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IS BENITEZ ANY BETTER THAN HOULLIER ?
Obviously Rafa Benitez's biggest success was Istanbul in 2005, and that should never be discounted, but even an ardent Reds fan will have to concede that the club has moved ever further away from any title ambitions this season.
Houlier won us a number of trophies as well remember, including the so called Mickey Mouse Treble ( nothing Mickey Mouse about it in my mind ). Looking at the stats can be misleading, but the Frenchman took the Merseysiders nearer to the title than Benitez has, much neareR, but has the current boss done a better job?
Gerard bought players like Diuoff, Diao, and Biscan , but Rafa has bought Josemi, Nunez,and Gonzalez. both have wasted a lot of money on below average players.
Since leaving Liverpool in 2004, Houllier has proved himself at Lyon where he won back-to-back titles and began to build a side that now poses a decent challenge in the Champions League having held Manchester United only last week . He has also managed at International level.
If you look closely at the successes of Benitez at Liverpool you will notice that both his major silverware accomplishments came off the back of penalty shoot-outs, which shows the fine line between success and failure. If he had lost out to both West Ham and AC Milan he would effectively have nothing to show for his time at the club.
Personally I reckon Benitez is the better Manager, but only just, will I be saying the same thing in Two years time though ? Have we really made that much improvement in the Fout Years of Rafa's reign ? are we plauing better football ?
So that leads me to some questions:
1) was life under Gerard Houllier really that bad ?
2) who is the better manager ? Benitez or Houlier ?
3) which one is better equipped to win us the Premiership ?
4) who had us playing the better football ?
eddie,come on houiller was the worst manager ever next to souness. i never liked him the 3 cups we won with him . fa cup arse pissed all over us , owen saved the day, league cup. agaist birmingham i/i won on pens, ueffa cup 3/1 up then won on a own goal. come on he bought shite, song, smicer,douif,the other sengal player,kewell,i hated the man. roy evans was twice the manager he was, if they gasve the money to roy what they gave him, who knows, sorry mate rafa any day...
Eddie I am going to be a little more cruel and say that Benitez had nothing to do with Istanbul's win. If you remember Benitez's tactics had cost us three goals by half time and I doubt any one imagined at that moment in time that we could win this match. Gerrard and the team played the football match of their lives in second half and saved Benitez from his first major cock-up.
Benitez's partial success in the first two years was built upon Houlier's achievements, but soon after that a turn for the worst became apparent.
To answer your questions I would say Houlier was not ideal but he certainly new how to get the players to give there best on the pitch and that in itself is something we haven't seen for a while.
The longer Benitez stays the better Houllier will look.
i sugest, you read, houillers biography. the man was shite. every player he bought, we either let go for nothink, or got peanuts for them. he lost us millons.at least rafa sells most of his for a profit.bell,bought for 6mil sold for 8mil.sissoko bought for 6 mil sold fr 9 mill. and afew others, hou, lost everthink he spent.yes he finished higher than rafa,but what did he ever do in c/l sweet fa.as or lyon the team was allready there, and he was made to keep the exsisting coaches ,he only won the french league because there league is poor. remember marsille? listen to robbie fowlers opinion of him.and other players.the man cost us millons in lost transfers. and underhim we played are worst football ever i have said this many times, go to anfield and do a poll,among surrporters,then you will see. its no good you lot saying the rafa birgade, thease people go week in and weekout. and are true fans. now its not to say people on ere are not, or as red hot would say he,s not a follower, he is a doer. in otherwords he does not care what the most say, only what the minorty say.and lets be honest here.how many other scousers write on this site besides me? look on other sites then you will understand. and belive me its the fans that will have the last say, the majorite allways wins.
Im split on that question eddie benitez won us the cl with houlliers players which some was shite signings at the time thats something they have in common buying crap! ok houllier won us the so called mickey mouse cups in that won season who could forget the alaves game some game eh? what has rafa done apart from winning the cl and fa cup if he hadnt won them he would of been out long ago.
and as u said ed houllier got us much close 2 the pl then rafa ever has so u ask ed is rafa better than houllier? i say rafa but only just! and the other question have we gone 4ward or better off? the answer to that is a big fat NO we are goin backwards under benitez and the longer he's in charge the worse it will get! rouman keep me up 2 date on whats happening with DIC if ur goin 2 anfield 2day cheers.
First of all, let me point one thing... 90% of the players who played in the Istanbul final was bought by Houllier..yet houllier is Crap??? Dudek was brought by houllier and saved the penalty..yet houllier was crap??? Smicer scored the goal...eyt houllier was crap!! Gerrard who was brought in first team under houllier won a penalty and scored a goal..yet houllier was crap!!! Hammann came in for kewell, and hold the midfield to stability, yet houllier was crap!!!
Now we go to Benitez...he succeeded in motivating the players to reach such a level..yet he is worst?? He succeeded to eliminate a team which constructed itself by buying superplayers for millions in the semifinal...yet benitez is worst???? we reached the final of Fa cup..where ManUre and Arsenal could not reach in that year, yet Benitez is worst??? Benitez won us a FA cup which means nothing yet all of you are moaning when we get eliminated from the competition.
Benitez brought a Keeper who break the club's recrod of clean sheet, Brought a super star in torres, took on loan one of the most prolific holding midfielder in the world...yet he is worst manager in our history??? He has set up a new scout system bringing players from around the world, talents like Insua, El zhar, Nemeth, Pacheco from barcelona etc...yet he is the worst???
To answer the question now...Both of them are very good, Benitez is better coz he ould motivate the players at highest level and construct a team that can rule for years if they gel together coz it comprise of young players.
THE FANS ARE TO BE BLAMED...yes for being TOO IMPATIENT, if you remove Wenger Not a single manager has managed to construct a team to win the title in less than 4 years...Did houllier really build a bad team..i don't think so, all managers take risks...to end 5th in one year don't necessarily means you'll end further down the next year..he should have been given the time to correct his errors...But that time is gone i don't wanna put more argument on that.
We return to our current situation... Benitez can't motivate his players, yet he succeeded in getting them till the final of two champions league matches!! Its not a matter of motivation its the players responsibility to provide their best on the ground.... We lost against Chelsea thanks to the Referee, yet people says we are worst... thats the reward you get for being better than a multimillion star team?? Benitez brought craps..i wonder how bad torres, mascherano, babel are!!! Ferguson NEVER BUYS MISFITS!!! RIGHT???? MAURINHO NEVER BUY MISFITS!! RIGHT??? All the players they bought, absolutely everybody, 100% were superstars...and supersuccessful...wow, what a great player is Scott parker, he really deserves his 25 millions price!!
Was our football that bad when we played Chelsea at the beginning of the season?? Was our football that bad when we played Porto??? The answer is we do play very good football under Benitez, BUT only when he field his best team, the team that all fans want..He need to be shown his errors and get the time to correct it...i don't think with likes of Torres, Babel, Mascherano, gerrard..we won't improve next year....
Whoever will be in charge next year, if we win something it will be thanks to a team builded 90% by Rafa..justlike what was the case in 2005.
Who is better equipped to win us the EPL..well we never gave houllier time to know that, may be if Rafa is given his time he may show us the answer...am not the one who will give him this time, its the owners who'll decide that.
Who is better manager..well its history that matters...Rafa brought a 5th Champions league trophy after 21 yrs at the club..he'll be in our history book considered better than Houllier for that.
Not only did Benitez buy a lot of crap players (you know which ones i am talking about) but he also distroyed a lot of good players. Rest asured, by the time we are out of the CL, Rafa would have lost us this year alone a hell of a lot more than Houllier has lost in all his years at Anfield.
tell that to j moores, who lost 85mil due to houiller.red hot your a bitter man. noone only souness is worst than houiller.you don,t like rafa fine, but you are way over the top.and may i remind you in the minortie. i agree rafa has not given us what we want, but i am not bitter like you andwhy he is the manager, i will show him respect ,the liverpool way. oh by the way we played valencia twice an d lost iwas at anfield rafa v hoiller rafa won hands down we were out played twice, even the l,pool players, said it, so thereyou go...
it is not personal. I supported LFC for over 30 years and its heart breaking to see us in the state we are in at the moment. If Benitez was doing a half decent job I'd give him my full support. I don't care if I am in a minority that does not make my opinion of him wrong. If you remember, six months ago I said that this man is taking us down the slippery slope and here we are. No EPL, no FAC, no CC and soon no CL. how can you say "worng again".
Benitez is definitely a step up from Houllier. To reach two European Cup finals and win one of them is, by itself, a greater achievement than Houllier's trophies put together. The Champions League is the biggest and hardest club tournament in world football. Houllier would never have got to a final in that competition.
But the style of their football is very similar. Neither manager wanted to allow the players the freedom to play technical passing, attacking football like in the days of Paisley and Dalglish. They both are very cautious and obsessed with the defensive shape of the team; which shows why the teams under both lack ideas going forward.
Houllier did get nearer to challenging in the league though. Benitez is pretty poor in the Premiership. His record against ManUre is a disgrace. The 82 point record Benitez got in his 2nd season seems very good, but the reality is he was never on top of the league for even a week that whole season. So how would the team have reacted to the pressure of being on top?
We don't know because Rafa has only ever been top of the league for a single week in 4 seasons.
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