As a hardcore Liverpool fan, i'll try to give as an unbiased report as i possibly can. Ok, here goes.
TIM CAHILL DESERVES TO DIE.
See, that wasn't so hard.
There's nothing i loathe more than the sight of the "Cahill" strutting around the field with such pompus arrogance and sneakyness. He's no Jan Koller, but he is so impossibly good in the air. The countless times he was ahead of Hyypia and Skrtel in getting to the hanging air balls was mathematically improbable. He's also a pretty dastardly figure in winning freekicks, whether legal or illegally.
The game as a whole was largely a dissapointing one, not due to any lack of quality on the pitch. The blame largely goes to both managers, who sent out their teams to try and stiffle each other. Space on the pitch was at a premium, and it was no surpise that both goals didnt result from any great passing moves.
Nevertheless, the quality of the goals one of the few moments of joy for the entire 90 minutes. Gerrard's goal was typical of the man. Striding from midfield, and before he could be hacked and closed down by 3 Everton players, he lets loose a powerful grounder that the Everton keeper could do nothing about.
Everton responded a couple of minutes later. Yossi Benayoun who was just sent on to give the attack more impetus, found himself doing more defending than attacking. By and large, he did a good job against the Everton players who were doing more running and attacking once they went a goal down. However, he failed miserable at a crucial stage. The 86th minute. Victor Anichebe had switched flanks with Steven Piennar, and was desperate to get a corner in from the left side. Benayoun was having none of it and clumsily hacked him down near the corner line.
From such a dangerous angle, you could just see a goal coming. It was inevitable. Perhaps the Anfield crowd sensed it as well. Arteta stepped up to take the freekick. Everton and Liverpool player crowd the area around the goal post, trying to get an advantage. Hyypia marks Anichebe. Skrtel behind them, marks Cahill. Cahill moves in front a little to stand next to Reina. Anichebe exchanges a few words with cahill, and right before the freekick is struck, Cahill manouevers infront of Anichebe, who now blocks both Hyypia and Skrtel!
Arteta's freekick is delivered with pinpoint precision to the head of Cahill........GOAL!
Well worked goal, and its clear that Everton had practised this before, exposing a small weakness in the zonal defense method that Liverpool loves to much.
After that, it doesnt matter who was brought on or off, the game was headed to a draw, which more of less equates to dropped points for Liverpool, and hard earned points for Everton.
Liverpool fans all over the world hang their heads in despair. More dissapointment. More dropped points. We're handing the title to Manchester United. A collective sigh all around the world is enough to tilt the planet slightly off angle.
But is it all lost for Liverpool? Quite frankly, NO. Its hard to be positive, but if you would tell me at the beginning of the season that Liverpool would level on points with Manchester United at the top of the table, albeit having played a game more, i would have told you to go stuff a turkey.
There's still plenty of games to go, and anything can happen. Its a funny game. In Rafa we trust.
Showing posts with label Rafa Benitez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rafa Benitez. Show all posts
19.1.09
10.10.07
Rafa criticism just has to stop
On Saturday night a name rang around the Mastella Stadium in Valencia for the first time since May 2004. That name belonged to Rafa Benitez as the home fans sang in union "Come back Rafa, come back Rafa".
It says everything about the esteem in which the Liverpool manager is still held in Valencia that more than three years after he departed the La Liga side he remains the man the fans would love to see running their club.
With a pair of league championships and a UEFA Cup won during his stint at the Mastella we shouldn't be surprised that Benitez is still revered there.
Breaking the Real Madrid/Barcelona duoploy marks him out as an iconic figure in the Mediterranean city and seeing as the La Liga title has eluded Valencia ever since Benitez's departure it was always likely that absence would make the heart grow fonder.
In England, meanwhile, the very same Rafa Benitez is finding his ability to turn Liverpool into genuine title challengers questioned and, on occasion, his methods ridiculed whenever results go against his side and sometimes even when they don't.
The criticism of Benitez comes at a time when Liverpool are unbeaten in the league and lie just six points off first place. I repeat, when Liverpool are unbeaten in the league and just six points off first place.
The stick with which the Liverpool manager is being beaten most often is rotation. Apparently, if you listen to his critics, teams which rotate do not win the big prizes.
Well, it certainly worked in Spain so rotation cannot be dismissed as a failure all that easily.
"Ah," say the critics, "that's all well and good but football in England is different to Spain and it'll never work here".
The case for the defence could easily centre on the fact that Benitez has already guided Liverpool to domestic success in the FA Cup (not to mention that continental triviality that is the Champions League).
It might well pain him to do so, but in this case Benitez could quite easily point to Manchester United's Premiership triumph last season.
In the 2006/07 season, Sir Alex Ferguson used a total of 23 players en route to the title. At Anfield, Benitez used six more.
Significantly, five of those selected by Benitez only featured in Liverpool's last three games of the season when the focus had shifted from domestic to continental pursuits with key first team players making way for youngsters as the Champions League final loomed.
So, for the most part of the season, Benitez and Ferguson utilised squads of an almost idenitical size.
When it comes down to rotation, the two managers both made constant changes to their sides throughout the season and looked on track to record an almost identical number of changes until Liverpool secured their place in the following season's Champions League and Benitez began to make more and more changes in a bid to assess the quality of his younger squad players and the club's priority shifted to that meeting with Milan.
So, again, both Benitez and Ferguson used rotation. The difference? United won the title and Liverpool didn't.
This season, the criticism of Benitez's methods has grown more and more ridiculous with every passing week. So much so that their are now people far less qualified who feel they have the right to tell the Liverpool manager what his team should be.
Sensationalism is masquerading as analysis and it has got to stop. By all means question Rafa Benitez but it has to be done with perspective.
Trophies aren't handed out in October and we will all only know if the Reds boss' system will pay dividends come next May.
But if you have doubts about whether Benitez's methods should be accepted then consider the words of another of Valencia's favourite sons, centre forward David Villa.
In a recent interview, Villa was asked how Valencia had managed to be beaten by Chelsea in last season's Champions League quarter finals despite having gone 2-1 up on aggregate at home.
His answer was revealing: "It is very simple. We had a very small squad last season so the manager (Quique Sanchez Florez) could not rotate as much as he would have liked.
"By the end of the season we had played a lot of games, too many games, and we were tired and carrying injuries and when Chelsea came back we had nothing left to give."
It is this kind of endemic exhaustion that Benitez is trying to avoid at Anfield.
Rotation is new to the English game and in a country as insular and naturally conservative as this one it was always going to be viewed with suspicion.
But it is all too easy to blame all a club's ills on a selection process when results go against it. When Liverpool were beaten by Marseilles last week the usual suspects again argued that the defeat was caused by rotation.
This was despite the fact that physically the Liverpool players were at their highest level for several weeks. They were fresh and the occasional rests they had been given were the reason for this.
The problem was, their physical attributes were fatally undermined by a lack of confidence which meant their technical and tactical skills simply did not function.
It was a bad, bad performance but to lay the blame for it at the door of rotation is lazy in the extreme.
Just three seasons ago, the very same critics claimed that every single goal Liverpool conceded from a set piece was caused by this new fangled zonal marking system that Benitez had brought with him from Valencia.
Now, no-one even talks about it. The reason why? Liverpool hardly ever concede a goal from a set piece anymore while other teams which use more traditional man-to-man marking systems continue to concede them on a much more regular basis.
So the message is simple - support the manager and support his methods. Let the critics have their say but never lose sight of the fact that we have one of the most tactically astute coaches in European football who has a record of success that few can get near and most envy.
Oh, and his Liverpool team is still unbeaten in the Premiership as autumn kicks in.
Those fans at the Mastella know all too well that Benitez is a special manager - that's why they still sing his name - so let him get on with the job in hand at Anfield and let's see where we end up in May.
(Courtesy: www.liverpoolfc.tv)
It says everything about the esteem in which the Liverpool manager is still held in Valencia that more than three years after he departed the La Liga side he remains the man the fans would love to see running their club.
With a pair of league championships and a UEFA Cup won during his stint at the Mastella we shouldn't be surprised that Benitez is still revered there.
Breaking the Real Madrid/Barcelona duoploy marks him out as an iconic figure in the Mediterranean city and seeing as the La Liga title has eluded Valencia ever since Benitez's departure it was always likely that absence would make the heart grow fonder.
In England, meanwhile, the very same Rafa Benitez is finding his ability to turn Liverpool into genuine title challengers questioned and, on occasion, his methods ridiculed whenever results go against his side and sometimes even when they don't.
The criticism of Benitez comes at a time when Liverpool are unbeaten in the league and lie just six points off first place. I repeat, when Liverpool are unbeaten in the league and just six points off first place.
The stick with which the Liverpool manager is being beaten most often is rotation. Apparently, if you listen to his critics, teams which rotate do not win the big prizes.
Well, it certainly worked in Spain so rotation cannot be dismissed as a failure all that easily.
"Ah," say the critics, "that's all well and good but football in England is different to Spain and it'll never work here".
The case for the defence could easily centre on the fact that Benitez has already guided Liverpool to domestic success in the FA Cup (not to mention that continental triviality that is the Champions League).
It might well pain him to do so, but in this case Benitez could quite easily point to Manchester United's Premiership triumph last season.
In the 2006/07 season, Sir Alex Ferguson used a total of 23 players en route to the title. At Anfield, Benitez used six more.
Significantly, five of those selected by Benitez only featured in Liverpool's last three games of the season when the focus had shifted from domestic to continental pursuits with key first team players making way for youngsters as the Champions League final loomed.
So, for the most part of the season, Benitez and Ferguson utilised squads of an almost idenitical size.
When it comes down to rotation, the two managers both made constant changes to their sides throughout the season and looked on track to record an almost identical number of changes until Liverpool secured their place in the following season's Champions League and Benitez began to make more and more changes in a bid to assess the quality of his younger squad players and the club's priority shifted to that meeting with Milan.
So, again, both Benitez and Ferguson used rotation. The difference? United won the title and Liverpool didn't.
This season, the criticism of Benitez's methods has grown more and more ridiculous with every passing week. So much so that their are now people far less qualified who feel they have the right to tell the Liverpool manager what his team should be.
Sensationalism is masquerading as analysis and it has got to stop. By all means question Rafa Benitez but it has to be done with perspective.
Trophies aren't handed out in October and we will all only know if the Reds boss' system will pay dividends come next May.
But if you have doubts about whether Benitez's methods should be accepted then consider the words of another of Valencia's favourite sons, centre forward David Villa.
In a recent interview, Villa was asked how Valencia had managed to be beaten by Chelsea in last season's Champions League quarter finals despite having gone 2-1 up on aggregate at home.
His answer was revealing: "It is very simple. We had a very small squad last season so the manager (Quique Sanchez Florez) could not rotate as much as he would have liked.
"By the end of the season we had played a lot of games, too many games, and we were tired and carrying injuries and when Chelsea came back we had nothing left to give."
It is this kind of endemic exhaustion that Benitez is trying to avoid at Anfield.
Rotation is new to the English game and in a country as insular and naturally conservative as this one it was always going to be viewed with suspicion.
But it is all too easy to blame all a club's ills on a selection process when results go against it. When Liverpool were beaten by Marseilles last week the usual suspects again argued that the defeat was caused by rotation.
This was despite the fact that physically the Liverpool players were at their highest level for several weeks. They were fresh and the occasional rests they had been given were the reason for this.
The problem was, their physical attributes were fatally undermined by a lack of confidence which meant their technical and tactical skills simply did not function.
It was a bad, bad performance but to lay the blame for it at the door of rotation is lazy in the extreme.
Just three seasons ago, the very same critics claimed that every single goal Liverpool conceded from a set piece was caused by this new fangled zonal marking system that Benitez had brought with him from Valencia.
Now, no-one even talks about it. The reason why? Liverpool hardly ever concede a goal from a set piece anymore while other teams which use more traditional man-to-man marking systems continue to concede them on a much more regular basis.
So the message is simple - support the manager and support his methods. Let the critics have their say but never lose sight of the fact that we have one of the most tactically astute coaches in European football who has a record of success that few can get near and most envy.
Oh, and his Liverpool team is still unbeaten in the Premiership as autumn kicks in.
Those fans at the Mastella know all too well that Benitez is a special manager - that's why they still sing his name - so let him get on with the job in hand at Anfield and let's see where we end up in May.
(Courtesy: www.liverpoolfc.tv)
28.9.07
Benitez looks at 'bigger picture' in rotation row
Fernando Torres has only been a Liverpool player for three months, yet he has already learned not to attempt to second guess the team selection of manager Rafael Benitez.
Four days after scoring his first hat-trick in a Liverpool shirt during the 4-2 Carling Cup victory at Reading, the Spanish forward will have to wait until 1.55pm today before discovering whether he has done enough to retain his place when Benitez pins his starting eleven on the board for the Premier League encounter with Wigan Athletic at the JJB Stadium.
Torres, the £26.5m summer signing from Atletico Madrid, has made a seamless transition to life in the Premiership having previously spent his entire career in La Liga, but the club's record signing is not safe from Benitez's tinkering.
Benitez is understood to be preparing for Torres to partner Dirk Kuyt this afternoon, but having omitted the 23-year-old from his team against Birmingham City last Saturday, when Steve Bruce's team emerged from Anfield with a 0-0 draw, nothing can be taken for granted.
Last Saturday's team selection, strongly criticised by supporters, appeared to backfire with Liverpool failing to score for a second successive league game. But Benitez insists that he has no regrets over his decision and that it was a statement of Liverpool's intent this season.
Benitez said: "As a manager, you need to see the bigger picture and think about the whole season. If we need to use our big names in every game at Anfield against teams like Birmingham, then maybe we won't be good enough to win trophies at the end of the season. If you say to me that I would have had to play Torres to be capable of beating Birmingham, then I'd say that we couldn't win the league.
"Sometimes I will make mistakes, but I was 100 per cent sure it wasn't a mistake not to play Torres against Birmingham. Kuyt and [Andriy] Voronin had been playing well, and at home at Anfield against Birmingham, I thought we had enough to win.
"Why are we talking about Torres now and weren't when Kuyt and Voronin were scoring in the Champions League? The answer is because we were winning those games. We're only talking about Torres not playing because we drew with Portsmouth and Birmingham."
Unbeaten so far this season, Liverpool have made their best start since Benitez's arrival from Valencia three years ago. Although Liverpool have finished strongly in each of their last three seasons, which two Champions League Finals and an FA Cup win underline, Benitez's reluctance to play a settled team in the early months has not helped the club's league form.
The Spaniard appears to have found the correct blend this year, but he insists that April and May, and not August and September, are the months that matter.
Benitez said: "I've done the same for seven years now and we've been winning trophies. The last 10 games of the season are probably the most important and you won't win anything if your players aren't physically ready.
"Torres can play 20 or 30 games in a row without any problem, but he won't be at the same level in the last few months of the season when we hope to be playing for trophies.
"We've played a final at the end of each season I've been here. Why? Because we've had a big squad without maybe as many bigger players as we have now, and were going into games with fresh legs. That proves that the system can work."
Rafa wants Torres protection talk, not rotation talk
Rafa Benitez insists English football needs to clamp down on the heavy handed approach to Fernando Torres.
The Liverpool manager has been angered by the rough treatment dished out to Torres in the Reds' midweek Carling Cup victory over Reading.
Torres scored a hat-trick in Liverpool's 4-2 victory over the Royals, but Benitez's striking ace was on the receiving end of some robust challenges from Reading centre-backs Michael Duberry and Andre Bikey.
Recent football discussion has been on the subject of Torres' constant rotation from the Liverpool starting XI, but Benitez is adamant attention must turn to protection of the Premier League's stars.
"What puzzles me is why people are talking all the time about Torres when he plays, when they should surely be talking about how we can protect him when he plays," said Benitez.
"There was lots of talk about how Torres coped so well with the kicking he received, but why aren't people saying that kicking was wrong.
"I'm surprised people aren't talking about the need to protect players of quality because if we want to see exciting matches with real quality for the fans then we must ensure the quality players are allowed to play, and not kicked out of it.
"With Torres defenders feel they have to stop him by kicking him and it's up to the officials to stop that.
"I won't comment on the referee at Reading, but you could see yourself. He (Torres) was kicked badly in the first minute, it was a challenge that could have kept him out for a month."
24.9.07
Rafa blames England for Gerrard slump
Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez believes Steven Gerrard is paying the price for his recent outings with England.
Gerrard played in both Euro 2008 qualifying wins over Israel and Russia, despite being a doubt with a broken toe.
And Benitez told the Liverpool Echo: "It could be that playing twice for England has had an impact.
"They (England) knew (what I felt about him playing in both games) - but everyone was talking about how important this situation was for England."
Liverpool need their captain fit and fresh to maintain title challenge
Gerrard came off with cramp after 71 minutes in the win over Israel before playing the full game when Russia lost at Wembley four days later.
Since his return from international duty, the 27-year-old midfielder has seemed to be struggling for top form, while Liverpool have failed to impress in goalless draws against Portsmouth and Birmingham.
Gerrard came on as a substitute in the 0-0 draw at Fratton Park but started last week's 1-1 draw with Porto in the Champions League as well as Saturday's Anfield clash against Birmingham.
Benitez added: "His national team is England but it is clear that these players cannot play every game for 90 minutes.
"Gerrard was not 100 per-cent physically fresh, I don't mean fit but fresh.
"In these kind of games you need to keep the tempo really high and if you play too many games in a row for 90 minutes, especially if you are not fit then normally you have problems."
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