Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Rafael Benitez - You Are Lucky To Have Won More Than Graeme Souness At Liverpool


Graeme Souness, as Rafael Benitez pointed out, did not have a great record as Liverpool manager. There was one season when Liverpool looked potential title winners, but that challenge quickly fizzled out and, for the most part, he filled the squad with ordinary players, and won the FA Cup.

Notice any similarities? Take away an incredible first year culminating in Istanbul in arguably the greatest comeback in the history of club football and Benitez’s record is not really all that different over the last four years.

These are altered times and the wealth gap generated by the Champions League has largely cemented an elite four in place, but the circumstances are broadly alike. There was an FA Cup win, a procession of mediocre signings and, right now, Liverpool lie seventh, a position all too familiar to those who remember the Souness years (he came sixth in his two full seasons at the club).

A team who have won three matches in 15 can no longer be said to be experiencing a blip. The 2-0 win over Manchester United in October: that was the blip. That was the result that is still hard to explain. Liverpool have lost more matches in the Premier League than Stoke City this season and have the same number of points as Birmingham City.

So statistically, there was nothing in the least surprising in defeat by a weakened Arsenal team yesterday. Liverpool are living off a name, a reputation for invincibility, particularly in the big games at Anfield. They surrendered that in the Champions League this season, and now in the domestic championship, too.

Indeed, in the present climate, the less Benitez seeks comparison with the Souness era, the better. The period from April 1991 to January 1994 is not recalled with fondness at Anfield, and understandably so, but Souness did not work for Liverpool at a time when losers could enter the European Cup. And that is a big difference.

Failure was a lot easier to come by under the old rules of engagement. There was no thrilling battle for fourth place, as is being played out now. No popping of champagne corks at trawling in 21 points behind the league leaders, as Benitez did in 2006-07. Benitez finished 37 points off the pace in his first year, but won the European Cup. That route was not open to Souness.

Back then, the Champions’ Cup lived up to its name. In Souness’s first season — he only took over in April, mind you — Liverpool came second in the old First Division, but qualified for the UEFA Cup, a tricky tournament, full of ambitious, thrusting wannabes, not the moribund Thursday-night snore fest it became. Liverpool were removed by Genoa at the quarter-final stage.

So Souness had his chance and did not take it. Benitez got his with an inferior Liverpool team in the 2004-05 Champions League campaign, defeated AC Milan against all odds, and greatness was assured. Yet Liverpool only finished fourth under Gerard Houllier the previous season and in Souness’s day that would not necessarily have guaranteed European qualification, at any level. And no Champions League final, no Rafa the genius.

Benitez is sensitive right now. He sees Souness as his inferior, in coaching terms rightly so, and resents his criticism. Yet bristling defensively at every remark smacks of a man who knows his problems are mounting. Earlier this month he had a dig at Jamie Redknapp, claiming he was looking to undermine Liverpool for the benefit of his father, Harry, the manager of Tottenham Hotspur. Redknapp, like Souness, gave an honest opinion, which is what he was required to do.

And face it, Liverpool are not losing because of what is being said in television studios. They are losing because they sold Xabi Alonso and five years of frantic transfer traffic has left a pedestrian squad, emboldened by a sprinkling of exceptional individuals.

Souness assembled an ordinary group, too, but at least he left Liverpool with Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler on the horizon. What is there to look forward to currently? A summer of speculation around Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres unless circumstances improve.

For all his faults as a manager, Souness still won three league championships and seven national cups across three countries. He was not a fool. More importantly, he was a wonderful midfield player for Liverpool and if they had more like him now, they wouldn’t have taken fewer points from eight home league games than Blackburn Rovers. In short, he is entitled to his view, just as Benitez is to his spiky response.

Always providing, of course, that in more reflective moments, he acknowledges that a lot of successful modern coaches would find the plaudits less forthcoming if they had been working at a time when first was first and second was nowhere; let alone fourth.

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