Rafa’s rotation of Torres puts supporters in a spin
As a veteran of the Houllier wars I was hoping to sit this one out while the young men fight the good fight.
No chance. Even when Torres is selected and scores three times it seals one worm-can shut and opens up another.
On the bench for the Premiership, starts in the Carling Cup. One fine day that straight Spanish face will break into a huge grin, revelling in the huge practical joke being played out for his amusement.
Selecting the star striker to tear Reading’s reserves a new one was like visiting the corner shop in a Rolls Royce.
Especially when the grubby local urchins are eager to enviously scratch their ten-foot signature in your immaculate paintwork.
“We have four good strikers”. No, not really. You have three decent ones; a freebie that looks like a Metallica roadie, one that runs everywhere except into the area and the lanky one you’ve virtually disowned.
And then there’s Torres, the quality striker you screamed and squealed for all those long noisy months ago.
The four are not on the same level at all. Rafa manages teams like Hitchcock made films.
The master famously called actors “cattle” and claimed to lose interest once he’d finished the storyboards in his office.
He’ll deny it ‘til he’s purple in the face but he’s finding the elevation of Torres by the supporters rather tiresome.
Aided and abetted by poor officials Reading’s bit-part shamateurs roughed up our boy with borderline bullying.
Torres dusted himself down and simply became more determined to score. Having previously seen off John Terry’s putrid attempt at intimidation he wasn’t to be coerced by bargain basement varieties.
It still wasn’t enough to keep Rafa quiet. On brief sojourns from his day job of putting the whole football world to rights he occasionally likes to manage Liverpool.
Is it just me or is he becoming a bit of a bore on the quiet? Internationals, tv interference, protecting “quality” players, all can be put right by our man if only the authorities would listen.
He has his allies of course; something about fighting our corner and ensuring we’re not treated like suckers. To the uninitiated it just sounds like one never-ending complaint.
Again we get the big speech about having everyone fresh for next spring. All well and good if there’s actually something to play for then.
Last spring everyone was fit as a fiddle and they ended up just playing in European matches! Logic no longer resides in these parts.
It’s not as if we’ve not started well but something is clearly not right. It reminds me of Houllier before his blip, when our record was even better (9 wins, 3 draws) without ever convincing anyone we had the title credentials.
It all seems illusory. Discount the thrashing of Derby and we’re averaging a goal a game in the league.
Yes, point at the Mancs’ current standing if you wish. Winning ugly is fine and dandy when they do it obviously.
Beating Wigan can’t eradicate all doubt. Doing it whilst playing badly is the mark of champions, say those who forget they said exactly that just before Houllier drove Liverpool over a cliff.
Nothing impairs eyesight more than three points.
Wigan took defeat badly, especially in a corner of the stadium where they outnumbered Liverpool fans 100-1.
Coincidentally they’d made their peace with the disappointment once 5,000 Scousers came out of the away section to politely inquire about their “fists first” policy.
It was another journey home tinged with relief. It’s hard to calibrate such games because even if Wigan play out of their skin and we stink, victory is still expected.
Benayoun had himself a good week, with favourable comparisons to Garcia. Wigan quietly fumed about the officials. Rafa for once chose discretion and ignored the physical excess of several opponents, Brown especially.
We won so an excuse wasn’t needed and no one even mentioned r*t*t**n. He can spin on his chin with a fish in both ears – as long as we win.
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