Thought Rafa would have a trick up his sleeve. Doesn’t much matter if your team is shit. 
Idiotic pitch invader. Wonder if that was a Bitter. Thank goodness that Ali was alert and danced/jumped out of the way.
Have to say the security was woeful, it was like the 90s the fact so many could get on the pitch and considering they only had a 3rd of the crowd left to control it was pretty bad.
Should be fined.
Just saw this one too. The pitch invader berated 3 of the Everton players, but not a single security went to do the job.
He probably was the security… just took off his hi-viz before walking onto the pitch.!
I love him to bits, but this is why Rafa is yesterday’s man when it comes to management. Wouldn’t want him back here if the position came up.
A top manager can take a side and immediately improve them - in a way, earning the money and the trust to spend it.
That’s what Klopp did. He took over Rodgers side and made it play better, reaching a Europa League final. The league form was patchy, but he earned the right to go out and buy the players to improve it. Don’t forget he was offered a £35m player that the club had lined up and he pulled the plug on it.
That Everton squad is fucking piss poor, but Rafa needs to get more of a tune out of them than this. Is this Everton Squad better than the squad Rodger’s left for Klopp? I dunno. I don’t think there is much in it. I think Pickford is better than Mignolet was. I think Richarlison is better than Benteke. There are probably a few others.
Moaning about money a couple of weeks into the job isn’t a great look, even if there is some truth to his complaints.
But that has always been Rafa - he has never been a manager who wants to work with players he just doesn’t think are going to fit. The ‘I asked for a table and they brought me a lampshade’ was all the way back at Valencia, and at LFC he fought constantly for the ability to make the changes he wanted. He isn’t a Guardiola, lamenting that the first £200M of fullbacks he bought aren’t any good, but he wants some degrees of freedom in which to work, and at Everton it turns out they have used them all up.
I recall a passage in Brian Reade’s Epic Swindle in which Rafa is in Broughton’s office demanding money to buy a left back. Broughton asks why will this left back be different from the last five you’ve bought. Rafa has no answer.
A fair question, but who did he actually buy at left back? Dossena, Aurelio, who else? It’s not like his choices performed that much worse than all those who were around the price bracket he had to work with either… Also considering when Broughton was around, it could quite easily have been the final straw for Rafa, being questioned by someone who came in as an outsider, who didn’t seem very interested in the problems that the team (the playing side at least) had. Let alone having had to deal with Rick Parry before that, it’s not surprising that he just couldn’t be bothered to answer rather than not having a solution.
I think the damning stat here is that they got 14 points from their first 7 games, and only 1 thereafter. I think the Guardian article on the match (Benítez and Rondón are symptoms, not cause, of Everton’s deep malaise | Everton | The Guardian) suggested that it’s a lot to do with the absence of Yerry Mina, with Everton’s defensive form completely collapsing.
My thoughts on Rafa:
He’s past his best.
He’s been dealt a shit hand with that squad and injuries.
I don’t think they improve by sacking him, I think they improve when Mina and DCL come back.
Do I sympathise with him? Not really. I love the man, he was a brilliant manager for the club and is a brilliant ambassador and friend of the city and wider Merseyside region. But he’s also an intelligent, grown man who knew what he was getting into by taking the job. There was always a really good chance this ends in tears.
Some Everton fans will put the blame on him but the real question that needs to be asked is how they’ve spent so much money and ended up with so much rubbish. They’re a poor Man’s United.
A bit disappointed that it was only four…… they dragged us down to their level for ten minutes before half-time with dirty little tricks on and off the pitch. The game should have been done and dusted after twenty minutes ( well it was for some of their so called supporters) but the lads stuck to their guns and totally wiped them out. Henderson was outstanding followed by the rest of the the boys. Happy days.
I wouldn’t have Rafa back either. It has all moved on.
As for Everton, he should improve them if he gets a bit more time. They have had a bad run but have had injuries to their two main goal scorers, as well as the main man in defense, and also in midfield, so it has all veered off course for them.
I suspect he will get the chop, but if he is given the season, I think he will prove to be as good as his predecessors there, and finish tenth or so, while not being able to spend as they did.
Mind you, the problems run deeper than Rafa. They are a bit like Man Utd in that they have made a whole series of choppy decisions.
I will never not love Rafa, but have little sympathy for him. For any manager going into a new job there should be a discussion about the money that will be available and those you might want to bring in, those you have to sell etc. If those assurances aren’t made and you take the job anyway, then that’s on you.
If he’s been lied to fair enough, but I doubt that is the case. Or if you take on the job knowing there won’t be money to spend, you then shouldn’t complain about it later.
And there’s no way he could be so naive that he wouldn’t know how the fans would turn on him once the results dropped.
I am also a little disappointed that he’s allowing the shithousery to continue under his watch. It may not stem from him, but he’s clearly condoning it.
Audio commentary on BBC5 Live for the goals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HErBpfMIxO0
I don’t think Rafa would expect any sympathy, especially from Liverpool supporters. He knew what he was getting into, it’s just that the job ticked a lot of boxes for him. He’s never going to start pulling up trees at that club and he knows there will always be a portion of the fan base who don’t want him there. Is he bothered? Not in the slightest 
He’s a lot harder than he’s given credit for. Rafa isn’t their problem, but if they want to use him as a fall guy that would be yet another mistake from their board. It all looks very bleak for The Ev at the moment 
If that game last night does not convince Southgate that T.Rex should not be England’s first choice goalkeeper, then there is no hope for him ever eclipsing Sir Alf Ramsey…! 
To be fair he always looks a better keeper when he plays for England than he does at club level…hardly surprising though when you look at the Everton defence.