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Guradian 14 April by Sean Ingle:

"In defence of Benítez"

By guiding Liverpool's rag-tag mob into the last four of the Champions League, Rafa Benítez has done the unimaginable, argues Sean Ingle

Thursday April 14, 2005


The Rafalution is gathering pace (Getty)

It was only in the dry, fussy heat of mid-summer that Rafa Benítez realised quite what he was getting into at Liverpool. Throughout the early days of pre-season training he had watched, with increasing befuddlement, as his squad [admittedly without its siesta-ing Euro 2004 stars] utterly failed to master some of the most basic drills he'd used at Valencia.
Benítez, one of the game's realists, knew that rebuilding Liverpool would take time. But he wasn't quite expecting the football equivalent of Scrapheap Challenge.


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Nine months on, and that same Liverpool squad - with a few minor adjustments - have boisterously barged into the semi-finals of the Champions League. So it's high time Benítez was lauded for one of the finest achievements by a Premiership manager in recent times. And no, that isn't an exaggeration. (Or, before you ask, a classic case of journalistic bandwagon-jumping).
Just look at some of the players in Liverpool's starting XI in Turin. Jerzy Dudek, whose fumbling fingers have gifted goals by the gazillion in recent seasons. Djimi Traore, who gives the impression that the ball could run under his studs every time he tries to trap it. The fitful Igor Biscan. And Milan Baros, a head-down forward with all the spatial awareness of the late Ray Charles.

And yet, Benítez - who cleverly switched tactics to 3-5-2 against Juventus to squeeze the midfield as well as to allow Xabi Alonso the freedom to ping his PlayStation passes - found a way to lead this rag-tag mob into the last four of Europe's premier club competition.

Equally impressive is how Benítez takes the rough with the smooth - never, for example, has he moaned about his long injury list (and long is probably an understatement seeing as Liverpool are currently without - deep breath - Fernando Morientes, Mauricio Pellegrino, Dietmar Hamann, Harry Kewell, Josemi, Florent Sinama-Pongolle, Chris Kirkland, Steven Gerrard and Neil Mellor - and relax).

Contrast that with Gerard Houllier's reaction every time Liverpool lost: blaming injuries, players, referees, everyone, in short, but himself. And can you imagine Sir Alex Ferguson's reaction to having such gigantic gaps in his squad before a big European tie? Icy excuses would rain down with the fury of the Lancashire skies in January.

Domestically, of course, Liverpool haven't always been pretty. In fact they've often been dire. They've lost twice to Birmingham, of all clubs, while pithy defeats against Bolton, Manchester City, Southampton and Burnley have frequently threatened to derail their season.

No wonder, then, that Benítez has suffered by comparison with the brilliant Jose Mourinho. But when Mourinho arrived at Chelsea he inherited a squad on the verge of Very Big Things, while Benítez was left with a few diamonds - one of whom, Michael Owen soon departed, while the other, Gerrard, has spent the season making frequent I-want-to-leave protestations - and a squad that was a living testament to the folly of letting Houllier loose with a chequebook.

Benítez has less of a defence domestically when compared with David Moyes, who has done an exceptional job at Everton. But he can at least point to progress: the signings of Alonso, sharp of mind and fleet of foot, and Morientes, who only needs an injury-free run to show his myriad talents. Meanwhile Jamie Carragher continues to develop into Liverpool's answer to John Terry.

Not all Benítez's signings have been as successful, admittedly. But even those who appear to be out-and-out duffers, like Pellegrino, have more than meets the eye: the Argentinian (admittedly now a shadow of the defensive brickhouse he once was) is a great organiser who - like Laurent Blanc with Mikael Silvestre at Old Trafford - has readily passed on his experience. The Liverpool coach reckons he'll develop into a great coach, too.

Such attention to detail sums up Benítez, a man who is so meticulous that he banned paella, olives and ice-cream from Valencia's pre-match meal - much to the players' disgust - in order to squeeze an extra 1% out of their performances.

It will take time to makeover this scrappy Liverpool collective into the silky Valencia side that won La Liga title twice in three years, of course, but Benítez can only work with the tools he's got.

In that respect, he deserves all the credit in the world. Mourinho will rightly win manager of the year this season, but the Liverpool coach surely deserves a place alongside Moyes on the podium too.