In the eyes of Rafael Benítez, it is war; not his rivalry with Sir Alex Ferguson, but sport in general. Long before the writings of Sun Tzu, the Chinese philosopher, became required reading for more enlightened managers, Benítez devoted his teenage years to finding common strands between his twin passions of football and Stratego, a military board game at which he was devilishly proficient.
Four days after Liverpool stunned Real Madrid, Benítez and his players achieved another remarkable four-goal success, this time storming the fortress of Old Trafford with a barrage of surface-to-surface missiles. Three of their four goals on Saturday stemmed from the kind of up-and-under clearances that seemed to belong firmly in the “hit and hope” category — at least until the Liverpool manager, more than a little eager afterwards to share his battle plan with anyone who was listening, suggested that he had successfully identified and exposed Manchester United’s Achilles’ heel.
Ferguson will snort at the idea, having lavished praise on a defence that recently kept clean sheets in 14 consecutive Barclays Premier League matches, but was this really, as the United manager suggested, “just one of those days”? The initial assessment suggested so, with Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic just happening to make more mistakes in a single afternoon than they have all season, but Benítez’s explanation of a simple approach to the game, one that involved cutting off United’s supply and then getting the ball forward quickly to try to turn around the central defenders, brought thoughts of cause and effect to mind.
Goal one: Martin Skrtel, in his own penalty area, clears the danger with a huge punt that goes so high that Vidic, waiting just beyond the halfway line, misjudges its flight in the sun. Now chasing back towards goal, Vidic panics under pressure from Fernando Torres, who marches through and clips a shot past Edwin van der Sar, equalising for Liverpool just five minutes after Cristiano Ronaldo, with a penalty, had given United the lead.
Goal two: Sami Hyypia elegantly brings down the ball and passes back to José Manuel Reina, who instantly kicks a clearance high into the United half. Steven Gerrard, left unattended in the no man’s land between the United midfield and back four, flicks it on to Torres, who turns and sends the ball forward into the path of Gerrard, by now in full flight down the inside-right channel.
As Gerrard bursts past Patrice Evra into the penalty area, he is brought down, to inevitable consequence. Gerrard keeps his nerve from the penalty spot to put Liverpool 2-1 up at half-time. Goal three: not an upand-under this time, but still a long pass as Lucas Leiva chips a diagonal ball from the left-hand touchline to Dirk Kuyt, whose clever header takes Evra out of position and leaves Vidic isolated in support of Gerrard. The Liverpool captain gets to the ball first and is wrestled to the floor. Vidic, having denied a clear goalscoring opportunity, ends his abysmal afternoon with a red card, his third of the season. United’s punishment is compounded when Fábio Aurélio beats Van der Sar with the free kick.
Goal four: with the game in stoppage time, Reina hits another long kick, which, with the help of a strong wind, is misjudged by Ferdinand and John O’Shea and carries almost as far as the United penalty area. Andrea Dossena, the substitute, races through to lob Van der Sar in front of what is now a half-empty Stretford End and crown Liverpool’s biggest win at Old Trafford since November 1936, when the Merseyside club had Matt Busby at right half.
It was a hugely impressive result, but Benítez, always looking beyond the battle just won, pondered whether it may prove even more significant in the war — in terms of its impact on United’s mindset and, importantly, that of their forthcoming opponents.
When Liverpool ended Chelsea’s 4½ unbeaten home sequence in the Premier League in October, Ferguson predicted — correctly as it turned out — that the West London club, stripped of their aura of impregnability, would run into problems.
Benítez will hope that this result has a similar effect on a United team, who, despite remaining strong favourites to retain the title, may have a few doubts where previously there was the confidence accumulated from 11 consecutive wins in the league.
United were made to look awful on Saturday, with Vidic, a leading contender for the PFA Player of the Year award, the worst of a bad lot. Opponents — Fulham, Aston Villa and Sunderland in the Premier League and Everton in the FA Cup semi-final — may also examine how Aurélio stood up to the threat of Ronaldo, who, his penalty aside, offered nothing; how Michael Carrick was knocked from his stride by Javier Mascherano; how ordinary Carlos Tévez and Wayne Rooney can look when starved of service and space in which to run.
Tévez, like the disappointing Anderson, seems better as an impact substitute in games such as these. As it was, the simultaneous introduction of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Dimitar Berbatov in the second half seemed to calm Liverpool’s nerves, such was the loss of energy that it brought about.
“I think they have weaknesses,” Benítez said matter-of-factly. “They have a lot of quality in attack, which is the main thing. They are strong in defence because they have plenty of possession, but when they don’t have the ball and you move the ball quickly and play behind the defenders, you know you can beat them.
“We knew that they are really good at playing between the lines with penetrating passes, so we needed to stop these passes and put the midfielders under pressure every time they were going to receive the ball and, after, try to play simple and go forward quickly because it’s an offensive team and they always [defend] high.”
There you go, then. Further details are available, free of charge, on application to Señor Benítez at Anfield, Liverpool, L4 0TH. Mercifully for United, though, no other club have players of the calibre of Gerrard and Torres to expose the chinks in their armour.
Manchester United (4-4-2): E van der Sar 4 - J O’Shea 4, R Ferdinand 4, N Vidic 3, P Evra 4 - C Ronaldo 4, M Carrick 5, Anderson 4, Park Ji Sung 6 - C Tévez 4, W Rooney 6. Substitutes: P Scholes (for Anderson, 74min), R Giggs (for Carrick, 74), D Berbatov (for Park, 74). Not used: B Foster, J Evans, D Fletcher, Nani. Next: Fulham (a)
Liverpool (4-2-3-1): J M Reina 4 - J Carragher 7, S Hyypia 8, M Skrtel 7, F Aurélio 8 - J Mascherano 7, Lucas Leiva 6 - D Kuyt 6, S Gerrard 8, A Riera 4 - F Torres 8. Substitutes: A Dossena 6 (for Riera, 68), R Babel (for Torres, 82), N El-Zhar (for Gerrard, 90). Not used: D Cavalieri, E Insua, D Ngog. Next: Aston Villa (h)
