Turn the clocks back to the title race of 2009 which Liverpool should have won and the first thing that pops up in your mind about that campaign was Rafa’s rant on Fergie and many fans saying that rant was what caused Liverpool to miss out on winning the Premier League.
Benitez has spoken out about that rant and says it was not his rant that caused Liverpool to miss out on the title.
“To be fair, my press conference was because I knew it was the right time to do it,” said Rafa.
“And afterwards we won 12 games so people were like, ‘Yeah, Rafa’ – it was not true. United were just winning more games than us, that’s it.
“Afterwards people said, ‘He was affected, the team was affected’ but it’s not true. We were [still] winning – it was just they won more.
“It doesn’t matter [which manager you are up against]. It’s the team. I worked in Spain and we [Valencia] went up against Real Madrid and Barcelona, and we won. Why? Because we were doing better on the pitch. So it depends on the team.
“People say, ‘The manager said this… the manager said that…’ but 50 – maybe 80 – per cent of the players don’t read the press, especially the foreign players. They were busy preparing or training for the next game.
“At this stage of the season, the thing is just to concentrate on your team and your performance.”
You can watch the rant again in the video below and let us know if you think that rant was the cause of Liverpool missing out on the title in 2009.
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Come back Rafa – i thought his ‘rant’ was spot on.
There was one difference between United and us that season. They had the best player in the world at that time in Ronaldo and we didn’t have a cutting edge equivalent.
They had an amazingly flexible and formless front 4 in the shape of Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez and Giggs.
We had _________, Gerrard, Torres and Kuyt, with Alonso and Mascherano behind (wow). If we had a player like Silva I believe we would’ve won the league.
Supporters never said the rant cost us the title; only fergie loving media chaps did. His points were valid but some treat fergie like a holy prophet above criticism. If Rafa had been boss this time with 100m budget, I don’t think he would have bought even one of the 4 rubbish buys Kenny has wasted huge sums on. I would welcome him back tomorrow.
Rafa distroyed Real Madrid with Liverpool
Rafa is a modern football coach! he knows how to get results his way. But he is not lucky yet. Manchester city made a mistake not signing him. Get him back John Henry!. The guy is genius!
Rafa asked for a sofa but they kept giving him lampshades at Valencia. That forced him out of the club and Spain. At Liverpool there was funds available in the first two seasons through borrowing and putting the club in serious debt and verge of administration. Rafa had a tough time from his third season on wards when he had to sell to balance the book and also buy second choice players while Chelsea, Manure, Arse- nal and even Spikes were buying their first choice ones. If only the new owners were around when Rafa was here, I believe we would have got a better team now. Kenny has certainly brought stability to the club, now there is a need to make a few more additions to give competition to some players (e.g Downing, Adam, Henderson and Carrol) who think that they are first choice all the time by virtue of their price tags. Tactically Rafa is sound as compared to Kenny and the team will improve with Rafa , if he was brought back with better backing to buy first choice players. Forget the crap about Buying English or all British players. These arguments have fallen flat on Kenny’s face this season. Liverpool is not going to win the league with the English and all British they have in the team right now. I would rather have one Silver or Mordric compared than the trio of Downing, Henderson and Charlie Adam. These playsers have offered next to nothing in the league this season. Conclusion is bring Rafa back and thank Kenny for saving the club from totall collapse. Now we must move along and make changes if the team needs to progress further.
Go for more skillful foreign players who will play most of the time and some of the so called highly priced England players can help keep the bench warm. The other local Liverpool lads can come in for the dogfights in cup competitions and derby games.
If rants cost teams trophies then movsinho shouldn’t have won any trophy. Under rafa you don’t jubilate when you are 2goals up in the 75th minutes coz you’ll still lose but now as soon as you are ahead add 3 to your points on the table… Come back rafa we need you
Come back Rafa, please come back to replace that stubborn Kenny Dalglish. He is even worst than Roy Hodgson, not up to manager level yet!!
I am a Liverpool fan, so my opinion may be biased. I may be paranoid, but I feel like United have always been favored by the F.A. The schedule has always favored United, they at most times have a sufficient time period in rest time between games, they have easier run-ins towards the end of the season to secure titles. Look at Man City’s schedule compared to United. Fulham should have tied against Man United. I wish I had a journal of all this, so suspicions can be raised. But all I can do is suspect.
Man where have you been the last twenty-four years or you must be really young. Since Hillsboro incident, the Thatcher Government and the rest have been set on bringing the once great club to its knees. There has always been an hidden agenda and slowly but surely Liverpool’s status as the best team in England and Europe has been dismantled systematically. The Governemnt, FA, Referees and the press have all contributed one way or another to ensure Liverpool failed and Manure succeeded. Look at all the hype about Manure getting their nineteen and now the path is being cleared for their twenty. Nobody have seen Liverpool celebrating and mocking their opponents after winning their eighteen titles and European cups, all thosevyear’s back. Were they gloating and mocking their opponents like how the current manure manager, players and fans are doing right now. Rafa has joked that the FA might as well sent the fixtures to Fergie for planning and confirmation . Rafa got criticism from all quarters for that rant. It it is bloody obvious and there are few referees who are manc supporters who blatantly ensure Manure always won their home games as well as key away games to ensure that Manure and their Great Knight Sir Alex won the league, their twenty, twenty-one, twenty- two ….till the day he dies perhaps. Manure will still continue to win the league with all the help given.
jesus boy tanx for that comment,when benitez was in charge,you never can say that you have won,when we are down by 2 goals,but now whenever we are down by 1,is even hard to come back,please john bring back benitez for us,if we are to contest for the league and champions league place next season
i repect KD but rafa is rafa.we want him back.he s not cup menager he win leagues and european champinships.
Loved it Rafa ,such a shame we didn’t win the tille .