The THREE Common Myths that should NOT have cost Rafa his job

So Rafa Benitez has gone, and I, like most Liverpool fans, am thoroughly devastated. I also believe that it is a dreadful mistake by ‘the Club’ (which, I’m led to believe, means Tom Hicks, George Gillett, and Managing Director Christian Purslow). Having been firmly in the pro-Rafa camp since his position became the subject of much debate a year or so ago, I feel the need to justify this stance. I firmly believe that, despite his imperfections – of which there were a good few – Rafael Benitez was not the problem with Liverpool Football Club. Two Champions League finals and an FA Cup under Benitez in the three years prior to the current ownership, followed by comparatively very little subsequently, is no coincidence.

Outside of Liverpool, Benitez’s ability as a manager is not looked upon particularly favourably by English fans, journalists and pundits. He did not enjoy the sort of relationship with the media that some of his peers do – he did not possess the personal warmth of the likes of Martin O’Neill and Roy Hodgson, the chummy old boys approach of Sam Allardyce or Harry Redknapp, or the contrived persona of an attention seeker like Jose Mourinho. Because of this, Benitez suffered disproportionately when he was not doing well – the reasonable and necessary criticisms of Ferguson’s relationship with the FA in his infamous ‘facts’ press conference, for example, as opposed to actually being inquired into and treated as what it was intended to be, was reported as the ‘ranting’ of a madman who had lost the plot. Mistimed, maybe; a mistake, almost certainly, but a crazed rant? It was more like a list of measured and well-researched points. Numerous high-profile journalists, like Henry Winter (who also, perhaps not incidentally, ghosted Steven Gerrard’s autobiography), have at times seemed to be on a personal mission to oust Benitez from his position.

Anyway, I thought I’d use this post to dissect some of the more common criticisms of Benitez during his tenure at Liverpool:

1) Benitez is too negative

The main argument trotted out with regards to this was that Benitez tended to play with two holding midfielders – a point which displays inherent tactical ignorance. Yes, the 4-2-3-1 system which Benitez settled on during his final two seasons included two deep-lying midfielders, one of which was Mascherano, an outright defensive player, but for the first season one of these players was Xabi Alonso – one of the most technically gifted and creative players to have worn the red shirt during the last decade. Alonso was certainly not a negative-thinking footballer, and contributed significantly more in an attacking sense than he did defensively. When he left, his intended replacement was Alberto Aquilani, a similarly gifted passer of the ball, but due to injuries, Lucas Leiva was often deployed next to Mascherano. Admittedly, Lucas is a more conventional defensive midfielder, but there were very few alternatives. Gerrard was tried in the position to provide a greater degree of threat from the midfield area, and towards the end of the season it looked good, but before that (such as away to Wigan, which was for me the ultimate low of a season that featured many) it did not work – Gerrard does not possess sufficient tactical discipline necessary to play in central midfield. Furthermore, the signing of Glen Johnson displayed a considerable level of attacking ambition, and in itself, the deployment of a hugely attacking full-back in place of the more conservative Arbeloa ‘neutralises’ the usage of an additional defensive midfielder as far as positivity/negativity is concerned. Benitez is also seen to have a penchant for hard-working but technically limited players, with Dirk Kuyt often being declared as the embodiment of this supposed antipathy towards flair. Leaving aside the fact that Kuyt himself has scored 26 goals in the past two seasons from out wide, many of them very important ones, this argument conveniently disregards signings such as Yossi Benayoun, Maxi Rodriguez, even Ryan Babel. Luis Garcia, the classic ‘flair player’, was one of his first buys. ‘Flair’ players, that Benitez is seen to dislike, is effectively a byword for exciting, technical attackers. These sort of players tend to cost a lot of money, which is something Liverpool Football Club doesn’t have. Benitez tried to sign Dani Alves in June 2006 for £8million, but the funds were refused and he eventually ended up with Arbeloa for half that. He tried to sign Simao but the same thing happened and we ended up with Jermaine Pennant. Again, a quick look further up the Anfield hierarchy gives a clearer indication of where the true problem with the club lies.

2) He is too cold towards his players

Personally, I don’t see what the problem is here. Apparently Benitez’s methods disillusioned his playing staff because they didn’t ‘feel wanted’ by the manager, with Steven Gerrard (allegedly) being a case in point. Well, you are wanted Stevie, because you’re there. If a player isn’t happy with not only an entire city of kids (and grown men) idolising them, 45,000 people singing your name at every home game and £120,000 every week to boot, but also need the manager to bake him a cake and tuck him into bed every night as well, then where does the problem really lie? Not with the manager, in my opinion. Capello’s similarly detached style of man-management has been painted as a godsend to an England squad who were indulged by the overly pally nature of Steve McClaren. England only lost one qualifying game under Capello (which was meaningless anyway due to having already qualified), so this approach can’t be all bad.

3) He cannot be trusted in the transfer market

Benitez has certainly made poor signings, this is true. Dossena (£8million), Aquilani (£20million) and Keane (£20million) stand out here. Keane, however, was bought with the guarantee given that Gareth Barry would also be signed, and an entire new formation had been devised to incorporate both. Barry was not signed, and Benitez was left with a player who he couldn’t use how he wanted to. (Interestingly, when Harry Redknapp, a far more media-friendly personality than Benitez, did pretty much exactly the same thing with the same player – splashing out £15million-plus on him and then benching him after putting up with a few poor performances – it was barely mentioned by the media, while the Keane debacle at Liverpool never seemed to be off the back pages). However, turning Fernando Morientes from a world-class striker to a lumbering wreck in the space of six months is fairly inexcusable, and the Dossenas, Pennants (£7million), and Babels (£11million) have been equally poor signings. As we all know though, even the very best managers will make bad big-money buys, although this does not excuse the ones Benitez made. On the other hand, Benitez has also made plenty of good signings which he gets far less recognition for. Reina (£6million), Agger (£6million), Skrtel (£6.5 million), Benayoun (£4million) are some of the best. Mascherano (£17million) and Torres (£21million) have also been superb and relatively cheap signings (if either are to be sold this summer, I imagine we would be getting close to double our money back). These two are often seen as ‘no brainers’, but Mascherano was being kept out of the West Ham team by Hayden Mullins and seemingly had no future in English football at the time Benitez came in for him, while Torres had been passed up by numerous managers before Benitez, with Alex Ferguson declining to bid on the basis that he wasn’t composed enough in front of goal. These two were not world-class players before Benitez managed them, and nor were Reina, Carragher and Gerrard. Every top-class player that Liverpool currently have, bar Aquilani and Johnson, was made into the player they are today by Benitez.

While Benitez gets slaughtered for signing an injury-prone player in Aquilani, Ferguson splashed out an almost identical amount on Owen Hargreaves, who until the last game of this season, hadn’t kicked a ball for two years. Why was this not an equally dreadful transfer decision? Because United have other £15million pound players like Carrick and Anderson to fill in for him. We have Lucas Leiva, a £5million pound signing whose quality pretty much reflects his price tag. Beyond that, we have Jay Spearing and Damien Plessis. Overall, in terms of transfers, I would argue that Benitez generally got pretty much what he paid for. The real bargains (Reina, Agger, Torres) were few and far between, while the poor, expensive signings (Babel, Dossena, Keane) were equally (in)frequent. Mostly though, Benitez’s signings reflected what he paid for them. This is not ideal in a top-class manager – there were no Anelka- or Ronaldo-like ‘discoveries’ – but his record is far from what it is generally painted as. He also, almost always, recouped what he paid in the players that were bought and then sold, while no players, bar possibly Stephen Warnock, have been sold for cheap and gone on to do bigger and better things. When we compare this to the fact that Ferguson has in recent years sold three world-class talents in Guiseppe Rossi (£6.6million), Diego Forlan (£3million) and Gerard Pique (£6million) for the grand total of half a Dimitar Berbatov, Rafa’s selling ability was also pretty adequate.

Overall, we can see, when we compare our situation to that of other clubs, money (or lack thereof) is the real reason for Liverpool’s demise. In the end, just like any manager, all Benitez’s supposed faults are relative to results. When Capello is winning games, his icy management is brilliant; when Redknapp is, then the ‘arm round the shoulder’ method is the way forward. When Mourinho parks ten men in their own penalty box and plays Eto’o on the wing to draw against Barcelona, he’s a tactical genius, but when Liverpool lose at Lyon, it’s because they weren’t ambitious enough and Kuyt doesn’t provide enough threat from out wide. But, when we were 4 points off winning the league last season, how can the same methods be being slated just twelve months later? Yes we were performing badly, but this cannot be solely attributed to Benitez. A factor, yes; the reason, emphatically not. Despite some tactical and transfer errors, the reason for players like Insua (£1million), Ngog (£1.5million) and Voronin (free) being in our starting XI at times this season is due to lack of funds from the top more than Benitez’s poor decision making. That’s the level of talent you generally get for that sort of money. Again, when it comes to transfers, he’s no Wenger. While Benitez has been questioned for spending £17million on a first choice right-back, when Chelsea spend £18million on a second choice left-back, no-one bats an eyelid. Why? Because they have the resources that mean it isn’t an issue. We mounted a fairly credible title bid last season, but this season has shown clearly that that squad overachieved in doing so. As much as it can be claimed that injuries to Gerrard and Torres cost us the league, lack of injuries to Reina, Carragher, Mascherano, Alonso and Kuyt allowed us to stay in the race. We were exceptionally good last season, just as we were exceptionally bad this, but is sacking the manager the solution?

And finally, in post-Benitez Liverpool, who are the possible replacements? Roy Hodgson seems reasonably likely, but, without sounding too patronising, his best managerial achievements have come when overachieving with smaller clubs than Liverpool. He would be a step down from Benitez. Guus Hiddink has just signed up for the Turkey job, while Louis Van Gaal is doing well – in the Champions’ League – with Bayern Munich. Besides, why would a top class manager come to a club with squabbling owners who are in the protracted process of trying to sell it, and that is out of money to the extent that funds raised from player sales cannot be guaranteed to go back into transfer funds? Martin O’Neill? No thanks. Dalglish hasn’t managed a football club for 15 years, and hasn’t managed one well for 20. As legendary a figure he is at our club, the appointment of him would smack of regression. We were lucky Rafa put up with the conditions he was working under for as long as he did, and no realistic appointment would represent anything but a step down from Benitez’s proven quality.

It is a depressing time to be a Liverpool fan.

Thank you Rafa. You’ll Never Walk Alone.

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