The Benitez Thread

[Kieran. 6,317]

To be fair to Torres, he's been excellent at defending set pieces.

Not enough obviously, but I notice him clearing away corners/free-kicks every game.

[super_frank8 186]

To be fair to Torres, he's been excellent at defending set pieces.

Not enough obviously, but I notice him clearing away corners/free-kicks every game.

In the exact same way that Drogba used to - so for me it is really his duty as a player who is exceptionally strong in the air to be back to help out for set pieces.

The duty that he isn't fulfilling however - is putting the ball in the back of the net.

[Spike 12,049]

Hilarious!

So he just skips Autumn?

[didierforever 7,349]

HEY GUYS I THINK I'VE FINALLY FIGURED OUT THE PROBLEM!!!

The best defender in our team - is apparently the same guy who's playing up front - http://www.dailymail...fa-Benitez.html!

But don't worry, he scores in training all the time...

Fucking lol.

Think I'm starting to like Rafa a little more already...at least he knows how to make me laugh...

this guy is an actual joke. and every time people say he is better than rdm, i think i die a little inside...

[The only place to be 11,313]

The players will never respect him, simply because he doesn't deserve it.

I was going to read the whole post, but i stopped here because it's actually factually incorrect. A number of the players within the Chelsea squad do really respect Benitez.

I know a lot of the fans don't like him but most of the players don't have that view.

[xPetrCechx 13,570]

To be fair to Torres, he's been excellent at defending set pieces.

Not enough obviously, but I notice him clearing away corners/free-kicks every game.

I Can do that for Free and not for 50 Mil.

[Kieran. 6,317]

I Can do that for Free and not for 50 Mil.

Good to know.

[zolayes 14,489]

I was going to read the whole post, but i stopped here because it's actually factually incorrect. A number of the players within the Chelsea squad do really respect Benitez.

I know a lot of the fans don't like him but most of the players don't have that view.

WHO told you that ????

[The only place to be 11,313]

WHO told you that ????

People I know who are involved with the club. Sometimes I think the fans can let their own prejudices cloud their judgment, but Benitez is fairly well-regarded throughout the game. I've seen fans on here berate him for bizarre things like zonal marking and some of his signings which really aren't shared within the game.

[Fulham Broadway 17,299]

People I know who are involved with the club. Sometimes I think the fans can let their own prejudices cloud their judgment, but Benitez is fairly well-regarded throughout the game. I've seen fans on here berate him for bizarre things like zonal marking and some of his signings which really aren't shared within the game.

His track record is mediocre at best, He said he would never manage Chelsea, and took the piss out of plastic flags. He spent over £230m on signings the majority of which were rubbish, He has had the worst start of any Chelsea manager. The 'prejudices' are justified in my opinion. The club is nothing without us.We all know the real reason he has been brought in is to save face with the owner as an expensive last resort to get Fernando the Wonderhorse scoring.

A result tonight would lift the pressure, and a Shaktar win would even win some fans round. Many, however will still be looking forward to the day he gets the call to leave.

Intrigued -who are your sources at the club ? My guess is some players are undoubtably ambivalent to his arrival -the longer stalwarts will also shrug their shoulders at the revolving door -but they would also be disgusted at the way RDM was unceremoniously thrown out.

[The only place to be 11,313]

His track record is mediocre at best, He said he would never manage Chelsea, and took the piss out of plastic flags. He spent over £230m on signings the majority of which were rubbish, He has had the worst start of any Chelsea manager. The 'prejudices' are justified in my opinion. The club is nothing without us.We all know the real reason he has been brought in is to save face with the owner as an expensive last resort to get Fernando the Wonderhorse scoring.

A result tonight would lift the pressure, and a Shaktar win would even win some fans round. Many, however will still be looking forward to the day he gets the call to leave.

Intrigued -who are your sources at the club ? My guess is some players are undoubtably ambivalent to his arrival -the longer stalwarts will also shrug their shoulders at the revolving door -but they would also be disgusted at the way RDM was unceremoniously thrown out.

The signings thing is one of those points people bring up but when you actually look at some of the players he bought, I'm not so sure it actually holds up. Every manager has their Francis Jeffers/Juan Veron/Bebe/Sutton/Shevchenko etc. One could even look at Guardiola's deal to bring in Zlatan.

I'll just list some of his signings from his first 4 seasons.

£10.7m - Xabi Alonso

£6m - Luis Garcia

£6m - Pepe Reina

£5.6m - Momo Sissoko

£7m - Peter Crouch

£5.8m - Daniel Agger

£6m - Craig Bellamy

£9m - Dirk Kuyt

£2.5m - Alvaro Arbeloa

£5m - Lucas Leiva

£20.2m - Fernando Torres

£5m - Yossi Benayoun

£18.6m - Javier Mascherano

Now I'm pretty sure every one of those players was worth more after Benitez signed them. Three of them arguably provide the spine of that team today (Reina, Agger, Leiva) whilst some have gone on to be truly world class. I hate being put in the position where it appears as though I'm defending him, but I'm simply trying to be as unbiased as possible. Of course there are the Pennants and Babels but I don't think his transfer dealings are much worse than any other teams - he doesn't have a SWP or Sheva in his history, although that's probably got more to do with our board than our managers.

The reason he was bought in was partly due to his relationship with a roughly £100 million asset. The other is that there aren't a huge number of top class managers available who will accept 18 month contracts.

Plus you can't expect me to say 'so and so said this'. I know that's frustrating but it's unfair. I just happen to work in an industry that has a lot of access to the club plus I just happen to know a few players and staff from just around. What you have to remember is that the vast majority of players don't have the same biases we have and that most of them just see this as business as usual. Plus Benitez's reputation in the game is pretty good. He's well-respected especially by the media.

[zolayes 14,489]

Seems you arrived here with Rafa ,,,you must forgive me if I dont trust everything you say

[The only place to be 11,313]

Seems you arrived here with Rafa ,,,you must forgive me if I dont trust everything you say

I arrived when I needed to vent over the recent change. The problem is that whilst I don't like Rafa, I don't hate him as much as some people on here do. I wasn't booing him at the match like other people did either.

What I'm finding is that people are repeating a lot of bs about him. Things like his transfer record aren't perfect, but if you subjected almost any other manager to the same scrutiny then neither would their's.

Someone also brought up the old chestnut of zonal marking the other day, yet when I challenged them on it they couldn't explain what was the problem with it. You don't have to trust anything I say, but I think if people took a step back and tried to be a little more objective then they'd see that statements like The players will never respect him, simply because he doesn't deserve it are at best unlikely but because they fit with people's established biases they're much more readily accepted.

[MHL 47 378]

People I know who are involved with the club. Sometimes I think the fans can let their own prejudices cloud their judgment, but Benitez is fairly well-regarded throughout the game. I've seen fans on here berate him for bizarre things like zonal marking and some of his signings which really aren't shared within the game.

I've a mate who spent his whole career as a premiership footballer (old 1st Division as well, who is now retired) who's still got lots of contacts at the London Clubs and he's told me that there are a few players who think he's OK and an improvement on RDM, others who think he's a complete waste of space, blaming them for his own shortcomings and tactically miles behind other coaches they've worked with.

This also fits in line with what he told me about circumstances surrounding RDM's sacking, that was there was a huge split in the dressing room following the Clattenburg allegations, Robbie failed to heal this and may have even sat on one side of the split.

To me it sounds as if the players are still 'apart' and performances would maybe bear this out. We need someone who can sort this, bring the dressing room together and integrate some badly needed additions to the squad, who are suiatble for the long term. I'm not sure RB is that bloke based on what I can make of his history.

[The only place to be 11,313]

I've a mate who spent his whole career as a premiership footballer (old 1st Division as well, who is now retired) who's still got lots of contacts at the London Clubs and he's told me that there are a few players who think he's OK and an improvement on RDM, others who think he's a complete waste of space, blaming them for his own shortcomings and tactically miles behind other coaches they've worked with.

This also fits in line with what he told me about circumstances surrounding RDM's sacking, that was there was a huge split in the dressing room following the Clattenburg allegations, Robbie failed to heal this and may have even sat on one side of the split.

To me it sounds as if the players are still 'apart' and performances would maybe bear this out. We need someone who can sort this, bring the dressing room together and integrate some badly needed additions to the squad, who are suiatble for the long term. I'm not sure RB is that bloke based on what I can make of his history.

That chimes somewhat with what I've heard. One thing I heard is that Rafa is more like a 'proper football manager' - basically he knows exactly what he wants and he's run through training exercises hundreds of times. Robbie simply wasn't like that. He was much less of an authoritarian which meant when things went south his voice wasn't the loudest one.

But I definitely agree with the last part. I don't think he is the guy to lead us forward because he is seen very much as a stop-gap. It's an open secret who Roman really wants and it's very hard to get past that. That doesn't mean he can't do a job or that he doesn't have the respect of the players. The young guys especially grew up seeing him win in Spain and also lift the Champions League at Liverpool. None of them give a fuck about comments about plastic flags.