by fcb Sun Feb 17, 2008 12:41 pm
Batman wrote:
Is it just me or does Rafa Benitez seem lost without the guidance of Pako Ayestaran?
From what i understand, Rafa Benitez rested players at the start of the season so that they will be fresh at the business end of the season when challeneging for the Premiership, FA Cup and Champions League.
Although Liverpool can still win the Champions League.
So does Rafa Benitez find himself in the same situation as Claudio Ranieri, win the Champions League or get sacked?
I think it would be a mistake to sack Benitez because if he goes then Mascherano, Alonso, Reina and Torres could soon follow. Its not like there won't be many clubs trying to sign these players.
Torres and Reina won't leave, but Mascherano almost definitely will - we have been linked to him repeatedly.
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I think the Pako point is a valid one...basically Benitez has never been a person who interacts closely with his players, so Pako filled that role. His other main responsibility was also to track the players' fitness on the training ground everyday, and then suggest names to Benitez depending on the tactical formation that Benitez wanted to play for a certain match. Now that he's gone, Benitez has to change his style in 2 ways (among others):
1. He has to do the fitness-tracking himself, or rely on other coaches...that will obviously affect his team selection since he relies so much on scientific data, that if someone experienced is not doing it anymore, mistakes can be made.
(Note that I feel this entire approach is flawed anyway)
2. He may have tried to forge closer relationships with his players, but the off-field drama about ownership, transfers, etc. has ruined that. And this is the only place where I feel the Americans have disrupted things. Otherwise the blame they are getting from the Liverpool fans as the root cause of all the failures this season, is completely unjustified.
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