by red37 » Tue Nov 14, 2006 11:26 pm
this from The Times online echoes some of the points ive made above.
The maddening mystery of Benítez’s true personality is becoming an Anfield liability
By Matt Dickinson
THE more we see and hear from Rafael Benítez, the less we understand him. It is not only his team selections — the head-spinning rotation — but the man himself. He is into his third season at Liverpool and not even his players comprehend this Madrileño and his cold manner.
While Arsène Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson and José Mourinho reveal a little of themselves every time they appear in public, a press conference is the last place to try to seek the real Benítez. After Sunday’s thrashing by Arsenal, he continued his one-man campaign to revive one of football’s greatest clichés: “We are taking it one game at a time.”
What we do know is that he was a sensible choice, ahead of Alan Curbishley, when Liverpool went searching for a manager in the summer of 2004. The former Charlton Athletic man has his qualities, but it is hard to envisage him inspiring his team to come from 3-0 down to overcome AC Milan in the Champions League final.
Benítez had built an excellent CV at Valencia and taking the European Cup and FA Cup to Anfield is a decent yield, considering, as the Spaniard is not shy of pointing out in private, that his transfer budget is more Tottenham Hotspur than Chelsea.
We strongly suspect that one of Europe’s more astute managers is in our midst, which makes it all the more baffling when we see some of his team selections. Stranger still when we learn that he has the respect of his players but little else. Certainly nothing that could be mistaken for warmth.
Benítez carries too much authority, and has too many medals, for rebellion to break out in the Liverpool dressing-room, but the grumbles have been growing louder. Friends of the Spaniard say that it has never been his way to indulge his players. Those methods have brought him success, but there has been evidence that he needs to reconsider the cold-freezer approach to man-management.
He may be interested to know that, despite Ferguson’s reputation as the master blaster, the Manchester United manager claims to spend all week praising his players in training to build up their confidence for match day. It is only when they do not perform then that he wields the hairdryer.
Benítez is unstinting in his praise, but there is a thin line between driving your players to prove themselves and making them resentful. Particularly when some are perplexed by a rotation policy and his habit of preparing one team and making eleventh-hour changes.
Among those who are suffering is Craig Bellamy, who looked an excellent purchase when he was snapped up from Blackburn Rovers in the summer. Benítez has seemingly done the impossible and not only taken the nastiness, but also the effectiveness out of the Welsh fire-starter.
Then there is the long- running debate over Steven Gerrard that so infuriates Benítez. So much so that he kept his captain out on the right flank at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, if only to prove the point that he does not listen to popular demands.
Gerrard sulked and you can ask whether the blame is with the player for getting stroppy or with his manager for not foreseeing the problem. Either way, it has not done anything to help a team who lie 14 points off the top of the table, below Wigan Athletic, and would happily settle for a fourth-place finish after expectations that they would challenge for the title.
Perhaps, coming from a background as a failed footballer, Benítez worries that he would surrender authority if he was to go soft on his players, or perhaps he is simply aloof as a person. The Spaniard is not about to open up to tell us, so the Anfield mystery deepens. Given that he has never spent more than three years in any job, we will probably be none the wiser on the day he departs.
TITANS of HOPE
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by 115-1073096938 » Sun Jan 18, 2004 2:26 am