27 October 2006
ROUGH FOR RAFA
By Martin Lipton
RAFA BENITEZ'S position at Liverpool is under pressure after a senior Anfield board member admitted the club is concerned about the direction the Spaniard is taking them.
With Liverpool already 11 points off the Premiership pace set by Manchester United and Chelsea, directors are already giving up hope of ending the championship drought that has already lasted 16 seasons.
And one influential figure on the six-man board revealed that Benitez's leadership of the team was being questioned.
"We have paid too many inflated prices and inflated wages for players who are not doing the job," said the director, who is concerned for the future of the club but wants to remain anonymous to avoid a boardroom split.
"When it comes to any manager, the view of the board has always been to let them get on with it. We do not believe in interfering.
"But the day will come when we may not be that way inclined any more. We have always been very respectful of any manager we appoint. The view has always been the same one, the right one - that the manager must stand or fall by his efforts.
"But one thing that we can't hide is that we have to be in the Champions League every season and if we do not qualify it will be a major problem.
"The budget we have set up is still in balance if we do not get into the Champions League. But if we are to make investment in the team we are talking about £20m of income we need to have every season."
Criticism of Benitez - who still has the backing of chairman David Moores - was aimed at his constant team changing and the lack of any pattern or passion in last weekend's Old Trafford defeat.
"We were looking to do something in the league. We thought it would be this year and it's not going to happen now.
"Normally, by the time you get to October, you'd expect the manager to know his best team and stick with it but there are no signs of that happening now. I don't think he could tell you what his best team is."
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27 October 2006
HOW PATIENCE IS FINALLY WEARING THIN AT ANFIELD
By Martin Lipton
IN THE bowels of the Millennium Stadium in May, as the celebratory beers began to flow, Rafa Benitez looked down the Liverpool team coach.
The FA Cup and the winners' medals may have been shining but it was relief, rather than joy, which was running through Benitez's mind.
He knew that the shoot-out victory over West Ham had masked the reality of a squad that was nowhere near good enough to compete for the Premiership crown.
Five months on, Benitez finds himself under question as never before on Merseyside, Liverpool's abject display at Old Trafford the catalyst for a bout of boardroom backbiting.
At this stage, Benitez's doubters prefer to stay in the shadows, but their criticisms are fierce and the targets wide-ranging.
"Sunday was bloody awful," conceded one board member. "There was no resolve in our performance.
"At Old Trafford we played one up. If you're going to do that, you've got to have the right five in midfield, playing in the right positions, and it didn't look that way at all.
"We have paid too many inflated prices and inflated wages for players who are not doing the job.
"And when the manager decides they are not doing the job, we cannot get rid of them because nobody wants them for the sort of money we want back.
"It means we're losing money we can't afford to lose. We have too many players of poor quality and from the way the manager keeps on changing the side it looks as if he doesn't know what his best team is."
Benitez accepts that he must take his share of responsibility for the disappointing start to the campaign, although he maintains his policy of constant rotation will bear fruit at the business end of the season.
After all, Liverpool are only two points worse off now than they were at the corresponding point in each of the last two seasons.
Privately, the Spaniard maintains that his first two years have represented an over-achievement that should have bought him the time to make the changes he feels are needed.
For Benitez, it is a bigger job than he imagined in 2004. "The first year we were here, if we had finished fourth, people would have said fantastic," he said. "But we won the Champions League and expectations were raised. People want something like this every year, but we can't spend a lot of money like the top sides do.
Money is a pressing issue. Benitez feels the tight purse-strings have forced him to buy too many players who were second or third on his wanted list.
Discounting Djibril Cisse, bought before he arrived in 2004, Liverpool have spent less than Chelsea, United and even Tottenham, although more than twice as much as Arsenal.
The summer saw him once again operating in the transfer market with one arm behind his back, unable to find the money to sign Sevilla full-back Daniel Alves and having to wait until the last minute to bring in Dirk Kuyt.
The board, though, are less convinced. "The signings in the summer cost us a lot of money and they've not worked. It's the same old story," said the board insider. "We were happy to spend £9m on a centre-forward but we were told we should be spending £30m. You can't go out and get a Bentley all the time."
It has made Benitez reassess his targets. Where he had believed that this could be the year when Liverpool pressed Chelsea all the way in the Premiership, it is now about trying to close the gap.
He has to do that by cajoling and energising his current crop of players. Benitez knows he cannot criticise his players publicly because doing so would "lose" the dressing room.
In his private moments, though, the 46-year-old is harbouring doubts about the attitude of too many of his players.
He is understood to feel that not enough players have the courage to come out and push their colleagues on, not merely by screaming at them but by leading by example.
The Spaniard's relationship with skipper Steven Gerrard, never the best, has declined with the England star clearly unimpressed at not playing in his preferred central role.
It has not gone unnoticed, with the boardroom perturbed to see Gerrard looking "a miserable sod" on Sunday. Benitez has rebuffed unofficial approaches from both AC Milan and Inter and is determined to see his job through.
But if he feels the players are not responding and he senses the boardroom is slipping away, that may change.
'From the way Benitez keeps changing the side it looks as if he doesn't know his best team..'
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/tm_...-name_page.htmlმე მგონი ეს უფრო შეესაბამება სიმართლეს ვიდრე პერის სიტყვები. ფაქტიურად გაფრთხილებას აძლევენ და ამის შემდეგ პერი ამხნევებს. პერიმაც რომ აგინოს აბა, მაშინ უნდა გაუშვან ან თვითონ წავიდეს. ჩემი აზრი ასეთია და თუ არ გინდათ ნუ დამეთანხმებით
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27 October 2006
GERRARD: YES, WE HAVE PROBLEMS
By David Anderson
STEVEN GERRARD accepts he has to put aside personal preferences over his Liverpool position for the good of the team.
The Reds captain has seen his form criticised recently as the debate continues over whether he should be restored to his favourite central midfield role rather than the position on the right which boss Rafael Benitez wants him to play.
It is clear that Benitez is 'not for turning' on this issue and Gerrard is likely to be on the right of midfield for tomorrow's visit of unbeaten Aston Villa to Anfield. Gerrard says the manager knows what position he prefers, but he accepts where the Spanish boss wants him to play for the good of the team.
Gerrard explained: "The position is not the issue.
"When you are a young player breaking through you want to play in your favourite position, you are desperate to get into the team.
"But I am 26 now, I have to think of the team first. If the manager needs me to do a job on the right or the left I have to accept it.
"He knows where I would like to play but I understand there is a job to be done for the team."
Gerrard was criticised for his performance in Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Manchester United, but added: "Certain people expect me to go out every game and be man of the match and score from 30 yards. I understand when I am not playing to my own standards, and I can take stick when it comes my way."
ბოლო-ბოლო ამ კაცს იმედია არ შესწირავენ რაფას.
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LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB, ყველაზე ტიტულოვანი ინგლისური გუნდის ფანკლუბი,VOL.4
