Rafa Benitez: Can he save Liverpool's season?

On the 16th June 2004, hours after Rafa Benitez was appointed, I wrote on This is Anfield.com that Benitez was the wrong choice and the Liverpool would *never* win the league with him in charge.

For the last 5 years, I have *repeatedly* argued this point (both on this site and elsewhere) over and over again.

I've been continuously shouted down by the blind-faith brigade but I am sure that even the staunchest optimist is coming round to my way of thinking now.

LIVERPOOL WILL NEVER WIN THE PREMIERSHIP WITH BENITEZ IN CHARGE

In the aforementioned post on TIA, I argued that MARTIN O' NEILL was the man Liverpool *should* have appointed. That suggestion was ridiculed, but look at the respective fortunes of Liverpool and Aston Villa today.

The genius of O'Neill is his ability to get the absolute maximum out of whatever team manages. He took Leicester City as far as they could go; achieved as much as it was possible to achieve with Celtic, and now he's scaling the heights with Aston Villa.

O'Neill gets the best out of what he has to work with, which is something Benitez has singularly failed to do in the Premiership.

So, once again, I argue as I did 5 years ago: Benitez is WRONG man for Liverpool FC