Right
– Rafa Benitez’s praise of Liverpool striker David Ngog after last night’s game with West Ham was entirely justified for me. Although the young Frenchman has got some stick from Reds fans this season, I believe that the 21 year old has improved greatly over the course of the season. Regular first team action has certainly benefited his game and 8 goals in your first real season playing at senior level is not that bad, considering he cost only £1.5million from Paris St-Germain two years ago. Ian Rush has even given Ngog a positive assessment for his performances:
“Ngog has done as well as can be expected of him when he’s been asked to cover for Torres. Although he didn’t score at St Andrews I was impressed with his movement against Birmingham. But as a striker you’re judged on goals and he tends to snatch at chances whereas Torres will take that extra split second to gain his composure. Ngog is on a massive learning curve and it may take one goal – hopefully the one he got last night against West Ham – for him to turn it around. And maybe that will persuade Rafa to give him a run in the side.”
Where I do believe that criticism of Ngog is justified is that he shouldn’t be the immediate back up for Fernando Torres. He should either be the third or fourth choice striker, and the fact that he is second choice alongside Dirk Kuyt is because of the lack of funds available to the manager. Certainly if you look at the quality of strikers in the squads of our rivals, it would be safe to say that Tottenham, Man City, Chelsea and perhaps Manchester United have stronger strike forces. If we are ever going to compete for the title, this must change.
– Considering the chaos surrounding Liverpool over the last week, Rafa Benitez has been a remarkably calm figure. Martin Broughton coming in as chairman and the club being put up for sale late last week, while the problems with flight arrangements to Madrid due to Volcanic ash, have still seen Benitez in the most relaxed of moods. Considering the away tie against Atletico is a crucial match in Liverpool’s season, Rafa got his team to play out a routine win against an admittedly poor West Ham side yesterday, and they are now travelling down to London, not knowing whether they will be able to get a plane or have to go by train to Bordeaux. For a man who has had such a stressful campaign, he is probably now at his least tense for the best part of the season. We will certainly need that calmness to get through the semi-final with Atletico.
Wrong
-Although it was always going to be difficult to live up to the performances of last season, certainly considering the loss of a crucial player such as Xabi Alonso, for Rafa to say it was unrealistic for the team to challenge for the title this season, goes a bit far for me:
“At the beginning of the season expectations were too high,that is normal after such a good season. But I always say the same – the Premier League is the Premier League and the difference in money is so big that if you want to stay at this level for a while, you have to do almost everything perfectly. That’s not easy when you push and push because sometimes you cannot keep the players working so hard or at the level they were in the previous season.”
For sure, it is difficult to stay at the same level but to be struggling for a fourth place this season was in nobody’s mind at the start of the campaign, not even Rafa’s. Of course, injuries and the lack of money to spend was a big issue for Rafa but you have to look at the context of the others teams in the league. With the exception of Arsenal, none of the other big four actually improved this season; in fact they have all kind of gone backwards. The loss of Cristiano Ronaldo for Man U was a big blow at the start of the season and although Antonio Valencia was a decent enough replacement, they have missed the Portuguese winger’s goals and they haven’t been the same this season. Neither have Chelsea, who have lost six times this season, a large amount for potential title winners. Like Alan Hansen said, this will be the first time in Premier League history that an average team has won the title. The fact that no English team got to the final four of the Champions League is demonstrative of this. This season was a big opportunity missed for the Reds, and mistakes by the management as well as difficult circumstances off the pitch have contributed to this season of woe.
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I think it is a shame he didn’t give Aquilani a game or at least some playing time yesterday, so that has to go down as a mistake, too. And it is not the first time that he signs a player for big money and then refuses to play him. Pointless to then whine for alleged lack of funds. Rafa should go.
What is in the mind of Rafa only rafa know’s, but not giving aqua enough chances is the main course of worry for me. I have seen Aqualani play for the last 6 Year’s and never had he dissapointed me. He is an exceptional talent. He had a great variety of passing ability, eye for goal and is great going forward. In many matches which i have seen him play he had scored some spectacular goals by free kicks that showed that the lad has talent. But just have a look what rafa is doing. He is destroying the lad’s confidence, killing his chances to play for italy in the world cup and depriving liverpool a player that has quality. If rafa did not want’s to play aqua than why did he buyed him for such a huge amount of money. Rafa is the main reason for our failure. If he had buyed a decent forward for partnering torres instead of Aqua(because he is not giving him chances either) may be we had been fighting for titles instead of 5 to 7 position’s. Although i appreciate what rafa did for the club but he is a person with negative tactics and approach, JUST LOOK AT JOSE YESTERDAY WHEN HE PLAYED AGAINST BARCELONA HE PLAYED WITH THREE ATTACKING PLAYERS PANDEV, MILITO AND ETOO, HE SHOWED AGAINST VARIOUS OPPOSITION YOU SHOULD BE FLEXIBLE TO CHANGE YOUR GAMEPLAN BUT RAFA IS RAFA HE WILL NEVER CHANGE AND NEITHER WILL HIS TACTICS.