Corpse in question being, of cour(p)se, his Liverpool team. Wednesday night was the lowest ebb of Benitez’s time at the club. Reading are a shocking team with a rookie caretaker manager and they have barely scraped together a win against Championship opposition all season. I could go on about how bad they are but we all know it already.
The truth is that we made them look like a top ten premiership club, and we were completely terrified of playing against them. This is ultimately an indictment of Benitez: he has had an extended period in which to prepare his players, make them feel like the team which finished second in the league last season and thrashed Real Madrid 5-0 on aggregate. But the players look despondent at the moment.
Gerrard, for one, is a player slowly fading into the background. I have no doubt that this is due to injury. Torres is scared to run or exert himself and looks a shadow of the player he was in his first year with us, despite the odd moment of greatness this season. To cap it all off, they are now injured. Who will step forward and take responsibility?
Mascherano was beginning to look decent again before his ref card against rotten bottom club Pompey (who we played a defensive team against and lost 2-0). But he isn’t capable of inspiring a team, he hasn’t got any ability moving forward. Kuyt, so solid and dependable last year, is looking like he’s on the other side of the hill these days. Benayoun is injured. Reina can only do so much from the net. Carra looks increasingly weary, Johnson is injured, our left backs are average, Skrtel and Agger have forgotten how to play, Ngog sadly misses more than he hits.
Aquilani did quite well against Reading I thought, smooth passer, slick when he wants to be, but ultimately not used to playing in our team, in our footballing culture. Which leaves his partner, Lucas, as our main man. And, in all fairness, he’s been our best player this season.
Imagine anybody admitting such a thing a few months ago? But Lucas is tackling, passing and running his way into my good books, much more so than any of the senior players.
The problem is that, when everybody else was playing well last year, Lucas looked average. Now that the chips are down, he’s showing himself to be our battler from Brazil, able to combine hard work with good form. But it is a horrible thing to think that Lucas is carrying our team. He isn’t creative or dynamic enough to hold such a mantle. Yet Rafa is turning to him to sort things out; the non-appearance of Aquilani was surely in part down to Benitez’s fear that leaving Lucas out of the team would remove its core and upset the balance. We’ve gone from the beating heart of our team being Alonso, who dominated games and got the team to play football, to it being Lucas Leiva, a solid defensive midfielder who salvages tricky situations. That says it all really.
Rafa is calm in a storm, but I think these days he’s almost becoming oblivious to the thunder clouds overhead. Has he ever had to take a team out of such a crisis of identity, of confidence? No, certainly not. And his managerial abilities – tactical, logical, insightful – are not what we need right now. I’ve been a staunch supporter of his ever since his arrival and I still don’t want to see him sacked. But he is being tested now – is he a truly, truly great manager, capable of inspiring his team’s victories for once instead of ‘masterminding’ them? Can he change tack and adapt to the dire situation in which he finds himself or is he determined to revel in his stubbornness, his belief in his own methods, his determination that if he carries on doing ‘the right things’ and ‘working hard’, everything will come good?
Because it surely won’t. The problems the team are having are not all his fault – God knows I’ve slated the board and the players enough times in the past. But his fault or not, the situation remains as it is, and his job now, for which he is paid a lot of money, is to make sad, bad players play like happy, good ones. And we’ll see where we are in the summer.
Is Garry Cook the new Peter Kenyon?
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11669_5797004,00.html
An annoying businessman-politician with no idea about the actual game of football, Cook appears to have some serious insecurities following the sacking of Mark Hughes. Maybe it’s because he knows the decision is an absolute joke, that Hughes was well on-target for his club’s season objective of a top 6 finish (and had also set up a Carling Cup semi with United); it just seems to me that City have been itching to have a manager with a foriegn, important-sounding name ever since the sacking of Sven. Roberto Mancini meets their requirements, but you have to ask why it’s taken so long for the bloke to get a job - he’d been lingering around on the gossip pages for well over a year before being employed by the Premier League’s joke club.
Cook is mentioning us in his little interviews because he knows that he looks stupid and wants us to look stupid with him. Cheers mate, but we have enough problems of our own; the last thing we need is you stuttering on about how we wanted this loser Mancini. Just shut your corporate gob, get your head down and start thinking about what your next ridiculous action will involve - but make sure it doesn’t involve Liverpool.
If people ask me who my favourite Liverpool player is, I always tell them the same thing – Jamie Carragher. A lot of the time, they respond with a raised eyebrow and say, ‘not Steven Gerrard then?’
For a while, I screwed my face up at their surprise and insisted that Gerrard, whilst being a fantastic player and contributing a lot to our club, had come too close to betraying us to ever be a personal hero. One time was forgivable – Chelsea came knocking with cash and potential aplenty at around the time that Houllier’s once-promising reign had finally gone stagnant; Gerrard had a good think about it, but finally decided to give new man Benitez a chance. The very next season, after struggling with the Spaniard’s cold managerial style and constant insistence that Gerrard had a lot of improving to do, the skipper accepted a deal from Chelsea in principle and prepared again to leave the club which gave him his chance.
Considering progress in the league alone, I could maybe understand this; we’d humiliatingly finished fifth, below Everton, and endured a long, hard campaign in which the tactics were consistently baffling and/or completely inappropriate. But we’d also gone and done something pretty remarkable in Turkey, winning the Champions League with an abysmal team, effectively turning the course of our proud football club at a time when it needed turning the most. ‘How could I leave after a night like this?’ I remember Gerrard saying in a post-match interview. How indeed.
The events that followed the 25th of May 2005 were farcical. When it was announced that the club captain was leaving for Chelsea, the reasons given sounded like a criticism of Liverpool’s administration system more than anything else: they’ve taken too long to offer me a contract, they’ve gone on holiday at the wrong time etc. To me, they sounded like the desperate excuses of a man who, despite the European victory, still wanted out. Maybe his agent got to him, maybe he couldn’t stand Benitez any longer, or didn’t trust him. Maybe he just thought enough was enough, he’d go to London and take the easy road with the cockneys. The very thought of Gerrard returning to Anfield in a blue shirt, probably scoring against us at the Kop end, turned my stomach – how could he ever, ever want that? How would he be happy winning the title with one of our fiercest rivals, whose fans barely muster a single chant in 90 minutes of a home game and whose manager at the time was doing his level best to insult LFC at every opportunity?
I could not understand a man who put both money and success above his own identity, when that very identity offered him those things but in slightly lesser measure. At the end of the day, it’s possible that at Chelsea he would have earned ten or twenty thousand a week more than at Liverpool, but who needs £150k a week anyway? And with us he’s won every major trophy bar one, the coveted Premier League; but Chelsea are in a similar position, having never won their coveted Champions League. For Gerrard to consider leaving us in 2005 was disgusting.
Thus for a couple of years I was far from his biggest fan. I cheered when he scored, but was far less enthusiastic about his character. To me, he was like a spoiled brat who threw his toys out of the pram when taskmaster Benitez arrived.
But who could deny that, having sorted out their working relationship, Gerrard and Rafa have come to form what must be considered as Liverpool’s most effective partnership (rivalled only by the Torres-Gerrard team dreamt up by Rafa)? Gerrard has improved hugely as a player, found his long-cherished best position, and become a fantastic captain. His interviews with the press these days contain tones of respect and humility, and his behaviour on the pitch, once so petulant, is now second to none. Fair enough, he slipped up last year with his bar-room brawl, but he was not convicted of anything apart from being a bit of an idiot when he’s had a drink. There are still murmurs in the press about a possible move away from Liverpool, but you can guarantee these days that none of them were started by Gerrard’s entourage. In the peak of his career, the captain knows that going anywhere else would be futile – in 2005 he decided on staying with us once and for all, and I don’t think he’s ever looked back.
With his 500th game on the horizon, it’s time to forgive (if not forget) the digressions in Steven Gerrard’s Liverpool career, to draw a line under them. He’s earned as much from us. Even if he never brings us the title, it won’t matter. He has come to be one of the greatest players in the modern game (just ask Zidane), and has, at the end of the day, remained loyal to his hometown club. To me, that means more than any silverware ever can – there are plenty of mediocre players who have Premiership winner’s medals at home, but none of them will be remembered like Gerrard. Even if Carra remains my favourite player, in future I’ll make sure it is known that our captain is right up there with him.
Liverpool Football Club is going through a very tough patch at the moment; none of us would try to deny that. But when the going gets tough, we’re meant to stick together and battle on through. Isn’t that why we’re called supporters?
I’d say internet opinion on Benitez amongst LFC fans is 50-50, maybe 60-40 against; this is no surprise, because even when he nearly won us the title on a shoe-string budget people weren’t happy with him. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, of course. There are some very intelligent arguments made every day for Rafa to be sacked. But I’m afraid I still won’t budge on this: the problem is the American owners and the financial crisis in our midst. Our manager is one of the best in the business and he’d be sorely missed if he was sacked.
What I find more annoying than fans who speak out against Benitez for no reason is when ex-players join in the fun. Jamie Redknapp claimed the other day, in the glorious publication known as the Daily Mail, of course, that Benitez ‘manipulates’ Liverpool fans into supporting him, when in reality the team is ‘going nowhere’. The headline described his revelation as a ‘blast’ from a ‘Liverpool legend’. The worst part of this is that Redknapp, the same knucklehead who sits there every week in his grey Armani suit and thin black tie – tres chic, Jamie – and agrees with almost everything that Andy Grey and Richard Keys say, is calling US thick. In his years of punditry, of which there has now been one too many, I have never heard that lad say one interesting or intelligent thing.
Doesn’t he earn enough money from Sky, without having to resort to taking cheap pops at his former club in the nationals? As for his ‘legendary’ status – the boy had a nice technique when it came to ball-striking, but that was about it. He won one Coca Cola cup, and certainly never came anywhere near the kind of success that Benitez has brought to the club. He has no right to be mouthing off about us in public.
Patrick Berger, whose trophy cabinet is similarly lacking in top class silverware, has also criticised Rafa; Sounness hardly did him any favours last night on Sky. Why can’t these people understand that the reason we are underperforming is a lack of funding combined with an injury crisis? Why do they persist in making life even more difficult at the club by publicly dissenting? They don’t make any rational arguments as to why our poor performance is actually Benitez’s fault.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think former players over the years have done more damage than good when talking about our club in the media. I hoped that this was a result of our decline from the 80s to the 90s, but when players from the dreary 90s era start banging on about it not being ‘good enough for a club like Liverpool’, I want to make it perfectly clear where they can go.
Only, I’m not allowed to swear on this site. Use your imagination.
I’d like to refer all Liverpool fans, nay all football fans, to this forum post at RedandWhiteKop:
http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=249365.0
Several of the comments underneath are also illuminating.
It is complete proof, for me, that Liverpool FC’s problems lie not with the manager (nor with Lucas Leiva for that matter); our problems are a direct result of the club being run excruciatingly poorly by the people at the top, people we are meant to trust. Who decided that the Americans were suitable investors for the long-term? Who on earth did the maths? What Gillett and Hicks have thus far done is turn our club into a debt donkey in the hope that, on the back of loans, they could make a quick profit. When the loans ran dry, it was revealed that they really, really don’t like each other, that they’re completely unwilling to put any of their own money into the club in any sustained, committed way, and that they were willing to sack our manager just because they had some kind of personality clash with him. Klinsman, THEY WOULD HAVE EMPLOYED KLINSMAN INSTEAD.
The penny has to drop soon. Without Benitez, we’re done for. He might be Spanish but he seems to be the only one within the club’s hierarchy who takes a reasonable, dedicated approach to its long-term future. He cares about us. He missed his own father’s funeral to oversee a joke tournament on the other side of the world. He’s done a remarkable job on very little money. Yes, at times he’s unorthodox, but it’s been a remarkable journey nonetheless.
At the weekend he took Torres off and it has now been revealed that our main goal threat is close to needing surgery. Taking Benayoun off was hard to understand but, in fairness, Yossi wasn’t up to much on Saturday and, for a lad who perhaps isn’t the image of physical fitness, he’s played a staggering amount of football this season.
Yet Benitez has this week been accused by Ronnie Whelan of prioritising Europe in order to get a big European job! First things first, since coming to Anfield, Rafa has turned down overtures from Madrid, his dream job, at least twice. He’s a man of honour and wants success with this club. The outstanding performance in last season’s premier league shows this - where was Whelan with his accusations back then? Those comments were so stupid, ignorant and reactionary that they made my blood boil.
Also, can I just say that in the long-term, Lyon is a bigger match than Fulham was. I know people who travelled to London don’t want to hear this, but it is true. Without qualification money, the club is in an even worse financial situation than it already is. God knows how close we are to capitulation - stranger things have happened. So maybe losing in the league is a neccessary evil to make sure that we even have games to go to in a few years time - perhaps I’m being over the top, but we have to think of the bigger picture.
The worst thing is that we may well still lose in France, despite resting Torres for half an hour on Saturday. If that happens, remember the forum post at the top of this article. Remember the injury crisis at the club. Remember that Rafa is trying even harder than ever to turn things around.
The lunatics are taking over the asylum once more. Bedlam is turned loose. Liverpool fans around the world are turning into jibbering wrecks. And I think I might join them if I read one more marvellously witty pun about beach balls.
It is clear by now that four defeats in nine games have angered people sufficiently to want Benitez sacked – and the sad fact is that I believe those people will get their wishes within this season. The man who won us the European Cup after years in the wilderness (and got us to a second final two years later), and then very nearly won us the league title just last season, is suddenly not good enough to achieve anything else with Liverpool. People moan that he hasn’t won silverware for far too long – ‘not even a Carling cup!’ they cry. But if he had won the Carling or FA cup in the last two years, he’d sure enough get it in the neck for ‘prioritising’ those tournaments over the Premiership. That’s what happens to poor Rafa. He wins one thing and gets abuse for not winning the other. It must get pretty tiring after a while.
There are still a lot of fans behind Benitez. The ones who actually pay money to sit on the Kop every week certainly are. These are the people who understand that managing our club since 2004 has been an unenviable task: limited funds, feuding owners, the inheritance of a terrible, terrible squad. They know that if Rafa gets sacked and another man comes in, he will most likely have a ‘5 year plan’ to take the club to the top – which would be just swell, wouldn’t it? Let’s just remember that Gerrard won’t last too much longer. If we’re going to win the league, he’s going to play a key part in the team – but within a brand new 5YP, that’s never going to happen. The team will be in transition again. The only two scouse players will retire. Torres, having won nothing since joining us, will want to leave. The new manager might turn out to be clueless, or have even less money available than Rafa, whilst clubs like City and Tottenham continue to spend freely. Liverpool could become a sleeping giant. The thought chills my bones.
‘But what about Mourinho?’ people ask, ‘he wins everything no matter where he is!’
This is my least favourite thing to hear from fellow fans. Jose Mourinho is a great manager, no doubt about it. But he’s no superman. The squad he inherited at Chelsea was unbelievable – and that was before he spent huge money to bring in the likes of Essien and Drogba. Yes, he won the league with them – but did he come close to winning them the title they drool over down at Stamford Bridge, the coveted Champions League? No, not really. His ego lost control, they had a poor start to the season and he was sacked. He goes over to Italy to inherit Inter Milan, the team who seemingly couldn’t stop winning the league even if they wanted to. And guess what – he wins them the league! He came out last week with comments akin to ‘I can’t afford to do what Benitez and Wenger do because if I don’t win, I will be sacked.’ Yes, Jose – but if you do win, it’s mainly because of what you inherit and the funds you have available, not because you’re more special than Rafa or Wenger.
If Mourinho came to Liverpool, it would easily be the biggest challenge of his managerial career. Should Rafa leave, I wouldn’t be opposed to the idea. But I also wouldn’t expect him to work a Chelsea-esque miracle when the situation he’d be entering would be so incredibly different to the one he found in London.
I want to make it clear that I’m not a ‘blind faith’ sort of person. I do recognise that Benitez has made mistakes – at times glaring ones – during his stay at Anfield. So you won’t find me saying ‘In Rafa We Trust’ every time he does something tactically nonsensical or makes a bizarre signing in the transfer market; it is our duty as fans to assess each situation objectively and fairly. The only reason I’m sometimes willing to accept an odd decision made by Benitez is because he has won two league titles and a Champions League, at different top European clubs – that is something that I have never done and never will do. His innate judgement must have some substance to it for him to be where he is.
A big part of the problem is that Benitez has signed a lot of mediocre players down the years, mainly due to lack of funds. Thus when people want to list his ‘errors in the transfer market’, they can reel off a long list including the likes of Bellamy, Pennant, Kromkamp, Josemi, Pellegrino, Nunez, Morientes… it goes on and on. None of these players would have been the manager’s first choice, but he took a gamble on them because they were the best he could hope for. The only times when he’s been allowed significant financial clout, he has signed Mascherano, Torres, Johnson (in my opinion top class players) and Keane (a bizarre mishap); and plenty of his cheaper gambles actually paid off (I’m thinking of Agger, Skrtel, Reina, Sissoko, Alonso, Crouch…).
The errors he’s made are therefore less numerous than the media would have you imagine; nonetheless there are several things that he needs to put right before we can develop as a club. Lucas, an £8 million ‘prospect’ from Brazil is almost certainly not good enough to play at a club like Liverpool. He’s not been our worst player this season but when I consider the other central midfielders Benitez has had in his time as manager, it is clear that the lad pales in comparison. I hate singling him out like this and I resent the people who boo him but a central midfield in which Lucas is the lynchpin (I’m thinking of Saturday’s game when he was paired with poor old Jay Spearing, who was never really going to look very steady with no calming influence alongside him) is unacceptable. Hindsight is a great thing but signing a crocked player looks like an incredibly bad decision now that our title challenge is already on the rocks. Yes, it is a long-term move for Aquilani but when Benitez’s job depends largely on results in the short-term you’d think he’d have spent £20 million on a fit, able midfielder.
Of course, we need another one top class attacking player and a decent backup. These things can only really be rectified when the funds become available to Rafa, so going on about them is useless. But the fact that Ryan Babel was bought for £12 million when Arshavin, Walcott and the likes were being sold for more or less the same price is one of Benitez’s gravest errors. That’s a lot of money to waste on a player who looks technically woeful and mentally unstable. Set pieces need sorting out; we concede far too many goals from corners or free kicks and, what’s more, our own set pieces are maddeningly ineffective. And Rafa needs to re-consider the system he now employs almost every week – does it work without Xabi Alonso? I don’t think it can.
But the point of this article is: let Rafa sort the issues out. He more than likely knows they exist and is desperate to fix them. Getting a new man in fosters a set of new problems far larger than we’re currently facing. And Benitez, who has shown complete loyalty and humility in front of the Kop throughout his difficult reign, deserves our support for that bit longer – I’d be ashamed if he were sacked and would rather see him resign than suffer the humiliation of the Americans getting what they’ve wanted from word one. So let’s think about this lads. Let’s get it right. Show Benitez some respect or the consequences could be dire.
After an eternity of Guillem Ballague sitting squarely on the internet gossip fence concerning the Xabi Alonso transfer, the thing that most of us knew was coming anyway has been and gone; no longer shall our Basque marvel be there to spray his carefully moulded 40-yard pearlers every which way across the famous Anfield turf. Instead, he’ll be feeding the likes of Kaka, Benzema and Ronaldo with his unendingly handsome passes at the Bernabeu. Fair cop, Xabi. You’re going home and it’s to play for the most exciting team (on paper) in modern times. None of us should begrudge the man his move; but we should certainly all mourn the fact that the Spaniard who has come to seem the most ‘scouse’ of them all, and the only other player remaining from the glories of Istanbul besides Gerrard and Carragher, has decided to pack Liverpool in. There’s no way that we can’t be disappointed when proven class seeps out the back door.
Benitez has known about Alonso’s desire to move since May, and it was undoubtedly this knowledge which led to our repeated and unsuccessful bid for Gareth Barry earlier in the summer. He has now turned, after months of what I think we can assume to be meticulous scouting and preparation, to Roma’s Alberto Aquilani as the man to play behind Steven Gerrard in Liverpool’s ‘core’ central midfield. I don’t know enough about Aquilani to define what kind of team we’ll become with him pulling the strings instead of Alonso, but I do know one thing for sure: things will be very different at Anfield next season. There is no other player like Alonso in world football; Pirlo and Beckham perhaps have his passing ability and intelligence, but they lack his Gattuso-like grit, the element of his game which allowed his last season with us to be easily his most formidable. I doubt Aquilani is as good a passer or as good defensively as Alonso; that means that our injury-prone new boy must bring something significant – and something original – to the table.
Alonso began some of our most incisive attacks and possesses the innate ability to sniff out defensive gaps and slice right through them; but if there was any area of his game which was lacking, it was his direct involvement in attacking play. By that, I mean scoring, I mean bursting into the box, I mean taking men on or terrorising a defence single-handedly. Steven Gerrard fits that bill, but if Aquilani could perform as a less skilful but more dynamic Alonso-figure, working more in tandem with the skipper than in deference to him, then our team could adapt, become less resilient but more exciting, less dependent but harder to predict, harder to ‘shut out’ with a well-drilled line of 9 defenders. That’s the only way I think Rafa’s formation can work without his young lad with the mature head on his shoulders, the tough playmaker we’ve all come to know and love, the boy whose venomous hatred of Frank Lampard has endeared him to the Kop almost as much as his pivotal role in our fifth European Cup victory.
Last season, when we played without Xabi Alonso we were lacking in composure, our ‘grip’ on matches slipped. Now we must freshen up, move forwards not sideways, and ensure that we don’t allow that state of fallibility become a permanent fixture. If Rafa’s imagination sparks effectively, then Alonso’s sale could actually be the spark which ignites our title hopes once more; but if the boss stands for even a moment’s stagnation, then we can kiss number 19 goodbye.
The imbroglio of Ryan Babel’s Liverpool career continues to twist and turn this week, with reports stating that Benitez is willing to sell the Dutchman whilst quotes emanate from the player’s camp which seem to suggest that no transfer is on the cards whatsoever. My opinion on Babel changes by the day; I’d say that around 80% of Liverpool fans would be happy to see the back of him this summer. I flit between this crowd and the other 20%, one minute disgusted at how bad he’s been this season (and with how little effort he seems to be have been putting in), the next remembering how much promise he showed on arriving at the club, his brilliant athleticism, how highly-rated he is (or was, back then) by a certain Marco van Basten.
Whilst I think that the van Basten quotes have now been done to death, there’s no doubt that Babel has something about him as a player. With clubs like Arsenal and Tottenham apparently raising their eyebrows at his potential availability, the real worry is that he leaves Anfield at a cut price and subsequently goes on to become a Premiership superstar at one of our rivals. I would hate that. The thing is, Babel began this season with fragile confidence and has only gone on to make error after error, bad pass after bad pass, gradually chipping away at his self belief with a sharp pick-axe. When he came on for Torres against West Brom and missed a sitter from 12 yards out, I feared that he would never recover as a footballer, genuinely. I’m sure he’s made of tougher stuff than that but that the thought even crossed my mind is telling.
In his first season, I was Babel’s biggest fan. He showed glimpses of pace and agility, with finishing skills and a terrific right foot to boot. He scored quite a few goals and set some up. Even this season he provided a superb left-foot assist against Real Madrid, with Gerrard storming through the middle to stick the perfectly-weighted cross into the top corner. But sometimes he’s just looked hopeless, lacking in composure and unsure of what Benitez wants him to do. I actually think he’s terrified of Benitez because of the fear that if he makes one mistake, the coach will sub him or not play him for another month. Benitez’s words of support for the striker-cum-winger have dried up, and the Spaniard’s icy silence on the future of Babel indicates a well of patience running low. It really is a vicious circle, and one which both the coach and the player have to work to break if their working relationship is to bear any fruit.
But Babel isn’t really the main worry for the boss this summer. At a time when one good signing could make us Champions next year, there is also the scent of caution looming large over Merseyside. Everybody remembers Houllier’s disastrous ventures into the transfer market at the precise time in his reign when everybody was predicting we would push on to win the title. And whilst I don’t think anybody believes Rafa to be capable of bringing in clangers like Diao, Diouf and Cheyrou in the next few months, nobody is quite sure what to make of the media’s reporting of our coach’s plans.
There are nerves mainly about Xabi Alonso. This time last year, I was ready to see him leave the club. That was despite paying £150 for a signed Alonso shirt at a charity auction during his first season, the shirt he was wearing when Frank Lampard slid in and broke his ankle. The cruel irony, which of course I could not know at the time, is that it was this foot injury which would see Xabi slip into the horrific guise of a mediocre player for well over one and a half years. Everything about the Spanish playmaker changed, from the way he struck the ball to his gait when he didn’t have it. His passes were short, his (always-present) lack of pace was all the more obvious, his head was down. He looked half the player we thought we’d bought in 2004. Teams didn’t fear him anymore the way they did in his first season. With Juventus ready to bring him in, it was time for a change.
Barry was the clear choice to replace him - an England international with versatility and bags of experience, despite only being 28. But something happened to Alonso over the course of last summer, something monumental, and, at risk of sounding corny, something quite poetic. He was hurt at Benitez’s willingness to send him on his way, having been seen as part of the Benitez ‘core’ from early on in Rafa’s reign. He was probably stung that he wasn’t first choice for a triumphant Spain team at the European Championships. He was probably worried that Juventus and Arsenal were the only clubs in for him, and even then they weren’t willing to give us more than £15 million. Whatever happened to his psyche over those long, uncertain summer days, Xabi Alonso underwent a sea-change which breathed fresh life into a stalling Benitez team and provided momentum for the campaign ahead.
It has been Alonso at the heart of our team this season. Forget Torres and Gerrard for a moment (I know they’re vital), and consider that they were injured for long spells. If Gerrard is Liverpool’s engine, and Carra our heart, then Alonso has to be considered our brains. But it’s a brain with braun, guile and hard work at its centre. With Mascherano intercepting, tackling and generally bullying opposition players who are twice his size, Alonso uses the space provided by his partner to create a samba rhythm, a tempo which then runs through the rest of the team. When he doesn’t play, it really upsets the balance of the XI. There is no rhythm or cleverness in the middle, just the running and steady passing of Lucas and Mascherano. Balls don’t get sprayed out to the flanks so often, opposition teams aren’t stretched so much. We just aren’t the same team without Alonso. He has become a better player than he ever was in his first season, and surely now one of the top ten midfielders in world football.
And yet his future is also unsure. He is keeping his mouth shut in the media, doing little to comfort us and persuade us of his dedication and commitment to the cause. Benitez is saying things like “We don’t want to sell Xabi, that is clear” - and we all know that a quote like that from Rafa means nothing other than “We may have to sell Xabi if an offer comes in and he asks to leave.” Perhaps this is Alonso’s way of punishing the manager for showing so little faith in his ability last summer: Sod you, I’m off to Spain or Italy, enjoy the rain Rafa. Maybe he’s just had enough of Liverpool, or thinks the Benitez project is going nowhere.
Obviously none of us know what’s going through Xabi’s mind right now. But his performances against Newcastle and Tottenham towards the end of the season only confirmed that he’s the player responsible for making Anfield a great place to watch quality football again. Barry pails in comparison to him. If we sell Alonso, we won’t win the league for years.
So Benitez has a job on his hands. He’s got to deal with the Dutch £11.5 million protege he invested in and juggle the task of keeping Xabi sweet whilst looking at possible replacements and other squad re-inforcements. What to do with Dossena, Degen, Lucas, Leto, El Zhar? Do we need a back-up striker in case of (probable) injury to Torres? Do we need a new centre back in light of Sami’s departure? Is Tevez the right man, or is it Silva? Is Glen Johnson worth £5 million let alone £15?
It’s going to be an interesting summer; whether Rafa gets it right or not will ultimately decide who takes home the Premier League trophy next May.
Firstly, let me congratulate Manchester United’s manager, players and fans on finally matching our record of 18 top flight league titles. If I didn’t do that then I might sound a little bitter throughout the rest of this article, because what I’d like to do secondly is establish why it is that people hate Man United as a club so much – and no, it isn’t ‘just because they win’, contrary to what you might think.
Obviously, Liverpool fans hate United because they’re our biggest rivals and have been for many years; but the hatred levels shown towards Chelsea, Everton and Arsenal are nothing compared to the animosity we have for the Mancs. Absolutely nothing. There are so many reasons for this that to attempt an exhaustive list would be futile, but taking a few of the most recent and nauseating instances of United’s extreme arrogance and hypocrisy might allow us to explore the hatred just a little bit.
A few weeks ago was the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy, and say what you will about Liverpool fans, Heysel, and all of the other historically controversial moments which have shaped this club, there can be no denying that, for those few April days, respect and solidarity were owed to those who lost loved ones on that day. It was a beautiful week in many ways, with a moving ceremony and a lot of very kind, thoughtful words being said by people up and down the country, even those not normally involved in the footballing world.
At the same time, Alex Ferguson was preparing to launch a pre-meditated and public attack on Rafael Benitez’s moral standards. It concerned the infamous ‘gesture’ Rafa made to Xabi Alonso after the midfield playmaker apparently ignored his manager’s instructions to play a free kick short. Was Ferguson there in the dugout, was he even at Anfield? No. Did the incident concern him or his team at all? No. Did he have any evidence that Benitez meant the gesture as an arrogant ‘game over’ signal aimed at Allardyce and Blackburn? No. Did Allardyce say anything about the incident until Ferguson raised the matter? Did he mention it in his post-game drink with Sammy Lee? Did the TV cameras show Benitez to be targeting his opponents in any way?
Did Sam Allardyce once bring a reserve keeper on to play up front in an FA Cup game that he judged his Bolton side to have already comfortably won? Yes, he did.
Allardyce is a disgusting person but by far the worse of the two evils here is Ferguson. He said that Benitez had shown ‘contempt’ for his opponents with the gesture. Well, let’s talk about contempt Mr Ferguson.
Do you think that nobody is watching when you run around like a drunken hooligan, waving your arms and swearing at the 4th official just because a decision didn’t go your way? What about your team’s nasty and well-known habit of surrounding the referee? What about your assistant’s accusation last year that the referee of your FA Cup game against Portsmouth was bent, just because he didn’t give you the decisions that you wanted? What about your deliberate lies to the media about your club’s level of spending compared to Liverpool’s? What about your childish refusal to speak to the BBC on account of the fact that they included your son in a documentary about dodgy agents? Not to be forgotten was your refusal to fulfil your media obligations to Sky Sports – the company responsible for the wealth of your club – because they dared to insist that one of your games be played at 12.45 instead of 3 o clock (this was in accordance with official police recommendations).
And last week, after your side scored a late goal against Wigan, your player Patrice Evra made a gesture which – and this time it was certainly clear – was meant to mock Benitez and imply that the league was ‘all over’. By the way, the league wasn’t over at that point – the Mancs needed Saturday’s bland 0-0 home draw to Arsenal to confirm that. Contempt? Anyone?
Ferguson has been anxious about Liverpool this year. He made remarks earlier this season which ruled us out as serious contenders, despite our strong start. Benitez stepped in soon after and gave his legendary Ferguson lecture, a moment which has wrongly been labelled a rant and which, actually, revealed an awful lot of truths concerning the ‘untouchable’ status that the United manager has deliberately built for himself over his many years in charge. We proceeded to push United to the 37th game of the season, beating them twice, scoring more goals and losing fewer games, leaving them to rely on some excellent defending and some dubious refereeing decisions to win the league.
They won the league because they managed to nick goals in the home games which saw us drawing. They got more points over 9 months and they are therefore rightly champions. But when Benitez beats them to the title next year, it will be every bit as impressive an achievement as Ferguson’s first title win with United – if not more so. Ferguson has a centre back who cost more than our entire defensive squad put together; he has a £30 million striker in Berbatov, a £27 million striker in Rooney and the ability to spend £30 million combined on young lads like Anderson and Nani. Benitez meanwhile has built a team out of dependable players like Alonso, Agger, Skrtel, Reina, Kuyt and Riera without spending small fortunes on each one. His record signing, Torres, was only £20 million and has been much better value than Berbatov. Mascherano, at £18 million, is better than both Carrick (£15 million plus) and Hargreaves (£18 million plus).
Nobody seems to give Rafa the credit he deserves for simply managing to build a title-challenging side at a time when Ferguson is cash-rich and well-established and Chelsea have Russian billions in the bank. Liverpool also manage to play quite nice football – something else that the commentators tend to ignore. We’re no Barcelona but we’re certainly better than Chelsea to look at.
Football in general is not enough to make me angry; it’s the characters and forces involved in the game which get me livid. If Ferguson and United’s behaviour had been different, even for this one season, I’d have accepted them winning the title in a much more gracious fashion. But as it is, their lack of humility and respect for others just drives me on; along with a love of Liverpool FC, it’s what keeps me going, keeps me paying for my season ticket every year. We’ll get that title back from Man United next season, that’s what I believe; and when we do it, it will be as respectable, popular champions, and our manager will show anything but contempt in victory. But – and this is the key - even if we don’t win, all of the respect and honour will still be on our side.
And that’s why I’m proud to be a long-suffering Liverpool fan.
It saddened me greatly that in a week which saw the 20th Anniversary of Hillsborough marked poignantly by people far and wide, a dishonest and frankly ridiculous accusation was hurled in the face of Liverpool’s manager Rafa Benitez. Not only that, but the attack also appeared to have been pre-arranged by new best buddies Alex Ferguson and ‘Big’ Sam Allardyce, a pair who have had a less than romantic history with Benitez during his tenure in England.
The most galling and sickening thing is that both men knew exactly what they were doing: they had decided to launch a pointless and finally fruitless attack on a club which was essentially mourning the loss of 96 of its fans. Ferguson perhaps wanted to do it to put Liverpool off, to distract us even further from the title race; and that he sunk so low, unfortunately, does not surprise me one bit.
But Allardyce, whose worst run-in with Benitez came when Rafa rightly accused his Bolton team of being a bullying, rule-breaking troupe which relied on dirty tricks for its victories, genuinely shocked me by going public with his ‘concerns’. OK Sam, so Rafa never turns up for your post-game drink at Anfield; get over it. He doesn’t like you. If anything, you proved him right by ludicrously playing Chris Samba, a lumbering giant of a centre-back, in the striker’s role in order to physically out-do our defence. Benni McCarthy would surely have been disgusted by such antics from a supposedly top-flight football team. And your complete lack of tactical nous was exposed when Agger and Carragher dealt comfortably with your ingenious little ploy.
Allardyce’s shocking stint at Newcastle ended prematurely because their fans were appalled at how little football he was happy for his team to play. He is a no-mark, as both a manager and a person, as was proved by his outburst about Benitez’s hand gesture – which, by the way, was very clearly to his own player. It was actually one of the most animated things he has ever done after a Liverpool goal; normally what you see is a man attempting to work out what to do next, because if there’s anything Benitez always does, it is respect the ability of the opposition.
I’m glad that Rafa sent Sammy Lee to talk about Allardyce at the subsequent press conference, although the Blackburn boss had yet another moan about that fact in the newspapers the next day. Benitez has been too involved in the media this year and how much it has helped the team’s progress has to be questioned.
But if there’s one thing we know for sure after the ‘gesture’ row, it is that Allardyce has written himself into a place alongside Ferguson as a hate figure with Liverpool fans – and as he’ll soon find out, we don’t forget things like this lightly.