England

Liam Barnes

Considering the less than impressive attempts at recent title challenges, you would have thought most Liverpool fans would have been pleased to be within reach of Manchester United at this stage of the season, only seven points behind with a dozen games to go, plus a crucial head-to-head meeting between the two to come.

Also considering the recent turmoil at Chelsea and the continuing underachieving taking place at Arsenal, you would be forgiven for assuming the red half of Merseyside would be laughing at the misfortune of their nearest challengers.

And considering that they have just beaten Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Rafael Benitez is in a strong position, and in December this would have been widely acknowledged by both fans and pundits. However, Liverpool’s manager seems hell-bent on destroying their bid for that elusive championship, and may be heading up a dole queue if he carries on this way.

Expectations for Liverpool this year were not too high at the beginning of the season, with the glamorous (yet doomed) appointment of Luiz Felipe Scolari at Chelsea supposed to rekindle a resurgence in West London and provide the chief challenge to a hat-trick of consecutive titles for the Red Devils. Summer signings of Spanish winger Albert Riera, Italy full-back Andrea Dossena and Robbie Keane were seen as solid, adding depth to a squad that could make progress in the league, but probably still fall a bit short. So when Liverpool proceeded to have an excellent first half of the season, including superb performances without either Torres or Gerrard to beat Manchester United at home and Chelsea away, expectations suddenly spiralled upwards, and talk of an end to the title drought was rife.

But that hope has now dissipated in the wake of bizarre behaviour on and off the pitch by Benitez, disappointing performances from numerous players, most notably new signing Dossena and Ryan Babel, and the sight of that unyielding juggernaut from Manchester powering full-steam ahead.

An absolutely awful December and January, where they only won six out of 13 games and drew a ridiculous seven, against the likes of Stoke, West Ham and Hull, has cost them a strong lead in the league. Drawing at home to Manchester City recently, their sixth home draw this season, has put them seven points behind, meaning not only do Man Utd realistically have to lose to Liverpool and two others, Liverpool must win nearly every game, including tough ties with Arsenal and Aston Villa. With Everton adding the indignity of a derby defeat in the FA Cup last month, once again the only plausible option for a trophy seems to be the Champions League, and though the Reds did win in Spain, some would say that only goes to show the decline of Real Madrid, with plenty of stronger teams left, most obviously Manchester United.

But is it all the fault of Benitez? Yes. He has not been helped by trouble at the top (where bickering American owners and a seemingly inept chief executive, Rick Parry, have conducted a destructive civil war) most obviously in the bungled attempt to sign Gareth Barry. But why sign Barry when you already have Alonso and Mascherano, as well as the promising Damien Plessis, to be the base for Gerrard’s attacks? Benitez was also reportedly thwarted in attempts to sign Nemanja Vidic before he left for Man Utd, but centre-back and centre-midfield are two of Liverpool’s strongest suits.

The problems were most acutely felt at full-back, out wide (since Gerrard is too capricious to play there regularly) and up front. Dossena has been dreadful, Fabio Aurelio has been mediocre and frequently injured, while Alvaro Arbeloa is at best useful but hardly top quality, so this problem remains. Winger Riera has made a positive impact and Dirk Kuyt does cover a lot of ground and selflessly works for the team, but the options in case of injury or poor form are threadbare, with Yossi Benayoun really a creative central player and Babel more of a striker (how Benitez must wish he signed Ashley Young when he had the chance). The striking situation is woeful when Torres is out, even more so after the laughable turning over of Robbie Keane, a player who would have been ideal for the role behind Torres that Gerrard relishes, and could have fitted in to had the captain moved to his equally effective role of coming in from the right.

Benitez knows his team is not good enough to win the league – he needs a miracle that he doesn’t deserve – and he knows it needs the sort of overhaul that next year he won’t get. In other words, he has hit his high point, unless some saviour comes in to take over and outbids Manchester City for everyone. And it seems Benitez knows this – the increasingly provocative statements, the increasingly unorthodox formation and team line-ups (Portsmouth was particularly baffling for Liverpool fans, and the Reds only saved the game once Torres was brought on and the system tweaked), the increasingly tetchy and paranoid comments that make Arsene Wenger look like a good loser. Is this a case of engineering his own departure, triggering a sacking that the fans will blame largely on the unpopular owners, rather than resign and risk facing the Scouse wrath?

Real Madrid may need a new manager in the summer, as Juande Ramos is only a stop-gap, and Benitez is sure to be offered a big job on the back of Istanbul in 2005 and his Valencia successes before that. It is of course very fanciful and based largely on interpretation, but is nevertheless an intriguing thought, because surely Benitez can see the chasm between his side and the title not only gaping, but widening, and thus his position and popularity waning and his stock as a manager falling. Very much conjectural, but perhaps worth considering.

 

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