Rafa Benitez

What I’ve Learned About Liverpool FC This Season

Once again, I’ve found myself schooled in football fandom over the last nine months. Some lessons I’ve been educated in for the first time, others I’ve shamefully realised should have been taken on board many years ago. That shame stemmed from the age-old occurrence of once again counting my chickens before the eggs were even...

Patience – the key to success for Liverpool

We live in fast times - a lot of things nowadays happen instantly. People have gotten used to that so much that it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture and over react to some events. In the world of football every time a team doesn't win, it's a catastrophe - have...

Matip, Wijnaldum & Mane Proving Klopp Should Be Trusted This Summer

Many past Liverpool managers have experienced utterly disastrous summer transfer windows. Gerard Houllier, Rafa Benitez and Brendan Rodgers all spectacularly failed to build on near title-winning seasons in 2001/02, 2008/09 and 2013/14, respectively, with dross such as El Hadji Diouf, Salif Diao, Philipp Degen and Alberto Aquilani bought in. Even Kenny Dalglish, for all his...

Xabi Alonso, Thanks for the Memories

"Woah-oo-ah-ah-ooo We've got the best midfield in the world! We've got Xabi Alonso, Momo Sissoko, Gerrard and Mascherano-ooo" The good old days eh? As we enter the crunch period in the Premier League, Liverpool fans are going to have to prepare their goodbyes for Xabi Alonso, a man of beauty, on and off the ball. He may...

Klopp’s Resilient Reds?

Brittle, frail, delicate, on the brink of collapse and similar to a Creme Brulee with that soft centre are just a few of the creative ways the Liverpool defence has been described over the years. They're not wrong either, not since the days of Rafa Benitez and Kenny Dalglish's second stint as Liverpool manager have...

Have Liverpool FC let the Academy down?

*"Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight (I love cheap thrills) But I don't need no money as long as I can feel the beat. Cheap thrills, Yeah I love those cheap thrills..." An acapella version of the Sia song rings out around the bathroom as he finishes his morning shave. "John,...

Liverpool’s Mechanical Failure

Since Liverpool last won the Champions League in 2005, it has gone through five managers in Rafa Benitez, Roy Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish, Brendan Rodgers, and now Jurgen Klopp. 06/07 season was the last time Liverpool have showed their dominance in European football, and 2013/2014 was the most recent surge in hopes for an elusive league...

WE Were Born Under a Liverbird

All of us really. Many may not be born in Liverpool but somehow, some way know that a Liverbird was around us in some shape or form before we could walk. A wise man told me it's not where you've come from but where you're at. So where are you at? Are we ready...

Anfield, Villarreal and Liverpool comebacks

Liverpool’s Europa League semi-final first leg was less party and more party poopers, where losing an injury time goal felt like a kick in the guts. Disappointing? Yes. End of the world? No. Some of the response it invoked on good old social media was disproportionate to say the least. Have some people forgotten...

Liverpool 2008/09 – So Close…

How Things Are Different eras connect with different people.  Based upon what was going on in your life at the time - where you lived, who you were dating, where your career was at - you may have so many memories about a period that is simply trivial to others. To this day, if I hear...