Mascherano is key to Rafa’s survival hopes

WHEN the dust finally settles on the internal strife that threatens the future of manager Rafael Benitez and is expected to precipitate a change in the ownership of the club, the name Javier Mascherano will figure prominently in any review of an uncomfortable episode in Liverpool’s recent history.

It was the club’s US owners’ refusal to sanction the £17 million permanent signing of the Argentine midfielder, who is midway a season-long loan deal, that triggered the public falling out between Benitez and his employers.

Now, with the Spaniard’s job prospects apparently waning by the day, it increasingly appears that, having unwittingly played a role in undermining Benitez, Mascherano will be key to extending his manager’s stay on Merseyside.

The Kop may once again have voiced its support for Benitez, although public support for the ‘Rafalution’ is no longer unanimous, but it is results, not chants that the manager needs right now.

Out of the title race and humiliated in the FA Cup, the growing consensus is Benitez must engineer an extended run in the Champions League to have any chance or remaining in situ beyond the end of the season and last night’s tense, frustrating meeting with Inter underlined the fact it is Mascherano who possesses the savvy and presence to steer Liverpool into the quarter-finals and beyond.

Benitez spoke earlier in the season of possessing two outstanding match-winners in Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres and Gerrard in particular could already write a considerable book detailing the number of times he has single-handedly lifted his team-mates out of the mire, not least the memorable Champions League final triumph of 2005.

And having both been left out of the starting line-up against Barnsley last Saturday, the pair inevitably provided the cutting edge for the best of Liverpool’s attacking moves as they struggled to carve out chances.

It was the less conspicuous, more understated display of Mascherano, however, that freed Gerrard from his defensive duties and provided the platform for England midfielder to make his incisive forward runs. And as Torres admitted on the eve of last night’s game, when Gerrard is given the opportunity to get on the ball in the final third of the field, that’s when the service starts to appear for the Liverpool forwards.

Mascherano may occupy the holding role, but that description doesn’t give the player enough credit for the ground he covers and, during the opening half-hour before Materazzi’s dismissal effectively ended the Serie A leaders attacking intentions, it was the Argentine’s exuberance that closed down Inter’s central midfield triumvarate of Cambiasso, Stankovic and Zanetti.

One 40-yard run to dispossess Zanetti after the Inter captain had cleverly side-stepped the Liverpool midfielder and his colleague Lucas Leiva neatly articulated Mascherano’s value to his side.

On a night when Anfield urged Liverpool forward with chants of ‘‘attack, attack’’, it was Mascherano who battled to maintain the home side’s momentum, moving the ball on quickly and positively out to the wide areas Ryan Babel and Dirk Kuyt singularly failed to exploit, before making himself available for the return when his less effective team-mates appeared in danger of heading down a dead end.

No one deserved to celebrate Kuyt’s winner more and Mascherano responded by embarking on a solo run down the length of the Centenary Stand before leaping into the arms of keeper Pepe Reina.

Neither this tie nor the manager’s future was ever going to be decided last night. It seems certain, though, Mascherano will be a major factor in determining the outcome of both.