Sport

Six years was a good run but time is right for change

SOCCER ANALYST: Ultimately what cost Benitez was his failures in the transfer market and his excessively defensive tactics, …

Fri Jun 04 2010 - 01:00

SOCCER ANALYST:Ultimately what cost Benitez was his failures in the transfer market and his excessively defensive tactics, writes MARK LAWRENSON

LIVERPOOL HAVE been loyal to their managers over the years. The supporters and the people in the boardroom tend to back the man in charge, even when, at times, that loyalty might have gone unrewarded in terms of on-the-field success.

So, changes at the top are rare enough, certainly compared to most other clubs, but this one was absolutely inevitable. It’s a bit like the end of a marriage, both sides saying “thanks, but no thanks”.

Six years was a great run for Rafa Benitez, but the club – and most of the support – finally accepted it just wasn’t happening. The change had to be made.

READ MORE

And the fans were incredibly loyal. Some of that was down to them taking his side in the battle with the American owners, a battle that left him feeling he was on his own at the club.

And I did feel sorry for him because of that, he was just never sure what the Americans were going to do next.

That didn’t help his cause, but that’s probably the only excuse he could have. Ultimately what cost him were his failures in the transfer market and his excessively defensive approach to the game.

I think back to the game at Stoke (in January, drew 1-1) when he played four centre-backs, he virtually had eight defensive-minded players in his team. At Stoke! A place where Liverpool, surely, should be looking to win.

The supporters didn’t mind that they lost a few games, it was just that the football was intensely dull. Insipid at times, often so, so defensive. People who had watched Liverpool for 20, 30 years were, in the end, saying “no, not for me”. They weren’t anti-Benitez, they liked him, they were just anti the kind of football he had his team playing.

Last season was the big opportunity. The season before they had pushed Manchester United all the way, so the feeling was that this could be built on. United lost Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez last summer, so that didn’t exactly strengthen their cause; Arsenal and Chelsea didn’t do much buying either. So it looked like Liverpool had a really good chance of winning the league. In the end they went backwards.

Where he slipped up massively was failing to buy another centre forward, one who could either play with or instead of Fernando Torres – that, ultimately, cost him his job.

It wasn’t as if he didn’t have money to spend: Glen Johnson and Alberto Aquilani cost over €35 million between them. And when Torres wasn’t playing, a clearly frustrated Stevie Gerrard was left largely ineffectual, knowing the players around him just weren’t good enough. Dirk Kuyt? No. Ryan Babel? No.

Torres was a good buy, Pepe Reina was a good buy, Javier Mascherano too, but how many after that? He bought a fair few stooges too.

And that record in the transfer market would have made the club reluctant to give him any more money to spend.

Overall, Benitez did okay at the club: he had a great record in the Champions League, as the chess-like nature of that competition suits his football; he was in charge for that win in Istanbul. But always erring on the side of caution meant he was never going to win the league.

While the club can, after his departure, look forward, they are in a difficult situation. The future of Torres and Gerrard, in particular, will occupy the thoughts of most supporters.

Until the club find new owners their future is uncertain.

And that’s the great problem: whoever they approach, what are they going to say to him? We’re hoping to be taken over? We’re hoping to have transfer funds available soon? And if they are taken over the manager won’t have been the choice of the new owners. So, where will he stand? Martin O’Neill, for example, might wonder if it’s worth leaving a relatively comfortable position at Aston Villa for the uncertainty he would find at Liverpool.

But still, it’s a very attractive job, one that will draw a high-calibre list of candidates.

I think they’ll opt for someone like a Roy Hodgson or Guus Hiddink, managers who’ve been around and who can steer them through a difficult time. Because it’s not a time to take a gamble.