“Football fans are a fickle bunch” - this is the ultimate understatement of all time when it comes to football and supporting the club. When things are going great, winning games, getting to a final or wining a cup or two, the team is the best in the world, the manager is a master tactician and all other accolades one can think of.
However, lose a few games and suddenly it’s the manager’s fault - he has lost the plot, doesn’t understand English football or even doesn’t respect the competition. This is especially true this season, when expectations were running high all around. This was justified as Liverpool spent big in acquiring Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel, Yossi Benayoun, Lucas Leiva, Sebastian Leto as well as other youngsters.
The media labeled Liverpool as a genuine title challenger, just like in the previous 18 seasons. When Liverpool thumped Derby 6 – 0 at home everyone sang praises of the team, the manager and went on about how great this season will be for the Reds. Liverpool was said to break the tripoly of Chelsea, Arsenal and Man U and make it a truly exciting four-horse race. However, things went a little awry in October / November and the wheels seemed to fall off, all fingers pointed at Benitez, calling for his head. Should Rafa really be sacked for the display this season? The answer is no.
Why? Simply because he is in the middle of his rebuilding exercise in putting together an exciting team to genuinely challenge for top honours for years to come. He is modeling the Valencia approach where the play is tight while not allowing opponents time on the ball and how the team attacks and defends as a unit while overwhelming opponents on the pitch, leaving them in awe of what just hit them. When you are rebuilding there will be times when things don’t go your way, when players are unsure of what they are supposed to do, of who should be making the run or taking the shots.
It’s just like when zonal marking was first introduced, it was ridiculed in the media, as well as everyone with half a brain, but today it is one of the most successful methods of defending used by nearly every football team. With Zonal marking, which took two years for the players to get comfortable with, we have conceded the least goals in the league for years to come now. This is a far cry from the Roy Evans era when we were scoring for fun but could not defend to save our dear life, resulting in spectacular clashes that were high scoring yet not good for the heart.
When Rafa first came in, he had a short month to bring in his players and put his ideas across before the season started. Many would argue that the players are professionals who train together everyday who should be able to forge the understanding and adopt to the coaches’ idea. How can one expect 28 players to know where the other is going to run or what he is going to do with the ball all at high speed mind you, with a leather ball that can react very differently to the touches and strikes. If a simple thing such as baton passing in relay runs take months to develop the understanding, what about 28 players with a ball and different pitch conditions? On top of that, you have different opponents doing different thing trying to keep you out. The first season is always going to be a clearing of deadwood, bringing in players and at the same time getting his ideas across. Then the next would be bringing in his own players, getting them to play the way he wants them to and enhance this and challenge for honours. This takes five years, hence the five-year contract.
Rafa overachieved in winning the Champions League in his first season with a squad that was not his own. He was also faced with the possibility of his captain leaving. This has serious repercussions to the planning of the team. The second time around Rafa would’ve identify Gerrard’s replacement as well as other players he can bring in to enhance the squad before the skipper made the mother of all u turns in a move that delighted many supporters but throw the plan into limbo. Suddenly Rafa did not have more money to buy players and change the team around the way he wanted to.
Then he then came the third season where he was trying things, putting his ideas across with the players warming to his way of playing in controlling matches but struggle to score. The general consensus would be if we get a top class striker, we would be able to challenge. How wrong is that, when you take out a player and replace it with another, you are changing the element and the set up of the team.
Of course with the new owners coming in, many were excited that we finally had money to spend to finally bring back the glory days to Anfield. However, after a bright start, the team unexpectedly hit a low and many were calling for Rafa to be replaced. It also emerged that the owners were trying to rid of Rafa by talking to another person in view to take over. This has clearly affected the team with lots of half hearted display and inept performance being dished out, making the owner’s decision to talk to Klinsmann a right one.
Many of the pundits and fans thought that the fact that he had money to spend this season means that we should be challenging as he came out asking for money, the fact is that we spent 56.95M in buying players while bringing in 26.25M in our player sales, making the net spent this season at 30.7M, not even enough to buy Anderson & Nani who are effectively squad players for Man U. bearing in mind, in his 4 years at Liverpool, Rafa had spent a total of 149.1M in which 14 is for Djibril Cisse, a player he didn’t sign, all this while bringing in 65.43M in player sales, making his net spent 83.67M. take away the 14M for Cisse, the net spent would be much higher, at 69.67M at an average of 17.42m per season, not even enough to buy Owen Hargreaves. The total net spent for the top 4 clubs in the 4 years Rafa has been in charged are as follow (in Millions of GBP):
*Click on the picture of the stats for a bigger view*Another criticism of Rafa would be the way the team plays. Many are baffled by the set up of the team that is safety first before thinking about attacking. This is actually a pretty good tactic; it allows the team to absorb the play from opposition while looking for rooms to exploit in overwhelming them. Many of the naysayers are referring to the pass & move of the older days, but the thing is that pass & move football has been dead for 16 years now, it was killed by one of our greatest players who donned the Red shirt but an inept manager by buying duds. Rafa’s tactic is to allow the opposition to play, giving them the false sense that we are weak, in the process, tiring them out and take advantage of them towards the end.
The set up is aimed at taking full advantage of the pitch and qualities of the players we have, Gerrard for his tireless running, Alonso for his game reading and switch of play and Mascherano for his shackling of players while helping out the attack. It is the new way of playing football, a more modern way .
Many also didn’t like the deployment of Dirk Kuyt, who is a tireless worker. Most see him as someone who failed to score many a times and is a bit of a passenger to the team. However, it is his running that drags players wide and open up space for others to take advantage of. How many times we see him huffing and puffing closing the opposition down, defending from the top? This is the way that we should play where we constantly pressure the opposition, with subtle pressure that put doubt in opponent’s mind, ensuring we are always on top, even without the ball.
Others would argue that we are too defensive. It is not defensive, it is controlling the game. If you’re not building from behind, how are you to win matches? Building the team from the front will not ensure you score plenty of goals, but it sure would ensure you concede. This is why, most coaches not just Rafa, build the play from the back. In controlling the game, we could really hurt them where it hurts most, but this would require patience and slow build up, incurring most fan’s wrath for not being attacking minded enough.
Another favourite topic would be his rotation system. Rafa is not the only who rotates, but yet he gets the most flak, other managers rotates just as much if not more than Rafa but manages to get away with it. The idea of rotating is to rest players and at the same time give the others the much needed match fitness and understanding with one another. Rafa wants to mould the team like a well-oiled machine. On top of that, it will also ensure the players are fresh towards the end of the season where the games are coming thick and fast. Especially if we are to get to another final, the little extra bit is often the difference between winning and losing.
This season, there’s certainly more off field saga than before and it has also affected the performance of the team. How can players be expected to ignore the talk that goes on off the pitch? The uncertainty of their futures? With the possibility of a refinancing of 350M put to the club, it will certainly put more pressure to the players and at the same time, cause them to under perform. There are many instances where the team put out by Rafa should’ve beaten the opposition comfortably and the players did not step up to the mark when given the chances. Blaming the manager is just an easy way out when it is the players who are on the pitch battling it out.
If one is to call for Rafa’s head, who would replace him? How long would it be before the team gets up to mark again? Another four years? Wouldn’t that be unfair to Rafa who is half way there? Rather than sack him, why not give him the backing he clearly deserves and see what happens next season, when he’d be on his final year of the contract. The thing is that Man U almost made that mistake in 1990 in deciding Alex Ferguson’s future. The FA Cup win saved his job and look where he is now?
Another good example to is Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, he was given the time and more importantly, the faith to build his squad, with the management interfering, not less in thinking of sacking Rafa, it would only makes matters worse and make our beloved club a laughing stock in the footballing world.
Jonno "El Presidente" Jan 2008 ©
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