ON THE DEFENSIVE

On the defensive.

Balance is an important word in the footballing world and depending on what side of the scales you’re on, the other side can look pretty good from a sunken position. At Liverpool, the weight of expectation and pressure can sink the balance of a team to all new lows.

This season, Liverpool have been in the proverbial gutters. From day one things haven’t gone to plan, a slumping defeat to Tottenham was an anti-climax to a summer of ego-building and shoulder patting. The country expected, the city expected and the team expected. Expectation can be a heavy burden and on shoulders that were broad yet fragile, it all came tumbling down on that first defeat.

From that moment, we have been searching for answers. Too many questions have been posed and not enough solutions gained. While any positives have been attributed to the players, especially Messrs Gerrard and Torres, all the negativity has landed at Rafael Benitez’ door.

In times of adversity, great leaders must step forward and be counted. This is where Rafa may have issues. His lack of animation and perceived passion some may say is a reason for the drab and lackluster displays. Too many of us are quick to highlight one reason or another, instead of looking at all the options available.

In a game of chess, one wrong move can take 20 recovery moves to correct, providing the game is still winnable. Liverpool this season haven’t had the time to stop and think of their next move. Each setback has been quickly followed by another and with every defeat, every injury crisis, the pressure builds.

Rafa, who adopts the charisma and attitude of a chess player, has a lot of moves to make to correct the mistakes. Although he is often tagged as lucky, this season has surely seen that supposed luck run dry and then some. We have to ask ourselves though, after the success of last year, the inevitable departure of Alonso and the restrictions on transfer budget, what would we have done? Without using hindsight, it would have taken a brave man to have doubted Rafa in the summer of 2009 when our League Championship seemed a matter of when not how.

In times of despair, some fans are wishing Rafa away, they want to see a man who can inspire the players through team talks, someone who can give the hairdryer and charm the press; they want a Mourinho. For me, that’s not the answer. Not only is it financially impossible, cutting chords now is not the way forward for Liverpool.

Rafa is not a media man, he would much rather be left to his own devices to work his ‘machine’ in the way he built it. He’s not popular in the pundit business, this could (on a hunch) be due to him not playing the quote game with journalists on Fleet Street. He’s not a ‘mans man’ either, like Allardyce, Ferguson or any ex pro turned manager. His lack of a playing career alienates him to ‘experts’ on TV. They often don’t understand his ways and decisions because he studied a different side of the trade to them.

Rafa was never a top flight player, this is why his attitude to players is distant and strictly professional. He was in no players union, he may not understand the frustrations of being rotated during a hot streak and he’s certainly not in the game to make friends. However, what he does understand is the science of football. Benitez is in the Arrigo Sacchi mould, a career cut short by a lack of ability never stopped Sacchi going on to be one of the games greatest coaches. From our perspective, the shit has hit the fan, but from an objective point of view, Benitez has won almost everything in the game at club level, his position among the greats is almost achieved, and still at a relatively young age.

One thing we have to steer clear of is the ignorant punditry and reporting that doubts Benitez ability as a coach and his understanding of the game. Sacchi was once questioned on his qualifications of being a manager since he had never played the game at the highest level, he responded “To be a great jockey one does not need to have been born a horse”.

When a team such as Liverpool has a bad season, each blow struck against us is analysed, disected and blown out of proportions. All of our faults are exposed and laid bare, it makes us a target for teams who fancy their 15 minutes and due to this we come up against opposition who in previous seasons would roll over. In the meantime, Rafa has been trying to plug holes in the pipe-work while trying to build an extension on the house, the team has found itself between a rock and a hard place.

The tactics employed by Benitez this season have come under much derision, his choice of player and formation have been questioned at every opportunity. Dirk Kuyt and Lucas Leiva have come under special scrutiny while players like Carragher and Gerrard have gotten away with sub-standard performances throughout the season.

Although it is wrong to criticize players who are the workers of a team and who’s work-rate cannot be questioned, it is fair to lay the blame at Benitez’ door. I am a staunch supporter of Benitez and am in favour of a long Benitez tenure, I have however been left frustrated by certain tactics and team selections this season. This frustration however, will not be enough to deter me from the long term goal that I still feel Rafa can achieve, and that of course is Liverpool clinching that Premier League Crown.

When everyone seems to be losing their heads, I’m happy that the man in charge has a cool, calculating and tactical head on him. To get us through this we need to have patience and belief, transferring this onto the pitch may be a tall order, but the players will feel a whole lot better if the 40,000 in the stands aren’t paying more attention to a mistake than a great pass.

The best thing we can do at the moment is remind ourselves that the man we have at the helm has revolutionized this club. The youth team especially are overlooked more than most, the brimming bowl of talent ready to spill over into the 1st team is an exciting thought for the future. However, thinking too far ahead could be dangerous and to use a Rafa cliché ‘we must only concentrate on the next game’.

Our descent into the mire has left us stuck in the mud, instead of writhing with anger that we can no longer win the league, I feel that as a group we need to simply ‘get over it’ and help push the team through to 4th place.

As soon as the team can shake loose the shackles of pressure and disappointment, we should be free to get back to what we know we’re good at and start strangling opposition teams into submission. That’s how we built the foundation of the last 5 years of progression and that’s the route we must return to in order to start the painful recovery.

We may no longer be in a position to gain a checkmate in this game, but a stalemate settling for 4th should be something to be proud of considering the seasons troubles. In order to grind out a stalemate a chess player must be willing to play a defensive game, thats something we need to get used to as a crowd for the rest of the season.


By Chris Severs