Master tactician? The king of cups? Today's situation is because Benitez blames himself and his ability.
Trailing vice-captain Norwich 2-0, an angry Everton fan rushed inside and ran in the direction of Benitez. The security guard caught him. At the end of the 1-2 game, another Everton fan broke through the guardrail and was caught without running two steps.
Master Pei kept his personal safety, but did not keep his job. Less than 24 hours after the loss, the former world's top super coach who took office for only 200 days left class, leaving a failing transcript of 19 points in 19 rounds and 1 win in the last 13 rounds, a 40-word minimalist official announcement without even a polite thank you, and the online carnival of Liverpool fans "Agent Rafa, mission completed, please return to base".
Humanitarianly, this is extreme cruelty and pathos, enough to touch the soft sympathy of good people. But footballally, commercially, Benitez doesn't deserve sympathy. In today's situation, he blames himself and his ability.
Benitez's sympathizers can certainly find objective excuses for him, such as carelessness in choosing a career, hurting, and money.
Money, Benitez heard the "unlimited budget" flicker when he was interviewing on Everton boss Moshiri's yacht. However, overinvestment of up to £500 million since 2016 has left Everton tied up by the Premier League's fiscal fairness policy, with a budget of almost zero last summer.
However, no money does not mean that there is no reinforcement. The old subordinate Townsend, who took advantage of the special situation of the contract, and DeMare Gray, who bought from Bayer Leverkusen for 1.7 million pounds, the actual combat effectiveness is enough to add up to at least half a billion. These two reinforcements can be regarded as successful, and Pei Shuai's vision is worthy of recognition. Therefore, the paradox is that the same is a good new recruit, if you spend a reasonable price of fifty or sixty million, the excuse of no money is no longer established; the excuse is established. In this way, if Summer Real Madrid does not get the expected results without signing, it can be blamed for not spending money to buy people. Magical logic.
The injury really pits Benitez. At one point, Calvert-Luin, Dukuré, Mina, a central axis gathered in the infirmary. However, Ducouré returned at the end of November and Luin returned earlier this month, and Everton's results have not improved. The lack of a number of main players is completely unable to rationalize the 9 losses in the last 13 rounds, 16 of the 22 games in each line this season, the first to concede the last 9 battlefields, the top of the Premier League to concede goals on set-pieces, and the only one in the Premier League to lose all three promoted horses. The Norwich who couldn't figure out whether to call "Ida" or "Ida" was not a good striker, and in front of Everton not only won the first goal of his 27 Premier League games, but also like Benzema, he could do everything and give it to him.
Careless in choosing a career? Coming to a mid-level team to pick up Ancelotti's class, as a legendary Liverpool coach to turn to the sworn enemy, without signing the contract was opposed by the fans, of course, adding to the difficulty coefficient. Internazionale took jose Mourinho's triple crown, took over the highly regarded Ancelotti for the first time at Real Madrid, took over the Champions League as a fan rival at Chelsea, and this time, Benitez left for half a year.
The last 6 jobs in Europe, 4 times half a year of death, in Newcastle United is a rapid relegation after taking office, busy for 3 years, the audience wonders, why did Benitez step on the wrong step again and again?
The truth is that the premise of hunger is that hunger burns the intestines. It is precisely because of the lack of choice that he will live in Newcastle for 3 years but cannot take out other job offers to blackmail the miserly boss, will go away from the Chinese Super League, and will risk merseyside's great disobedience and fade red and blue. If he doesn't choose that way, he'll be left with a worse choice, or choose nothing, sitting quietly at home and reading the inventory of the media.
The choice of the next choice is forced by the lack of choice. The lack of choice is a reasonable result of his work performance and reputation in the industry in recent years.
Speaking of Benitez, many people must mention the "tactical master" and "king of the cup".
The king of cups? Benitez has won six meaningful cups in 27 years in charge; has led the team to the FA Cup and League Cup 21 times in his career, and has been crowned once; he has won 2 cups in the last 12 years; and he is the only perpetrator of the last 14 Club World Cups in Europe. Benitez is the king of cup matches and has long since become one of the biggest rumors in football.
Master tactician? In his early years, Benitez was a whim with Mourinho with his highly effective pragmatism. Later, he tried a more aggressive style of play. But in recent years, his label has only been conservative football and even bus football. He will, of course, give examples of moments when his players are also pushing high, just as almost every ugly football expert in the world does not admit that he is ugly.
His Everton, with the fourth-to-last passing number in the Premier League, the fourth-bottom possession rate and the second-to-last corner number, played the 5th-bottom ranking and the 5th-worst number of goals conceded. Undoubtedly, he still focuses on ugliness, and ugly harvests equally ugly results, not only offensively ugly, but also defensive defenses that average close to 2 goals conceded per game.
In an age where slightly more ambitious teams are all looking for decent spectacle, the ugly football of the tactical masters is becoming increasingly unpopular and ineffective. When the master tactician turns the principle of Bong Rugui's set-piece area defense into a colander tactic in actual combat, and after finding problems, he goes to the training ground to repeatedly strengthen and instill his creed, in exchange for the next colander to continue, he will only accelerate the bankruptcy of business prestige.
The breakdown of the relationship with Digne marks another double atrophy of Benitez's business reputation and management level.
The source of the disagreement is that, as an assisted left-back, Digne resents the excessive restrictions on him by Benitez's conservative tactics. After turning into a public brawl, Benitez threw the France international into the cold, followed by the charge of "unwilling to fight for the team" and "more concerned about personal data than the interests of the team".
Benitez has long proven that he has a hard time getting along with stars, so it is extremely difficult to bring up the giants. Meeting gentle stars such as Torres and Gerrard at Liverpool is a blessing that has become more and more incapable of being repeated with the passage of time. Even during the Anfield era, Benitez fell out with his compatriot Harvey Alonso, the third biggest player in the team, where "family first, football second" was politically correct, and he objected to Alonso's taking leave to accompany his wife. Later, he actively sought to sell Alonso, which became the beginning of the great decline in the last year of the Red Army.
In the past, Unable to drive Materazzi, Terry, and Ronaldo, until today's reversal with Digne, a third-tier star with a slight personality has also overwhelmed Benitez's management ability. And one of the important reasons why the players don't buy into his management is that they don't believe in his business.
In those three years in Newcastle, Benitez did not encounter obvious management problems. In that fourth- and fifth-rate team that was extremely popular after the relegation and blood exchange, there were really no stars. The only two who are slightly closer to being difficult to manage are Mitrovich and Mbemba. Benitez strictly ordered the center to actively defend, but Mitrovic lamented that he was too heavy to defend and would not be able to complete the goal. Benitez has a precise rule on the route of the center-back, he wants the center-back to send a long diagonal pass directly over the opposing midfield, and Mbemba disobeys several straight passes and is completely out of favor.
Both disobedient players were quickly sold. Later, Mitrovic brought Serbia into the World Cup with eight goals in 8 games, and the 90-minute kill sent Ronaldo and Portugal into the play-offs; Mbemba helped Porto reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League as an absolute main force, making several giants scratch their ears and scratch their cheeks. Newcastle has never bought a decent high school striker and has collected a handful of Championship-level centre-backs.
Tactical principles take precedence over individual characteristics, so Mitrovic, Mbemba, and Digne are all scourges. After eliminating the scourge, the master tactician used worse players to execute his sophisticated tactics, taking the old team to work every year, and taking the middle and upper reaches of the team to the relegation zone for sightseeing.
Persistent belief, robot-style management, so that Benitez almost completely lack the necessary agitation skills for a successful manager. As a result, his team has a long commission almost every year. In the last three years of the Premier League, he has experienced the absurd trough of 10 rounds of no wins in the opening season, 1 point in 9 rounds in the middle of the season, and now 1 win in 13 rounds.
Even in Benitez's heyday, when players were more disciplined and more determined, he rarely managed to keep the team stable throughout the season. He could take advantage of the chaos in La Liga and win the league title with a low score of 1.97 points per game. But after entering the era of more brutal class solidification of strong teams to grab points, even if he leads a strong team, it is difficult to reach the league championship.
Combined with the aforementioned rumor that Benitez is the "king of cup matches", this is why some people of insight have pointed out that Benitez has two shortcomings, one is not very good at playing league games, and the other is not very good at playing cup games.
Benitez, who has long been second-rate, is no different from mourinho today: throwing pots and fighting people.
The self-esteem of the former top coach makes it difficult for the 61-year-old Benitez to admit that he is wrong. After one defeat after another, he will only openly shift the blame to the players. "Tool" is a high-frequency word in his mouth: he is good enough, but the quality of the tool is not. After all, there have been historical golden sentences left behind by the sofa lamp, and the master will occasionally spit out lotus flowers, "Aragonese said that you can't buy personality on the 5th floor of Ingles Department Store, then you can't buy character in John Lewis Department Store." In addition to complaining about the level and personality of the players, the master occasionally praises his subordinates, he will especially praise "the players we sign in are making a difference", the subtext is about to come out, it is not difficult to imagine how those players who are not signed in will feel.
Robot-style management, coupled with witty pot throwing, expecting subordinates to be encouraged to fight for your life is too difficult.
What about superiors and peace levels? Many Liverpool celebrities have long lamented that Benitez is the most "political" coach they have ever seen, keen to fight politically with management and expand his authority.
Benitez craved the power of the Ferguson Manager, overseeing all aspects of the club, including transfers, academy and hardware. People who know Benitez's sense of professionalism and responsibility believe that his original intention is to do a better job, and he is convinced that everything is in the best interest of the club. So, he marginalized at Newcastle and eventually sidelined chief scout Graham Carr, he marginalized at Everton and eventually sidelined football director Brandes. Benitez has a successful signing record in teams such as Napoli and Real Madrid, and he only believes in himself in this job.
After all, there must be a degree of doing things. At Everton, he was dissatisfied with the injury in the team and expelled the chief team doctor and demoted many team doctors, taking the risk of offending the players who had a certain friendship with the team doctor. And to control power, you don't have to do everything yourself, the insider said: "Rafa is an expert on all issues." He would tell team doctors, site managers and cleaners how to do their jobs better. As an employee, you become less confident because he is always blaming you. ”
Benitez's last 4 jobs in Europe have covered just 4 tiers of teams. At first-class Real Madrid and third-rate Everton, he died in anger for half a year. In second-rate Napoli, he took the Coppa Italia that his predecessor had just won, but the league results were the worst in the team's nearly 10 years. At fourth-rate Newcastle, he was one of the relegation bearers, making a major strategic blunder during the Championship season with high-cost, low-potential reinforcements that completely destroyed the team during his tenure.
4 grades of teams to try, is there a team in the world that Benitez can bring? Mourinho's "failure expert" that he gave to Wenger, now in addition to being a perfect match with Mourinho himself, who else can be the most worthy?
Wen | Xiang Tong
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