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Benitez, Martinez, Capello, Rodgers or Klopp? Who Should Replace Dalglish At Liverpool?
As the axe hangs over Dalglish's head we take a look at the six contenders for the Liverpool job.
As Kenny disappears in to the sunset we take a look at the six contenders for the Liverpool job.
Rafael Benitez
Rafa would take it in a heartbeat and will also feel he has unfinished business after having the rug pulled out from him financially after finishing second with 86 points. A large section of the fans will definitely want him back, he loves the club, knows a lot of the players and backroom staff and wouldn’t cost anything. On the flip side, his transfer record was mixed, he is stubborn to the point of cutting his snout off and he wants everything his own way.
Tactics: 8/10
Style of Play: 7/10
Previous success: 8/10
Transfers: 7/10
Long-term suitability: 7/10
Total: 37/50
Roberto Martinez
Supporters of every club in the land have rightly given Martinez credit for the way he changed his formation and got Wigan out of trouble, but does that mean you would want him managing the club you support? From talking to Wigan supporters, the work he has done with the reserve and youth teams – where he has installed a similar formation and tactical set-up that runs seamlessly throughout – is highly commendable. On top of that, he has managed to turn Gary Caldwell from a man doing an impression of a manatee in a football kit into a very good centre-half, and also taken a raw diamond in Victor Moses and made him perform brilliantly over the last two months.
Tactics: 6/10
Style of Play: 8/10
Previous success: 5/10
Transfers: 5/10
Long-term suitability: 8/10
Total: 32/50
Fabio Capello
Five Serie A titles as a manager, two La-Ligas, one European Cup and a continued reliance on Emile Heskey. Despite the constant hounding by the British media, Capello is undoubtedly a very good manager -tactically astute, unafraid of dealing with big players and able to get the maximum out of a squad. The only problem is that all of his successes have been abroad and he struggled with the stupidity and mental frailty of English footballers. Credited by both Juventus and Madrid for bringing in players that helped them dominate after he moved, his transfer record is strong. Looks like a Bo Selecta puppet.
Tactics: 9/10
Style of play: 7/10
Previous success: 9/10
Transfers: 8/10
Long-term suitability: 5/10
Total: 36/50
Louis Van Gaal
As a fan I’m fairly open to who comes in, but one thing I definitely know is that it cannot be Van Gaal. Yes, he’s had success, but teams often take a minimum of 18 months to flourish under his autocratic style, he’s got an ego the size of Holland and makes Benitez’s stubbornness look like a Saturday morning cob-on.
Tactics: 8/10
Style of play: 7/10
Previous success: 8/10
Transfers: 7/10
Long-tem suitability: 4/10
Total: 34/50
Paul Lambert
Back-to-back promotions, a playing style that flits between aesthetic and brutal and an intelligence that shines through when he talks make Lambert a strong candidate. His work on a limited budget with a team of journeymen and cast-offs has been a joy to behold and, although relatively inexperienced as a manager, he won a European Cup with Dortmund as a player and was part of a strong Celtic team. Imagine he would interview very well.
Tactics: 7/10
Style of play: 6/10
Previous success: 6/10
Transfers 6.5/10
Long-term suitability: 8/10
Total: 33.5/50
Brendan Rodgers
For Lambert, read Rodgers, only with an emphasis on possession rather than power and pace. Another hugely intelligent character who was worked at all levels of the game and can clearly spot potential in a player that others have missed and get the maximum out of them. Has spoken widely about how he wants his players to be mentally tired when they leave the pitch and lit up Match of the Day when he has been on with his tactical insight.
Tactics: 7/10
Style of play: 8/10
Previous Success: 5/10
Transfers: 7/10
Long-term suitability 8/10
Total: 33/50
Jürgen Klopp
A dark horse when you consider he has just won a second successive Bundesliga with Dortmund, but as the Anfield Wrap mentioned on their excellent podcast yesterday, if two or three of his starts are sold the notoriously combustible ‘Kloppo’ could become a contender. Despite having no ties with Liverpool, just edges Benitez as favourite for that very reason. Tactically astute, loves his teams to play attacking football and has relished the challenged of besting Bayern.
Tactics: 8/10
Style of play: 8/10
Previous sucess: 8/10
Transfers 9/10
Long-term suitability: 7/10
Total: 40/50
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COMMENTS
There is about as much of a chance of Klopp joining Liverpool as there is of Messi joining Wigan. Klopp is a fantastic motivator and an extremely extroverted and talkative person.... and he ALWAYS talks in German, so none of our lads (with the possible exception of Kuyt and Agger) could understand him.
Klopp without question.he is as good as they come and he's a young up and coming manager.pull out all the stops to get him please
Nice topic. I'd consider adding two more important attributes. 1. Ability to draw top players to the club. With no CL football on offer, can the manager be enough of a draw-card for talented players. 2. Premier League experience. History shows it takes even talented managers time to figure out and adapt to the PL.
Dalglish should stay on. It is not his fault that we hit the goal post so many times and missed so many penalties. Then players should be punished!
Send a taxi for Klopp please. Klopp of the Kop
benitez is the man, being spanish he will recruit spanish players to the club on merit, we had to many english players at liverpool
Most germans speak English or learn it as a second language
For everyone who still thinks Dalglish should still manage the team! After a spending of around 110m, a team should NOT be losing to anyone other than the top 2/3 teams! With the squad we had ex Torres, an injection of 110m... You are silly to think he deserves another year! As KD came out and said; They were his players of choice! Now let's also make one thing clear! Suarez was NOT his choice! The club was going for him anyway! He also sent Aquilani on loan AGAIN and sold last years player of the year Mereiles for peanuts! I hate to say this, but going British? That's racist! The world is global, football is global! His time is up! He needs to be SACKED and replaced immediately before the Liverpool brand spirals even further down the toilet!
rafa benites is the man we want pls J.W.H. he knows how to make use of his players and a wonderful coach with him as our manager CL is for real comes next season.YNWA.
Steven. Agree with most of that. But the buying English is part of new rules where I think 6 or 7 players in the squad have to be English, so he has bought the best available and young. They didn't work out well last season, but I saw a lot of good in Henderson, remember everyone he is 21 U21 captain and had one previous pro season. It is not his fault we paid £18mil for him. Carroll also looked like the player we wanted towards the end and as for Downing, well lets just hope next season is much better.
Rafael Benitez for me. Taken the club to two European Cup finals in three years. Bring him back J Henry. PLEASE.
they should give kenny a year to sort this team. the next is rafa to come back .before we wind up waiting another 10 years to get even a 4th spot.
Please bring back RAFA! This is perfect for him 'not my fault''no money to spend' blah, blah, blah. Suits Liverpool to a tee! The rest of us can laugh at Liverpool all over again!
Seems Martinez is the favourite but I don't really fancy him for some reason. Ditto Rodgers. What they have done has been under very different circumstances and it reminds me of how Hodgson got appointed for us. Benitez would be a bit of an anti-climax. All in all I think they could have given him another year, he's not that far out of touch and he's certainyl not a bad manager. Watch next year the players her bought will start performing.
The new players have cost KD his job, the axe should falls on them as well. Should make these players be punished for their lack of effort performance. As for KD, there seems more problems with his mamagement this season, putting the new signings aside, the old players were hardly showing any motivation as well except only when they were playing against the strong teams. As a fans i hate to see KD axed, but if its for the good of the club we'll have to move on...
Heard that it's AVB that FSG want.
And the next person who makes the Downing assist joke I am going to track down and smash in the jaw with a spanner
What about Deschamps, seemingly on the exit from Marseille? Sounds like a decent outsider to me!
dalglish deserved to be sacked simply for saying he wouldn't swop winning the league cup " for anything" - so the LC is better than 4th place, champions league football and an extra £30m income?
Which assist joke? the one where dalglish leaving is his first assist... that one? I think Big Sam Allardyce could you do a job at Anfield - there's been so much route one played that the players should fit straight in with his style of football. Either that or Keegan could do a job and get them competing with Fulham.
@Patrick - I've been hearing this 'it's the players' excuse and have to admit it's the first time I've heard it used as an excuse after a manager got sacked for bad signings. COuld be applied to any manager that had a bad season no? Oh it wasnt his fault it was that the expensive players that he chose couldnt get motivated. Hilariously it leaves out the obvious that a) he picked who he wanted to buy and b) IT'S THE MANAGERS JOB TO MOTIVATE THE PLAYERS
@ste no not that one, that's a new one to me that's well funny
I do feel sorry for KD,a total Liverpool man at heart and his action during Liverpools darkest hours will always make him a legend in my eyes and I'm a yido. The problems he created at the club were very apparent to everyone outside Liverpool from the off,The truth is most of you loved him too much to see them
Why no mention of AVB?
Owen - I thought KKK Dalglish and lfc were at the start of something big when you scraped past Cardiff in the mickey mouse final? You were telling us all how you were coming up that hill again. What happened? Do you now realise how clueless all you lfc fans sounded when it came to KKK Dalglish? I'll miss his "hilarious" after-match interviews though.
I know how much Liverpool fans love Dalglish but surely even they can now take off their rose tinted glasses and look at the absolutely awful job he did logically? He spent over 100 million building the team of his choice; most of his signings were shocking and the systems implemented didn't fit the players he had; he is tactically 20 years behind the game and although being a great man manager he managed to turn almost the entire country against him with his rants and off-pitch decisions over the course of last season.
Benitez or Capello. They both have something to prove. Especially, Capello.
Colin, you forget that to win the cup we had to beat The league Champions, the FA Cup winners and visit a bogey ground in the Britannia stadium to win it. A lot happens before the final. As for our new manager, the list looks pretty underwhelming to be honest. I can't see how going for Rogers
Should have been given another season. This is depressing really as now we are further behind the leading teams. As for people calling themselves LFC fans who are slating KD, You should have more respect for a man who has done more for the club and people of Liverpool city than you could manage in 10 lifetimes. YNWA Kenny.
How can Rafa scored 7/10 for transfers? Didn't he want to sign Barry & sell Alonso? That aside I think he was a pretty good manager but can you go back, not sure the owners would. I think it will be AVB if he agree's.
AVB will be treated exactly the same as he was at Chelsea. The liverpool fans want instant results and I don't think you will get that with all the pony that they have in the squad. I think 8th was a deserved position.
yes Stevie, Lee Probert MOTM if I remember?
Rodgers has turned us down then - sensible guy - who would really wanna come to this madhouse? Think they made a mistake getting rid of Dalglish now, a bit of careful work could have made us much more attractive this time next year. Also you dont know who might come available - not really impressed with what I've been hearing so far.
SABOTAGE
