If Rafael Benitez wanted to play down his side’s chances of winning the championship, he should have picked somewhere other than Liverpool to manage.
This is a city where talk of a title has become almost a lost language and where any hint that Liverpool might regain a championship that a generation ago belonged to Merseyside almost by right is seized upon and pored over.
Last season, in a cry of despair and frustration, Steven Gerrard said he was sick of making optimistic predictions about Liverpool’s Premier League ambitions, only to see them ground into the dust by October. Well, October is here and Liverpool are matching Chelsea punch for punch.
After eight games they are two points better off than they were in the 1989-90 campaign, which finished with Anfield’s 18th and last title, although to listen to the Liverpool manager, you would hardly think so.
“It is clear that you have to allow the fans to enjoy the situation,” Benitez said. “But you have a responsibility to be realistic. In football it is better not to be talked about.”
That extends to speaking about Jose Mourinho, who began the season by predicting in his Daily Telegraph column that Liverpool would win the championship and that after five years at Anfield there was no excuse for Benitez not to. Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson might make up but not these two.
The Manchester United manager thought tomorrow’s contest in London would not be decisive. Ferguson argued that Liverpool lacked the firepower for anything more than a goalless draw. Arsenal, he said, had a far greater chance of breaking Chelsea’s stranglehold at Stamford Bridge.
Nevertheless, it seems almost perverse that on a day Benitez was making his final preparations for a game that could have a critical bearing on their title ambitions, a group of Merseyside MPs were tabling a motion urging the Government to put pressure on the Royal Bank of Scotland not to extend the repayments for a £350 million loan to the club’s owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, which could only damage Liverpool in the short term.
Gillett had been at the Vicente Calderon Stadium on Wednesday night to see Liverpool toss away a dominant position against Atletico Madrid, but any conversation with Benitez was second hand – relayed through the chief executive, Rick Parry. When asked if he had received any communication about a new contract – his present deal expires in 18 months – Benitez simply shook his head and smiled.
When Benitez last won a championship, with Valencia in 2004, it was by coming from behind. The focus was all on Real Madrid in the season when their love affair with the galacticos was at its most intense. The Real manager, Carlos Queiroz, had plenty of stars but a pitifully thin squad and, game by game, the Valencia machine wore him down.
“Generally, we were eight points behind Real Madrid and we finished eight points clear, so we were never really talked about until about April,” Benitez said. “It is easier that way because people can talk too much.”
To become the first team to win at Stamford Bridge in four years would create plenty of talk and be a dramatic statement of intent, especially if it was achieved without Fernando Torres, the kind of striker Luiz Filipe Scolari simply does not possess in the home dressing-room. Nevertheless, Gerrard and Robbie Keane should both be fit while Dirk Kuyt, who until the 3-2 victory at Manchester City had not managed a league goal in 11 months, has stepped up to fill the void left by Torres.
Last month’s victory over United was a significant turning point in that it showed Liverpool could overcome their great weakness under Benitez – an inability to beat the top sides in the Premier League, which amounted almost to an inferiority complex. Had their results against Chelsea been reversed, Liverpool would have won the title in 2006.
And something else has changed. The wild rotation that confused everyone at Anfield from the stands to the dressing-room has ceased. A website called fantasyrafa.com asks you to predict Benitez’s starting line-ups. Until recently the odds on winning were of National Lottery proportions. But as Benitez says: “Chelsea have used 24 players and we have used 22.” Fantasy Rafa has become a whole lot easier.
This is a city where talk of a title has become almost a lost language and where any hint that Liverpool might regain a championship that a generation ago belonged to Merseyside almost by right is seized upon and pored over.
Last season, in a cry of despair and frustration, Steven Gerrard said he was sick of making optimistic predictions about Liverpool’s Premier League ambitions, only to see them ground into the dust by October. Well, October is here and Liverpool are matching Chelsea punch for punch.
After eight games they are two points better off than they were in the 1989-90 campaign, which finished with Anfield’s 18th and last title, although to listen to the Liverpool manager, you would hardly think so.
“It is clear that you have to allow the fans to enjoy the situation,” Benitez said. “But you have a responsibility to be realistic. In football it is better not to be talked about.”
That extends to speaking about Jose Mourinho, who began the season by predicting in his Daily Telegraph column that Liverpool would win the championship and that after five years at Anfield there was no excuse for Benitez not to. Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson might make up but not these two.
The Manchester United manager thought tomorrow’s contest in London would not be decisive. Ferguson argued that Liverpool lacked the firepower for anything more than a goalless draw. Arsenal, he said, had a far greater chance of breaking Chelsea’s stranglehold at Stamford Bridge.
Nevertheless, it seems almost perverse that on a day Benitez was making his final preparations for a game that could have a critical bearing on their title ambitions, a group of Merseyside MPs were tabling a motion urging the Government to put pressure on the Royal Bank of Scotland not to extend the repayments for a £350 million loan to the club’s owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, which could only damage Liverpool in the short term.
Gillett had been at the Vicente Calderon Stadium on Wednesday night to see Liverpool toss away a dominant position against Atletico Madrid, but any conversation with Benitez was second hand – relayed through the chief executive, Rick Parry. When asked if he had received any communication about a new contract – his present deal expires in 18 months – Benitez simply shook his head and smiled.
When Benitez last won a championship, with Valencia in 2004, it was by coming from behind. The focus was all on Real Madrid in the season when their love affair with the galacticos was at its most intense. The Real manager, Carlos Queiroz, had plenty of stars but a pitifully thin squad and, game by game, the Valencia machine wore him down.
“Generally, we were eight points behind Real Madrid and we finished eight points clear, so we were never really talked about until about April,” Benitez said. “It is easier that way because people can talk too much.”
To become the first team to win at Stamford Bridge in four years would create plenty of talk and be a dramatic statement of intent, especially if it was achieved without Fernando Torres, the kind of striker Luiz Filipe Scolari simply does not possess in the home dressing-room. Nevertheless, Gerrard and Robbie Keane should both be fit while Dirk Kuyt, who until the 3-2 victory at Manchester City had not managed a league goal in 11 months, has stepped up to fill the void left by Torres.
Last month’s victory over United was a significant turning point in that it showed Liverpool could overcome their great weakness under Benitez – an inability to beat the top sides in the Premier League, which amounted almost to an inferiority complex. Had their results against Chelsea been reversed, Liverpool would have won the title in 2006.
And something else has changed. The wild rotation that confused everyone at Anfield from the stands to the dressing-room has ceased. A website called fantasyrafa.com asks you to predict Benitez’s starting line-ups. Until recently the odds on winning were of National Lottery proportions. But as Benitez says: “Chelsea have used 24 players and we have used 22.” Fantasy Rafa has become a whole lot easier.
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