Benitez today dismissed suggestions that Pako Ayesteran’s departure has had an effect on the clubs form, and admitted the buck stops with him.
Some in the media, and on the message boards, have suggested that the reds haven’t looked the same since Pako unceremoniously parted with the club. Rafa dismissed this.
“I do not believe that the management changes have affected the situation.
“We have been analysing the data regarding our players and we are running more, covering more ground and our physical condition is fantastic.
“With regards to the coaching, I was coaching with the team before. I am not a traditional English manager sitting in an office, I am always on the pitch with the players.
“I was on the pitch before, I was on the pitch today and I will be on the pitch tomorrow.”
Looking back on the Marseille game, Rafa admitted that he was ultimately responsible.
“The Marseille match was a very bad game for us, everybody was poor, from front to back.
“Everybody must take responsibility for that defeat, me, the players, the staff, everyone. But I accept that the main responsibility is mine.
The boss was then asked about the R word; rotation.
“Everybody talks about rotation only when we lose, not when we are winning.
“I don’t really like rotating, but I just do it because of the amount of competitions we are involved in. People need to rest.”
He added: “We need to improve but it is not a situation that runs deep. We have only lost once, we were winning and scoring goals earlier in the season.
“For the last game people were bad in attack and bad in defence. We must put that right.
“All the players and the management want to do their best for the team, everyone wants to win and we know what it means to the fans when we do not.
“I take a lot of the responsibility because I am the manager. The manager, the captain, the team, we all take some of the responsibility.
“But I must be positive because I am the manager. You do not win trophies by dropping your head and crying all the time.
“But people must not forget we are in a very good position. Just one defeat.
“That was a very bad game but I do not think that will be repeated this weekend. We have talked about things, and we know we are a much better team than last season.”
He said: “I have read the criticism, but it is easy to talk when you are a long way away in London. We are here with the players every day, we know the situation better.”
The media then specifically asked him about his decision to play Leto and Sissoko.
He said: “I do not want to talk about one player, that is unfair. But some of them who are being criticised I will support. They do not hide, they may give the ball away and make a mistake, but they still keep going, still keep trying and working hard.
“These players kept trying, and at the age they are I still think they are doing well.”
i think as a strong liverpool fan that we should not be rotating the team around. no other team hs consistantly won things by changing their team, you look at arsenal and man u over the years have played their strongest team. i know we have a big squad but that means we have good players to fit in when we have injuries or if someone is playing bad, thats how i think rafa should play the team….. but what am i to know im a 8-5 worker and rafa’s a qualified coach
Of course Rafa is missing Pako… in fact his comments have an angry edge to them if you read them again…
Funny him saying he is at training all the time, when SG in his autobiog says Pako ran training and that Rafa was distant and in his office most of the time (sorting out tactics and watching videos).
In Rafa we Trust… BUT ffs get Pako back.
com on boys shanks will be turning in his grave at the moment,commitment is eeverything and at the moment some arnt giving all.rafa can only support and give excuses so many times.we have spent lots of money but the results are the same i wonder why that is.i woukd suggest that we have sold more commited players lately to fund players playing for money.
Being the only REDS supporter in my group of friends who are Mancs in majority, I’ve always been proud to wear my Red jersey and withstand their taunting. However, even though I’ve spent hundreds of dollars to purchase new LFC gear, I’m feeling let down by the team’s performances of late. After supporting LFC for the last 20 years, I’m just too tired of facing all these rivalries in football because I’m at the receiving end most of the time. And I can’t say they (be it Chelski, Mancs or Gunners) are wrong because there’s not much good to say about my team .. most of the time!!! Pls. buck up your efforts … I’m sure you think that they’re are no better than us but it looks the other round as at present status!!!
Without doubt, we have good players from Europe. But I think these players are finally realising the hard facts of playing in the EPL – it’s physical and bruising compared to all the other leagues in Europe. Most of the time, these players (they should know who they are) are apprehensive in challenging for the ball, which is the main reason for our us losing possession of the ball so frequently. This is football … man!!! The team with the BALL and balls will win the game!!!
Another disappointing game today, its getting frustrating that we havent played well for about 5 games whereas arsenal, man city are blowing teams away with good attacking football yet man for man we are better than them? and chelsea and man u are grinding out 1-0 wins without playing well.. cant say benitez isnt the right man, the players have to look at themselves in the mirror with the shirt of LFC and think “do i deserve to wear the shirt”, a lot of them the answer is no.
Paco is missed, but liverpool fc has seen bigger people leave and will see bigger people come in. Cant see us winning another game for a few weeks, everton, arsenal and blackburn coming up and then fulham away too so dont be surprised if we 7th or 8th in a months time.
YNWA
I totally agree that players need to rest as they need to participate in many matches and fight for many cups. However, our priority this year is the premiership and I think we should concentrate on this in particular. So, I think maybe we can let the second team to participate in big match such as the UEFA and concentrate our force in the Barclay. No more rotation is preferred.
It was a bad game against marseille and the players are probley only focusing on the premiership,it is our main priority.it wasn’t pato’s fault,not 1 bit
tbh i am really not bothered with the champs league as our priority this year is the premiership. so to that extent we have improved compared to last year. therefore all red fans should be contented….for now at least. support the team esp in this time of uncertainty. YNWA