Why Rafa’s Appointment Was Spot-on

[Ollie 4,400]

It was right to appoint a proven manager with vast experience but it was not right to bring Benitez to this club and i'll never agree with the decision even if he does win the FA Cup, UEL and qualify for the UCL for next season. He is the enemy and always will be. I still believe Robbie woulda done similar if not better that what Rafa has done but we'll never know unfortunately. While i can thank Rafa for the effort he's put in through gritted teeth, the fact will always remain that he's not a blue and he never will be.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

It was right to appoint a proven manager with vast experience but it was not right to bring Benitez to this club and i'll never agree with the decision even if he does win the FA Cup, UEL and qualify for the UCL for next season. He is the enemy and always will be. I still believe Robbie woulda done similar if not better that what Rafa has done but we'll never know unfortunately. While i can thank Rafa for the effort he's put in through gritted teeth, the fact will always remain that he's not a blue and he never will be.

I actually agree with everything in there, but they are besides the point I was trying to make. I ask you, is our team more ready to work with Jose, or whoever the new manager is, because we appointed Rafa than what it would have been had we kept Robbie?

I think I made a mistake with the tittle, because everyone seems to be answering to the tittle not the content of the article

[LDN Blue 7,903]

I think this is a good article, but yes Chou I think some stopped reading beyond the title

It's not as if he's saying Rafa's been perfect, some his decisions have been infuriating at the best of times. That was highlighted last night by Benayoun's appearance for Oscar. However if we look at the bigger picture he's actually done well and deserves some respect from us. It was by no means easy jumping into the grave that he dug for himself by his Liverpool outbursts about us.

He's done fantastic with getting Hazard to become a better player now. Last night we saw the little Belgian track back, he was doing a lot of defensive work! What's also important is the balance of matches that Benitez has rested all of Hazard, Oscar and Mata. Hazard would not be as fresh as he is now if Benitez hadn't done some rotation and he's got to receive credit for that.

And let's be honest here. Europa League final + 3rd looks better than what could've been..

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I think this is a good article, but yes Chou I think some stopped reading beyond the title

If this was in the daily mail it would have been great journalism

I'm glad to see that some of the people that disagreed with me here at the time have come to agree with and mention some of the points I made here in the Rafa thread.

[Laylabelle 9,535]

The thing that hasnt work is one minute we're really good the next utter shite!There has been the balance/consitency throughout which has cost us.Plus weird subs,leaving till the last 10 or making complete and utter bizzare ones...

Just hope we manage to finish 4th and/or win Europa otherwise he aint walking around that pitch with a smile on his face!

[bushman 2,043]

Rafa´s appointment was justfied at that time. He was the best coach available, then.

Rafa to me is fairly good coach & he has done well under the circumstances.

It certainly was not easy for him over the months. If the team wins EL, ends up in 3rd, he should take credit for it.

[Changingman_2000 876]

In my opinion, there was absolutely no justification in the appointment of TFSW, If he didn't want Robbie then bin him last summer. He clearly don't give two fucks about people's opinion of him so binning him after winning the Champions League and F.A. Cup probably wouldn't have bothered him in the slightest.

We were 4 points off the top, after a very moody home result against Man Ure. Torres wasn't playing well (Nothing new there) and Robbie went after Juve away. Why an interim manager?, and what has that acheived? Why not go for Clarke, Moyes, Zola, Poyet, you name it? I think every one would have jumped at the chance, even just a two year deal.

Of all people, to bring that cunt in was bordering on insanity, knowing what the fans thought of him. Was never, ever, ever going to get an easy ride...and rightly so. Three very, very negative performances against Citeh. Dire performances against Reading, QPR, Southampton, Fulham, etc. A million miles off United yet we are supposed to be on our knees praising the cunt? I don't think so.

Going to start calling TFSW "Thrush"....why?, because he's an irritating cunt

[SeB 1,281]

Benitez did what he was supposed to do, as an assistant manager. Switching to 4-4-1-1, that sort of things. I was satisfied of him to do that but that was what I expected from whoever had come in back then

He had to cope with a dense schedule and a clear lack of options in central midfield in instance, forcing us to suffer from the constant 2v3 in midfield from what virtually everything discharged. The fact that Ba couldn't play twice a week

But there's clear questions to ask related to some of his lineups, resting the team against QPR to play the starting XI for an FA Cup fourth round etc...

One just cannot deny our end of the season was highly successful, we had a lot of luck when we look at the fact that we got easy draws on the road to the EL final, that our knackered 21 years old did manage to find some energy to be still decisive, that nor Torres nor Hazard nor Mata got injured.

At the end of the day we managed to qualify for next season's CL, won an european cup on the way... but it could have been really different had things turned differently. That's about what football is special for, our wins at Old Trafford in instance... weren't rational given our state of freshness, the opponent's waste in front of goal etc

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Benitez did what he was supposed to do, as an assistant manager. Switching to 4-4-1-1, that sort of things. I was satisfied of him to do that but that was what I expected from whoever had come in back then

He had to cope with a dense schedule and a clear lack of options in central midfield in instance, forcing us to suffer from the constant 2v3 in midfield from what virtually everything discharged. The fact that Ba couldn't play twice a week

But there's clear questions to ask related to some of his lineups, resting the team against QPR to play the starting XI for an FA Cup fourth round etc...

One just cannot deny our end of the season was highly successful, we had a lot of luck when we look at the fact that we got easy draws on the road to the EL final, that our knackered 21 years old did manage to find some energy to be still decisive, that nor Torres nor Hazard nor Mata got injured.

At the end of the day we managed to qualify for next season's CL, won an european cup on the way... but it could have been really different had things turned differently. That's about what football is special for, our wins at Old Trafford in instance... weren't rational given our state of freshness, the opponent's waste in front of goal etc

Tbf, I did write this article before we won the EL and secured top 4. In fact, when I wrote this, he was still the FSW Because like I said, I was not referring to the results but rather the changes in the team as opposed to what we had under Robbie and how important that will be for next season. Yes I probably exaggerated, but that was just to make it a bit more controversial.

[SeB 1,281]

I know you'll say you don't read french but I did write something back in January. Anyway 3rd spot and EL doesn't changes anything for me, he did a decent interim job that was shadowed by his desire to fill his CV.

http://mypremierleague.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/rafael-benitez-vend-il-de-la-fumee-a-chelsea/

[Tomo 21,751]

I know you'll say you don't read french but I did write something back in January. Anyway 3rd spot and EL doesn't changes anything for me, he did a decent interim job that was shadowed by his desire to fill his CV.

http://mypremierleague.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/rafael-benitez-vend-il-de-la-fumee-a-chelsea/

I think it was a myth that he wouldn't have minded letting top 4 go for a trophy on his CV.

If he took a team that had Hazard, Mata, Oscar, Luiz, Cole and Cech outside the top 4 places, prospective employers would not overlook that.

[Roquila 1,335]

Im new to the forum and just got to read the beautiful article you wrote! That 'Article' gave me another point of view to the case. Thank you.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I know you'll say you don't read french but I did write something back in January. Anyway 3rd spot and EL doesn't changes anything for me, he did a decent interim job that was shadowed by his desire to fill his CV.

http://mypremierleague.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/rafael-benitez-vend-il-de-la-fumee-a-chelsea/

Why can't you ever write those in English for once

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Im new to the forum and just got to read the beautiful article you wrote! That 'Article' gave me another point of view to the case. Thank you.

My pleasure, mate

And welcome to TC. Hope you stick around.

[Fernando 6,585]

I'm not sure if mention, but I was told this appointment was highly influence by Emanolo.

Well that is the rumor I heard, and since Benitez always said he spoke to Emanolo it might make senses.

Anyways, with RDM we play great, but there was a great imbalance from offence to defense. Something which Cech stated at one time.
I also think the hostile environment that the club was in was not good for the coach nor the players. Again something the players mention.

If you take into account this, with the thin squad we had it was always going to be hard.

But despite all that, Benitez took it on the chin and continue with his work. A mark of a great professional.

After all is said and done he did a decent job. And has left the squad in a better environment then when he first came in, thus as you mention making it easier for the new incoming manager.

[SeB 1,281]

I think it was a myth that he wouldn't have minded letting top 4 go for a trophy on his CV.

If he took a team that had Hazard, Mata, Oscar, Luiz, Cole and Cech outside the top 4 places, prospective employers would not overlook that.

Had we missed out the 4th place, he'd have to discuss how his team has blown up leads against Southampton (we're the only team not having won with a 2-0 HT lead this season) or Reading, how he could explain his squad selection against QPR with the Southampton cup tie three days later.

I can hear he didn't have options to densify midfield to protect the lead, what can explain partly the 2nd half at upton park in instance. But otherwise that was fucking Southampton and Reading !

How he did not make a single change before the 75th minute of a boxing day game that we were winning 3-0 after 30 minutes as well so then he could pick the "performance of the week award" thanks to the 4 goals scored in the last half hour. After that I laughed everytime he spoke about resting players etc... that was mathematical yet biaised squad rotation policy

[Barbara 15,149]

Well, I hate Benitez for so many reasons, but yet @CHOULO19, you're right when you assess him better than RDM tactically. My point though is if you have two sub par guys it doesn't make much difference if one is less bad than the other and I guess that's the case with RDM and RB tactically.

Benitez has merit for improving some players' results, but he also stopped Oscar's progress - one of the most promising players in the group - and that alone would be reason enough to call him stupid.

At the end of the day 2012/2013 was a terrible season for Chelsea and it passes through the management, but I have to admit not even for Mourinho it would have been easy to manage that team. The changes were too deep, more than we may realize at first. The players were used to a certain style and that wasn't an attacking nature, a creative and smart midfield and awful finishers. We had the opposite up until 2011/12 when our midfield was shy of creativity and fluency, but we had a beast leading our attack.

It's a deep change of style and one everyone has to adapt to: R/L backs, midfielders and of course forwarders. If we had kept Drogba I think we would have had a much better season because while Mazacar didn't live up their potential they did serve Torres and Ba on multiple occasions only to have the FWs to awfully waste some of them.

So there was a big challenge in RDM's and RB's hands to change the old players' mentality, to integrate the new players and to find what would be Chelsea's style because only Oscar among the 4 attacking players is good defensively and has a good work rate (I exempt the comparisons to Eden and Mata, thank you very much, as this is not the point here). So the managers had to find balance between tackling and creating in the midfield, to create a new work philosophy, to get a formation that would take the best out of our players, to figure out how Mazacar (who goes to which wing an who's centered) was more efficient and to try to make up for the lack of quality from our forwarders. It's no easy task, but I don't have enough fingers and toes in my body to point managers that could have done better than Benitez (not sure if any of them were available for a move though).

I agree with you Roberto shouldn't have been appointed at all and that's the reason why we had to settle for Benitez. To worsen what RDM did (this season) one would have to do a really bad work, because as much as I love RDM - and I do - he was tactically very poor and it seems like he and team got lost and couldn't find pattern or style. Still he'll always have my respect, not because of the CL title alone, but because he did his best, he put his heart and soul in that team and I respect that a lot. But a manager shouldn't only have my respect...

Then Benitez came and I hate the guy, but it isn't unjustified blind hate. He's some disrespectful, low-class, stupid, limited, bad-loser manager. He badmouths everyone and their mothers gratuitously (it's a way to try to demoralize the competition which is a dirty tactic - on those he's a master), he doesn't show the respect a gentleman should show, he thinks of himself much higher than he should, probably because of his UCL title with Liverpool, tactically he's a moron, whenever his initial stupid plan doesn't work he doesn't have a clue on how to fix it most times, he doesn't know how to answer to tactical issues and knots the opposition may present during the match.

So what's there to praise? That he improved the team? That he won Europa League? Take a look at the opponents we played in EL and I'll tell you what, some of the matches we did were painful to watch against ridiculously weaker sides. How can I thank him for not losing to teams that were so worse than us and still caused us trouble? His work in the domestic cups was RIDICULOUS and while it was a challenge to make this team work in the first season - especially when he came only in the middle of the season - he did so much less progress than I think others managers could have done. So I repeat myself for the 232384934758475i4656th time: I thank Rafa Benitez for nothing.

And as I said the progress was much less than I believe would have been delivered by other managers, it wasn't 1% more than what I've expected from a guy like Benitez. He is a week manager, whose tactics are poor, who doesn't know how to sub and fix a problem when the matches presents it and who handed a team that Mourinho will still have a lot of work to do to define while a good manager would have done at least half-way the job. I mean, except for the everyone-uses-it-because-it's-fashionable-now 4-2-3-1 formation, what else can we state about Chelsea? What is our main characteristic? What gives trouble to our opposition? What's this team trademark? What's our style? And mostly... Mourinho is joining the team tomorrow, if he asks each of those players what were their positions, obligations, tactical responsibilities and role in the formation, will all of them have clear answers? Cech and Torres might, as well as the FB, but who else can state without a doubt: I'm this guy, I do this and this and this because of this, this and this and that's the part of the pitch I cover and that's what you should expect from me. They may answer this based on their personal preferences, not based on what the previous manager made them out to be. And that's the main reason why a manager exists!

Was I too harsh? I don't even know if I'm biased or not when it comes to Benitez because really, he's that bad, but still better than di Matteo tactically.

[wj818 25]

I know you'll say you don't read french but I did write something back in January. Anyway 3rd spot and EL doesn't changes anything for me, he did a decent interim job that was shadowed by his desire to fill his CV.

http://mypremierleague.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/rafael-benitez-vend-il-de-la-fumee-a-chelsea/

Can u translate that in English? Would love to read it.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Well, I hate Benitez for so many reasons, but yet @CHOULO19, you're right when you assess him better than RDM tactically. My point though is if you have two sub par guys it doesn't make much difference if one is less bad than the other and I guess that's the case with RDM and RB tactically.

Benitez has merit for improving some players' results, but he also stopped Oscar's progress - one of the most promising players in the group - and that alone would be reason enough to call him stupid.

At the end of the day 2012/2013 was a terrible season for Chelsea and it passes through the management, but I have to admit not even for Mourinho it would have been easy to manage that team. The changes were too deep, more than we may realize at first. The players were used to a certain style and that wasn't an attacking nature, a creative and smart midfield and awful finishers. We had the opposite up until 2011/12 when our midfield was shy of creativity and fluency, but we had a beast leading our attack.

It's a deep change of style and one everyone has to adapt to: R/L backs, midfielders and of course forwarders. If we had kept Drogba I think we would have had a much better season because while Mazacar didn't live up their potential they did serve Torres and Ba on multiple occasions only to have the FWs to awfully waste some of them.

So there was a big challenge in RDM's and RB's hands to change the old players' mentality, to integrate the new players and to find what would be Chelsea's style because only Oscar among the 4 attacking players is good defensively and has a good work rate (I exempt the comparisons to Eden and Mata, thank you very much, as this is not the point here). So the managers had to find balance between tackling and creating in the midfield, to create a new work philosophy, to get a formation that would take the best out of our players, to figure out how Mazacar (who goes to which wing an who's centered) was more efficient and to try to make up for the lack of quality from our forwarders. It's no easy task, but I don't have enough fingers and toes in my body to point managers that could have done better than Benitez (not sure if any of them were available for a move though).

I agree with you Roberto shouldn't have been appointed at all and that's the reason why we had to settle for Benitez. To worsen what RDM did (this season) one would have to do a really bad work, because as much as I love RDM - and I do - he was tactically very poor and it seems like he and team got lost and couldn't find pattern or style. Still he'll always have my respect, not because of the CL title alone, but because he did his best, he put his heart and soul in that team and I respect that a lot. But a manager shouldn't only have my respect...

Then Benitez came and I hate the guy, but it isn't unjustified blind hate. He's some disrespectful, low-class, stupid, limited, bad-loser manager. He badmouths everyone and their mothers gratuitously (it's a way to try to demoralize the competition which is a dirty tactic - on those he's a master), he doesn't show the respect a gentleman should show, he thinks of himself much higher than he should, probably because of his UCL title with Liverpool, tactically he's a moron, whenever his initial stupid plan doesn't work he doesn't have a clue on how to fix it most times, he doesn't know how to answer to tactical issues and knots the opposition may present during the match.

So what's there to praise? That he improved the team? That he won Europa League? Take a look at the opponents we played in EL and I'll tell you what, some of the matches we did were painful to watch against ridiculously weaker sides. How can I thank him for not losing to teams that were so worse than us and still caused us trouble? His work in the domestic cups was RIDICULOUS and while it was a challenge to make this team work in the first season - especially when he came only in the middle of the season - he did so much less progress than I think others managers could have done. So I repeat myself for the 232384934758475i4656th time: I thank Rafa Benitez for nothing.

And as I said the progress was much less than I believe would have been delivered by other managers, it wasn't 1% more than what I've expected from a guy like Benitez. He is a week manager, whose tactics are poor, who doesn't know how to sub and fix a problem when the matches presents it and who handed a team that Mourinho will still have a lot of work to do to define while a good manager would have done at least half-way the job. I mean, except for the everyone-uses-it-because-it's-fashionable-now 4-2-3-1 formation, what else can we state about Chelsea? What is our main characteristic? What gives trouble to our opposition? What's this team trademark? What's our style? And mostly... Mourinho is joining the team tomorrow, if he asks each of those players what were their positions, obligations, tactical responsibilities and role in the formation, will all of them have clear answers? Cech and Torres might, as well as the FB, but who else can state without a doubt: I'm this guy, I do this and this and this because of this, this and this and that's the part of the pitch I cover and that's what you should expect from me. They may answer this based on their personal preferences, not based on what the previous manager made them out to be. And that's the main reason why a manager exists!

Was I too harsh? I don't even know if I'm biased or not when it comes to Benitez because really, he's that bad, but still better than di Matteo tactically.

First, yes I think you are too harsh. No offense, but I really think that your opinion is affected too much by your hate towards Rafa. I'm not by any means a Rafa fan, but I think he is a good manager and an excellent tactician. To deny that, imo, would be delusional. He's man a who's outwitted on several occasions great managers like SAF and even Jose Mourinho while managing weaker teams. His achievements in football are by no means that of a "weak" manager. I am well aware of his weaknesses like his inability to change a game, and his stupid rotation policy and squad selection, but all that is irrelevant here because I was talking about the impact of hiring him on our future. He is by no means one of the best managers around, but tactically he was the best option available (which is why I reckon we chose him), he cannot even be compared to RDM (who I love so much); it'd be like comparing the Lebanese and English NTs.

Regarding his time here, at the start of the season I expected a top 4 finish and a trophy (I expected the Capital One Cup tbh, did not see the EL coming ), and at some point in the middle of the season I even doubted that would happen. So to finish the season with just that makes it at least an average season for me; definitely not "terrible". Tactically I think he did a good job for the team consider how "raw" the material he had to work with and especially when you factor in the circumstances like the fans reactions, the schedule..etc. Here's a bold statement: Jose Mourinho would not have done as well as Benitez did in the same circumstances (I don't think he'd take the job to begin with). Not because Rafa is a better manager, far from it, but because Jose NEEDS certain circumstances to work with. If he does not have 100% the backing of the players and fans he cannot do his thing.

A minor note about Oscar, even though he was the best at defending among Mazcar, he was also the least effective and affecting in offense. Rafa needed at times to take one of them out of the team to bring balance and since he needed immediate results he opted to go Mata and Hazard who are more likely to win you games and play Moses who made the side he played at very solid. Because of the hectic schedule he could not really work out a proper system for all three of them or work on Oscar's development properly and had to settle for a quick fix. Throughout Rafa's entire time in charge, I think we only had one week where we did not have a game in the middle of the week (or an international break), so that means that throughout that time, he could only have 2-3 light training sessions each week. There was absolutely no time to work on changing a lot of things. This is why I said he did well at improving the team tactically considering the circumstances.

You are of course free to thank him or not, I don't think that will make much of a difference now, but I think that your decision is purely based on your emotions and has nothing to do with what Benitez did here. It is easy to discredit anyone if you want: There were no real strong teams in the PL when Carlo won it; Jose had unlimited cash back in 04-05, anyone else could have done what he did..etc (no I don't believe those things, just giving examples of what other people might say to discredit managers). The proof that this has more to do with feelings than achievements is that you'll probably thank RDM for the CL even though he had less to do with that than Rafa with the EL and top 4 finish. I couldn't care less what type of a man he is, I'm not asking you to marry him (you could if you want to, though ) all I care about is that he was given a job to do for my team and he did it so I'll thank him. Would you not thank the plumber for fixing your sink because you heard he was not a gentleman somewhere else?

On any account, the article here had absolutely nothing to do with Benitez's personality. In fact, it was more about why Robbie had to go because of the work that needed to be done if we wanted to compete for the PL tittle next season. Most people were just 'offended' by the tittle. I meant it that way so that they would be provoked to actually reading it, but instead a lot of people just got angry and answered the tittle instead (I know you did not do this, but some people did). Anyway, I'm just glad that this season which was always going to be a transition is over, and for me, it has been a success despite seeming destined for failure back in November.

[Barbara 15,149]

@CHOULO19, we definitely disagree about him.

I can't for the life of me think he's giving to Mourinho a well improved team compared to the one he started the work. He made some improvement (as I said worsen what RDM left as a legacy was quite the task), in some areas, but if I had to point out the top10 worst matches last season, I'm positive about 8 would be under his management.The match against Steua is the worst match I've ever seen Chelsea Football Club play since I've become a fan. It's not about the result, it's about how the team performed and behaved on the pitch. That kind of display is unacceptable. In the cups against Manchester City was also appalling and so was against Swansea.

I don't think Chelsea ended the season that much better than started. It ended it more organized - as expected from any team that works together for ten months... but an improved team? Not sure.

I can't thank a guy for finishing third in a competition... especially given the opposition... and the EL title was definitely worst to watch than the CL title if we think of some eye-hurting matches we played. With RDM we parked the bus and prayed for the best while counting on Cech and Mata/Drogba. In EL it was such a mess at times, against teams that were even messier or even weaker. I can't only look to the result. I have to look how it was achieved and both things were achieved in an appalling fashion. But hey, at least Torres scored a few goals and Hazard improved by the end of the season.

I refuse to comment on the fact that you think Mourinho would have done a worse job. I simply refuse. but I still love you *hug*