2021/22 Rafael Benitez

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

When this war is over, history will not reflect kindly on you Dave.

Cos there is 1 thing I am very, very certain of, at some point, this fella will no longer be our manager.

I will pray for you my child.

I'll be shocked if he hasn't already got an angle worked out for when Benitez leaves so that he can create maximum fume

He probably has an Excel spreadsheet with all of the likely scenarios and possible ways he can work it. The poor intern on work experience likely had to set that up for him

 

[Westend Blue]

Think you can draw some parallels between Moyes west ham and early days Benitez at Everton. Both un fancied managers that binned a few lazy players for more graft. Difference is I’d trust Moyes to find good players for his system than Benitez.

hopefully a good year with European footy and some astute signings

 

[toffeeblue9]

I dont see that happening.

I think we'll mop up most of the points against all but City, United, Liverpool and Chelsea...and even there I expect us with a full sqiuad to choose from to be competitive.

But United at OT with no key strikers has to be placed in the 'unlikely' category.

Alright, I know it's Dave who's said it, but is anyone really arguing with this? We stumbled our way through against the worst team in the league on Saturday. Surely it's not "defeatist" to suggest that it's unlikely we'll get anything at Old Trafford without both of our main goal threats?

 

[ForeverBlue92]

Benitez will have a job as long as he wants it - the owners have had their fingers burnt for hiring and firing too quickly and Benitez like Ancelotti is too pragmatic/experienced to have us in any real danger like Koeman/Silva were when they were given the bullet (lets not forget it was only Martinez who has been sacked who was outside of the bottom 3 spots under Moshiri).

Its why I find the hate towards him tedious, sure its edgy the first few weeks even months but if he's here in 2-3 years time are people really going to be carrying the agenda on until then?

 

[Lowste]

Remember it all too well. But that wasn't my point. People were carrying on mid-week like we had started the season horribly and that Rafael wasn't coaching well. Here am I, just pointing out, that Rafael is level on points with Pep and Tuchel, despite spending £1.7m and inheriting a poor squad.

I want us to do well, and I think considering how headwinds (injuries to key players, poor off-season, squad legacy) Rafael has done a great job to have us where we are.

I wouldn’t disagree over what you say, league position is everything
I would comment on how well organised we are and our level of fitness is at a far better standard
I think this will stand us in good stead for this season, but I think we will need more flair the following season

to do that he will need money and ensure we get the right players
As simply we have an element of our support who are waiting to turn on him

 

[PaddyJames]

Mate I’m giving the manager credit for a decent start , the majority or at least a decent proportion of his signings have been good but Micky mouse ? We haven’t won a trophy since 1995 are you serious , we are in zero position to pick and chose what we think are Micky mouse . That Europa conference would almost certainly be closer to Micky mouse than the league cup but I’d have bitten your hand off for that if we’d got into it .

If city fans want to call the league cup Micky mouse sound but you’re having a laugh in fact it’s the very definition of laughable for Evertonians to deride any cup we could win . For gods sake I’m in my 50’s I was in my 20’s when we last won a trophy , behave yourself .

it’s not an agenda I want to win something not just for me because I’ve seen stuff but for these tens of thousands of loyal fans who’ve seen nothing . The only agenda is the people who can’t see anything that ever deserves criticism in the current regime . I’m happy with the start I hope we get something at United , I’ve half a feeling we might sneak something l , but I was angry and disappointed at going out the cup .

Beating Norwich is what I wanted , although despite this being Everton sort of expected tougher tests await but generally QPR aside he’s doing ok .Micky mouse cup though , unless you’re taking the mick or being
Sarcastic.

I do find myself , for the first time may ignoring the inevitable trolls on the wind up just for my own mental health so if I’ve missed that that’s your plan apologies for not spotting it .

Get a grip mate it was a throwaway comment. I'd love us to have won it

 

[Pazza]

Benitez will have a job as long as he wants it - the owners have had their fingers burnt for hiring and firing too quickly and Benitez like Ancelotti is too pragmatic/experienced to have us in any real danger like Koeman/Silva were when they were given the bullet (lets not forget it was only Martinez who has been sacked who was outside of the bottom 3 spots under Moshiri).

Its why I find the hate towards him tedious, sure its edgy the first few weeks even months but if he's here in 2-3 years time are people really going to be carrying the agenda on until then?

If he is here then surely that means we are doing well, or better than recent years. I am fed up of this constant change in managers. Lets get behind him, with the players out at least he has us playing better than last year. He also gave us Gray!

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

13 points from 6 games is not a bad start to the league campaign at all

We've looked shaky more than once, but it's a results business when all is said and done, and he's getting the results in the league right now

Considering he hasn't got much of a squad to work with he's doing well thus far

Hopefully we can get some players in when January comes around and actually have some squad depth

 

[4737carlin]

Benitez will have a job as long as he wants it - the owners have had their fingers burnt for hiring and firing too quickly and Benitez like Ancelotti is too pragmatic/experienced to have us in any real danger like Koeman/Silva were when they were given the bullet (lets not forget it was only Martinez who has been sacked who was outside of the bottom 3 spots under Moshiri).

Its why I find the hate towards him tedious, sure its edgy the first few weeks even months but if he's here in 2-3 years time are people really going to be carrying the agenda on until then?

I think the main reason why they went Benitez is because we need a long term manager, no risks on the flavour of the month manager, we needed to go for someone who will give us three years minimum, a local man with experience, there really was no other options. Its not even about getting into Europe, its about stability.
He will lead us out at Bramley Moore.

 

[davek]

Alright, I know it's Dave who's said it, but is anyone really arguing with this? We stumbled our way through against the worst team in the league on Saturday. Surely it's not "defeatist" to suggest that it's unlikely we'll get anything at Old Trafford without both of our main goal threats?

It's just pragmatic. And 99% of Everton supporters will be pleasently surprised if we manage to get a point or three at OT. They wont expect it and more than likely are braced for a defeat. That's realism.

If we have to, we'll take any defeat and look to get back on track - with the injured back - against lesser opposition and at home to West Ham on 17th October.

 

[Jeff Jones]

Alright, I know it's Dave who's said it, but is anyone really arguing with this? We stumbled our way through against the worst team in the league on Saturday. Surely it's not "defeatist" to suggest that it's unlikely we'll get anything at Old Trafford without both of our main goal threats?

I think this is a good time to play Utd. They're absolutely horrible at the mo and if we were at full strength I'd give us a big chance.

Even this understrength team could scrape something.

 

[Bluerover]

I wouldn’t disagree over what you say, league position is everything
I would comment on how well organised we are and our level of fitness is at a far better standard
I think this will stand us in good stead for this season, but I think we will need more flair the following season

to do that he will need money and ensure we get the right players
As simply we have an element of our support who are waiting to turn on him

I have posted this several times already but.....I was horrified when RB was first mentioned. In fairness to him, what I have seen so far has been a huge improvement on the last decade of managers.

 

[davek]

IMO this is a 4 year project we're looking at. That allows Benitez to shift us from the over-priced, under-quality mid-table plodders he was left with. The lack of cash will mean he has to add a couple of first teamers each summer and weed out the obvious ones for departure: Iwobi, Gomes, Holgate etc. It'll take three summer windows to transform us into Benitez's team. And the stadium is an issue too. Four years will see us into that and we need steady progress under a manager who can get us turned and facing the right direction.

We need a four year (at least) tenure from a manager. We need that organisational stability. I see us getting that from Benitez.

 

[stretford blue]

I think the main reason why they went Benitez is because we need a long term manager, no risks on the flavour of the month manager, we needed to go for someone who will give us three years minimum, a local man with experience, there really was no other options. Its not even about getting into Europe, its about stability.
He will lead us out at Bramley Moore.

I think every owner would like a manager to last 3 or 4 years but the reality is it very rarely happens and things turn pretty quickly .benitez would certainly not have been in my top 20 to manage us but we were basically fishing in a pond of out of work managers and he was probably the best available .

 

[Baggzio]

Benitez will have a job as long as he wants it - the owners have had their fingers burnt for hiring and firing too quickly and Benitez like Ancelotti is too pragmatic/experienced to have us in any real danger like Koeman/Silva were when they were given the bullet (lets not forget it was only Martinez who has been sacked who was outside of the bottom 3 spots under Moshiri).

Its why I find the hate towards him tedious, sure its edgy the first few weeks even months but if he's here in 2-3 years time are people really going to be carrying the agenda on until then?

If Benitez brings stability and constantly challenges for Europe then there'll not be one blue carrying an agenda against him or calling for his head, the whole narrative of "he's only 2 bad results away from fans turning on him" is nonsense really but that doesn't mean he won't get criticism when he deserves it. If he gets us top 8 this year, given what we've spent and the poor depth in the squad, he should be commended. However he still has a long way to go to convince many that he's a long term (2 years+) solution for us.

Him keeping us "out of danger" isn't good enough quite frankly, he must compete. That is what we should expect of any manager. For god sake Big Sam got us in the top 8, that is the absolute minimum for us. If he achieves that great but what people are afraid of is if he doesn't we'd have literally tried every type of manager and failed every single time. Rafael has to bring stability like I said but I brought up Big Sam for a reason, he got top 8, Rafael should too but sometimes that simply isn't good enough, seasons like this where Spurs, Arsenal and Leicester and all on the down seemingly there's a real chance for us to break into 5th and be part of the Champions League conversation like Leicester did last season.

We always miss out on these opportunities of other teams being crap by being crap ourselves, it really isn't that hard to be a top 7 team anymore which is almost always Europe, Chelsea, City and Liverpool are guarantees for CL and United probably are now too, outside of that there's nothing special about the rest of the league at all. So like I was saying if we don't challenge for full Europa League qualification this year then it'll not only be a massive disappointment and missed opportunity but it might also be a sign of Benitez not being the best candidate for us, unless we get wrecked by injuries and get no one in January, even with that top 8 is mandatory.