

11 minutes ago, pete0 said:

He'd deserve credit if he changed it before we went one down. Clear as day it wasn't working in the first half. Why wait until the score?

"Thanks for calling 'I Am a Miserable Debbie Downer Who Sucks the Joy Out of Everything in Life, this is Pete, how may I direct your call?"

[Hafnia]

The manager knows what he's doing.

To our dismay he managed a 3-0 deficit to win champions League.  

Im pretty sure he knew what was and wasn't working but wanted to ensure he gathered his data and instructions. 

 

[pete0]

1 minute ago, Hafnia said:

The manager knows what he's doing.

To our dismay he managed a 3-0 deficit to win champions League.  

Im pretty sure he knew what was and wasn't working but wanted to ensure he gathered his data and instructions. 

 

You think he was right to keep doing what we were in the first half? It was as bad as any game I've seen, struggling to get out of our half, terrible short corners, and just the one shot. Why not change it at half time?

They didn't win because of him, they won in spite of him. Kewell injury and Shevchenko misses played a much bigger part. Only thing I was dismayed at was the bookies being closed, I tried to bet on them at half time.

[dunlopp9987]

14 minutes ago, pete0 said:

You think he was right to keep doing what we were in the first half? It was as bad as any game I've seen, struggling to get out of our half, terrible short corners, and just the one shot. Why not change it at half time?

They didn't win because of him, they won in spite of him. Kewell injury and Shevchenko misses played a much bigger part. Only thing I was dismayed at was the bookies being closed, I tried to bet on them at half time.

Everton could win the league on a 0-0 draw and you would be on here bitching and moaning about how we looked dreadful and didn't deserve the trophy.

[pete0]

1 minute ago, dunlopp9987 said:

Everton could win the league on a 0-0 draw and you would be on here bitching and moaning about how we looked dreadful and didn't deserve the trophy.

You enjoyed the first half? I appreciate more than just results. 

We play like we did today and more often than not we'll not get the three points. Burnley outplayed us for 60 minutes.

[dunlopp9987]

44 minutes ago, pete0 said:

You enjoyed the first half? I appreciate more than just results. 

We play like we did today and more often than not we'll not get the three points. Burnley outplayed us for 60 minutes.

No, I didn't enjoy the first half. But Rafa realized his mistake, made some tactical changes at the half (Townsend said as much in his post-game interview), made a sub to bring on Gomes, and the rest is history.

I'm sorry, but how are there people who are going to bitch and whine about someone realizing they've made a mistake, rectifying said mistake, and then succeeding.

I don't use this phrase often, and I hope I don't offend anyone, but Pete....

 

You're just a Grumpy Gus.

[pete0]

1 hour ago, dunlopp9987 said:

No, I didn't enjoy the first half. But Rafa realized his mistake, made some tactical changes at the half (Townsend said as much in his post-game interview), made a sub to bring on Gomes, and the rest is history.

I'm sorry, but how are there people who are going to bitch and whine about someone realizing they've made a mistake, rectifying said mistake, and then succeeding.

I don't use this phrase often, and I hope I don't offend anyone, but Pete....

 

You're just a Grumpy Gus.

What changed between half time and their goal?

People said the same when I moaned about Silva. And the football today was very similar to that. The players had no idea how to get out of their own half, Burnley completely dominated us for an hour.

Am I happy with three points, yes. Am I happy to watch Everton play like that every week, hell no.

[Shukes]

To be fair, they outplayed us for 25 minutes not 60. We finished the first half better and started well the second half… and typical Everton we start playing better, then they scored.

We responded with a corner straight away, and you could literally hear Allan shouting and getting them going. 

[Matt]

Fucking hell, Pete. Pretty much every manager in the world gives 10-15 mins after the restart to see if the team talk worked. It didn't, we conceded, he changed things pretty much immediately, we scored 3 in 5 mins (bar the obvious offside). He saw his talk hadn't work and was a little slow in changing that's your complaint? At least he changed. The corrupt fucker you idolise as manager wouldn't have done a thing and just bemoaned the result. 

[Matt]

1 hour ago, patto said:

Allan is the one on the pitch trying to organise them all the time I seen him having words with Coleman at one point. 

I loved him running straight to Rafa instead of celebrating, to see what needed to be communicated. Not the first time I've seen him do that either. 

[Hafnia]

7 hours ago, pete0 said:

You think he was right to keep doing what we were in the first half? It was as bad as any game I've seen, struggling to get out of our half, terrible short corners, and just the one shot. Why not change it at half time?

They didn't win because of him, they won in spite of him. Kewell injury and Shevchenko misses played a much bigger part. Only thing I was dismayed at was the bookies being closed, I tried to bet on them at half time.

Hahahaha.   He switched them to a 3 man defence and when they bought on a winger at the end he switched Gerrard to right back who played it like a prime Gary Neville.

Ffs I've gone and done it, I've given Gerrard praise all I needed to do was involve Harry Kane and it's full combustion. 

[Hafnia]

You would think that we have an elite squad of players who no matter what formation or tactics you use - they will get the result.

Couldn't be more wrong.   

Last season we lose that game.  Benitez studies the game intently, and I mean intently.   He is in a zone, passionate but totally immersed in what is going on.  You can see with the players - they are being coached, clear instructions, fitness.

Got ourselves a manager here.  

[Matt]

Just now, Hafnia said:

You would think that we have an elite squad of players who no matter what formation or tactics you use - they will get the result.

Couldn't be more wrong.   

Last season we lose that game.  Benitez studies the game intently, and I mean intently.   He is in a zone, passionate but totally immersed in what is going on.  You can see with the players - they are being coached, clear instructions, fitness.

Got ourselves a manager here.  

But do you actually meant intently, or intensely?

[Wiggytop]

7 hours ago, pete0 said:

You enjoyed the first half? I appreciate more than just results. 

We play like we did today and more often than not we'll not get the three points. Burnley outplayed us for 60 minutes.

Didn’t enjoy the first half, but we were better towards the end. It’s 4 games into the season, and we played without our key focal point. 
I was uncertain about his appointment but I’ll judge him on results at the end of the season, not game by game, especially so early on.

[Hafnia]

13 minutes ago, Matt said:

But do you actually meant intently, or intensely?

Intensely.... Autocorrect. 

[Matt]

7 minutes ago, Hafnia said:

Intensely.... Autocorrect. 

That's a brilliant autocorrect considering you were trying to emphasise a point

 

[Hafnia]

31 minutes ago, Matt said:

That's a brilliant autocorrect considering you were trying to emphasise a point

 

My phone will repeat a word previously used after 2 letters, useful at times.  Intently is just as easily applied in the context of sentence so I could have said yeah yeah intently..... But intensely it was.

Off to Caldy now, got a bedsheet saying "Rafa I love you, please sign Harry Kane, lots of love peteO"

[RuffRob]

This is only Benitez 5th competitive game - I don't mind a bit of caution, especially as not had a great deal of time with this squad as a whole, considering international commitments since he has been at the helm.  

putting it in to perspective - the football in the first half last night was similar to what we saw for the best part of last season with pretty much the same players, other than a couple of bargain basement signing. Last season that second half will have played out and we will have got beat. Last night we turned the game around - and with sugar on top.

We have not had a massive influx of high quality players come in this summer - could also argue that with our record signing Gylfi, top earner James and top scorer DCL not available last night then a 'weaker' took to the pitch.

Biggest difference last night - when we needed to roll our sleeves up - we did, the manager made the change (and probably a change that not one of us would have called) and we really got hold of the game. It was like a blitz on Burnley. 

Very easy to argue it should have been done from the start or changed earlier. However, cautious experimentation is needed for a new manager and his squad of players. They now have a good 60min under their belt at playing Benitez's three at the back - he will play this formation again this season, but against better opposition - so the 60mins last night will not have been wasted - it will stand them in good stead. 

An amazing 20min of football to watch and 3 points. I will take that all day long in game 5 of the Benitez era.  

[Romey 1878]

3 hours ago, patto said:

Allan is the one on the pitch trying to organise them all the time I seen him having words with Coleman at one point. 

 

2 hours ago, Matt said:

I loved him running straight to Rafa instead of celebrating, to see what needed to be communicated. Not the first time I've seen him do that either. 

While I've said many times that I was underwhelmed with Allan last season, I've been seriously impressed with him this season so far. He's like a different player to be honest and is the player I was expecting.

Particularly enjoyed watching him having a go at Mina after we'd conceded a chance at 3-1. I don't even know if Mina was at fault for the chance  but I loved how in the zone and intense he was.

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

10 hours ago, dunlopp9987 said:

"Thanks for calling 'I Am a Miserable Debbie Downer Who Sucks the Joy Out of Everything in Life, this is Pete, how may I direct your call?"

Personally if Pete has it in for someone or doesn’t rate them I take it as a good sign that the said person is doing well!

[Btay]

1 hour ago, RuffRob said:

This is only Benitez 5th competitive game - I don't mind a bit of caution, especially as not had a great deal of time with this squad as a whole, considering international commitments since he has been at the helm.  

putting it in to perspective - the football in the first half last night was similar to what we saw for the best part of last season with pretty much the same players, other than a couple of bargain basement signing. Last season that second half will have played out and we will have got beat. Last night we turned the game around - and with sugar on top.

We have not had a massive influx of high quality players come in this summer - could also argue that with our record signing Gylfi, top earner James and top scorer DCL not available last night then a 'weaker' took to the pitch.

Biggest difference last night - when we needed to roll our sleeves up - we did, the manager made the change (and probably a change that not one of us would have called) and we really got hold of the game. It was like a blitz on Burnley. 

Very easy to argue it should have been done from the start or changed earlier. However, cautious experimentation is needed for a new manager and his squad of players. They now have a good 60min under their belt at playing Benitez's three at the back - he will play this formation again this season, but against better opposition - so the 60mins last night will not have been wasted - it will stand them in good stead. 

An amazing 20min of football to watch and 3 points. I will take that all day long in game 5 of the Benitez era.  

I’ve had a lot to say about James and how I feel in certain situations he will be an asset. However in no way should we ever be considered weaker for not having Gylfi and James out there together. Genuinely believe a majority of our issues last year was down to that combination on the pitch together.