Liverpool FC Forum

by **stmichael** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 4:40 pm

Excellent article from today's Guardian.

Benítez relishes biggest stage

http://football.guardian.co.uk/champio....00.html

Reds manager feels at home in Europe

Dominic Fifield
Friday March 11, 2005
The Guardian

Liverpool's shuttle bus juddered to a premature halt on the tarmac at John Lennon International Airport in the small hours of yesterday, leaving tired tracksuited players cursing as the batteries drained on their iPods. Fortunately for the Merseysiders, their Champions League campaign shows little sign of breaking down just yet.
It has been an unlikely one to date. Such is the perception that Rafael Benítez's side are one of the weaker teams remaining in this competition that the seven managers who will join the Spaniard in next week's quarter-final draw will privately be hoping to be paired with the four-times European champions. Not so long ago that would have been unthinkable.

The bookies rate only PSV Eindhoven and Porto as unlikelier winners of the competition this season, though the Dutch are top of their domestic championship and the Portuguese are the holders. Liverpool's progress among the elite has been very much a surprise.
That much has dawned on the club's players, even after Wednesday's emphatic win at Bayer Leverkusen. "The best teams don't always win the Champions League," said Jamie Carragher, who has been left drawing hope from Jose Mourinho for his exploits at Porto last season. "I'd imagine every game will be tight and could go either way but, in a one-off, anything can happen.

"We will be considered outsiders in the last eight and probably rightly so because there are a lot of teams left in who are winning trophies and titles in their own countries. Milan and Chelsea will be looked upon as among the best teams in Europe. We're not up there, but we've probably done a lot more already than many people thought we would."

The current crop have yet to develop into a great team, though they may already have achieved more than Benítez could have hoped when he took over last summer. He arrived to find a squad stagnating, the impetus having long drained from Gérard Houllier's once-impressive reign. Much that the Spaniard has tried to instil since then has been subtle, reserved for the eyes of those on the training pitch. Communicating the tactical intricacies in still alien surroundings through stilted English has been problematic and results have not always been forthcoming but, on the continent, he remains in his element.

It is against European opposition that Benítez's painstaking preparation has reaped its most obvious rewards. He has benefited from a kind draw and a gargantuan performance from his best player, Steven Gerrard, when it was needed most against Olympiakos in December.

His tactics against Leverkusen nullified the Germans' threat even to the inclusion of the often wayward Igor Biscan in the middle and the incorporation of the excellent Stephen Warnock at left-back. The 23-year-old was outstanding, with Bernd Schneider, an established international, driven back into anonymity.

"We work a lot on tactics as a team, how the team is going to play and the weaknesses of our opponents," added Carragher. "We probably do more tactical work now than I have done with any manager at any level in my career. That's how he likes to do things. When he has the time to prepare the team properly you can see that it's reflected in the performances. In the first half we put in the perfect European performance."

Benítez is also publicly cautious, burying his fierce ambition under a realistic outlook. He, more than anyone, knows where Liverpool could be found wanting, which explains his growing exasperation at Harry Kewell's absence, apparently through injury.

His squad is stripped of many of its attacking options in Europe and the defence has occasionally imploded. To be contemplating a quarter-final - even if it be against Juventus 20 years after Heysel, a chilling prospect - is remarkable.

"Qualification is not just about finance," said Liverpool's chief executive Rick Parry. "First and foremost, getting through is about winning trophies. This is what Liverpool FC exists for: winning. We don't relate everything to money. We relate everything to success. This is about glory."

Maybe, just maybe, there could be a glorious finale in Istanbul to Benítez's turbulent first season in charge.

Two faces of Liverpool
Strengths

Rafael Benítez

Won the Uefa Cup at Valencia last season; tactical nous and meticulous preparation flourished on that stage and his prowess has been maintained in first season.

Steven Gerrard

Midfielder was outstanding at the BayArena and is pivotal. If this is to be his last season at Anfield he will be anxious to atone for an off-colour display in the League Cup final.

Lack of expectation

Few expected Liverpool to progress this far. Have benefited from lack of pressure, happy to excel while the focus has been elsewhere.

Weaknesses

The defence

Chances offered to Bayer Leverkusen will be punished by more imposing opponents. Hyypia lacks pace, full-backs can be error-prone and Jerzy Dudek even more so.

Inconsistency

Humiliated by Burnley in the FA Cup, and dire in defeats at Southampton, Birmingham and Newcastle, they are eight points off fourth.

The absentees

Xabi Alonso, Djibril Cissé, Chris Kirkland, Florent Sinama-Pongolle, Neil Mellor, Harry Kewell and Josemi missed Leverkusen. Fernando Morientes and Mauricio Pellegrino are cup-tied.

by **azriahmad** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 10:26 am

I read have that article also and the main weakness has been the inconsistency. It is perplexing, no logical explanation but very worrying because we are running out of games to secure 4th place and even when we have the chance to close the gap, our inconsistency comes up and the chance goes wasted.

by **kazza** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:23 pm

The team has played much better in Europe than at home (maybe due to the physical nature of English football). The fact is that Liverpool has the 2nd best defensive record in CL (goals let in) second to only a.c. milan. We have not lost over two matches against any team (and not many teams in the competition can say that). We deserved our CL run because we played well enough. If we are judged on our CL performance, we earned it. EPL is a different matter. I feel we will knock out Chelsea if we met them.

by **parchpea** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 1:43 pm

I would put our performances in Europe down to Rafa's knowledge of European style game. You hardly think you are watching the same team that labours its way through the Premiership games. The Premiership has been a learning curve for Benitez and his coaching staff which has perhaps cost us in some matches. Once they have a year under their belts they will grasp whats required and set about assembling a team to improve performance. Maybe then we will see the best of Liverpool in all competitions.

by **stmichael** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 1:49 pm

parchpea wrote:I would put our performances in Europe down to Rafa's knowledge of European style game.

exactly.

not just the fact that he knows the european game, but also the fact that he has had RECENT SUCCESS in europe. is it really a coincidence that the managers of the two english teams through are the current champions league and uefa cup winning managers? i think not.

the premiership and europe are completely different styles of football. this is why arsenal fail year in year out. they are not able to change their style of play to suit european football. also, if you look at manure's record since they won it, it is poor to say the least.

by **Ade** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 11:41 pm

Some good posts there.

It's not just that Rafa's suited to Euro football more than the Prem at the moment, so are some of our players. Biscan looks a different player in Europe, Garcia is more at ease.

As for Man Utd, they were ****** lucky to win the Cup in 1999 - that was their blip, not the other way round.

by **azriahmad** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 8:31 am

Ade, manure were lucky to win the CL in the final game itself as they were totally outplayed by Bayern and a certain right sided player called Beckham palyed ineffectively in the centre of midfield. if the effort by Basler (or was it Scholl) had been inches inside the post, Bayern would have been 2-0 and it would have been curtains for manure.

However, top be fair, manure especially Keane played really well to overcome Juventus 3-2 in Turin (coming from behind) in the second leg of the semis after having only drew 1-1 at old trafford in the first leg and they throughly deserved their passage into the CL final in 1999.

This part of the game, being resillient and not getting our heads down (which manure sometimes have in abundance), we have yet to achieve.

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Excellent guardian article

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