KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Why Rafa Benitez is definitely in it for the long

fergie had more money and a bunch of great kids coming through all at once so he never had the same problems as evans

wenger already had a great defence in place and built on that to win the league in his first season - contrast that with rafa who came into a team with a great defence and got nowhere near winning the league

Evans had a far harder job than both Houllier and the current manager simply because he was chasing the best Manchester United team ever the Scmichael, Pallister, Bruce, Irwin, Kanchelskis, Ince, Keane, Giggs, Hughes and Cantona was probably better than the one a few seasons later with Neville, Scholes, Beckham, Yorke and Andy Cole so you see it's alot easier trying to catch the United and Chelsea teams today rather then the invincible ones Roy Evans had to compete with. Another thing was Evans team where top of the league in April which is the latest we have been top in any season since we last won the league even though we fell apart at the end, no manager has done that since.I know Evans had to go in the end just the same as i knew the Frenchman had to leave as well and i know now that the Spaniard's time is up, a managers can only go so far before we need a change

Evans was a great number 2, he was never cut out to manage a top club like Liverpool, he didn't have the personality or charisma. During the Evans era we had greater spending power than everyone except the Mancs (and Blackburn in 94/95)and he inherited an average team with a few star players and failed to improve it significantly. Benitez is a far superior manager and tactician - he is far from perfect but he is the best manager we have had since Paisley

sorry gotti disagree with you

I remember a certain mr fagan and king kenny winning a few leagues in their time.

I am sorry until rafa wins the league he isn't one of the greats fact.

I think there is a massive difference between a good manager and a lucky manager and am afraid we have the latter. He has never won a trophy for us without the need for penalties and in both finals we where second best and got out of jail and the trophies he won in Spain were because he inherated a good team in the first place and just kept them ticking over.

maybe you're right by saying he has been quite lucky winning the titles he has won since he came here...but i have to disagree about what you said about his time at valencia...yes, he took over a very good team but he turned them into the best...i really think that team was the complete team. a rock solid defense combined with very good attack-minded players like aimar and vicente...

Fagan is hard to judge as he wasn't in the job very long and inherited an excellent side and other than Molby I don't recall him changing much at all.

Dalglish again inherited a very good side, made some great acquisitions (Barnes, Beardsley, Aldo etc) but we had the money to sign the best players and in those days players were desperate to join us as we were the top team in the country, and most of his great signings were not young players. We weren't in Europe so can't judge him on that, but he was often tactically naive, and particularly in the latter years of his reign brought some crap players in (Carter, Speedie, Burrows, Ablett) and left his succesor with an ageing squad that was past it's peak.

True but to be a Liverpool great manager in my eyes you have to win the league. Rafa is just a good manager until then.

dalglish is impossible to judge as his early days were guided by paisley - would we have had that great team without paislay's input?? after all the latter years of his reign, without paisley's gentle guidance, were hardly suggestive of a great manager

true but end of the day rafa is not a anfield great until that premiership trophy is in the cabinet.