Previously on this blog, I came out in favour of Rafa Benitez rotation policies. I was particularly swayed by Paul Tomkins article on liverpoolfc.tv. I must admit now, that I was wrong.
Benitez is responsible for the Reds early season mediocrity. I say mediocrity because they have yet to lose in the league. However, for a manager who has spent millions over the close season, and millions more since he arrived at the club, this is totally unacceptable.
Losing to Marseille and drawing with Tottenham at Anfield is ridiculous. The squad is too deep and too good for this to happen.
Benitez changed five players from the win versus Wigan for Wednesday's loss against Marseille. He then changed another five players today for the draw with Tottenham.
The best teams play their best players when the games matter. For Liverpool, the games that matter are the League and the European Championship. If Liverpool were to advance to the final of the Champion's League again, they would play 53 games in these all-important competitions.
If Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Javier Mascherano, John Arne Riise, Fernando Torres, Steve Finnan and Dirk Kuyt have to play 53 games to win trophies, Benitez needs to play them in 53 games. There is no way around this fact.
Rotation reduces the competition for places - if players know they'll get their chance, there's less for them to play for. Why should Riise play his heart out when he knows Aurelio will take his place for the next game and he'll get the game after that? Why should Yossi Benayoun put in a full 90 minutes if he'll get dropped for the next game anyways?
If there's one thing to be sure of in Liverpool, Tom Hicks and George Gillett won't stand for less than trophies. Look at the Montreal Canadiens and Dallas Stars of the NHL. These teams haven't had coaches last extended periods of time, Liverpool is unlikely to be an exception.
Benitez seems to have learned playing Torres is good thing, but he needs to identify who the key players are in his squad and play them pretty much game in, game out.
Liverpool are now four points out of second with a game in hand and six points out of first, level on games with Arsenal. If they continue to drop points in games against the bottom feeders, they may be looking at another struggle to finish in the top four.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
I've decided to stop the madness, will Rafa?
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1 comment:
Dear Frustrated:
The problem with Benitez is not exactly what you've described. As pointed out earlier in your blog, his usage of his players isn't all that much different than that of other big clubs. If you look at the numbers of premiership games only (I don't consider early round FA or Carling Cup games to be as important since most teams use their youngsters here) Liverpool is using just as many players as the other big 4. Liverpool have used 19 players in prem games - United 19, Chelsea 20, Arsenal 18. Each team has a busy schedule and has faced what I'd consider to be severe injury problems. Liverpool have missed Gerrard, Carragher, Alonso, Agger, & Riise. Chelsea: Lampard, Carvalho, Drogba, Essien. Man U: Rooney, Saha, Hargreaves, Neville, van der Sar, Silvestre, Park. Arsenal: Lehmann (although that's a blessing), Gallas, Eboue, Rosicky, Gilberto. There is no team that rolls out their top 11 every week with, as you noted, 53 games on the sked. More likely, teams have a core of 4 or 5 players that get the nod every game and a deep group of other players that do the job when they're called upon.
My problem with Benitez is that his lineup rotating is reactionary rather dictating. He picks a lineup based on his opponent, rather than force his opponent to react to Liverpool. A prime example of this was the home game against Birmingham a few weeks ago. Everyone knows Birmingham's coming in looking for the draw, and Benitez's tactics and lineup didn't force Birmingham into doing anything uncomfortable. When a team's coming to Anfield, Liverpool should be coming out and playing a creative game worthy of their exceptional talent, rather than letting Voronin & Kuyt run into each other while Babel gives the ball away over and over again on the wing.
So, I agree with you on the Torres call - he's got the youth and explosive ability that calls for 53 starts a season - but it's not rotating that's killing Liverpool's title hopes, it's tactics. The only 5 players that should play every game for Liverpool are Reina, Carragher, Alonso, Gerrard, & Torres.
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