Assessment of Rafael Benitez's reign at Liverpool

Liverpool fans display a banner showing Rafael Benitez together with other great Liverpool managers from the past

When Rafa Benitez was introduced to Liverpool fans and the press back in 2004, there was a genuine feeling that he would make Liverpool great again. After all, he was joining us on the back of guiding Valencia to an unheralded period of success.

Incredibly Rafa’s Valencia is the only team to prevent either Real Madrid or Barcelona from winning La Liga since the year 2000. Not only did he win it once, which could have been described as a fluke, he won it again a year later and added the UEFA Cup for good measure.

Liverpool were getting a top class, proven and very successful manager.

Liverpool, on the other hand, had just experienced an ultimately disappointing period under Gerard Houllier, although Houllier guided Liverpool to a treble in 2001, things were going badly wrong, the football wasn’t great and there were far too many sub-standard players at Anfield.

When Houllier left Liverpool, he left a squad containing El-Hadji Diouf, Salif Diao, Anthony Le-Tallec, Igor Biscan, Djimi Traore and Florent Sinama-Pongolle.

Although Liverpool still had good players with Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher both coming into their prime, it was clear that Rafa had a huge rebuilding job on his hands.

Money was tight at Liverpool at that point and Rafa couldn’t bring in as many players as he would have wanted during his first summer in charge but that summer will be remembered for Michael Owen refusing to sign a new deal and moving to Real Madrid for a cut price £8million.

Liverpool did get Antonio Nunez as part of that deal but he unfortunately would be added to the list of Rafa flops as the years went on.

Two more Spaniards joined Liverpool during that summer though, a certain Luis Garcia and Xabi Alonso. Both great signings in their own way and both were destined to go down in Liverpool folklore as that season developed.

2004-05 was a frustrating season for Liverpool fans and for Rafa himself at times: out of the running in the league, out of the FA cup early and the press already looking down on Rafa. There was a lack of strikers at the club and goals were hard to come by.

The turning point for that season has to be that goal by Steven Gerrard against Olympiakos at Anfield, we were through to the next stage of the Champions League and Rafa had something to focus on. And focus on it he did, somehow Liverpool managed to get through in ties against Bayern Leverkusen, Juventus and amazingly the new English champions Chelsea.

The atmosphere at Anfield that night was a sign of things to come under Rafa, he made Anfield a fortress and on those European nights, the noise was like nothing you’d have heard before.

So, at the end of the 2005 season, Rafa had guided the Reds to another European Cup final. We all know what happened that night, a truly incredible evening unfolded and one no Liverpool fan will ever forget. The Reds returned from Istanbul heroes.

In my opinion, the fact that Rafa was able to get that Liverpool squad to the final of the Champions League says more about him as a manager than the final itself, on any given day any team can beat anyone else, but to guide that Liverpool squad past Juventus and Chelsea over two legs really was some achievement.

Benitez’s acquisition of Fernando Torres was just what Liverpool required at that stage.

Rafa found himself in a position of strength now, Liverpool were European champions for the fifth time and he had a squad that needed massive surgery. In came Peter Crouch, Pepe Reina, Momo Sissokho and Bolo Zenden. All of them bought to give Liverpool a better chance at improving on their fifth place finish in the Barclays Premier League that coming season.

Rafa made the brave decision that season of playing Steven Gerrard wide on the right, preferring to partner Xabi Alonso and Momo Sissokho in the centre of midfield and even Bolo Zenden on times. The decision was proven to be correct with Gerrard allowed more freedom and he repaid Rafa by scoring 23 goals that season.

Rafa also endeared himself further to the Liverpool fans by bringing back Robbie Fowler in January 2006 on a short term deal initially.

Yet again, Liverpool found themselves in a Cup final, this time the 2006 FA Cup final in Cardiff against West Ham United. Once again, it was captain fantastic to the rescue with an incredible goal in time added on to send the game into extra time and then penalties.

This time it was another Benitez signing, Pepe Reina who was the hero, the Spaniard saved three penalties and Liverpool went on to lift the FA Cup yet again.

That, though, was Rafa’s last trophy as a Liverpool manager.

The problems for Rafa had just begun though, he lost his trusted number two Pako Ayesteran after a disagreement. The new American owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks were plotting secret meetings with Jurgen Klinsmann with the idea of replacing Rafa with the German and now people were pointing fingers at Rafa’s transfer record. Lots of players were coming into Anfield but not so many were proving to be great successes.

Rafa being Rafa, he was never afraid of confrontation and used his strong position with the fans to rally against Hicks and Gillett over their secret meetings with Klinsmann and again at the end of the season, where after losing to Milan in a repeat of the 2005 Champions League final, he demanded the owners cough up more money to sign Fernando Torres from Atletico Madrid.

Not only did he bring in Torres but Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun followed shortly after, and once Liverpool fans saw the Spaniard in tandem with Steven Gerrard, all Rafa’s faults were forgiven and forgotten yet again. Gerrard and Torres were incredible together.

But behind the scenes, Rafa was still causing waves. He had a habit of upsetting players and staff and he always wanted more players. He wouldn’t hesitate to use the press against the owners when he didn’t get his own way either. Now I’m not for one minute defending Hicks and Gillett, they nearly bankrupted my club, but there is a way of going about things. Rafa used his position with the fans to his advantage, not many would question his decisions.

I think Rafa was very good for us for the most part. He made Steven Gerrard into the player he is today, turned Jamie Carragher into a world class central defender rather than just a utility player, brought us Fernando Torres and turned him into a world class forward, won us two trophies and gave me some of the best nights as a football fan I think I will ever experience, Istanbul, the Champions League nights against Real Madrid, Chelsea and Arsenal and the FA Cup final evening in my hometown Cardiff.

Rafa also did some great work behind the scenes at Melwood and we are benefitting from that now with all the younger players coming through to join the first team squad.

But I am not naive enough to say he didn’t make mistakes. He did. He looked for fights where there weren’t any. He used his position with the fans to undermine the club and yes, he did make some terrible decisions in the transfer market. For every Pepe Reina, Daniel Agger and Alvaro Arbeloa, there was a Ryan Babel or Craig Bellamy, for every Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano, there was an Alberto Aquilani, Andrei Voronin or Phillip Degen.

For me, the defining period of Rafa’s reign was the 2008/2009 season. We were top of the league, playing well, had options in all positions and then Rafa and his ego struck.

During the summer, he wanted Gareth Barry to replace Xabi Alonso, that didn’t happen. He did get Robbie Keane though. Rafa didn’t want Robbie, he wanted Gareth Barry and he would not let anyone forget that. Robbie had enjoyed a difficult start to his Liverpool career but there were signs of a partnership developing between him and Fernando Torres, not only that but Torres was starting to pick up injury after injury and surely it was better to bring Keane, a proven Premier League striker into the team rather than an untested French youngster David Ngog.

Not according to Rafa. Out went Keane in January, back to Spurs and Rafa had cut his nose off to spite his face. That, in my opinion, did more damage to Liverpool’s title challenge that season than Rafa’s so-called rant.

Rafa’s Liverpool never recovered from those decisions and by the end of the 2008/09 season, any sort of relationship between the owners and Rafa was effectively over. However, they couldn’t sack Rafa after he had just guided Liverpool to a second place finish in the League. So he got a stay of execution and marched on into the 2009/10 season. A season to forget for all Reds fans.

When he finally left after that disaster of a season, he left a lop-sided and threadbare squad. However unpopular the owners were, ultimately that was the correct decision. We had gone from runners-up to seventh place in the space of one season. The time for change had arrived.

Rafa, you were very good for Liverpool Football Club and Liverpool Football Club was very good for you. Should you have achieved more? I would say yes. You were good, but not great.