Benitez cashes in as his great gamble pays off

HIS team-sheet was either that of a reckless gambler or a man utterly in control of his squad, plotting a tactical masterclass.

Rafael Benitez claimed he was neither, merely a pragmatist responding to factors beyond his control, but in doing so the Liverpool manager threw fresh focus on the Anfield club’s bizarre behaviour in the recent transfer window.

Despite Steven Gerrard being ruled out because of injury, Benitez insisted he simply had no choice but to keep his remaining creative talents — Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso and Dirk Kuyt — in reserve after an energy-sapping FA Cup replay against Everton in midweek and field a starting line-up that had scored just five goals between them this season.

No doubt the fact that struggling Portsmouth were his side’s opponents on Saturday evening helped tip the decision, but it is hard to imagine the woefully inadequate strike-force of untried teenager David Ngog and the under-achieving Ryan Babel troubling any Premier League defence of substance.

The subsequent 90 minutes — thrilling and frustrating in equal measure — spelt out what everybody already knew.

No Torres, no Gerrard and, to a lesser extent, no Kuyt and Liverpool have no goal-threat, especially since Robbie Keane was allowed to return to Tottenham Hotspur without a replacement striker being bought in.

Rarely can a team’s return to the head of the table have prompted so many question marks.

Benitez is playing fast and loose with Liverpool’s title ambitions, and if he steers the club to a first championship in 19 years he will quite rightly be hailed as a master of his craft.

He has pulled off similarly unlikely feats, in Spain with Valencia and, memorably, in 2005 when he restored the European Cup to Anfield.

But the task of overhauling a Manchester United squad that has experience and quality to spare, requires a combination of good management and good luck, and with Gerrard and Torres both currently martyrs to fragile hamstrings, it will take a hefty slice of fortune for Liverpool to sustain their challenge into the final month of the campaign.

Torres recognised as much last night. “We began the season very well but at the moment we’re going through a period which isn’t the best,” he said. “We’re stifled by lesser teams who are happy with a draw. We are better against the big teams.”

Torres’ class has long been recognised but on Saturday it stood out so much it might as well have been buffed up, presented on a plinth and highlighted with flashing neon signs.

Kuyt had already inspired Liverpool’s initial fight-back after they had fallen behind to David Nugent’s well-worked 62nd-minute opener, forcing David James to handle Peter Crouch’s ill-advised back-pass and concede the indirect free-kick that set up Fabio Aurelio’s equaliser.

But it was Torres who really did the damage, delivering the final act, a bullet header, in added time after Kuyt himself had cancelled out Hermann Hreidarsson’s 78th-minute effort.

Just as against Chelsea six days previously, the striker proved the difference and Benitez now faces an anxious evening in front of the television on Wednesday. He must hope his pleadings to Vicente Del Bosque, the Spain coach, not to overwork his player during the friendly with England have not fallen on deaf ears.

Jamie Carragher will share his manager’s concerns. “Fernando is massive to our title challenge,” the defender said. “The way he’s been firing against Chelsea with a couple of great goals and then he’s done the damage against Portsmouth.

“If he can keep doing that for the rest of the season then we’ll run whoever it is close for the title.

“At the moment Fernando is just coming back to fitness and he played into extra time on Wednesday and now he’ll be going away with Spain so the given the injuries he’s had this season the manager is being very careful with him.”

Benitez’s problems must ring extraordinarily hollow to Tony Adams, who is finding management in the Premier League a much more daunting task than playing ever was.

The Portsmouth manager rightly praised his side’s overall level of performance, and in Crouch and David Nugent he had a front pairing with more nous and wherewithal than Babel and Ngog were ever likely to show.

But having gone more than two months since their last league win, they inevitably crumpled under pressure and a desperate few months lie ahead.

Whether Adams remains at the helm for the duration remains to be seen, despite his chairman’s vigorous expression of support last week.

REFEREE: Howard Webb (Yorkshire) 7: Got the major decisions right, including the indirect free-kick that led to Liverpool’s equaliser.

MATCH RATING: **** Managers may hate the kind of defensive mistakes that left the game in the balance but there’s no denying they make for great entertainment.