Benitez plans for uncertain future

DESPITE all the insults being traded around him and lack of support in certain quarters of the Anfield board room, Rafael Benitez has delivered, yet again, the minimum requirement of Champions League football for Liverpool.

Whether he will be around to mastermind another attempt at lifting the trophy next season remains to be seen.

Yet, whatever the outcome of the Tom Hicks, George Gillette and Dubai International Capital power-wrangle, there will be some very hard thinking for whoever triumphs should Benitez secure a sixth European title for Liverpool in Moscow next month. It is a hypothetical scenario he believes he can make reality, beginning at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.

Securing fourth place in the Premier League with his second string’s committed fight back at St Andrews, where he rested no fewer than nine players expected to be on duty in west London, has given Benitez an insurance policy that allows him to concentrate wholly on trying to avenge last season’s defeat against Milan.

To do so, Benitez knows he will have to score and deny Didier Drogba his customary goal against Liverpool to progress to face either Barcelona or Manchester United. He will set about the task with an added edge of being able to give Steven Gerrard, Javier Mascherano and talisman Fernando Torres the weekend off to recharge themselves for one more push, while Chelsea were utilising huge reserves of energy in their titanic struggle with Alex Ferguson’s league leaders.

“We can concentrate completely now on the Champions League and trying to win the final. Fourth place is always what is required for Liverpool. We are in the Champions League again next season and now all our energy can focus on Chelsea and trying to win that game,” said Benitez.

Finishing higher and sustaining a genuine title challenge would be preferable for Benitez, but few could argue with a record of three Champions League finals in four seasons, which is why fringe players like Jermaine Pennant worked so hard to try to play himself in contention for a trip to Moscow should Benitez work the oracle again.

Pennant was part of the losing side last season and has been hit by a fractured shin and a double hernia this season, but the manner in which he tore apart his old side and helped overhaul a two-goal deficit, playing a part in Peter Crouch’s 13th goal of the season and Rahdi Jaidi’s unfortunate redirection of Yossi Benayoun’s header suggests he could still have a part to play as a genuine winger on the opposite flank to Ryan Babbel.

“Any game I play there is a chance of saying to the manager, pick me if I do well,” he said. “It is a massive ask for him to pick me for the Chelsea game because the team have been doing very well. We’ll just have to wait and see on Wednesday but if I am on the bench then I will still probably enjoy it.

“The manager has got wingers playing at the moment with Torres and Stevie G behind him and I can play on the wing, that’s my position. All we have to do is score and keep a clean sheet at Chelsea and that would be us through. It is going to be tough but we all believe we can do it. None of us are fazed.”

Pennant was also part of the last Birmingham side relegated under Steve Bruce two seasons ago and that was the reason he was sold to Liverpool as part of a clear out of high earning players the club could not sustain at Championship level.

The failure to retain the advantage given to them by Mikael Forssell and Sebastien Larsson’s excellent free-kick could lead to another mass exodus.

Birmingham could be relegated if they lose at Fulham next weekend and a recent away record of just two points from their last 10 games on the road does not bode well for Alex McLeish. The Scot had joked at the simplicity of the English league after his first Premier League game bought victory against Spurs at White Hart Lane, although City’s current predicament is no laughing matter.

“I might have joked at the time, but I always knew there would be a big fight and always said that it would come down to a big struggle and that has what has happened. So it is no surprise,” he said.

“We have similar records to the teams about us away from home that’s why we’re all fighting this relegation campaign. But we will win an away game in the future and it is our intention to do that next week.”

Admirable and defiant words, but they have a hollow ring. Whether Birmingham have any nerve left after the humiliation dealt by Aston Villa eight days ago and now this, is debatable.

BIRMINGHAM 4-4-2: Maik Taylor 7, Kelly 6, Jaidi 6, Ridgewell 5 (Queudrue 77,6), Murphy 5, Larsson 7, Muamba 6, Nafti 6, Kapo 6 (McSheffrey 77,5), Forssell 6 (Zarate 87, 5), McFadden 6.

Subs Not Used: Doyle, Jerome.

LIVERPOOL 4-4-2: Reina 6, Finnan 6, Hyypia 6, Skrtel 5, Riise 6 (Insua 64,6), Pennant 8, Plessis 6, Lucas 6, Benayoun 7, Crouch 7, Voronin 5.

Subs Not Used: Itandje, Gerrard, Kuyt, Carragher.

REFEREE: Peter Walton (Northamptonshire) 7: He wont have too many easier games than this to referee. Hardly a tackle or a contentious issue in sight.

MATCH RATING: ** Liverpool rested nine players, hardly surprisingly and Birmingham simply couldn’t take advantage. Their mental frailty once Liverpool scored, has to be a worry for Alex McLeish.