At Liverpool he inherited Gerrard and Hyppia / Carragher in defence. He did get them to the final but did his damnedest to throw it away and without an inspired match by Gerrard and Dudek would have walked away with a massive defeat.
This is selective reasoning. He inherited Gerrard and Hyypia, but he also inherited Igor Biscan, Djimi Traore and Salif Diao. To get a team like that to win the CL suggests that he is capable of getting as much as possible from a group of players -- and isn't that what we need?
If his team selection and initial tactics in the CL final were bad, then it must also be true that his substitutions and tactical changes were good?