Thursday, August 27, 2009

Liverpool Manager Rafael Benitez Must Take His Share Of The Anfield Blame Game


US president Harry Truman took pride in a sign on his desk in the Oval Office which read ’the buck stops here’.

And Rafa Benitez, Liverpool’s own El Presidente, would do well to reflect on that as he plays the blame game following Liverpool’s poor start to the season.

Benitez pointed the finger at Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher in the wake of their shock home defeat to Aston Villa, claiming his senior players need to take more responsibility.

As glaring as Carragher and Gerrard’s mistakes were for Villa’s second and third goals, Benitez is responsible for the deeper, underlying problems at Anfield.

He was the one who fell out with Xabi Alonso so badly over the midfielder’s request to spend more time with his expectant wife 17 months ago, a row which sowed the seeds for his £30million move to Real Madrid.

To compound that error, Benitez, who has full control of transfers, chose to replace Alonso with the injured Alberto Acquilani and Liverpool’s title challenge could be over before the £20million Italian is fit enough to kick a ball.

Benitez’s decision to tinker with his successful 4-2-3-1 formation by playing Lucas in a more advanced role in anticipation of Acquilani’s availability is also back firing.

With only Javier Mascherano left to protect them, Liverpool’s back four is too exposed and they have shipped five goals in their first three games.

Fernando Torres also looked isolated against Villa as he was knocked from pillar to post by Curtis Davies and Carlos Cuellar and he has no-one to share the burden up front.

Yossi Benayoun disagreed with Benitez’s assessment that the senior players had to stand up and be counted, claiming everyone must take responsibility.

“I don’t think it’s the senior players who need to come to the fore, it’s all of the players,” he said. “We know what we need to do to improve. We need to try and improve and quickly, starting on Saturday at Bolton.

“We didn’t play like we can play. We didn’t move the ball like we did against Stoke. We missed our chances, particularly in the first half, and we conceded two goals from set-pieces.

“To lose two out of three is unusual for us. We lost only twice through the whole of the last Premier League season and we have to show that we are still a strong team.

“We need to recover from this and look to work game by game, and work hard to play better.”

For all of Benayoun’s rousing words, it is hard to ignore the growing feeling that Benitez’s Anfield career may have peaked and that last season’s second place was as good as it will get under him in the Premier League.

Kopites charted the same graph for Gerard Houllier at the start of the decade and after finishing second in 2002, Liverpool faded as a Premier League force.

There is even the danger that the Reds might struggle to claim a Champions League berth if Tottenham and Manchester City maintain their fine starts.

Worryingly for Benitez, he has little room to maneuver in the transfer market and he has next to nothing left from Alonso’s £30million after buying Acquilani.

Reds fans still back Benitez, but an increasing number are beginning to question the wisdom of letting Sami Hyypia go and snubbing Michael Owen when the former Anfield favourite was so desperate to return.

Benayoun insists Liverpool are still good enough to win the league, although he admits the looming international break does offer them a welcome chance to regroup.

“At a club like Liverpool, if you lose two or three games then people will ask if we are strong enough to win the league,” said the Israeli star. “But there is still a long way to go and everything can change.

“If we go on a long winning run, then people will start talking differently about us.

“I’m sure we have enough quality and we still think we can win the title. Maybe we can not lose any more games until the end of the season, but we believe we are strong enough to be there at the end of the season.

“It’s important to get a winning run together, but maybe it’s good that we have an international break coming up after the Bolton game.

“We have to try and come back stronger and we have games that we believe we can win. If we can win three or four games then the confidence can come back.”

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