by Scottbot » Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:28 pm
Another good read here - Taken from the Times
"Can We Play You Every Week"
We've done it again.
The side that splutters to a home draw with Manchester City one day, then goes out and comfortably beats an in form Real Madrid on their own turf. Welcome to the wonderful and majestic world of Rafael Benitez and Liverpool Football Club.
It defies logic that a side incapable of beating Stoke and Wigan on their own turf in recent weeks, can travel to the Bernabeu and beat Real Madrid without having to really break sweat; we made it look easy. That's football.
For me, I've always believed that Rafael Benitez is too clever and tactical for his own good. In Europe, against the better sides on the continent, it works. He's up against a side of quality, and a manager that wants to play football. It's a game of chess and tactics are massively important for European competition. It's not just a case of "go out and attack them" and hope the best teams win. Do that and you'll be exposed and punished.
You can't afford to go to Real Madrid, Barcelona and Inter Milan and attack them without regard. Yet we've been to all three of those places in the past three seasons and beat them all. We must be doing something right.
But why can we not do it domestically?
I've thought for years that Benitez pays the lesser teams far too much respect. So while it pays to approach a game like Real Madrid away with a military like plan, it doesn't seem to work when going to the likes of Stoke and Wigan. They are set up to defend and stifle our attacking options, just as we were set up to envoke the same restrictions on the Real Madrid side last night.
Benitez tries to play chess with the likes of Steve Bruce, when they just not good enough or tactically minded enough to make it worth while. They are the teams we should just be going out and attacking, with less regard for military movements and tactical plays. Attack them and the better side will win the vast majority of the time. That's the criticism of the manager I had after the Wigan game last month; it's that approach that needs to change for me if we are to win the league.
If we could play the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona every week, we'd already be Champions.
Or are we doing it domestically? Are we dismissing the progress we've made domestically on the basis that we're not nailed for the league title this season, when in fact we're getting better each season, but having the bar continually raised by the likes of Man United putting together winning runs like they have in recent months?
The likes of Ranieri, Ferguson and Wenger spent years building the foundations for their cluba, so much so that they are now able to add top quality players to those foundations in search of success. Mourinho walked into Chelsea to take over a side that finished 2nd last season, and given an open cheque book to deliver the goods. Ferguson is able to go out and spend the £30m's on Berbatov and Rooney, as the foundations of his side had been laid years previously.
Benitez is just coming to the end of the foundation building process for me, yet is expected to deliver the title or else. We all become frustrated with disappointing results, but sometimes we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture and what we're actually trying to achieve, and the circumstances around that; myself included.
Time and time again we're underestimated on the European front. Written off as the outsiders of the 4 English sides in the betting every year, and dismissed as a lucky cup side by the nation's media and rival fans. Yet we're reached 3 semi finals in 4 years, twice qualifying for the final and winning it once. This year we're yet again in a really strong position to reach the quarter finals, despite having to prepare for the game amidst a backdrop of scandalous uncertainty around the future of our manager.
A man that came to a club struggling to make the top 4 each season to qualify for the Champions League, has achieved what I have listed above, and as Joe Cole said last night, making us the team that nobody wants to play.
So from being in a similar position Aston Villa find themselves in right now, in hoping to make the top 4, we're are one of the most feared teams in Europe with the best record in the competition of anyone since the arrival of Benitez to the club. Yet the cowboy owners of our club, and some sections of the fan base, seem to think that isn't good enough. Reality checks needed.
We are all disappointed with the recent results in the league, me included. I was furious after the Wigan game, and justifiably so. I still stand by my criticisms after that game, and the decisions made that night do reflect why we've faded instead of kicking on once sitting top of the league at the turn of the year. But, with all the behind the scenes chaos, the fact the manager has been able to function and continue to keep us up there in the league is a miracle in itself.
How many sides have become champions with the internal politics of the club in a bigger mess than Gary Neville's face? None.
Stability is key; and the current financial markets are about the only thing less stable than our club at the minute.
The mere suggestion that we were about to lose our manager when sat 2nd in the league and playing Real Madrid in the European Cup is beyond belief. Or maybe it's not when you look at Parry, Hicks and Gillett sat in the drivers seat of our club; all fighting for the steering wheel with one foot each on the pedals. Nobody has any idea where we're going or what the other is about to do.
Please, all of you, get out of our club and leave the best manager we've had in decades get on with his job.
Paul Jones
- just kidding.
