And yet Benitez is revered even to this day. Weird in the extreme l agree.
The good thing about stats is that if you like someone, you can select the ones showing them in a better light...
Why just choose stats over two full seasons rather than their respective whole tenures (premier league games only)?
Because the full picture* tells a different story:
Bruce: 84 games, 23 wins, 23 draws, 38 losses. Scored: 94, conceded 139 (-46GD), 92 points, 1.1 points per game
Benitez: 86 games, 27 wins, 21 draws, 38 losses. Scored: 97, conceded 107 (-10GD), 102 points, 1.19 points per game
OK, so it's 'only' 10 points more, with the benefit of 2 extra games, but it still paints a different picture to the carefully selected stats showing the same points return. The GD also shows that under Rafa they were at least in the game more often than under Bruce
* I only used one source (transfermarkt) and CBA to check another