On his way?
Rafa Benitez is probably lucky that nobody really seems to be in charge at Anfield at the moment. With the two American owners seemingly being more interested in arguing with each other and trying to sell their shares than they are in the fortunes of the team, he might not come under the same sort of scrutiny from above that most managers do.
Worst
Tuesday’s defeat at home to Lyon was their fourth in a row and equals their worst run of form for twenty-two years. Let’s not forget they have had some real stinkers in those twenty-two years as well.
Prior to Sunday’s crucial game against Manchester United Liverpool find themselves seven points behind the champions, in a lowly eighth place in the premier league and well out of the qualifying places in their champions league group.
Woefully
Going into the game Benitez finds himself with Steve Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Glen Johnson and Albert Riera all doubtful through injury. That means that Liverpool’s woefully thin squad may be tested to the full. Benitez complains that he is faced with real bad luck,
I cannot remember an injury situation like this. There are other players with other problems. I have no idea what team I can put out against Manchester United until we have had the players tested and seen by the medical team.
Of course, injuries are a problem but Benitez has had a long time to make his squad stronger. There are claims that he has had little money to spend but those claims do not stand up. He has spent an awful lot of money and brought nearly seventy players to Anfield in his time at the club. It is quite simply the manager’s fault that the squad is so sparse.
Crisis
Trying to equate the current injury ‘crisis’ at Anfield to a similar one at Old Trafford shows the difference in the squads. If United were going into the game with doubts over Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney, Gary Neville and Valencia who would they turn to? Michael Carrick, Anderson, Michael Owen, Park, Fletcher, O’Shea, Wes Brown? I’d say it would still be a decent team. At Liverpool they simply have no quality cover and that is down to the manager.
For the first time the other night it seemed that even the Liverpool faithful with their famous ‘In Rafa we trust’ attitude seemed to be turning against their manager. The unbelievable substitution of the hopelessly inadequate Voronin for the only creative player on the Liverpool side Yossi Benayoun, mystified even Rafa’s biggest supporters.
Tactical
There is no doubt that over the years Rafa Benitez has shown a great deal of tactical nous and fantastic ability as a coach. Unfortunately he seems to think that the likes of Voronin, Ngog and Lucas are players who can contribute to a premiership winning season and the obvious fact to everyone else is that they can’t.
Benitez can’t complain about a lack of funds or support because he has actually had both of those things. He has simply bought unwisely and left the squad in poor shape to mount a serious challenge. Robbie Keane may have been bought without his agreement and he obviously had issues with Xabi Alonso, but it was his decision to sell Keane without recruiting a replacement and to replace Alonso with a player who is unlikely to kick a ball this year.
Haunt
These and many other decisions may be beginning to come back to haunt the Liverpool boss. If they lose to United on Sunday there will be people calling for the manager to go. I think that would be wrong, but he is definitely walking on very thin ice.
