The positives for a better next season are there. We are capable of playing good football but just have not done it constantly in the league. Our performance against Arsenal in the first-half was quite poor however in the second-half it was brilliant but we didn't take our chances and payed the price.
The first-half of the season wasn't helped by injuries. We carried our inconsistancy from last season into this and the injuries we picked up were remarkable, players were dropping like flies and injuries were the type of things we as fans started getting used to. We had a good run during the holidays but the fact that we dropped points we shouldn't had didn't help us. Second half of the season we really were downright poor mostly because of International and Champions League hang overs. Despite of all that we played some good football in the League but just couldn't scrap the necessary games.
We've reached the Carling Cup final and Champions League final with 90 percent of Houllier's players, and with all that Benitez has had to deal with he's done fairly well in his first season. So how are these the positives? Well Benitez has managed to get most players he hasn't signed to play good football where as under Houllier they resorted to hoofing the balls at every opportunity they got. This he's done in his first season.
Has he made mistakes as a manager? Of course he has, this is his first year in the Premiership so he was bound to make mistakes but in order to learn you have to make mistakes. There's been times where we've questioned the personal he put up against certain oppositions and question his tactics, but realisticly the side we had against Crystal Palace for example was good enough to beat them, he believed in the players but they couldn't get the job done.
Now that Benitez has gone through this season he's learned everything he needs to learn, about the league and about the players he has. Whether we win or lose to Milan you can still expect four to five players to be signed in the summer, at least thats what Luis Garcia and Sami Hyypia have said in rescent interviews. Rafa clearly is planning for next season, he's commited to the club and as long as we're under his watch we won't be behind the leaders so much again.
We obiviously need some players to improve the quality of the team, one of those positions is up front. Baros has a bleak future at the club and both Cisse and Morientes haven't exactly proved themselves (Morientes is a class player but he hasn't had the form to prove that however with the proper pre-season training I'm sure he will play better next season) and we need a striker who can score 15-20 goals a season. I believe that Benitez will buy that kind of player, who it will be we don't know but we'll wait and see.
Another position is on the flank, whilst Riise has had a solid season he simply is too static to play on the flank pernamently. We've been linked with Joaquin, Vincente but that's just speculation but I doubt that we will see Riise on the left wing next season. Now on the right flank Luis Garcia has pretty much cemented his place there despite the fact that he's not a right winger, even so he's our leading goal scorer (13 in all competitions) and that's a hell of amount of goals for somebody who hasn't even spent a full year with the club. He's already surpassed Robert Pires 1st season goal record at Arsenal.
We need a quality winger who is dynamic and can cross the ball into the box effectively in order to use Nando's superb ability in the air which we haven't taken advantage of.
The two other positions are in the center of the park and possibly at the back [either LB or somebody to replace Hyypia]. Hamann and Biscan could both leave on a bosman in the summer and whilst Alonso and Gerrard[if he stays] are a great pair in the center of the park we need good back up as we've learned from this season's injury crisis that you need to be prepared for the worst.
Hamann,Biscan, Smicer (gone for certain), Kewell, Baros, Diao,Diouf, etc... could all be gone in the summer but we have a manager who knows what he wants and we have the money to buy the players we need.
Some have said that we don't have money as we've had a 20 million loss, however as the tenth richest club in the world and the run in the Champions League there's enough money for Benitez to spend in the summer. You can also include the sales of certain players and that the chairman may chip in from his own pockets.
The future is bright, the future is red. The positives are there, we've played some good football with the players we have but just imagine what we could really do once Benitez gathers the players he needs to bring success domestically.