KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum comparing managers

I've followed liverpool for a while now but wasn't switched on enough to have a sensible opinion on managers until now i think. previously it was just pure emotion, if we won i was wrapped and if we lost it was the end of the world! now i can sit and look back at the mangers we've had over the last 12 years and say that

...Under Houllier i thought we had some great times, we won a few trophies and played in some big games.

Then i really took notice when BENITEZ came along, i still think for all his flaws he gave me my greatest memories and i would be up all hours of the night/morning watching the games!

Then along came ROY, with all due respect to him he absolutely killed the joy i used to have in watching LFC play, i found myself for the first time ever, actually turning off games and going to sleep because of how boring his team was to watch!! they were absolutely terrible and as bad as it sounds i used to jump online every night waiting for the news that he was sacked!!

And then KENNY came back, now i was never old enough to see him play but i knew he was the king! he was a breath of Fresh air, he had passion and wanted to win.. i personally think that he had us playing some magic football at times and really thought he would make the difference until...he spent over $100m on some of the shytest players in the prem league. that alone was reason enough to get the sack and i for one wasnt too upset to see that happen....

Until his replacement was BR..now i really did hope that we would get BENITEZ back but it wasnt to be and i really do think that given enough time AND the right players BR will be a hit. lets face it, the players we have are not good enough..and the ones that are looking decent are still too young and inconsistent. i think once BR moves the duds and brings in some decent players to play his style then we will see the true blueprint for what he is trying to achieve..until then i will support him and pray the good times come back!

Also comparing BR to ROY is just terrible, we may have the same amount of points but i dont care who says this game is results based i would much rather watch a BR side than any of ROYS time at liverpool!!

Anyway just thought i'd throw my 2cents in. your thoughts??

Thats all have a good day!

Very well put. I don't think there's anything there I disagree with.

The thing now is whether BR turning things round in the medium term is how it's going to pan out, or whtether in then we'll find that we were just clutching at straws. We've made our bed... not much we can do expect lie in it now.

its funny the way people always take the best part of Benitez Reign which even I enjoyed at the beginning and judge it next to what Roy Hodgson walked into, hardly a fair comparrasson.

Benitez had the hardest job IMO and he passed it with flying colours. He was never given 100m to spend, not even the figure given to BR in 2012/2013. Yet, he managed to wheel and deal and put together a world class team that consistently challenged the scum and cash rich chavs.

Imagine if Rafa was given funds to spend on his preferred signings.

I don't need to imagine.
20million on Aquilani.

You mean the same Aqualani that has scored as many goals as Gerrard in almost half the amount of games?

Not saying he was a good buy, never wanted to be here, but he is a good player.

It's not probably not fair for Roy that he came in at a difficult time... but that's not our fault. All we can do is compare the results, the perfromances, the expectations we experienced.

Rafa gave us trophies and we competed. We weren't perfect of course and he made mistakes, but he took us a step up from where he found us.

Before he came, we expected only to get into the top 4. No one really expected winning a CL and title challenge was still regarded as being a few years away. From his first season our expectations shot up. We were now competing in the CL not just to get to the last 16, but believeing and proving that we could go much further. He also stood up to Fergie, Mourinho and ultimately Purslow, Hicks and Gillette.

The league took a bit longer to challenge for, but the expectation was now there. Not bad for a foreign coach in his first few seasons in the country. Now look at the confidence with which he coaches Chelsea and handles the press. I suspect not many would've survived the unprecedented abuse he got in his first game.

Compare that with Roy. Yes, Roy got a very rough deal. But even taking that into account he took action which demoralised the fans. Konchesky, Poulsen. The way he failed to defend Torres when Fergie accused him for diving. Took him 5 days. How the team was instructed to play etc. Did Roy ever stand up to the owners? He was just too polite - and maybe too greatful just to have the opportunity to manage us. The worrying this is that BR may similarly be just too greatful to be in the job.

I dont know where you get your figures from but Benitez was given 229 million pounds during his reign, he spent 27.5 million first season, 26.73 million second season, 27.15 million third season, 70.7 million fourth season, 39 million fifth season and 36.76 million in his last season totaling 229 million pounds worth of the Clubs money spent. You say he challenged the top two consistantly, what evidence are you basing this on first season we finished 37 points behind, second season 9 points behind, third season 21 points behind, fourth season 11 points behind, fifth season was the closest and only ever challenge where we finished 4 points behind and in his last season we finished 23 points behind, is this what you call consistantly challenging the top two.

how did benitez have the hardest job , he inherited a team 4th in the league , with players like hyypia, carragher, gerrard , smicer , kewell, riise, dudek , finnan , even owen was still avaliable with a few younger players with international games under belt IE baros and cisse , there is no doubt in my mind brendan rodgers has had the hardest job since shankly took over , with no money , young inexperienced players , big players leaving or getting to the end of there careers IE gerrard and carragher , and some of the fan base not willing to except him because they want chelsea's manager or a failed ex manager(dalglish) too return .

We challenged them in the cups, kicked their ass in europe and became the No1 ranked club in the world following 2 CL finals in 3 years. Rafa's only 'flaw' was putting the importance of the league behind the CL, but maybe that was a club decision based on financials? Either way, whilst he never won us the league he took us close and had us in europe constantly. We were undeniably better under rafa than we we were under houllier, dalglish, hodgson & rodgson.