"The appointment of Benitez was uninspired, unimaginative, ill-judged and, as should already be obvious, ill-fated.
A lovely man with a very good managerial career behind him, his style of football now looks archaic.
Among the grand, old ditties enjoyed by the blues is Forever Everton. You might know the one.
“Everton, Everton, we’re Forever Everton. All for one, one for all, Everton’s the team that plays beautiful football.”
In only two of their 14 Premier League games - against Burnley and Brentford - have Everton, the School of Science, had more possession than the opposition. Beautiful.
They played Huddersfield Town and Queens Park Rangers in the EFL Cup - beating the former and losing on penalties to the latter after a 2-2 draw - and, on both occasions, the Championship side enjoyed more possession. Beautiful.
Much has been made of the injury issues and there is absolutely no doubt Dominic Calvert-Lewin has been a huge miss.
But many of the rest, including centre-half Yerry Mina, should have been adequately covered. A combination of an unbalanced squad and questionable management means they have not.
That patience with Benitez might be lessened by his Liverpool allegiance is true but not to the extent that outsiders believe.
Yet combined with a style of football that, when not producing results, can border on the unwatchable, it means Rafael’s time at Goodison Park will be limited.
It was a misguided appointment in the first place and Benitez will find a more suitable match, that is for sure.
“Give Duncan the job,” yelled one fan towards the directors’ box after the derby defeat. “Big Dunc couldn’t do any worse than this.”
And, tellingly for Rafael, that fan was probably right."
