You're talking about results, not style of football. One can excuse the other, Mourinho and Wenger being prime examples. Rafa had some fine results, and a handful of fine performances, but on a day to day basis, we were not an entertaining side.
He deserves great credit for exposing the owners. God only knows where we would be now if they had been allowed to operate in secrecy.
His popularity doesnt bother me, it's deserved. The worship and the brow beating mob mentality that prevents any objectivity regarding him on rawk, *that* bothers me.
I remember speaking to an arsenal ST holder mate, he was telling me he thought rafa should go because we had no particular "brand" of football, which a big club like liverpool needed. i tried to explain to him, our "brand" of football wasnt really a style of play, it was more the ability and application of absolutely shutting the oppo down as soon as the match kicked off- tactically, physically, positionally... however.
I lost count of the amount of times we beat a massive side up home or away, and the post match reaction would be along the lines of "Liverpool played well but ___ were just not at the races. They can play much better than that"
it happened that many times it became obvious. our gameplan, our style of play, was to win the match, and it used to work well. It wasnt to have a style in posession that everyone would ooh and aah over, it was to win the match be it against real madrid, or bolton, by any means necessary.
I have no interest in how nice the football looks on the pitch unless the results are there first and foremost. a good display of football is mere consollation if we dont win the game. if we win it, i would prefer a decent performance but dont really care. i got my attractive football fix in the mid nineties. I want to win, not be entertained.