Liverpool FC Forum

by **kazza** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:28 am

ON THE RISE
The Times

The Liverpool manager shows little emotion, but his players have demonstrated plenty of heart in Europe, writes Jonathan Northcroft

They went through their songbook: Fields Of Anfield Road, Are You Watching Manchester? and, prompted by the stadium DJ, You'll Never Walk Alone. As the Liverpool fans capered, Rafael Benitez sidled on to the BayArena pitch.

Montse Benitez is always scolding her husband for looking so stiff when he is at work. Even with Liverpool through to the Champions League quarter-finals, and Leverkusen in wreckage, he seemed no more exuberant than a Castilian accountant who had just found a nifty way of writing off a certain outgoing against tax. Yet as the singing swelled, he permitted himself a celebration. First Benitez waved, and then - go on, Rafa, be a devil - made a timid punch in the air. This was the same bloke who had walked, shrugging and unassuming, into an Irish bar full of startled Liverpool supporters to watch the Manchester United game on television in Cologne the previous night.

He could not be more of a contrast with the histrionic "Special One" of Stamford Bridge. And yet Benitez, with rather less of the drama, matches Jose Mourinho step for step in this season's European Cup. When Liverpool fans turned their chant of "We've only won it four times" into "We're gonna win it five times" as full-time approached on Wednesday, there was no impulse to rush to a bookmakers to express agreement with them, but strange things are happening in the competition for the second season running.

"I don't think the best side in Europe wins the Champions League most years," said Jamie Carragher. "Porto weren't the best last season. We've an outside chance, but we can win it." Carragher was not being positive for the sake of it. "Over a full league season the best team obviously wins, but this is a knockout competition. Overall, it comes down to the draw. In the last 16 you looked at some of the ties and realised major teams were going out. The top sides were playing each other and half of them had to go. The samecould happen again in the next round."

Liverpool are closer in terms of points to the bottom of the Premiership than the top of it and could not score over two games of league football against Birmingham. That such a side might become champions of Europe remains improbable, but not impossible. History suggests that recent league form means less than a club ?s overall European pedigree.

Chelsea might consider that there has only been one first-time winner of the European Cup - Borussia Dortmund - in the past 11 years. Liverpool, fifth in the Premiership, can note that only twice since 1999 has the team winning the European Cup also won its domestic league. AC Milan finished a distant third in Serie A when they were European champions in 2003. Real Madrid were third in La Liga when they won in 2002 and fifth when they won in 2000. The examples of sides reaching the semi-finals despite indifferent domestic seasons are numerous. Harry Kewell, if he ever gets up from his sickbed, could regale the Anfield dressing room about Leeds's journey into the last four in 2001.

In 2003 Valencia outgunned Arsenal, before they were denied a place in the semi- finals by away goals and some outrageous fortune for Internazionale. This despite a Spanish league campaign in which they finished fifth and were dogged by transfer mistakes and internal strife. Benitez was their manager then. He may look wide-eyed, but he has seen it all before. Why have Liverpool been better in the Champions than the English league? "Maybe it's the manager's experience in Europe," Carragher suggested. "He's never needed to get to grips with it, whereas the Premiership's a new thing to him. It's the same for many of the players he's brought in. Maybe they're all better suited to the European game."

It may be the case with Luis Garcia. For all his talents, against defenders in England Garcia can seemas easily bullied as that other famous Barcelonian, Manuel of Fawlty Towers. In Europe, where referees offer greater protection, and opponents less aggression, he is less fragile. Garcia's record of three goals in seven Champions League appearances compares favourably to his five strikes in 24 domestic games since arriving at Anfield. Both his goals against Leverkusen on Wednesday came from deft flicks, and his clever run and confident finish opened the scoring at Anfield in the first leg and set the tone for the tie.

"It's amazing," Garcia said of the difference between Liverpool's Premiership and European League form. "The truth is the competitions are a bit different, and that might be the explanation. Champions League nights are special. I signed for five years, but when I run out at Anfield on a European night, I'd sign for two more seasons if it was offered there and then."

He admits taking longer to feel comfortable in domestic football. "In an early game, away at Manchester United, Rio Ferdinand kicked me with all his power the first time the ball got close. I flew one metre high, and when I landed, he muttered, 'Welcome to the Premiership'. In midfield it's like a wrestling match. It is very different from football in Spain. The refs allow much more physical contact, there are not so many cards, although sometimes defenders get away with murder. Also, in England, teams are not shy about attacking. It is great for the fans."

Although Liverpool have not built on previous Champions League results (an insipid defeat to Everton three days after their triumph over Olympiakos in December was especially galling for fans) Garcia hopes, with another Mersey derby to play next Sunday, that Wednesday can have a positive effect. "It (the Leverkusen game) was one of the most important matches I have played, and I think to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League is an important achievement of any team. A result like this makes the team better and gives us the incentive to keep working hard in the Premiership. In the Champions League we'll take anyone in the next round. The most important thing is, we have confidence in ourselves. I think we could surprise many this year."

Garcia likens what he sees as slow but sure progress to the steady improvement Benitez effected at Tenerife, where they also worked. "Liverpool have been right in giving Rafa Benitez total control of the football aspects of the club. He has shown he is a fantastic coach at all levels - signing players, physical training, tactics. We are improving our defensive movements and we are about to become very competitive."

As recently as 1995, when he finally became a full-time football coach, in charge of Real Valladolid, Benitez was still working part-time in a Madrid health club where he was a fitness trainer and gymnasium staff manager. He has a PE degree and his approach to physical preparation is one factor that could prove Garcia right. Benitez's Valencia were famous for their power and stamina, and Liverpool players have been taken aback by the number of double training sessions and hard conditioning routines he has insisted on. It is designed to help the team finish the season strongly. Energy, as the routine of two games a week stretches into May, becomes an ever more precious commodity the longer the European competitions progress.

Benitez took Valencia at least as far as the last eight in the Uefa Cup and Champions League in each of his three seasons there. "He proved himself by winning the Uefa Cup (last season) and doing well with Valencia in the Champions League," Carragher said. "He's relaxed and steady in the way he manages, and that can be useful on tense European nights."

Jozef Venglos, who was at the BayArena on Wednesday as a Uefa technical observer, talked admiringly of Liverpool ?s counter-attacking and "nice combinations". He was more reticent about the charms of Chelsea. Asked to dissect their conquering style,he smiled enigmatically and said: "Well, their players are running." Venglos, author of the gifted yet slightly anarchic Czechoslovakia team that achieved underdog glory in the European Championship in 1976, continues to be one of football's dreamers. Chelsea may be the more likely side from these islands to be Champions League winners come May 25, but Liverpool are the romantic's choice.

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It confirms what I believed about why the team plays better in Europe. The referees offer the players more protection, and the players are more technical than physical.

Although Bayer was not maybe the strongest team in the draw, they did manage to score three against Roma, Real and Moscow (I think). We did also let in the 2nd fewest goals in CL (second to AC). I hope the other teams want to play us, because by the time they figure they underestimated us, it will be too late. Next....

by **MilitiaRusher** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:51 am

1) Its Dinamo Kiev, not CSKA Moscow.
2) We let in 2nd fewest goals in CL, second to Juventus, not AC Milan.

by **kazza** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:14 am

Yup good knowledge, I go by memory and cannot be bothered to look it up. The point is that we are better than others think and our defence is always criticised, and there were worse teams defensively in CL than us including Manure, Arsenal and those w@nkers Chelsea.

by **el_stinger** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 2:10 pm

Love the part of Garcia likened to Manuel from Fawlty Towers lol

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Good read - Times

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