Liverpool FC Forum

[jonnymac1979]

FOUND BY ANDY_G

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,1581786,00.html

Liverpool do not fit the profile of deadly rivals to Jose Mourinho's Chelsea. They finished 37 points behind them in the Premiership last season, have now beaten them only once in six attempts and let them escape from Anfield with a useful 0-0 draw on Wednesday. If it were just a matter of statistics, Liverpool would be an extremely tame sort of nemesis.

However, when the sides converge the rivalry is not an illusion. The European Cup holders should have had at least two opportunities from the penalty spot to win this week's group-stage match and, with great vim, they made Mourinho's tactics seem impotent.

The Portuguese was unhappy enough to comment dismissively that "Liverpool didn't create much with that direct style". There was a double sneer at both the aesthetic appeal and the practical value of Rafael Benítez's methods.

The tendency is great to invent a sparking feud between these managers as compensation for a fixture between their teams that never caught fire. In reality they tend to chat happily, in Spanish, about their families when they bump into each other. There is no apparent venom in Benítez's character and he responds to attacks mostly out of a duty of care to his club. "It means we can beat them," he suggested when asked why Mourinho was so scathing. "It means that he is worried. Maybe he needs to talk because he knows it will be difficult to control the games against us and to beat us."

Benítez has not in general had the better of Chelsea, but no other English club consistently tests the reigning Premiership champions to the very limit. He does have the advantage of an impassioned Anfield crowd, which gave the side an inexhaustible energy, often forcing Chelsea back.

The key to coping with Chelsea appeared to lie in midfield. Mourinho's side usually spring from that area but Damien Duff and Arjen Robben were mostly pinned down near their own penalty area where, with no scope to show pace and dribbling skills, their contributions were generally minor. Waiting in vain for their help, the solo striker Didier Drogba was intrepid yet unable to do damage.

Mourinho understood that his normal approach would not work and, most unusually for him, brought on a second centre-forward in Hernán Crespo. A manager such as Benítez knows that he is having a tolerable evening when a rival is forced into a rethink.

"I was delighted with the performance," said Benítez. "We played better on the ground, in the air, in defence, in midfield and in attack." So they did, even if it was in such an inconclusive manner that Chelsea's goalkeeper Petr Cech was never fully extended. The Liverpool manager reminded everyone that there ought to have been chances from 12 yards: "If you watch the TV you can see two or three penalties, depending on the colour of your shirt."

This final playful statement is typical of Benítez, a man too happy in his work to bother with vendettas. He goes about his business at a sensible level, with an emphasis on practical industriousness rather than preening virtuosity.

When, every few months, Real Madrid are in crisis he is touted to be the next coach at the club where he was once a youth player. His friend Paco Lloret, who has just written the biography Rafa Benítez (Dewi Lewis Media, £12.99), believes this is a virtual impossibility. In his judgment the Liverpool manager would be too wary of the egotism of the Galácticos culture which sabotages the functioning of the team.

No-one gets special treatment at Anfield. A fortnight ago the captain Steven Gerrard was among the substitutes in Seville, appearing irrelevantly for 18 minutes in the away win over Real Betis. "For me it is not about the names, it is about how we play," said the manager yesterday.

They face Chelsea at Anfield again on Sunday in the Premiership and Benítez says the contests will go on being exacting so long as Liverpool keep preparing carefully. There are some matters in dispute between these managers, but Mourinho may well agree ruefully with that declaration.