Right
– Rafa Benitez has been fantastically honest this week about the club’s situation. After the 0-0 draw against Fulham yesterday, the Liverpool boss all but gave up the chase for fourth place:
“It will be very difficult. It’s not in our hands. Maybe the difference is too much now. You have to be realistic. City have a game in hand and even if they don’t win then there’s Tottenham. But we have to keep going because it’s always important to do your best and finish as high as possible. We’ll try to win the rest of our games and also try to be ready for the Europa League.”
He said a couple of weeks ago that Liverpool needed to win their last six league games and hope their rivals slip up for them to have any hope, and now they have drawn two of those last six, he knows that the likelihood of Champions League football next season is very slim. The prioritising of the Europa League seems to have already taken place before the Fulham match. It was clear early on in the Benfica match last Thursday that Torres had a problem with his knee but Rafa persisted playing with him, and he got his reward with two vital goals in the match.
– Rafa has also admitted this week for the need of new investment during the summer. He hasn’t shirked away from the fact that this season hasn’t been good enough and that he agrees with Fernando Torres that a number of top class players are needed for the team to compete at the top level:
“The cost of a top-class player is about £20million. I think we need three. I think we can improve but it depends if we can do the right signings and it is always easier to sign more players with more money. It’s not easy for us to compete for players. We have to do almost everything perfectly. People can talk about this player and that player but they have to blend in because if you don’t have £60million every year you have to sell.”
The Liverpool manager will hope that the American owners are able to sell some time before the RBS Summer deadline so he can begin to put together a transfer wish list. If the club is still in Hicks/Gillett hands for the majority of the summer, Rafa’s hands will be tied behind his back and he will have to sell players before he can buy anyone. If he does get the £60million he wishes, every Reds supporter will hope he picks the right players, we can’t afford another season like this one.
Wrong
– Although I don’t have much of a problem with David Ngog as a back-up (for me he hasn’t done that badly for a player who cost £1.5million), Rafa made a mistake by picking him ahead of Dirk Kuyt yesterday against Fulham. Once it was known that Torres would be sidelined with a knee injury, Rafa should have turned to the next international proven striker, and that is no doubt Dirk Kuyt. The Dutchman has played out of position on the right hand side for much of his time at Anfield, but he has still scored 11 goals this season. He may well have been a more effective striker than David Ngog yesterday and he could have had a rare start in his favoured position. In fact, Rafa hasn’t been averse to playing two up front against smaller teams this season and it may well have been an opportunity to play both Ngog and Kuyt up front. Two strikers at home against a defensively minded team should always be the preferred option in my opinion, and although Ngog and Kuyt don’t seem to be the most threatening strike force in the world, it would have given the Fulham defence a lot more to think about. The decision to play just one up front may have been influenced by the need to include Alberto Aquilani in the team. Rafa used to play just Gerrard and Alonso in midfield for some games, why not Gerrard and Aquilani? Especially as Fulham weren’t that keen to get out of their own half, there really was no need for a defensive midfielder like Javier Mascherano at all.
