Liverpool FC Forum

by **Benny The Noon** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 5:23 pm

Just because he won matches in the past doesnt mean he is entitled to be the big " i am " . No player is bigger than the club . There have been better players at the club over the history and none of them acted in the way it seems Gerrard is and has in the past .

by **Benny The Noon** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 5:36 pm

Anyway back on topic

Rafa Benitez proves he is Inter’s new special one
Franco Ordine
19.10.10

In the four months he has been manager of Inter Milan, Rafael Benitez has set himself up as the anti-Mourinho'. He has done nothing to try to be similar to the Special One and has given everyone the impression that he is a completely different person from the Portuguese.

Benitez laid down a marker in Inter's first Serie A game of the season, at Bologna. Jose Mourinho became famous at the club because he would wind up the Inter fans and the other people on the substitutes' bench to become angry at the referee.

At Bologna, two of the subs, Marco Materazzi and Dejan Stankovic, leapt off the bench at a certain point in the game to protest against one of the referee's decisions. Instead of allowing them to voice their opinions, Benitez turned to them and said: “You stay calm and sit on the bench. I'll talk to the referee and you shouldn't protest against him.”

This was an extremely important thing to do so early in his reign, because he had given a signal to everyone inside and outside the club about the right way to deal with officials.

I think Benitez is an excellent man. He came to Italy under very difficult circumstances, primarily because he joined Inter as the successor to Mourinho, who had won everything. The best he can do is match Mourinho by winning the Serie A title, the Italian Cup and the Champions League, so from this point of view, you have to admire him, because he had the courage to take on such a big challenge.

Benitez is also making Inter play far more attractive football than Mourinho did. They are playing some really nice stuff, which might come as a surprise to those who watched the way Liverpool performed towards the end of his time there.

It is also important to remember that Inter did not buy a single major player during the summer and actually lost one when Mario Balotelli joined Manchester City. Contrast that with Mourinho, who had plenty of money with which to build the squad that won everything last season.

So Benitez has had to settle for what he has got and has had to rely on two young lads — the 18-year-old Brazilian midfielder Philippe Coutinho and the French forward Jonathan Biabiany, who is 22. Both of them played in the 1-0 victory at Cagliari at the weekend that left them third in Serie A after seven games, only two points behind leaders Lazio. With these players, Inter are still having a good season, so that proves Benitez knows what he is doing.

Many Italian journalists who follow Inter every week think Benitez falls asleep during games, because he's not explosive like Mourinho. He'll sit on the bench, speak to his assistants and won't make major pronouncements in public. He will, however, speak his mind in the dressing room.

When Cristian Chivu showed his dissatisfaction with the tactics during a recent game at Roma, Benitez gave the defender a dressing down in front of all the other players. Chivu was forced to apologise to his boss, his team-mates and the coaching staff, so people shouldn't assume his cagey public demeanour is the same as what he displays in private.

The Inter supporters still have a very strong bond with Mourinho. They will never forget him, because he was their real leader and for them, he was a unique character, whom they would bring back straight away if they could. Naturally, there was a lot of scepticism towards Benitez when he replaced Mourinho but the Inter fans are starting to appreciate him as well and I believe it is a similar story for the players.

At the start, they weren't particularly happy. Maybe they missed Mourinho's personality and his charisma but as is the case for the fans, they are starting to come around to Benitez. The first person who praised him publicly was Samuel Eto'o and Stankovic has also done so recently. So slowly but surely, the whole squad, including the captain Javier Zanetti, are starting to realise that Benitez is a very capable person.

At this moment, he is working with far fewer resources than Mourinho did and he is without Diego Milito and Esteban Cambiasso because of injury but the quality of football is still visibly better.

The general feeling in Italy is that Tottenham will be quite an easy team for Inter to overcome. Spurs don't make much of an impression on football fans in Italy. The clubs who do are Chelsea and Manchester United, as well as Manchester City since Roberto Mancini took over as manager. You will also see that San Siro won't be full and many of the Spurs fans may take the tickets that haven't been sold.

So Inter can get past Spurs and I believe they can win a trophy under Benitez this season but to repeat what happened last year will be difficult. His hardest task will be to win the Champions League again, because last season virtually every 50-50 decision went in Inter's favour in that competition. If he can stay lucky, though, who knows how well he can do?

Interview by Tom Collomosse

by **Zidane** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 5:55 pm

Obviously you've missed the point Mick, like Benny said he isn't bigger than the club and if he doesn't like how things are he should have just moved on. I'm hard on him because I expect more out of him, after all he IS our Captain. He always does his job on the pitch but off it he's not my kind of guy. He doesn't have the characteristics of a true captain and never has.. I've said it before and I don't mind saying it again.

I don't expect many to agree with me either, but whatever.

by **zarababe** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:40 pm

Dundalk wrote:
RED BEERGOGGLES wrote:Here's a question mate how many posters who backed his removal have now come out and admitted that knowing how hard Hodgson has it with the inner turmoil at the club ,and boardroom politics and as a subsequent result we are now Second from bottom ......then it must have been a small miracle the way Benitez had us still battling for fourth only to finish seventh,
because I would snatch the hand of anyone offering us seventh now............ I seriously would mate

I backed Rafa right up until lat January and my reasons for turning was simply because it had gone stale. But i know what you are saying about a lot of posters. They have just swapped sides from hating Rafa to loving Hodgson with the same reasons!

I never disliked Rafa. I did however want him not to managed Liverpool because I thought his time was up. Nothing to do with money, nothing to do with the board, just simply because I think he had lost some of the players and things had got stale and I though we needed, after 6 years, a change.

As for Hodgson, I backed him from the start because as Liverpool fans thats what we do, thats why we stand out. He has a terrible start to his Liverpool career but Im willing to give him until at least Xmas, although I do agree things looking bad. But again when it comes to Roy, its nothing to do with money, nothing to do with the board. Its up to him with the players he has available to get it right and there is NO way we should be where we are at the moment

Sacking a Liverpool manager in October just dosent sit right with me.

BTW I would rip your hand off for 7th

Really.. so will it be right for us to sack him if we are relegated DD

Roy has emabarrassed us and himself with his dellusional post-match comments on sunday.. the 'broadsheets' are still reporting it :veryangry

If he thinks that is a good performance, than there really is no improvement needed ..
:help

by **bigmick** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:42 pm

Benny The Noon wrote:Anyway back on topic

Rafa Benitez proves he is Inter’s new special one
Franco Ordine
19.10.10

"Franco Ordine" is Paul Tompkins long lost Italian cousin :laugh:

.

by **bigmick** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:44 pm

Benny The Noon wrote:Just because he won matches in the past doesnt mean he is entitled to be the big " i am " .

Totally agree mate. When did he, I didn't see that interview the cheeky barsteward.

by **zarababe** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:51 pm

bigmick wrote:
Benny The Noon wrote:Just because he won matches in the past doesnt mean he is entitled to be the big " i am " .

Totally agree mate. When did he, I didn't see that interview the cheeky barsteward.

Surprised to see you in here BM :rasp

by **RED BEERGOGGLES** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 7:06 pm

Ciggy wrote:Is right rafa

"White liquid in a bottle has to be milk"

"I prefer not to talk about this because I really feel sorry for the fans. I was really sad for the fans after the defeat the other day. We have a saying in Spanish - "white liquid in a bottle has to be milk". What do I mean by this? Well, this means that after 86 points and finishing 2nd in the league, what changed? The Americans. They decide and choose a new Managing Director.

"The Managing Director is involved in all the decisions. All of them. New lawyer, new chief of press, new manager, new nine players, new medical staff, new fitness coaches - they changed everything. So, they changed Managing Director, and then everything changed. We changed everything we were doing in the past. So, if you ask me what's going on - they changed some things, and in the end they changed everything.

"White liquid in a bottle - milk. You know who to blame."

He still gets his messages across to those that GOT him Its like a code for Scousers :laugh:

by **metalhead** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:18 pm

bigmick wrote:Gerrard in particular ought to be ashamed of himself, winning us all those matches on his own over the years

He won the F.A cup for himself in 2006 not for the team :laugh:

by **Greavesie** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:23 pm

metalhead wrote:
bigmick wrote:Gerrard in particular ought to be ashamed of himself, winning us all those matches on his own over the years

He won the F.A cup for himself in 2006 not for the team

and sleeping with the European Cup, what a selfish w@nker he is

by **Kharhaz** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 1:09 am

RED BEERGOGGLES wrote:He still gets his messages across to those that GOT him Its like a code for Scousers

This is what everything boils down to isn't it?

Scousers.

When the protests and marches were going on, it was the scousers doing.

When Hicks and Gillette were finally ousted, it was thanks to the scousers.

The SoS. Happily taking money of members from all over the country and world, and yet providing a coach service for scousers in Liverpool.

And of course, when Hicks fought tooth and nail in court to remain in control of the club, on every forum, "Dont Fuck with scousers !"

A lot of the fights were fought by supporters of Liverpool, non-scouse. A lot of people who liked Rafa also understood him as a person, again non-scouse. And a lot of people who were not born in Liverpool are given little to non credit what so ever.

I wish I was born in Liverpool, it would then give me a sense of, it doesn't matter if I don't live their anymore, I was born their ! So naturally, I am better...

by **NANNY RED** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 8:45 am

Cant wait to watch the Game tonight . Hopefully Rafa an his team will batter that twitchy eyed get,
An i havnt argued with my other half for ages , so itsabout time , Come on Inter .

by **Greavesie** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 9:22 am

NANNY RED wrote:Cant wait to watch the Game tonight . Hopefully Rafa an his team will batter that twitchy eyed get,
An i havnt argued with my other half for ages , so itsabout time , Come on Inter .

fookin hate Harry Sandra, hope Rafa tw@ts the faggot. I listened to his comments about Rooney as well, he just cemented his place as a grade A t0sser for me

by **NANNY RED** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 10:10 am

Just watched Rafa how different is he ,he looks dead relaxed , not stressed like he wasabout to have a breakdown when he was here ,

by **stmichael** » Wed Oct 20, 2010 10:14 am

Inter will tw@t them. Their defence is in a different class to anything Spurs play against in the Premiershp apart from maybe Chelsea. Harry also only knows how to play one way. He'll have a go. If he tries to do that Inter will just pick them off at will. It'll probably be billed as VDV vs Snjeider as they are basically the Dutch equivalent of the Lampard/Gerrard conundrum in that nobody thinks they can both play in the same national side. Personally Eto'o will be the man. He's on fir this season.

3-1 Inter.

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