Rafa Kops impatient fans’ frustration with changes
We guffawed as The Spesh was sent flying homewards with a large bootprint on his Armani’d behind, claiming it was a mutual decision whilst still airborne.
Everton’s return to Europe had us rolling on the floor as the 21st Century Keystone Cops lived down to their reputation.
With tears of hilarity flowing freely it was hard to see our own season gliding with the control and fluency of Britney in a car park.
The most successful team in football? FC Hubris. It always wins in the end.
We didn’t even lose but the murmurs of discontent grow louder.
It’s his fourth year in charge after huge investment in the squad. All emotions are sharpened; euphoric carnival after good wins, wailing and gnashing of teeth after draws. There are plenty of drama queens around.
But is he helping himself? Not really. Dropping Torres to the bench again seemed like a willful snub to public opinion, which is obviously whipped into a frothy frenzy by the press and television.
Rotation, they have us believe, is spinning Benitez into an early football grave. With so many games in a short period of time it’s hard to see what else could have been done.
Stories that Torres is already complaining of fatigue don’t help. He won’t have played so much at Atletico granted, but few will sympathise with him and even less with the manager.
Giving him a start against Porto (flanked by two cameo Premiership appearances) was interpreted by many as a significant statement of the manager’s true priority.
We may be entering one of the final phases of Liverpool management. Benitez could have a whole team poisoned and fans will only ask why he didn’t employ another chef or taste the food himself.
From now on there are no Reasons — just Excuses. Agger and Alonso are big losses at a most inconvenient time, when two games a week are the norm. Following on from Gerrard’s travails does anyone seriously believe the modern football boot is up to the job? Doubtless the manager will be blamed for that too. With endorsements large and bad publicity for the product growing little or nothing will be said. Money, as ever, overrides common sense.
Porto saw an atrocious performance rewarded with a rather comical point. The manager’s main whinge has been the lack of preparation time but with the fixtures coming thick and fast surely his own method of changing players and tactics for each game aggravates the situation.
Once we’d played 30 minutes against Birmingham it was becoming clear that this was another fair weather Liverpool team. All season we’ve looked a bit cumbersome before a goal came from nowhere, then something clicked and we proceeded to play some good football.
Without the opener to build on the confidence visibly drains away. Slowly but surely we unravel. It was ever thus with any ‘work in progress’.
It certainly doesn’t help when the manager thinks strikers are almost an afterthought, interchangeable and of little consequence. Selecting three different partnerships in a week is frivolous even by his standards. He picked his two pit ponies up front on Saturday and sure enough the goal threat was insubstantial bordering on transparent.
If Mourinho can be shunted out for boring football and benching an expensive striker who is misfiring, what makes Rafa think he’s fireproof? Especially when Torres was the dazzling highlight of such a promising start.
As I’ve said before, nothing may be what it seems on the surface but that won’t help him. Hyypia admits that a man with such a handsome track record won’t change his ways. This is how he will stand or fall at Anfield no matter how much the criticism builds.
But it is becoming apparent that everyone else will have to be wrong and only Benitez will be right if the long wait for the title is to end.
That doesn’t seem likely right now. The gloom before sunrise and sunset look exactly alike. We have to sit tight and see what’s really happening.
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