4 Dec 2009

Gerard HOULLIER and Rafa BENITEZ - Check out this amazing coincidence!

Whilst I was researching win percentages for Liverpool managers, I came across some very interesting similarities between Rafa Benitez and Gerard Houllier. They're more alike as managers than you might think!

Take a look at the following table: When it comes to win percentages and total career games, Benitez and Houllier have almost identical records!

Years

Games

Wins

Win%

Rafa Benitez

14

630

322

51%

Gerard Houllier

14

629

322

51%



What are the odds? I've been planning to compare top-manager win percentages for months, and when I finally do, the comparison comes at a time when Houllier and Benitez has exactly the same figures: same number of years in club management; same number of wins; same win percentage, and lmost the same number of total club games.

And 322 seems to be a very significant number - it's also the total number of games won By Kenny Dalglish when he was Liverpool manager.

This table will become obsolete after tomorrow's game at Blackburn, but for now, it's an interesting coincidence.

Further reading:

BENITEZ vs. Ferguson vs. Wenger vs. Mourinho: Who has the best WIN percentage? *UPDATED to include career totals*

BENITEZ vs. Ferguson vs. Wenger vs. Mourinho: Who has the best UNBEATEN ratio?



Jaimie Kanwar
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26 comments:

  1. haha..thats brilliant...hope rafas % sky rockets :D

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  2. TEAM NEWS. THE PENNY MIGHT OF DROPPED BOYS, KUYT UPFRONT TODAY WITH GERARD. BENAYOUN AND RIERA ON THE WINGS. AWAY WIN.

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  3. I like the way your thinking now jamie... Very good!

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  4. Well we have the Spanish Houllier then...all is well :)

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  5. I think Rafa might have spotted what was quite obvious at Everton: Kuyt is the best player we have upfront who is capable of holding up the ball. Having him on the right wing is useful but when teams press high we need someone to be a link man to help build counter-attacks. Kuyt on the wing ends up doing too much defense, maybe this way he'll be afforded more license to stay up the pitch. With Stevie G running hard and straight and some quality real quality out wide we'll be able to burn Blackburn at every chance.

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  6. peas in a pod, raffa for a heart attack then....

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  7. <span>It would be good to show how much money they spent.</span>

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  8. If you were comparing what they both spent then you'd have to factor in the value of the squad Ged left Rafa with compared to the value of the squad now.
    Torres alone would be worth close to what Houllier's squad was. 

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  9. They're win percentage may be the same but what is the losing percentage. Houllier's lose percentage is alot higher than Benitez.

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  10. Fascinating coincidence, but nothing more than that. You would have to analyse their previous teams and also the level of respective opposition to reach anything close to a meaningful conclusion. If we accept the widely-held view that Spain's La Liga is of a higher standard than France's Ligue 1, then we'd also have to accept that Ged's opposition when he was at the helm with Lens, PSG and now Lyon was/is less daunting than Rafa's was at Valladolid, Osasuna, Extremedura, Tenerife and Valencia. I'd also argue that the Premiership is today much more competitive than during Ged's era, so I don't that's a fair comparison either.  Fun to consider it all though!

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  11. It is and the league is a 100 fold more competitive and harder than it was when Houllier was at the helm. Didn't Rafa guide us to our most amount of points EVER and still only come second? 

    Comparing the past with present is a flawed approach, the only way to be constructive is to be objective and rise above bias. 

    Is Rafa doing a good enough job? everyone has a different view, attitude and without doubt anything with Liverpool or Rafa in the subject matter sells, so the debates - good bad or as we're becoming accustomed to - the down right propaganda perpetuated by the media led by Sky will inevitably continue. 

    It's just a shame we're had to sell to buy and its been a struggle to build a competitive squad under the American ownership.

    One can only hope the exit from CL will expedite there selling of our club.

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  12. it's just excuse after excuse with people.

    "But the premiership is more competitive now"

    "But the Scottish league is poor quality"

    "But Mourinho had lots of money"

    "La Liga is a higher standard than Ligue 1"

    Blah Blah Blah.

    At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the ability to motivate 11 players of varying quality and personalities to win football matches.  That remains a constant.

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  13. A somewhat simple view Jamie, when you claim they are as good as one another, yet the tables suggest our greatest ever haul was under Rafa and last year, yet that was still not good enough to win the league - does that not testify to the fact the league is improving?

    With more money available to more teams competition is more apparent, clubs that come up "park the bus" in an attempt to "win" a point? that didnt used to happen 10 years ago?

    Are you also saying the Scottish league is NOT poor? would the form of Scottish clubs in Europe not support that ? given whom they lost to?

    Are you saying Mourinho didn't have money? the Telegraph highlights his signings costing £225m? fair amount in 3 years?

    Are you also stating La liga is inferior to Ligue 1?

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  14. I haven't stated any of the above - I'm just highlighting the fact that people will make all the excuses under the sun to defend Benitez.  And if Benitez had the exact same record as O'Neill (in terms of the leagues in which they managed), people would still find some way to say that O'Neill was inferior.

    And if Benitez had managed in the lower leagues in the UK, and O'Neill had only managed in the top division, Benitez's  blind-faith supporters would turn it around again and come up with some reason why he was superior.

    It's quite sad, really. 

    I do not dispute there is a difference ins money/league quality etc but everything is relative.  Look at what O'Neill has achieved relative to the money he has had and the quality of player's he has had to work with.

    And the same principles apply to other managers. Ferguson managed in the SPL for 600 games!  Arsene Wenger managed in the Japanese league (!).  The same people will then make excuses like 'but the SPL was better quality when Ferguson was there'.

    As I said, excuses. 

    The stats do not lie.  Things balance out over a career.  Benitez managed in the lower leagues in Spain too (all of which are included in the above stats).  Osasuna, Extramedura, Tenerife and Real Valladolid are nowhere near top-drawer teams in Spain. 

    As I said, it all balances out.

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  15. O'Neil has spent 100m in 3 seasons? more than Rafa has in 6?
    http://www.oleole.com/blogs/avfcblog/posts/the-missing-millions-of-aston-villa-football-club

    reviewing the previous posts by your self Rafa is only 4% win ratio worse than the people you claim are better? given how its clearly public knowledge now there are real issues behind the scenes - how that effects his status we, ALL of us simply don't know. The very truth is they tried to undermine him with the whole Klinsman deal thing, so it's arguably fair to assume they could have done this in other areas.

    Given there is something going on behind closed doors - changing daily dependant on what rag you read - has Rafa done a bad job?

    4% difference - the margins are that close between success and failure.

    Wouldn't it be nice if we could build a squad and not have to sell - as we know we have.

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  16. its unbelievable how much you are against rafa benitez
    you go to lengths to TRY an convince people he should not be liverpool manager

    where are you from?
    do you go the game?

    i choose not to have conversations with everton fans based on football, it is pointless and you are sounding alot like a blue

    you need to be a liverpool fan, not a liverpool critic

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  17. An interesting co-incidence, but Rafa has won much more in the premiership than GH.

    And excuse me for asking, but what has Martin O'Neill done at Villa other than push them up the table a bit?  His record with Villa in Europe has been apalling - he even deliberately dropped the club out the Europa league last year to try and get top 4 which is so foolish it beggars belief.  What would be the point in taking an inexperienced side in terms of europe into the CL.

    There's also the argument that he won't touch foreign players - preferring to amass average English players and then offloading them later???

    So, no, there is no way on earth I would want the guy at Liverpool.  Ever.

    And the same goes for hippy Klinsmann.

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  18. This is BS! All this site is! Rafa has more wins than Gerard! Why do this site keep wrighting BS?

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  19. Now tour table is exactly the same after another pathetic draw...

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  20. What a shitty website7:02 pm, December 05, 2009

    Here's a coincidence:t this crap website always has crap stories on it. Go figure.

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  21. in rafa we have the best manager around comon martin o neil lol long ball wat next keep the faith its coming

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  22. I've lost the faith. Martin ON would be a good bet.

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  23. Rafa has had his chance and the money and he has failed. We blatantly have a few romantic fans who would like him to succeed and are letting their blinkered love of the reds dilute their opionions.

    And the idiot who said that Dirk Kuyt is our best striker then you need to either quit watching footie or watch it a lot more. Dirk Kuyt is a poor excuse of a footballer and is obvious proof of another one of Rafa's failed signings.

    We need to change the management ASAP before we finish mid table

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  24. WHAT A STATO YOUR ARE, YOU NEED A BIRD YOU 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN

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  25. All I want to know is what happens if we dont finish in the top 4. Will Rafa supporters still be praising him? If Rafas team cost double that of Houliers then why hasnt Rafa won any trophies since getting rid of all Houliers players bar Carra & Stevie and lets not forget that the CL and FA cup that rafa won came from Houliers team. 

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  26. <span><span>“</span></span>All I want to know is what happens if we dont finish in the top 4. Will Rafa supporters still be praising him? If Rafas team cost double that of Houliers then why hasnt Rafa won any trophies since getting rid of all Houliers players bar Carra & Stevie and lets not forget that the CL and FA cup that rafa won came from Houliers team. 



    Read more: <span>http://www.liverpool-kop.com/2009/12/gerard-houllier-and-rafa-benitez-check.html#ixzz0ZMwZY4WP</span>

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