- Aug 18, 2005
- 6,527
- 267
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2766999/Big-4-Its-more-like-the-big-2.html
THE blind faith with which Liverpool fans continue to support Rafa Benitez looks increasingly irrational.
It now smacks of stubbornness, two fingers up to the rest of the world and a blatant refusal to accept the inevitable.
That Benitez's time on Merseyside is up (anywhere else, especially in his native Spain, he would have been sacked long ago).
Most neutral observers who hadn't already arrived at this conclusion before Liverpool's tame display against Fiorentina on Wednesday have now done so.
It was Liverpool's chance to go out of the Champions League with a bit of style. To show some fight and pride.
They failed.
Benitez greeted their exit with yet another defiant claim that Liverpool's season had just started.
It hadn't. It had just ended.
They will try and rev up Sunday's meeting with Arsenal at Anfield as a pivotal clash between two enduring members of the Big Four.
Except the Big Four has now become the Big Two.
Or the Big Three if Manchester City take advantage of a very generous fixture list between now and their visit to Anfield on February 20.
Benitez bangs on about Liverpool's leaking of late goals being the core reason for their failure to make the Champions League last 16. That's a cop-out and he knows it.
It's as if it were some form of terrible bad luck rather than poor defending, a failure to concentrate for the full 90 minutes and, maybe, a lack of fitness.
And the fact they are not a very good team.
They have, after all, managed just two wins in their last nine games, three in their last 14.
While a meagre seven points is their lowest tally in all the years they have been competing in the Champions League.
It was not as if they were in some sort of Group of Death.
That was Group F with Barcelona, Inter Milan, Russian champs Rubin Kazan and Dynamo Kiev.
Or Group C (Real Madrid, AC Milan and Marseille). Or Group A (Bordeaux, Bayern Munich and Juventus). Or even Group B (Manchester United, CSKA Moscow, Wolfsburg and Besiktas).
No, Liverpool got Fiorentina, Lyon and Debrecen. And never managed to score more than one goal in any of their six matches.
Not even against the hopeless Hungarians, who let in eight against Lyon and nine against Fiorentina.
Benitez has also moaned long and hard about Liverpool's injuries. Yet compared to United, Chelsea and Arsenal, they have almost had a clean bill of health.
United's ability to win 3-1 at Wolfsburg with 13 players out is a particularly poor reflection on Benitez's squad-building at Anfield.
As Liverpool laboured away again in the first half on Wednesday, the only time the Anfield crowd became animated was when Fernando Torres warmed up on the touchline.
He got a standing ovation. But not even that sort of bowing and scraping will keep either him or Javier Mascherano at the club at the end of the season.
As for Alberto Aquilani's much-delayed first start, well, if you like careful placing of the ball either sideways or backwards then he's your man.
At £20million, probably not.
Meanwhile, much is being written about Sunday's opponents Arsenal, and the latest group of talented youngsters at the club.
But they didn't do them much good against Manchester City and Olympiakos. No goals, four conceded and a number of good opportunities missed.
And how young ARE Arsenal exactly with a team that often includes Almunia(32), Sagna(26), Gallas(32), Eboue(26), Silvestre(32), Rosicky(29), Arshavin(28), Eduardo and Van Persie(both 26)?
All this talk about the kids is a bit of a smokescreen. An attempt to provide a Feelgood Factor for the future while covering up the inadequacies of the present.
But at least Arsenal appear to HAVE a future.
THE blind faith with which Liverpool fans continue to support Rafa Benitez looks increasingly irrational.
It now smacks of stubbornness, two fingers up to the rest of the world and a blatant refusal to accept the inevitable.
That Benitez's time on Merseyside is up (anywhere else, especially in his native Spain, he would have been sacked long ago).
Most neutral observers who hadn't already arrived at this conclusion before Liverpool's tame display against Fiorentina on Wednesday have now done so.
It was Liverpool's chance to go out of the Champions League with a bit of style. To show some fight and pride.
They failed.
Benitez greeted their exit with yet another defiant claim that Liverpool's season had just started.
It hadn't. It had just ended.
They will try and rev up Sunday's meeting with Arsenal at Anfield as a pivotal clash between two enduring members of the Big Four.
Except the Big Four has now become the Big Two.
Or the Big Three if Manchester City take advantage of a very generous fixture list between now and their visit to Anfield on February 20.
Benitez bangs on about Liverpool's leaking of late goals being the core reason for their failure to make the Champions League last 16. That's a cop-out and he knows it.
It's as if it were some form of terrible bad luck rather than poor defending, a failure to concentrate for the full 90 minutes and, maybe, a lack of fitness.
And the fact they are not a very good team.
They have, after all, managed just two wins in their last nine games, three in their last 14.
While a meagre seven points is their lowest tally in all the years they have been competing in the Champions League.
It was not as if they were in some sort of Group of Death.
That was Group F with Barcelona, Inter Milan, Russian champs Rubin Kazan and Dynamo Kiev.
Or Group C (Real Madrid, AC Milan and Marseille). Or Group A (Bordeaux, Bayern Munich and Juventus). Or even Group B (Manchester United, CSKA Moscow, Wolfsburg and Besiktas).
No, Liverpool got Fiorentina, Lyon and Debrecen. And never managed to score more than one goal in any of their six matches.
Not even against the hopeless Hungarians, who let in eight against Lyon and nine against Fiorentina.
Benitez has also moaned long and hard about Liverpool's injuries. Yet compared to United, Chelsea and Arsenal, they have almost had a clean bill of health.
United's ability to win 3-1 at Wolfsburg with 13 players out is a particularly poor reflection on Benitez's squad-building at Anfield.
As Liverpool laboured away again in the first half on Wednesday, the only time the Anfield crowd became animated was when Fernando Torres warmed up on the touchline.
He got a standing ovation. But not even that sort of bowing and scraping will keep either him or Javier Mascherano at the club at the end of the season.
As for Alberto Aquilani's much-delayed first start, well, if you like careful placing of the ball either sideways or backwards then he's your man.
At £20million, probably not.
Meanwhile, much is being written about Sunday's opponents Arsenal, and the latest group of talented youngsters at the club.
But they didn't do them much good against Manchester City and Olympiakos. No goals, four conceded and a number of good opportunities missed.
And how young ARE Arsenal exactly with a team that often includes Almunia(32), Sagna(26), Gallas(32), Eboue(26), Silvestre(32), Rosicky(29), Arshavin(28), Eduardo and Van Persie(both 26)?
All this talk about the kids is a bit of a smokescreen. An attempt to provide a Feelgood Factor for the future while covering up the inadequacies of the present.
But at least Arsenal appear to HAVE a future.
