KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Rafa Benitez CL 2005: Greatest half time team talk ever?

Thanks Marko...great footage of a great player who unfortunately became injury prone and not remembered for some of his good moments in a red shirt. Some class finishing by HK and you're right, that's why Rafa picked him. After reading SG's autobiography, even he felt for HK being injured as often but Stevie also commented on how class Harry was.

In regards to the half time speach, Gerrard says that it was nothing out of the ordinary, just stay positive and work hard and if we get one back they will start to stutter. Rafa's hand was forced with the substitutions too. The fact that Rafa remained calm after such a horrendous opening is a credit to him though.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPEND!!

A CLASSIC VIDEO OF IT. FUNNY THOUGH.. a must se if you havent seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NEjB0xHWAk

Too many people are dismissive of Rafa's achievements and blame him for Hicks & Gillets part in our downfall.
If Istanbul was all about luck and had very little to do with Benitez then how come he got us back in to the final 2 years later? And how come no other manager since has even qualified for the CL? and how come Istanbul was our first CL final in 20 years? How come Benitez is the only manager in the last 20 years to get us to a major european final?

......let me guess, it's all down to luck, gerrard and the fans.....but certainly nothing to do with 'toxic' Benitez? mental.

Does the UEFA cup not count as a major European final?

Obviously not. I'm a fan of it and much prefer it to the poxy domestic cups, but it's second tier in terms of european football and therefore cannot be classed as 'major'. In my opinion.

Carheex is right on the money here i think anyone who is willing to put there prejudices aside would agree with his synposis...

he is not right. gerrard carra alonso hyppia hamann finnan were the main reasons..rafa's great contribution is that he got all these great lads to stand in two lines and stop chelsea from scoring. his actuall record in the group stages was very poor.rafa's performance in both finals was very very poor. got everything wrong. should have had two cause that milan team was there for the taking. ok yes he got us back there and he has a brilliant knack of stopping the other team scoring but that knack wouldn't have worked if not for the players here already and the kop crowd etc. rafa could have been a great but as everyone can now see his personality lets him down

Does that mean Shankly and Paisley received too much credit because all they did was told the players to win?

I think it comes down to wether you like the Manager or not, in this case the people who are saying it was down to the Players are the ones who have a disliking to Benitez. Like the Oldham game, people blamed BR for playing a weakened team when I blame the players for performing poorly.

nope both guys had a long record of winning and playing the right way.rafa's record here was erratic at best.even the 2nd place finish which everyone thinks was so great , rafa was crap that year. made loads and loads of mistakes ,tried and failed to drop alonso for loads of those games and xabi eventually just ran the team. if rafa had of resigned in xmas we would have won the league that year. he lost the plot.