Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks has been asked for his views on manager Rafael Benitez’s tactics in the wake of the defeat to Besiktas in the Champions League last night. Liverpool are now bottom of Group A, pretty much needing to win all three of their remaining fixtures to go through to the knockout stage.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Hicks said: “We back Rafa. He’s the right manager. Rafa’s rotation has been his policy for three years.”
Rafa has taken Liverpool to two Champions League finals, in 2005 and 2007, winning one, and Hicks says the manager’s credentials in the competitions should not be forgotten: “Rafa’s ability to coach and manage, his tactics in the Champions League, should be unquestioned. We had a disappointing loss because we got outplayed by the Turks.”
Like the manager and captain, he’s also confident of progress to the next stage: “I think we have our work cut out, but yeah we can qualify. We have to win the next three games.”
Hicks is in London for an NFL meeting.
BRING MOURINHO TO LIVERPOOL
I’d rather give Rafa the chance to win us the league first!
And if he didn’t win it and we were looking for a replacement I wouldn’t want the man who made himself neck-and-neck with Alex Ferguson in the way Liverpool fans thought of him.
A win against Arsenal will make a big difference, but to get that we need to be playing at our best, and with confidence.
Calls for replacing the boss from our own fans (if you are a Red) aren’t going to help confidence.
Get behind the team.