Rafa turns it around again

HOW does he keep doing it? On the gallows again, noose tied more tightly than ever before, a baying mob salivating with bloodlust and insincere tributes already written.

Trapdoor opens — and where’s he gone? They seek him here, they seek him there…

Weaving my weary way home from the Lyon game it was difficult to find a straw to clutch. Kelly made a decent debut and there’d been a spirited response to losing Gerrard so early. Sadly it began to unravel even before the French equalised.

When the spotlight burns into your flesh suddenly every decision is questioned. The booing for Benayoun’s substitution, tired and ineffective though he’d become, hinted at growing disillusionment within the ranks.

Voronin’s idea of helping his besieged boss was to kick his first pass out of play, 10 yards from the nearest red shirt. Muchas gracias.

Their winner had a shocking inevitability about it, provoking more boos. It’s becoming a bad habit, what with Owen’s return. Some fans need video footage to show them how much they resemble chimps at such moments, but the damage was done and the inquest begun. Day after day, until the feeding frenzy became ludicrous.

Losing four-in-a-row isn’t great obviously, especially when added to the other two defeats and the fact we haven’t got out of October yet, but there was little understanding of how even good teams have perplexing droughts. The shallow whines about our worst run in 22 years ignored the stature and class of the side which suffered that ignominious spell.

If anyone wants to build a time machine and send us back to 1987, book my ticket forthwith.

Of course there are doubts about this manager and these players, of course there is a financial precipice we are peering over, but a wretched concoction of temporary weakness and the visit of you-know-who sent the newspapers beyond madness.

Is anybody staying? Report after report had our star players packing their bags, Rafa may as well have been tied to a dartboard and if I hear one more beach ball ‘joke’ I will unleash hell.

It was a siege, and Anfield reacted the only way it knows how. Barricades manned, wagons circled, lungs scorched. When it matters, there is no better place on earth. I feel sorry for the anti-Yank demonstrators because once again their thunder was stolen, but if Hicks thinks he can worm his way into affections by acting the fool after a goal on his annual visit he’s deluded. Journalists had written such detailed career overviews of Benitez that they read like obituaries. The excellent Brian Reade however harked back to Fergie’s precarious position 20 years earlier.

It’s a cliché that has protected many an incompetent but if this was Rafa’s Forest moment then N’gog’s Mark Robins impression was spot on.

I contemplated writing the column in ‘too cool for school’ mode, and claiming we’re out of the woods would be ridiculed anyway, but it’s ‘them’ and the day it doesn’t matter is the day we can stay at home and get a life.

Every Liverpool player gave everything. Insua found Valencia an occasional handful and Lucas is still giving silly fouls away. For an hour at least Kuyt was terrible, but on the whole we were pretty damn good and United were decidedly pedestrian.

Their manager can try his usual guff with the referee, but it won’t wash. Again, he was found to be wanting tactically. Why the hell was Giggs man-marking Marriner? They will bleat endlessly about Carragher, but there was no way Owen was scoring on Sunday.

As for Berbatov far be it from me to try and wrestle that particular bone away from Mr Kurt’s sharpened fangs, but seriously; what has he got? An excellent touch for sure but precious little else, certainly no heart or spine. If Rafa had spent even £15 million like that the media would bury him up to his neck and leave him in the sun to blister.

Those who appreciate irony will be quietly chuckling about the second goal in Fergietime, but it was a frantic, anxious finish. You could see what it meant to everyone, except Rafa obviously, but then the more frustrated TV types want him to act the giddy goat the less he obliges. He looked at his watch when Torres scored. He’ll be falling asleep soon, but I admire the intransigence.

The new upbeat me won’t last long, and no doubt Family Guy character Buzz Killington will be back shortly. For now, enjoy.