The Benitez Thread

[Jase 43,479]

In the West ham game the same team he had out, dominated for 45 minutes, then all of a sudden we couldn't hold on to the ball. Remember something similar happened against Spurs under RDM, he didn't change anything either but the players stepped up and won the game. But this time around, like i said they were lacking confidence and just succumbed to the pressure.

I believe we discussed about this before. He could have changed the shape by bringing on another midfield player and see how it goes. Can't be any worse than how we were playing then. This is where managers like Mourinho excels. The minute he sees the team is having problems, he will look to change things around immediately to ensure the initiative is with his team and not the opponent. Can't be like a headless chicken there and do nothing. He is a manager and in situations like that is where he earns what he's being paid. Benitez needs to take the risks sometimes and even if it doesn't work out in the end, at least we can see that he's trying to change things but the problem is, he didn't! We were basically just like lambs waiting to be slaughtered in that second half against West Ham.

Fulham, boring team, he's not the only Chelsea manager to get a stupid draw against them, meh.

Meh. Not an excuse for him to draw against Fulham. They were in bad form themselves and yet we gave them the point.

Corinthians i will agree he could have changed something here, like Moses for Oscar.

Our midfield was being overrun because there wasn't any DM in there. We all can see from miles away and yet Benitez did nothing. He didn't even look to bring Mikel on so that we can stabilize the midfield and gain control in that area!

[Sheva. 5,373]

and how many games have we won under benitez? we have gained a total of 8 points from a possible 15 under a new manager which normally sparks the players to perform much better (and we as chelsea fans have enough proof to that). add to that the defeat of cwc final and u have at best an average tenure of 9 games. that is AT BEST.

I was talking specifically about the past 2 games and building confidence from that. Oh and 8 points out of 15 is surely better than anything we got in November

[Rmpr 8,977]

1. All i wanted to hear.

2. I'm sure this "explosion of love" has got something to do with the "explosion of hate" when he was first announced. Even the people in the media felt sorry for him and now praise everything he does, it's only normal.

What? Why dont you quote the entire post, not only what matters to you?

I dont understand, Mourinho and Fergunson (who is also a better manager) need to outclass Benitez the whole time to be considered better managers?

Also, the hated he received has a reason, he said stupid things that he DID mean. On the other hand, the immense love is not justified, it is not like we are trashing everyone (ManCity, Fulham and Corinthians were the most difficult opponents and he did not win).

[Sheva. 5,373]

I believe we discussed about this before. He could have changed the shape by bringing on another midfield player and see how it goes. Can't be any worse than how we were playing then. This is where managers like Mourinho excels. The minute he sees the team is having problems, he will look to change things around immediately to ensure the initiative is with his team and not the opponent. Can't be like a headless chicken there and do nothing. He is a manager and in situations like that is where he earns what he's being paid. Benitez needs to take the risks sometimes and even if it doesn't work out in the end, at least we can see that he's trying to change things but the problem is, he didn't! We were basically just like lambs waiting to be slaughtered in that second half against West Ham.

Meh. Not an excuse for him to draw against Fulham. They were in bad form themselves and yet we gave them the point.

Our midfield was being overrun because there wasn't any DM in there. We all can see from miles away and yet Benitez did nothing. He didn't even look to bring Mikel on so that we can stabilize the midfield and gain control in that area!

- I wonder why Mourinho didn't change things against Malaga seriously if he had changed things and we still lost (which was likely because we didn't have any game changers on the bench) then people would still blame him.

- We were in even worse form than Fulham who got a very good draw at Arsenal few weeks before that game.

- I'm not sure about this, maybe you're right.

[Sheva. 5,373]

What? Why dont you quote the entire post, not only what matters to you?

I dont understand, Mourinho and Fergunson (who is also a better manager) need to outclass Benitez the whole time to be considered better managers?

Also, the hated he received has a reason, he said stupid things that he DID mean. On the other hand, the immense love is not justified, it is not like we are trashing everyone (ManCity, Fulham and Corinthians were the most difficult opponents and he did not win).

No of course not, but by beating them - on more than a few occasions - he proves he is also a good manager who can win big games. Which is why i did not agree with the "can't be compared" bit. If it was just Mourinho is better than Rafa, then yeah i agree, he has trophies to prove it.

[didierforever 7,349]

I was talking specifically about the past 2 games and building confidence from that. Oh and 8 points out of 15 is surely better than anything we got in November

so we can conviniently forget august and september? infact lets just forget about anything good rdm has done and everything bad that has happened under rafa like the cwc final and west ham loss. lets only focus on the mauling of 16th place aston villa and championship team leeds.

[RedWhite&BLUE 37]

The more we win the better we will be set up for what should be a great 2013 season. Rafa is part and parcel of this as manager. So for the time being I will support both club and manager in deference to the overall goal: trophies.

I'm taking it a bit like disgusting medicine. I hate it and hate it all the way down. But if it makes it all better than so be it.

[Sheva. 5,373]

so we can conviniently forget august and september? infact lets just forget about anything good rdm has done and everything bad that has happened under rafa like the cwc final and west ham loss. lets only focus on the mauling of 16th place aston villa and championship team leeds.

Talk about taking things totally in the wrong way. RDM was great the start of the season, we fucked up in November and he was sacked for this, whether anyone agrees with it or not.

I've forgotten the amount of league points we had in November, but i'm sure the 8 in 15 we have now is not that bad in comparison.

[Jase 43,479]

- I wonder why Mourinho didn't change things against Malaga seriously if he had changed things and we still lost (which was likely because we didn't have any game changers on the bench) then people would still blame him.

How about trying to regain control of the midfield and then build on from there again?!

- We were in even worse form than Fulham who got a very good draw at Arsenal few weeks before that game.

They were good in that game but it doesn't give us the excuse of not beating them at home. The fact that Arsenal dropped points at home against Fulham gave us a chance to gain 2 points more in the same fixture than them but failed to take it!

[didierforever 7,349]

benitez vs mourinho head to head

3 October 2004 1-0 CHELSEA

1 January 2005 1-0 CHELSEA

27 April 2005 0-0 DRAW (UCL)

3 May 2005 0-1 LIVERPOOL (UCL)

27 February 2005 3-2 CHELSEA (CC)

2 October 2005 4-1 CHELSEA

5 February 2006 2-0 CHELSEA

28 September 2005 0-0 DRAW (UCL)

6 December 2005 0-0 DRAW (UCL)

22 April 2006 1-2 LIVERPOOL (FA)

17 September 2006 1-0 CHELSEA

20 January 2007 0-2 LIVERPOOL

25 April 2007 1-0 CHELSEA (UCL)

1 May 2007 0-1 LIVERPOOL (UCL) WON ON PENALTIES BY POOL

19 August 2007 1-1 DRAW

so as i see it the head to head record is JOSE 7, BENITEZ 4, DRAW 4.

[didierforever 7,349]

Talk about taking things totally in the wrong way. RDM was great the start of the season, we fucked up in November and he was sacked for this, whether anyone agrees with it or not.

I've forgotten the amount of league points we had in November, but i'm sure the 8 in 15 we have now is not that bad in comparison.

HAHAHAH... dude that is like saying we lost 3-1 to napoli so any loss which is not as bad would be a good result. we were in a bad moment under rdm plus we had diificult draws (united twice, shakhtar twice, juve, pool, swansea and wba). but the quality of squad we have and with a managerial change i would expect a lot better than what benitez has given us. and its not just in the league. the league was just one point in the argument.

[Sheva. 5,373]

How about trying to regain control of the midfield and then build on from there again?!

They were good in that game but it doesn't give us the excuse of not beating them at home. The fact that Arsenal dropped points at home against Fulham gave us a chance to gain 2 points more in the same fixture than them but failed to take it!

Control the midfield with who though? we only had Romeu as an option. We have already had this discussion before and i said i don't believe he would have made a difference.

I really wish we had Terry or even Luiz for that game because the amount of times they won the ball in the air was pathetic and frustrating.

[Rmpr 8,977]

No of course not, but by beating them - on more than a few occasions - he proves he is also a good manager who can win big games. Which is why i did not agree with the "can't be compared" bit. If it was just Mourinho is better than Rafa, then yeah i agree, he has trophies to prove it.

I am not disputing the fact Benitez can win big matches, everyone can excell their game to high levels. Rafa is good enough to lead a great team, he has the necessary IQ.

However, Benitez is not a manager who we can place as one of the best of all time. Mourinho will certainly be remembered as one of the best (specially if he wins his 3rd UCL).

Jose Mourinho >>>> Rafael Benitez

[Sheva. 5,373]

HAHAHAH... dude that is like saying we lost 3-1 to napoli so any loss which is not as bad would be a good result

No it's actually not.

HAHAHAH... dude that is like saying we lost 3-1 to napoli so any loss which is not as bad would be a good result. we were in a bad moment under rdm plus we had diificult draws (united twice, shakhtar twice, juve, pool, swansea and wba). but the quality of squad we have and with a managerial change i would expect a lot better than what benitez has given us. and its not just in the league. the league was just one point in the argument.

You can't expect to have a spark whenever a managerial change happens. It's happened way too often with Chelsea, perhaps that is why Roman keeps firing managers after a couple bad games.

[Jase 43,479]

Control the midfield with who though? we only had Romeu as an option. We have already had this discussion before and i said i don't believe he would have made a difference.

That's the point. Benitez needs to take some risks! You never try, you never know and like I've said many times, it can't be any worse than how we were playing then! Instead, we were really like lambs then and got slaughtered!

[Tomo 21,733]

Mate you probably skipped the time when many on this forum called Lampard, Drogba and others a disgrace because of their behaviour at the time.

They were called much worse, which is why i cringed with embarrisment at some of the stuff i read when RDM was sacked (mainly Roman out protesters) as it's only a matter of time before they backtrack and claim they never said it, like with Lamps and Didier.

[Sheva. 5,373]

However, Benitez is not a manager who we can place as one of the best of all time. Mourinho will certainly be remembered as one of the best (specially if he wins his 3rd UCL).

I can't disagree with this.

[didierforever 7,349]

No it's actually not.

You can't expect to have a spark whenever a managerial change happens. It's happened way too often with Chelsea, perhaps that is why Roman keeps firing managers after a couple bad games.

may be not... but u do expect the players to turn up with way more fire than we did in his first 2 games which are actually the toughest opposition he has faced so far.

also tell me precisely what we are arguing about because as far as i can remember i quoted u on " we are surely and slowly getting our confidence back" which seemed to me to take our last 2 performances (infact as i said before, our last 135 minutes) in a too big way, when just 2 matches ago (against corianthians) we were horrible. so my point was not to jump the gun.