KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Redknapp attacks Benitez

Former Liverpool star Jamie Redknapp has questioned Rafael Benitez's management and claims that he manipulates the club's fans.

On the eve of Liverpool's crunch Champions League showdown in Hungary against Debrecen - where they could fail to reach the last 16 for the first time under Benitez - Redknapp offered a wide-ranging criticism of the Anfield boss.
Redknapp believes Benitez should abandon the controversial zonal marking system and questioned whether Fernando Torres will want to stay


Redknapp, who played more than 300 games for the club between 1991 and 2002, said: 'They have won one in 10 now and fans will be thinking. They are firmly behind him, though, he manipulates the fans, he gets them how he wants them.

'But there comes a time, if they go out of Europe this week and then lose at Everton, that the fans are swayed and will say that we have to look at him now.

'That team is not really going anywhere. The problem you will get is that will Fernando Torres want to play in the Europa League? I don't think so.


'If they don't get into the top four at the end of this season, it will be a major problem.

'You have huge problems going on behind the scenes with the owners, but it is too easy to blame that. On the pitch the players are not playing well enough, that's a fact.'
On Liverpool's defensive problems, Redknapp was equally damning.
He added: 'A few years ago zonal marking was the best format because they were one of the best defenders from set pieces.

'But the reason for that was that they had Peter Crouch and Sami Hyypia, two guys who are 6ft 5in plus.

'It doesn't matter how you defend when the ball comes in, zonal or man to man, they will clear it.

'Now you have a situation where people are not taking responsibility.

'You might have to turn round and say that zonal isn't working, let's go man for man.

'At the moment he is giving players excuses, teams look at it and think they will score against Liverpool.'




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footbal...p.html?ITO=1490

ive a few problems with this....

firstly, what exactly was his point about manipluating fans? completely unsubstantiated statement.

secondly, he says if you have tall players then you can defend set pieces anyway you want, and yet he says now that we dont have sammi and crouch, we should go man to man?

thirdly, not making fourth place is as close a reality for City and their big name players, also arsenal, and even united. there's not that much of a points gap around 4th place, especially for november, so therefore you could say not getting 4th for any big club with big names will mean any of them could question where they play next year.

bit of an empty article to be honest, and not very helpful from jamie. must be lookin for a job.

So we had one of the leanest defences in the league due to Peter Crouch's height - f*ckin genius !

hahahhahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahaha he is an absolute cock head that redknapp, ridiculous article

read it again, what his article says is that we dont have the players of defend, its not a criticism of zonal marking. he basically says if we dont have the players ya cant defend...but then says we should go man to man. it makes no sense.

if hes going to accuse raf of manipulating fans he better damn sure back it up because its just random otherwise.

its a sloppy article.

idiots are quick with their stats? not sure what that means when the fact is most succesful clubs have marked zonal over the last decade. you just have to get the players to implement it.

well have to disagree with that statement

The only other team in the premiership that uses zonal is arsenal

The mancs have always used man to man and I would say they have been the most successful in the last decade and when you add Chelsea to that mix as well no zonal marking team have won the league since arsenal. That's like 6 years ago, so maybe zonal inst as successful as it it was.

Suppose Redknapp will join an ever growing hate figure list that includes St John, Souness, Alan Kennedy, Mark Lawrenson and Ronnie Whelan who have all dared to speak up about being unhappy with the managers at the time and the way things are at our Football Club. For What it's worth Redknapp who am not that fond of was 100 per cent right in every point he made especialy the one about the Spaniard manipulating Liverpool fans because he knows they are so stupid and he can get away with it, this is a point I have made may times previously in my posts. Another thing he is spot on about is that the blame for our demise this season is firmly down to the manager and not the owners, we all know the owners are not the answer but to deflect the blame away from this incompetent fool of a manager is just burying your head in the sand. What people need to understand was that when the waiter fully agreed to sign a new five year contract about 6 months ago he knew exactly what he was getting and the he also knew the money which was to be available and all future restrictions otherwise he would not of put his name on the contract, what we have learnt from the waiter is that he is very methodical and thinks everything through thats why it's very nieve for fans to think he has been shafted by the owners regarding money available, he knew the score and was happy to go along with it and he is still stating he is happy with the situation and owners when questioned. Fans have been spouting for ages about judging him when he has control well he has had it since Parry was forced out early in the year and since then he has had full control of the transfers and Academy, he has been allowed to re-nogotiate players contracts and also been allowed to sack club stalwarts like Stevie Heighway and Hugh McCauley and at the same time bringing in his own men as well as sending players all over the world to see medical witch doctors. Well we are judging him now and even the most biased fan will have to say we are going backwards, you cant blame injuries because we had our full team out when getting beat by Spurs, Villa and Chelsea and we still were'nt good enough, enough is enough we need to get this imposter out of the club as soon as possible if we are to salvage a champions league place.

Stick to sell Nintendo's Jamie.

crouch then should be a defender