The season we won the Champions League we were dismal in the League, finishing 5th. OK you could argue that the team took time to gel and finished the season strongly, but you could also that Rafa was lucky:
The road to Istanbul was a struggle to begin with. A couple of late goals and inspirational performances by individuals masked what was in truth an overall team struggle.
The final itself was a mistake to begin with. Poor tactics and wrong team selection had us 3-0 down at half time. Was it Rafa, the forced change because of Finnan's injury or just the players who turned things around?
At the time Rafa was hailed as a genius, but the reality is that Rafa was going to take Traore off, not Finnan, and was only forced to make THAT change through circumstance, not plan. Traore went on to make a critical clearance off the line and the players (mostly led by Gerrard) got us the game and the glory.
A couple of years later we returned to the final of the CL and actually played better, but still lost to "all-to-similar" circumstances. In that game Mascherano had Kaka in his pocket and kept him quiet for most of the game. Rafa also started with Kuyt up front on his own, which seems ludicrous now doesn't it? Crouch was on the bench!!!
Rafa took off Mascherano and Kaka was left to expose our lack of midfield cover and killed us off with delightful football. We came so close but you can see why we lost.
Then we have the FA cup triumph. Again we were in a losing position and did not dominate another final tactically. Again we failed to contain the opposition and again we should probably have lost. Almost as if the players wanted it, rather than had the tactical instructions to do so, Liverpool won with inspirational finishing from Captain Gerrard. I fail to see where Rafa actually earned HIS corn in that game too.
And back to the league. Last season we finished with our highest Prem total with arguably our best team for almost 20 years. Rafa had almost completely built that team and so therefore it was great management, right?
Well to be 100% honest, I remember just before our great finish to last season that we had a real blip where everything seemed to slip from our grasp. I clearly remember thinking that the players got together and decided to almost "Rebel" against Rafa. They seemed to untangle themselves from the limitations of strict formation, positioning and sideways passing and set their own tempo, their own patterns and their own creativity.
I honestly remember saying to mates of mine it was like the players were winning despite Rafa, rather than because of Rafa. It seemed that all the crazy substitutions failed to limit us or hold us back, because the rest of the team had already beaten the opposition into submission.
And we have the situation now.
Rafa seems to just be destroying our chances of winning. It seems crazy but half the time Rafa seems to make it more difficult for us, rather than obviously better. Taking off effective attackers and keeping on ineffective grafters. Not playing attacking formations but preferring to favour stubborn defensive ones (that aren't working).
How many times has Rafa seemingly killed off a player's confidence?
Crouch gets a hat-trick and gets rested for the next game. Keane gets himself a couple of goals, and is dropped for the next game. Aquilani makes a good sub-appearance on Monday, only to not feature at all on Thursday. Babel seems to be a changed player yet that isn't rewarded with 90 minutes, no he still gets subbed ahead of other players who just aren't doing anything.
How bad does Kuyt have to play before Rafa decided to sub him off early or drop him entirely? I know he's done some good things for us in games (Spurs in January) and he works hard, but you have to recognise when a player is having a blip. Kuyt was completely useless against Wigan, and without passing to the opposition as much almost equally ineffective against Lille, but played almost all of both games.
So much is baffling me about Rafa. We beg for him to just do what is simple, normal and what makes sense, for just a few games while the players get a bit of confidence back... but no. Ngog who was trusted to be our main striker when Torres was out, now is seemingly behind El-Zhar on the Subs bench! And Aquilani is looking at Ngog with envious eyes... how can that be, how does that make any sense whatsoever?
The more I see, the more I am convinced that Rafa isn't a Genius, isn't a mastermind and isn't actually as good as Real Madrid, Juventus or any interested team think he is. Without players like Gerrard in top form to bail him out of sticky situations, I no longer regard Rafa as our saviour, or our next League title winning provider.
Rafa Benitez will never be the manager we want him to be, he will never make the decisions or buy the players we want him to sign and he will never make the changes or selections we look forward to seeing. Rafa Benitez is finished in my eyes, and even a long run in the league of winning games and finishing top 4 will not be down to Rafa, it will be in spite of Rafa.
It will be in spite of Rafa - As it has always been... and I think this is exactly what some of the players are thinking too.