After spending a huge sum on transfer fees, Liverpool have failed to replicate their form of last season and that has not gone down too well with the supporters of the club. Even the management knows that the situation is dire and there is an urgent need to address the issue. But the supporters have already started to call for the head of their manager and blaming him and his sturdy decision for this downfall. Many believe that last season was a flash in the pan and it would be difficult for Rodgers to replicate that kind of form again.
Obvious comparisons are being drawn to former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez, who had tasted the maximum success with the team in recent history. While it remains debatable as to who among these two has the edge, we can draw up three reasons as to why we think that Rafa Benitez is the better manager among the two and Rodgers still has a lot of catching up to do.
Proven manager:
While Rafa Benitez came to Liverpool as an experienced manager who had already had attained the peaks at Valencia, Brendan Rodgers came to Liverpool relatively new. Benitez knew what it meant to win the league with a smaller team against the heavyweights like Real Madrid and Barcelona and thus had the capacity to grind out results when required. On the other hand, Rodgers had no prior experience of winning the league and this is the reason Liverpool lost out to Chelsea last season at such a crucial stage. When it was required for Rodgers to grind out point out of the tough fixture, he went for the kill and that brought the downfall. Benitez could never have committed such a rookie mistake.
European master:
Rafa Benitez is an European master and one of the must trusted manager to lead his club to European glory. He did the same with Liverpool in a final which could easily be the best ever Champions League final. He came close to winning the league with Liverpool once more a couple of years later only to lose out in the final. Then in his short stint with Chelsea he won them the Europa League, making the world known of his talent once again. So far Brendan Rodgers has struggled in Europe and looked out of place. The Liverpool side has not clicked against much weaker oppositions in Europe and Rodgers could be partially blamed for this.
The mentality:
While Brendan Rodgers conceded defeat against Real Madrid in the away fixture and fielded a much weaker side, Benitez would never do something like that and would fight to the last minute. This goes to show the problem in mentality of Rodgers and his approach of ensuring safety first. The most important thing about the incident was that even it did not prove fruitful as Liverpool lost the next match against Chelsea when everyone thought they would put up a good show after their star players were given some rest. A marked difference from a certain Rafa Benitez!