Liverpool FC Forum

by **ssss** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 7:57 am

Not sure if you guys have read this or if its been posted here before...but great article!!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspa...1400039,00.html

JONATHAN NORTHCROFT
Liverpool;s new manager and his predecessor are like chalk and cheese. Now even the fans are singing Rafa;s praises

Managers, like players, can have goal celebration routines. When Manchester United score, Sir Alex Ferguson will grab the shoulder of the person next to him. When Celtic hit the net, Martin O;Neill hits the deck, skipping up the touchline in a mad-eyed jig. Rafael Benitez likes to purse his lips and pause for thought.

It is not the most conventional of way of celebrating triumph. The Spaniard may have been the only Liverpool man inside Anfield not overwhelmed by joy when Neil Mellor volleyed in the team;s second goal against Olympiakos on Wednesday &; the strike which, with just 10 minutes remaining, swung the pendulum towards the home side. Instead, Benitez made his stern face and peered at his watch. He did something similar when Mellor scored Liverpool;s even more dramatic stoppage-time winner against Arsenal 10 days previously

When we scored against Arsenal, everyone was jumping up and down, but I was calm. After, my wife said, Why weren&;t you jumping? but in that moment (there were 10 seconds remaining) I was thinking whether I could make a couple of substitutions to waste some time, Benitez explained. &;My job is to ignore everything else and make decisions.;

With Michael Owen leaving, Steven Gerrard manoeuvring, directors warring, debts accruing and injured players multiplying, goodness knows there have been distractions at Liverpool since Benitez arrived. Yet he is doing his job. During his six months on Merseyside, ignoring everything and making decisions is something he has pulled off with the stoic courage and clear focus of a surgeon in a war zone. He is an unusual manager, not a firebrand like Ferguson, a scientist like Arsène Wenger or a fount of charisma like Jose Mourinho. Yet he is transforming Liverpool. In his low-key resilience and unemotional strength, the anxiety-racked football club has found a balm.

Gerard Houllier could be neurotic, and his team overreacted to setbacks. Under the Frenchman, Liverpool once endured a set of 35 games in which they conceded the first goal and recovered to win just once. The Reds have overturned an initial deficit to emerge victorious four times already under Benitez, and no feat of recovery has been greater than Wednesdays. At 1-0 down and with 11 Olympiakos players behind the ball, they required three goals to stay in the Champions League. Not only was £10m at stake from prize and television money for reaching the next round, but Gerrard had made it clear that getting there was a minimum requirement for him to remain at Anfield past the end of the campaign.

Such pressures do not faze Benitez.The most important thing you can do (as a manager) is not be afraid, he says. He was willing to entrust his destiny to a pair of kids, sending Florent Sinama Pongolle on for a defender at half-time and acting with equal boldness when he replaced his main striker, Milan Baros, with Mellor 13 minutes from time. Scoring apart, Mellor set up Gerrards golden goal, while Pongolle, as well as scoring, proved to be a puzzle the Greek opposition could not solve.

I really cannot speak highly enough of Benitez. The thing that has stood out for me is his willingness to make positional changes for the good of the team says Kenny Dalglish. That takes real bravery for a manager, because you know if it doesnt work out, the critics will seize on that decision.

Liverpool have been inconsistent this campaign and are likely to remain so for some time, as part of the natural process of a new side trying to find its way under a new manager. But Olympiakos confirmed what the Arsenal victory suggested: things are coming together. I bet the second half of the season for us will be better than the first; says Sami Hyypia.

After Wednesdays marvel, Benitez, asked whether he had ever been involved in such a triumph, replied: In the Champions League, no, which was a polite reminder that in his career overall, this 44-year-old is no stranger to glory. I am very young for a manager, but I have experience was the modest observation of a man who twice led Valencia to Spanish League titles over mighty Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The players at Anfield confide that once the dressing room door is closed, their manager is anything but meek and mild. Understated self-confidence and unbreakable positivity is his way. The gaffer has told me just to go out and enjoy my football and do my best, says Mellor. I still have 2 years on my contract and he said thats a lot of time to improve my game, and thats what I want to do. Benitez is one of the top European managers, and for him to come in and tell me to believe in myself has given me a big lift.

The last months been great for me, Mellor adds. I remember my dad driving me away in tears after Manchester City released me when I was 16, thinking my football dream was over, but the dream is alive again now.

Liverpools reserve coaches and academy staff complain that Houllier would ignore young players, but as well as Mellor and Pongolle, Benitez is fostering such talents as Stephen Warnock, John Welsh, Darren Potter and David Raven. Asked how many players he needs to bring in to raise Liverpool to the standard he wants, the manager replies: It depends on our reserve players.

His instinct is make do with what you;ve got. In the face of Owens unplanned-for departure and injuries to nine senior players this season, Benitez has got on with business. Ignore everything. Make decisions.

There could be no worse blow than losing Gerrard, but Benitez would try to find a way to cope. Despite the glory of his goal and the impact of a performance imbued with dynamism, Gerrard was not acclaimed unquestioningly by Liverpool supporters after Olympiakos. On website message boards and radio phone-ins, fans have been taking issue with the captains destabilising decision to signal his intention to leave next summer if Liverpool do not start;moving forward and doing well. It was a vague statement at a pre-match press conference, and it led some to think of specifics, such as the £120,000-a-week contract Chelsea are willing to put in front of the midfielder.

After the match, Liverpool having patently moved forward, Gerrard still said:You never know; when asked about leaving. Only last week he was saying the mooted departure of David Moores, Liverpools chairman, might make him reconsider his own position. As one supporter writing to the Liverpool Echo asked, what stay-or-go dilemma will Gerrard wrestle with next? Progressing to the Champions Leagues last 16 should at least see Gerrard staying through next months transfer window. Whether starting in central midfield, as against Olympiakos, or behind a striker, as in the Arsenal game, Benitez has given him what amounts to a free role, and the boldness of Liverpools recent football is manna to their followers. When Josemi came on for Steve Finnan with five minutes remaining, Benitez held up two fingers to tell his team to go to two at the back and play with two banks of four attacking players. Within a minute, Gerrard had scored.

A bond is developing between the manager and the fans. They are singing my name and they are even changing the song. I hope in five years and they ll have many songs for me. Benitez said. Liverpool ignored a notice of interest from Mourinho in order to pursue Benitez, and it is questionable whether Mourinho, Ferguson, Wenger or anybody else could be doing more to restore the club than its smiling, stoic Spaniard.

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