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Rafa Benitez – I could not change things because I was red

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Image for Rafa Benitez – I could not change things because I was red

9 months after he was sacked from Everton, Rafa Benitez has broken his silence on why he believes, things didn’t go his way.

In an interview with SkySports, Benitez said that to succeed he needed to change things from the inside, and he wasn’t able to do this straight away because “I (Rafa Benitez) was red”. I have one question. What changes did you not get to make?

I find this hard to believe considering he ultimately got rid of Marcel Brands. James Rodriguez was never going to stick around but the pair have history and after falling out with fan favourite Lucas Digne in December, he was sold to Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa (a rival) in the January transfer window and was sacked two days later. So, Rafa. Please, explain how you weren’t able to change things? If anything, you were given way too much freedom.

After one win in 12, Rafa Benitez’s time was put to an end after Everton lost to bottom of the league Norwich. With 19 points out of a possible 57 (14 of those coming in the opening 7 games) a change was needed. Injuries did play a part in the downfall of Everton last season.

Losing Dominic Calvert-Lewin for most of Rafa’s time at the club did not help, especially after being only allowed to spend £1.6M in the summer on Demarai  Gray, Benitez and director of football at the time Marcel Brands had to work smart in who they could bring in with the club failing to meet FFP regulations.

After an impressive start to the season, Everton won 4 of their opening 7 games, losing only once at Aston Villa, but that was about as good as it got for Rafa Benitez’s Everton.

He lost my support of me after losing at home to Watford, not only did we lose, we got embarrassed. Granted, he can only select 11 players and they are the ones that do the job on the pitch, but to concede 4 goals in the final 12 minutes and stand and watch the same tactics fail, time and time again. It was painful to watch, his tactics when defending set pieces did not work, but he persisted with it.

Salomon Rondon, who was brought in as a backup to DCL was selected and played too many games when we had youngsters in the academy who would want to prove something, but the only time we got to see them was away at Chelsea as Rondon was unavailable.

Rafa Benitez should never have been considered by the people in charge of the club, but he was and was given the benefit of the doubt by many Evertonians. He was let down in the transfer window due to past managers spending freely, but for him to allow James Rodriguez to leave the club and to drop our most creative player in Lucas Digne will not get the fans on your side.

Some things are unforgivable and because of his tactics and decisions, it almost cost Everton their Premier League status.

When Frank Lampard took over on deadline day, he had to change the mentality of the club and get the fans back onside. In the short that Rafa was at the club, he had made the place toxic, the players did not look like they had any fight in them, and I believe if we had not replaced Rafa Benitez when we did, Everton would be playing in the Championship this season.

If Rafa was not sacked in January and was given another month, do you think we would have survived relegation? Let us know in the comments, or get in touch through our Facebook and Twitter @EFCVital with your reasons why.

To watch the full interview click HERE

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