Liverpool FC Forum

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:00 am**

So last night was Rafa's 300th game in charge. Here's a few stats.

RAFAEL BENITEZ (LIVERPOOL 04/05-09/10)

Played : 300
Won : 171 (57.0%)
Drew : 67 (22.3%)
Lost : 62 (20.7%)
For : 515
Against : 255
Clean Sheets : 133 (44.33%)

And by venue :

Home : P145 W99 D30 L16 F289 A99 (Won 68.3%)
Away : P146 W68 D35 L43 F207 A141 (Won 46.6%)
Neutral : P9 W4 D2 L3 F19 A15 (Won 44.4%)

Last night was Rafa's 40th win in Europe in his 71st game (Won 56.3%) He really needs to add a trophy to his European Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Super Cup and Community Shield. Three major trophies in his first two seasons, not even a final since 06/07. Last season was arguably our best shot at the league title, maybe a cup is our best hope of a trophy this season.

Of the current players on the books, three in particular have scored a lot of (important) goals :

Gerrard - 89 goals in 243 appearances (0.366 goals/app)
Torres - 53 goals in 90 appearances (0.589 goals/app)
Kuyt - 43 goals in 153 appearances (0.281 goals/app)

Crouch also scored over 40 goals, 42 goals in 134 appearances (0.313 goals/app) Luis Garcia scored 30 goals in 121 appearances, those five have scored all but half of the goals under Rafa between them.

A few Rafa milestones coming up :

- 100th win at home, last night was our 99th under Rafa
- 100 domestic (competition) clean sheets, currently on 98
- 400th domestic (competition) goal scored, currently on 390
- 200 Premiership games, currently on 195
- 400 Premiership points, currently on 379

The next goal scored by the opposition at Anfield will be our 100th conceded there under Rafa. I think those milestones above will be in rough order of likely completion, we can't score 21 points without playing more than five Premiership games, we might play five Premiership games before we score 10 goals in domestic competitions, we might not.

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:04 am**

the 100th conceded will be the last :;):

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:11 am**

62 losses out of 300 sounds really high to me, did a lot of those come in 04/05 and 05/06?

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:13 am**

JoeTerp wrote:62 losses out of 300 sounds really high to me, did a lot of those come in 04/05 and 05/06?

Well we lost 14 in 04/05, 7 in 05/06, 10 in 06/07, 4 in 07/08, 2 in 08/09 and 2 so far in 09/10. Shows how far we've came

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:16 am**

Like I've said a few times, it's not too bad a record. it's not great, it's not awful, but it's OK. I can't help but think that if we had discovered that the kind of mass rotation which Rafa had in mind on arrival was never going to be beneficial much earlier, we would have a much better record under him than we have, but there you go. We fielded the same team for the match last night as the one previously, and we rarely these days go in for mass rotation. As I say, it's a shame it took us four and a half seasons to get there, but at least we are there now so at least we're giving ourselves a chance, which is all some of us ever asked for.

I was to be honest a little concerned when Rafa talked about us going out to Burnley in the FA Cup in his first season. He said that "even then he knew he'd be a success in English football" which I found strange. It was almost as if he was saying that one FA Cup win in five seasons for a club like Liverpool is a success in English Football, but I can only assume it got lost in translation a bit. From here as Owzat has alluded to, we really need to try and win something. Even the Carling Cup would be a start, and if I'm honest I think we've got more chance in the cups than we do in the League, given our squad "strength".

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:18 am**

GOAT wrote:
JoeTerp wrote:62 losses out of 300 sounds really high to me, did a lot of those come in 04/05 and 05/06?

Well we lost 14 in 04/05, 7 in 05/06, 10 in 06/07, 4 in 07/08, 2 in 08/09 and 2 so far in 09/10. Shows how far we've came

What happened to the other 23 losses mate or are Owzat's numbers wrong

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:20 am**

bigmick wrote:
GOAT wrote:
JoeTerp wrote:62 losses out of 300 sounds really high to me, did a lot of those come in 04/05 and 05/06?

Well we lost 14 in 04/05, 7 in 05/06, 10 in 06/07, 4 in 07/08, 2 in 08/09 and 2 so far in 09/10. Shows how far we've came

What happened to the other 23 losses mate or are Owzat's numbers wrong

seems like GOAT is only counting league games

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:21 am**

Ah right. Just out of interest, how many did we lose in the two or three seasons prior to Rafa's arrival (in the league I'm on about).

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:27 am**

10 in 03/04, 10 in 02/03, 6 in 01/02, 9 in 00/01

Jeez that first season under rafa was terrible, imagine if we hadn't won the CL

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:30 am**

I thought rather than be lazy I'd have a look on Wikepedia myself. Unless I've ballsed it up, here are the loss numbers in the league.

2001-02 lost 6 (finished second ahead of Man Utd but behind Arsenal.)
2002-03 lost 10
2003-04 lost 10
2004-05 lost 14 (Rafa's first season)
2005-06 lost 10
2006-07 lost 7
2007-08 lost 4
last season lost 2
this season lost 2 so far.

So in terms of avoiding defeat, it has to be said that we have progressed, prior to this season which is looking likely to buck the trend somewhat.

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:30 am**

Losses under Rafa

04/05 19 (14 in the league)
05/06 11 (6 in the league)
06/07 16 (10 in the league)
07/08 9 (4 in the league)
08/09 5 (2 in the league)
09/10 2 (2 in the league)

We have lost 'only' 38 in the league under Rafa, 14 in the 1st season but still 22 in the four completed campaigns since. The more worrying thing for me is draws, nine per season and we need to win say 27 so that leaves us with P38 W27 D9 L2 as our best hope of a title - would have won it last season but we drew desmond (two too) many

EDIT : to put 38 losses in the league in perspective, that is the same number as games you play in a Premiership campaign

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:32 am**

GOAT wrote:10 in 03/04, 10 in 02/03, 6 in 01/02, 9 in 00/01

Jeez that first season under rafa was terrible, imagine if we hadn't won the CL

Well I don't think he would have been here mate is the simple answer. Interestingly when people talk about the sh!te team that Rafa was left with, most of them played in that Champions League winning team, and a significant number in the team which won the FA Cup the following season.

Since then the team has undeniably improved (last seasons team was the best we've had for many a year I think) and yet we've won nothing.

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:02 pm**

I hope you get another 300 Rafa

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:43 pm**

Sabre wrote:I hope you get another 300 Rafa

Actually so do I, because if he's here for another five seasons then surely he will have to have some success in the trophy winning department to avoid getting the sack between now and then.

If somebody told us that over the next five seasons we will win the FA Cup once, and the Champions League once, but nothing else, would we take that as being a good return over 10 years? That would be two FA Cups and two Champions Leagues in ten seasons?

Not for me. Not having spent the bucketloads of cash that we have. Five more years by all means, as long as we start winning things occasionally.

Posted: **Thu Sep 17, 2009 12:53 pm**

Yeah Rafa needs to start winning things. When you spend 300Mil you expect a return right? I mean that works out to 27Mil a player. Oh wait we didn't spend like that though did we?

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Rafa 300 games in charge

Rafa 300 games in charge