I was very sad and pissed off to hear the news yesterday that Rafa Benitez is no longer the Liverpool manager. Some people say football is like a religion and it’s easy to see why. Take Rafa Benitez for example, he arrived as a saviour, performed a few miracles, was betrayed from within and then was crucified alongside two thieves!

He wasn’t perfect and there’s no doubt he made a few mistakes along the way but in my opinion his strengths far outweigh his weaknesses and I thought Liverpool would do well to stick with him for another while longer and at least give him next season to turn things around, as he has turned things around in the past.

I honestly believe that had he been given the right sort of backing from the start he would have delivered the title at least once or twice over his six year tenure. His spending has always been a contentious issue and the subject of much false reporting and meaningless comparisons in the media and some Websites.

Back in 2004 when Rafa arrived, ManUtd, and Arsenal had been pretty much sharing the title between them in the preceding years so they both had already built up strong squads and were in a position where they only needed to add one or two new faces here and there to freshen things up. As for Chelsea, if memory serves me right, they had just finished runners-up in the league and got to the quarters or semis of the Champions League before the “Special One” Jose Mourinho arrived, so their squad was also pretty much in place even before he spent another ?200 or ?300 million on them.

Rafa Benitez on the other hand inherited a squad full of deadwood that had to be almost entirely rebuilt and just over 3 years later only three players remained from that original squad, Hyypia, Carragherand Gerrard. So you just can’t make any meaningful spending comparisons over a five year period between a team that is starting with a strong squad and one that doesn’t even half of one.

The man was completely hounded by the press almost from the first moment he arrived. The squad rotation myth, the zonal marking myth, the spending myth and the man management myth as well as constantly having his words twisted by the press in almost every interview he gave them. For one example of many you only have to remember back to the early stages of last season when in an after match interview he said he was looking for more from the senior players which seemed a reasonable statement but the press spun it into him directly criticizing Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher.

That’s not to say that he is completely blameless but the guy has had more knives in his back and the media seemed to have some kind of agenda against him, he was let down by the board, let down by a certain section of some Liverpool supporters and in my opinion, let down by some of his players.

I find it interesting that at the time of writing this, only goalkeeper, Pepe Reina has come out and thanked the boss for what he did for him and said how sad he is to see him go, and he is also the only one who has firmly nailed his colors to the wall in terms of his own future and stated that he will be carrying on at Anfield regardless of Liverpool finishing seventh in the domestic league.

Anyway we could argue all day about the rights and wrongs of the situation but the fact is Rafa Benitez is gone and all Liverpool fans have to try to move forward. I’m doing my best to remain positive and telling myself that maybe it was time to freshen things up, but I guess most Liverpool die-hards will find out soon enough the terrible mistake the club co-owners made It’s difficult to see how this mess is going to work itself out but apparently the quest for a new manager has begun and all we can do us keep our chins up and hope for the best because no matter what the future holds we’ll all still be here, pissing against the wind and doing our best to cheer the team on, or at least most of us will!

On a final note, I just want to say thank you Rafa Benitez for that magical night in Istanbul, for that great FA Cup final against Wet Ham, and the terrific football Liverpool played at times particularly the season before last when we came within a whisker of winning the impossible, for making us the number one ranked team in Europe and finally for getting rid of Harry Kewell!

Cheers
Nicholas

Good Afternoon all. With still no clear answers to the ‘Cesc Fabregas is going, Cesc is staying’ debate I thought we could gauge the feeling among supporters by having a poll.

Obviously we know that he has a deep love for Barcelona and that a return to his boyhood club was always on the cards. But why now? Barcelona have come calling but he is our captain and well loved by all at Arsenal. I don’t believe he loves Barcelona more than Arsenal so we have to look for another explanation.

We have watched him being targeted by opponents for some harsh treatment especially ManUtd and Chelsea during the past season. Of course if you’re playing against Arsenal you need to be able to stop Cesc having possession and working his magic but too many fouls without retribution must surely anger the young man. Where’s the protection?

Cesc Fabregas and others in the team like Andrei Arshavin, Van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen have consistently gone public over the need to sign a couple of world-class players to complete the jigsaw. What has Arsene promised him? Does he believe that Arsene will deliver?

How important is money to our captain? Barcelona are willing to offer him about £160,000 a week and will immediately pay the first half of his annual salary of £4,160,000 before he goes to the World Cup.This will not include image rights or bonuses, which are annually paid at the end of each campaign. Fabregas will also receive £3,000 a month from the Spanish League, payable to every first team squad member in top-flight football. But look what we can offer him ………………

At Arsenal he is loved, he is our Captain. If our coach, Arsene Wenger can fulfill his promise to add to the squad players that will help bring out the best in this team then we will go on to win silverware. But if he leaves we’ll never know

Having seen  Barcelona bag six trophies last year Arsenal decided to adopt football's trendiest tactic  "High Intensity Pressing"  hoping that the likes of Arshavin, Nasir, & Fabregas Bendtner & Rosicky would win us silverware this season. We entered  the first game of the season snapping and snarling at the heels of each Everton player, giving them no time to rest and as time went on somehow  difficult opponents were swatted away with great ease and efficiency simply because  Arsenal were excessively greedy in attack, averaging around three goals per game. It seemed at last Wenger had found the right balance and the players were tactically maturing. But fast-forward defeats at Barcelona, Tottenham and Wigan later proved that the pressing system has started to look fragmented

After watching Barca's dismantling of Arsenal in this year’s Champions League, many Arsenal supporters including my self felt that there  was a key difference between the two teams' s style of play however much both teams play nice entertaining flowing football. Observations have shown that Barcelona have a more thorough defensive system in place to complement their attacking style as Arsenal lack balance in their intensity. I have personally noted that whenever Tomas Rosicky, starts on the left flank, pressure increases on the right-back  as a result his hard work invariably falls flat and more difficult for him to track back as the ball is hit forward quickly.

The Cesc Fabregas Question:

When Arsene Wenger pushed our captain upfront  our attacking play started to become stale followed by successive defeats to Chelsea and ManUtd thus forcing him to revert to a more pragmatic approach  simply because the full-backs got tighter to their opposing wingers and likewise the two central midfielders to their opposite numbers as Fabregas and Arshavin led the way in closing down aggressively high up the field.   And just as Arsenal  re-discovered its stability to reignite Arsenal’s title challenge, old habits soon kicked in, the biggest being in the centre where teams, especially during December and January, were able to profit from the gaps in the centre. On paper, it looked like pushing Fabregas higher may have had an adverse impact on the balance just as  Barcelona deploys Messi in an interior role and get goals.   The difference comes in the fact that Barcelona sticks to their individual and collective assignments and press aggressively not just the ball carrier, but to eliminate all passing options completely meaning  when the forward presses, he will continue all the way even if the ball is passed backwards while his team-mates back him up by looking to get tight and at times, get in front of potential passing options. That tactic may in part explain why opponents are not so willing to go direct as confidently against Barcelona and of which enables the Barca defenders to be more assured in taking the risk to push up.

Final Thoughts:

Conclusively  I think Alex Song deserves  credit in regard to Arsenal's pressing system  because his presence in the middle often results in a better team performance and allows Arsenal to win the ball back quickly from opponents and then pass it to  Robin van Persie & Nicklas Bendtner upfront.