2021/22 Rafael Benitez

[Toffeeslam]

Rapidly falling out of love with football because of Everton, every season the same embarrassing performances.

it’s like a very long tunnel with genuinely no light at the end of it and depressing so it’s best if a try and avoiding this club for at least till the season is over (which it already is).

 

[MACCA75]

I hate Everton. Actually hate them. I hate football. I'm only still here out of a morbid habit, like I was watching wrestling until I couldn't do it anymore.

There's nothing to like or support about Everton and hasn't been in years. The owner is an idiot, the staff are a joke, the players are actually horrible - I genuinely, wholeheartedly hate more Everton players than Liverpool ones, easily.

It’s a curse isn’t it. We all knew against Villa that Bailey would come on and score his first goal. We all knew Josh King would rip us to shreds with his first goals in ages.
We all knew Aguero would come on and score at the end of last season..

Yet we still watch. Like a crack addict wanting one more hit.

 

[Tubey]

For a manager who "knows the league" surely he could have made some calls on selling players this summer to generate more funds??

All hes focused on was punting out James and getting in Rondon near the end of the window.

Surely he would know which players were unwanted?!

Who?

Take Iwobi for instance. We have to sell for around £12m to 'break even' on his cost - who the hell is paying more than a Toblerone for Alex f'in Iwobi? Why would one of our league rivals take deadwood like him, Tosun, Gbamin etc. off us for any amount of money?

And furthermore, why would the responsibility for that be on him? What is Marcel Brands paid for, honestly???

 

[Terrarian]

The players obviously have form for being shizhouses but today is on the manager, he had a shocker. Those subs were head scratching bad.

 

[Saint Domingo]

It’s funny how a professional football team can’t play zonal marking. These clowns can’t even keep a high line either. No wonder Ancelotti had all of them sat on the goal line looking at the ball and just instructed to head it away.

They’re completely brain dead. I imagine Benitez can’t believe it that he’s come into an apparently mid table premier league side and found defenders who can’t even do the basics of ‘if a ball comes into your zone head it away’.

 

[crackers]

I've supported benitez up to now, it's been a decent start. But anyone who trys to make light out of this is kidding themselves. When should Everton ever be conceding 5 to Watford, let alone 4 goals in about 15 minutes. It's a complete capitulation. It's on benitez. It's on the fans booing substitutions. It's on the players. It's on the people responsible for leaving this squad. Bottom line though, it's completely unacceptable.

 

[Drico]

Rondon and Iwobi must NEVER play for this club again. He will never last if they do.

I said it recently - a manager should be allowed to make whatever decisions he wants to make, but if you are going to dispense with James Rodriguez - which is your right - you cannot credibly persist with Alex Iwobi. The Rondon purchase is clearly related to the utter lack of funds made available to the manager at the time, but Iwobi is an indefensible selection. He's a tyre around Benitez's neck now and the petrol is about to be doused...

 

[Firhillfill]

Its not on Brands. It's on Moshiri. Keeps sacking managers, keeps letting them bring their own players in and then leaves us with a mish mash of players.

Every issue with the club right now is on the owner. I think his heart is in the right place but he seems utterly clueless.

This new ground better be brilliant...

Fair point, though I think they are both as culpable as one another. Moshiri (presuably) has no say in the recruitment, thats Brands role. Though the percieved lack of clarity on strategy/direction agree is on Moshiri.

 

[Mat70s]

So Benitez goes…what then?

And when the next lad starts to struggle with a poorly assembled squad…what then?

 

[d34noj]

Who is anyone? Thats the point. There is no one and that's on brands.

Why is that on Brands? Brands didn't sign Rondon, that's on Benitez.

Who knows of Brands had someone else in mind but Benitez was adamant on Rondon?

The only thing we know for sure is Rondon is useless and that's on Benitez.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Either you back Benitez or you back the players. How anyone can back this group of players is beyond me, they’re some of the most disgraceful players I’ve seen in my lifetime watching Everton.

 

[BlueToff]

We couldn't buy Dumfries, clearly. It was dependent on getting a fee for Kean or someone else, it dragged on all summer as we couldn't financially do it.

We couldn't buy anyone. Even Diaz it's pretty clear all we could do was offer instalments or a future fee to tie in to the Kean transfer.

With the restrictions in place, for Benitez to bring in two actual improvements to our first team out of three signings for a total of £2m is nothing short of a miracle. It's laughable to ignore Gray/Townsend and solely criticise him for Rondon.

Benitez didn't want him mate, too. But yeah, the money was always going to be an issue at that stage but I do know Benitez wasn't convinced. That's fine, I get it, he's not the best defensively.

Benitez's signings have been, bar the main one, good. I've been thrilled with Gray and Townsend is alright.

I'm not ignoring that so I don't know why you're suggesting I am. I have been of this view on Rondon all along though because I knew it was a mistake. And I knew that all we were doing was going to another manager 'bring in who you want'. Except instead of it being James, on 150-200k a week or whatever it was, but it's James Rodriguez, it's Salomon Rondon, who's been in China for 2 years, and we're paying him more than Dom earns.

 

[MockBu4]

Just sack him already so everyone can move on to moan the next manager. Changes are not going to take effect immediately.

Whichever manager comes to Everton, there will be times when tough situation emerges. The club has to be strong enough to believe in a vision and work towards getting there. To quote an old saying, Rome wasn't built in a day. Tonight's result was bad. What is important now is their reaction in the next match.

The only man I believe in to be capable of doing that is Bing Dunc, even knowing that it would be damn hard but in the long run (3-5 years) I think he is the man who can lead us to something big because he really cares for the got damned club, and have enough character and guts to build a propper discipline and resilience, respect for themselves, for the crowd, the home ground and the insignia they wearing on their shirts. Things we desperately need from the players. He could clean up this garbage and dung piles all over the place, but that ship has sailed, and the board opted for Kopite leftovers...

 

[BlueToff]

Why is that on Brands? Brands didn't sign Rondon, that's on Benitez.

Who knows of Brands had someone else in mind but Benitez was adamant on Rondon?

The only thing we know for sure is Rondon is useless and that's on Benitez.

It's on them both.

Benitez insisted on Rondon but there's also the issue that Brands seems incapable of putting forward targets that the manager is happy with - which is what happened with the right-back.

 

[LeeCarsley]

I said it recently - a manager should be allowed to make whatever decisions he wants to make, so if you are going to dispense with James Rodriguez - which is your right - you cannot credibly persist with Alex Iwobi. The Rondon purchase is clearly related to the utter lack of funds made available to the manager at the time, but Iwobi is an indefensible selection. He's a tyre around Benitez's neck now and the petrol is about to be doused...

The message it sends to our youngsters as well, it doesn't matter how badly Rondon and Iwobi play, even in our worst injury crisis they wont play! Benitez is practically forced to start Gordon at all and he was among our best players today! Iwobi and Rondon aren't fit to wear the shirt I've loved for 50+ years because they don't understand it and for all his bluster I don't think Benitez understands it either.