Time for Rafa to leave

Is it time for Rafael Benitez to leave his seat as Liverpool Manager? Has the pressure of winning EPL caught up with him? Is he being too big headed himself that causing Liverpool's downfall?

At beginning of the season, when Fernando Torres was signed by Liverpool, so much was expected from this Liverpool team to perform in EPL. So much has been expected from the current crop of players, and follow is the high expectation from the Liverpool team filled with bunch of talented, skilled and experienced players.

To have players like Stevie G, Jamie Carreghar, Hyppia, Alonso, Torres, Pennant and much more in your team is a blessing, and be able to put them out on field to play together is even better, and on paper Liverpool should be as strong as any other EPL team, if not stronger.

Sir Alex had been following Fernando Torres for 2 yrs before interest cooled down due to long negotiation and chasing, and Dirk Kyut is not a bad player either. Stevie G is as usually influential as ever for Liverpool, and with these players in your team, coaches should be able to just throw in any instruction to them and they will taking care of themselve.

Yet we could not find all this in the Liverpool team. Why? I think the answer is Rafael Benitez like changing the team line up so much that players do not understand each other well enough to perform to their best ability. Secondly Rafa is a bit too big headed into thinking that by rotating the team can give more freshness to the players, which he already ignoring the team understanding is as importance as freshness.

If not mistaken, just look at any other top team, they keep their first 11 as close as possible because by playing together longer time period will create more understanding between teammates. That's how Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea succeeded. When Jose Mourinho in charged of Chelsea, he tried to keep the same 11 as much as possible so that performance and understanding between players will carry forward into the next game.

Imagine when Liverpool is playing so well now that these players understand each other's way of playing, then next game you got to adapt to new way of playing because different players are around you now. That's why Liverpool will never get a consistency required for a championship winning team.

I still remember Claudio Ranieri and Gianluca Vialli used to do the same at Chelsea, and what happened then? Same like Liverpool. They could play games of their life now, and next game they will lose to a much lower ranked team, or even worse team play was totally out of sort. By rotating team squad will be better suit cup competition because these games doesn't come week in week out. That's why Rafa won the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions' League, but could not sustain their good performance into EPL.

That also sums up: In order to win EPL, consistency is a must, and in order to achieve consistency, team understanding is a must, and in order to have team understanding, playing together week in week out is a must. Understanding do not come by talking or listening, it must be done through practice or match play.

To summarise the whole, it is time for Rafael Benitez to hand in the resignation notice, or waited to be given big envelop by Tom Hicks and Gillette asking him to go. I think the second choice would be a better option for Rafa since he will also receive his BONUS together with his big envelop. Just look at Sven and Jose when they left their respective post in England. Instant multi-millionaire now!