When Rafa Benitez left the club in June last year after 6 years in charge, many Liverpool supporters were in the agreement that Liverpool needed an experienced head to steady the ship at Anfield. Seeing the team decline during what had been a unexpectedly poor season after finishing runners-up in the league the season before was very painful viewing. Not just missing out on the Champions league, but finishing 7th behind Spurs, Man City and surprisingly Aston Villa was totally unacceptable and change had to be enforced. After the likes of Didier Deschamps distanced themselves from the vacant managerial position at Liverpool, there was only one front-runner for the job, Roy Hodgson. Yes, the great Kenny Dalglish had put his name forward for the job, but in many regards most of us knew the job was always going to be given to Hodgson. He had a lot going for him, international managerial experience, club experience, and he had also just been named Manager of the Year by the League Managers Association (LMA) after guiding an “average” Fulham team to the Europa League final (something Senor Benitez failed to do). From my view, a major factor of his appointment had been the involvement of the British Media. They finally had their wish come true of an Englishman given the opportunity to manage a BIG club. I can’t help but think that a vastly media favourite Roy Hodgson had been brought in to take away negative publicity and criticism of the team following a dire season. With the whole saga going on with the owners, it needed someone like Roy to come in during a difficult time and just stabilise the club. I was sceptical at the appointment but I understood the reasons behind it and it was only fair that we gave him a chance. We all know how that ended... but nevertheless having seen over past couple of weeks cries from some LFC supporters to have Benitez back, I decided to conduct a comparison between the two.
Rafael Benitez
A lot has been written about Roy’s signings, so let us first look at the ins and outs of the summer when Benitez took over.
2004/2005 (Summer transfer window) Ins
Djibril Cisse £14M
Josemi £2M
Antonio Nunez
Xabi Alonso £10.7M
Luis Garcia £6M
Total Spending = £32.7M
2004/2005 (Summer transfer window) Outs
Markus Babbel Free
Michael Owen £8.5M + Antonio Nunez
Danny Murphy £2.5M
*Emile Heskey, Bruno Cheyrou and Abel Xavier departed before Benitez arrived
Total Income = £11M
So Benitez wasted no time in splashing the cash on his arrival on Merseyside, with his net spending for the summer transfer window coming to a total of £22.7m. Analysing his deals more closely, the first thing that should be pointed out is Rafa was unable to keep Owen at the club. Owen albeit has washed away since then, he was the star striker at the club back then. More astonishingly he was allowed to go to Real Madrid for a fee of only £8.5m. Owen was one of the most prolific goal scorers around Europe, surely his value was higher than what Real Madrid paid (especially considering they paid £15m for Jonathan Woodgate a week later). The departure of Danny Murphy was also a surprise to many, he was one of the better players at Liverpool and possessed creativity more than others. Cisse wasn’t Rafas signing but he came to the club with bags of media hype and potential ability, didn’t really live up to it (had a injury-ridden lacklustre time at the club). Garcia was a hit with the fans, moments of flair left most of us drooling, but too many times that flair deserted him, the inconsistency was frustrating. Antonio Nunez was a flop – simple. I can’t remember much of Josemi’s performances, but at a cost of £2m, I certainly don’t remember him being as bad as Konchesky. Alonso could be deemed as the marquee signing of not only that season but Benitez’s overall time at the club – great acquisition and haven’t been able to replace him (major contributing factor towards the teams decline).
Benitez Premier League record up to Jan 3rd 2005
P 22 W 11 D 4 L 7
Away record
P11 W 3 D 3 L 5
So in his first six months at the realm there was one noticeable home defeat to Birmingham City, and away defeats to Everton, Man Utd, Bolton and Middlesbrough. Roy also lost away to Everton and Utd. Rafa had his captain and main man Steven Gerrard missing untill November due to an ankle injury he had sustained in a league match against Manchester United in September. Other injuries didn’t help the cause, but still it was a poor away record and not the best start to his managerial campaign. His early post-match interviews didn’t give the fans much confidence or insight to his thoughts. I remember him over using phrases such as ‘we had a good mentality’ despite underperforming. Also constantly referring to fitness levels of players as the reason behind to his regular tinkering with the team gave the media something to chew on. The initial switch from man-marking to zonal-marking didn’t seem to be settling in with the players, and was a constantly debated topic by football pundits and the media. However, later on it became second nature to the team and led to some great defensive stats over the years, but in the first six months it wasn’t appreciated by many football followers. Proves something that doesn’t work straight away could mould into something later on given the time to nourish.
Now to analyse Roy Hodgson’s first six months at LFC...
2010/2011 (Summer transfer window) Ins
Brad Jones £2.3M
Paul Konchesky £3M
Fabio Aurelio Free Agent
Raul Meireles £11.5M
Joe Cole Free Agent
Milan Jovanovic Free
Danny Wilson £2M
Jonjo Shelvey £1.7M
Christian Poulsen £4.5M
Total Spending = £25M
2010/2011 (Summer transfer window) Outs
Diego Cavalieri £1.2M
Albert Riera £5M
Yossi Benayoun £7M
Javier Mascherano £17.25M
Total Income = £30.45M
Unlike Benitez, Roy didn’t splash out the cash straight away. He took a much more cautious approach as his employers didn’t have much money available for transfers and were looking to end their reign as LFC owners, so they were never going to invest heavily even if they wanted to do so. He actually brought more money (£5.45m) into the club than he spent. It should be noted Jonjo Shelvey, Danny Wilson and Milan Jovanovic were all deals done before Hodgson came in. With the new home grown players rule coming into force and a lack of British based players at the club, I assume Brad Jones was brought in to fill the home-grown quota. It was instantly noticeable Roy was adamant to get rid of “dead wood” within the club, this was seen by shipping out a lot of loan players on loan. To pick the bones out of rest of the signings, Poulsen and Konchesky have been utter rubbish so far, they were brought in after we were left founding after the departures of Aquilani (the £20m replacement for Alonso) and Insua. I could criticise the pair of them all day long, so I will just leave it at that. Letting go of Benayoun (arguable most creative player after Gerrard) was a mistake, but I think he departed before Roy came in and admittedly said Benitez was the main reason he chose to reside in Chelsea. Albert Riera was in the same boat I believe, a good technical player that needed another dimension to his game to succeed at the highest level. I share the opinion of Phil Thompson on Javier Mascherano, the club did so much for him and he threw it back in their faces, so in my eyes he was never a part of Liverpool football club. Joe Cole and Mereiles both were very good signings for the club, but have failed to live up to their previous ability. I was very excited about the prospect of Mereiles more than Joe I must admit, but time should be given to both. Ironically the one thing that probably went against Hodgson than most when it came to the transfer window was who he didn’t purchase – a much needed centre forward.
Hodgson Premier League Record up to 5th January 2011
P 20 W 7 D 4 L 9
Away Record
P 10 W 1 D 2 L 7
Albeit his tenure in charge of the hot seat at Anfield started with a tough fixture list, his team were expected to do better than they did. Very poor defeats at home to Northampton (carling cup 3rd round), Blackpool and Wolves were very difficult for already doubtful supporters to take. A poor personal away record rubbed off on to the current team, with only one away win to date. He kept arguing he inherited a poor squad, that may be the case but his summer signings didn’t offer much if anything at all to support his cause. For the first time as a Liverpool fan I saw Paul Konchesky being jeered off by supporters, rightly so – he has been shockingly bad. Poulsen hasn’t been able to get used to the pace of the premiership and it really is difficult to point out what he offers to the team apart from age. Hodgson could argue, had it not been for Gerrard getting injured on international duty, results may have been different but Benitez endured the same problem in his first 6 months. The football hasn’t been great, there has been no fluidity or structure to the performances. Too many times, we have gone to win the game too late on and by then we are already trailing. Defensively, we have leaked goals left, right and centre. The squad looked too dejected on the best of occasions and it’s the manager’s job to lift the players and get them playing to the standard they are capable of.
Final Verdict
I am by no means saying Roy Hodgson didn’t deserve to be sacked or a change shouldn’t have been imminent. My point is any manager needs time to succeed, Rafa was lucky in that sense and Roy was unlucky. Benitez probably understands the concept of needing time more than anyone right now, having been relieved of his duties as Inter after 6 months. He was given plenty of time at LFC to mould the club in to what he wanted to achieve. A perfect example of this as mentioned before is the zonal-marking he implemented when he first came in. In any case, Roy had inherited a team that finished 7th the season before below the likes or Spurs and City, whereas, Benitez inherited a team that finished in the top 4 (Spurs and City finishing 14th and 16th), therefore had less competition to their status in the top 4. They were in the Champions league, and that always has a positive impact on the fans, although Benitez was helped by moments of sensational magic by Gerrard to help the club remain in the competition and eventually go on and win it. Those moments of magic have eluded Roy this year, even though they have topped their Europa League group, without any scares or having to risk the big-names of the side.
It isn’t correct to say Benitez is a better manager than Roy or it was never as bad as this under Rafa. It may well have been if Gerrard didn’t save the team against Olympiakos in the 86th minute and David Moores was more ruthless by sacking Benitez (fairly or unfairly). In the end, football is played for the fans, and we haven’t had a lot to shout about over recent years, unfortunately the frustration and wrath of that was taken out on Hodgson. In my opinion right man at the wrong time and possibly at the wrong club...
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