WARNING: the following article is going to express alarmingly positive sentiments about a figure previously mocked by this very author. Rafa Benítez, we salute you.
I used to think that Rafa Benítez tactical nous was over-rated. My opinion was that he was great at adapting his side to cancel out the opposition, stifle them, annul their strong points, and then hope for a lucky break. It`s astonishing how often that seemed to work.
After all, that`s what Liverpool did to Chelsea in October when Rafa`s lot came to town and ended Chelsea`s magnificent unbeaten run at Stamford Bridge. If any one match sealed Phil Scolari`s fate, it was that one: Chelsea had been playing some electrifying football up until then, with fast-paced wing play, fullbacks bombing forward, and some nifty short-passes. Rafa`s ploy was to block the supply lines from the flanks, and to get into Jon Obi Mikel`s face to ensure that he couldn`t redistribute the ball from defence to attack. It wasn`t pretty, but by Zola it was effective.
The problem for Chelsea was that this ploy was seen by any number of other teams, Roma for starters. The secret to undoing Chelsea was out there, Liverpool had deployed it. It didn`t help that, having been found out, Scolari didn`t have an alternative tactic. Chelsea were undone by teams using Rafa`s tactics.
Fast forward to last week, when Liverpool first dismantled Real Madrid and then Manchester United. Rafa`s post-match conference on Saturday was astonishing. "We knew their defence had weaknesses," Benítez said. "They are strong in defence but that's because they have plenty of possession elsewhere. They have a lot of quality in attack but that is the main thing that they have. When they don't have the ball and you move the ball quickly and play behind their defenders you know you can beat them."
The Spaniard went on. "I do think they have weaknesses. We knew they are really good at playing between the lines with penetrating passes so we needed to stop those passes and put their midfielders under pressure every time they received the ball. After that we had to play simple passes and go forward quickly because they [United] are an offensive team and always high up the pitch."
In the analysis of the Guardian, ManU are so committed to attacking they can leave themselves vulnerable to fast, incisive breaks, particularly when the ball is played behind Vidic, whose weakness is his speed on the turn. "That was one of the ideas," Rafa confirmed. "We knew with [Torres's] movement we could create problems for their defenders."
Wow. What was that about? Why had Rafa been so explicit about his tactic that had so comprehensively undone Manchester United? As in his dissection of Chelsea, he had found the formula to destroy Manchester United. However, with Liverpool chasing Manchester United, and relying on the Champions to drop further points so that Liverpool can sneak up, he`s broadcasting loud and clear how to beat Manchester United. He is inviting opposition managers to follow the Rafa formula. You too can beat ManYoo, here`s how, he is shouting to the world, and particularly the managers of the 10 Premier League clubs still to face United.
And that is why, contrary to what the ManU faithful have been saying until lunchtime Saturday, Rafa Benítez is not only tactically more astute than Siralex, he has the advantage in the mind games. Earlier this year, Rafa read out an astonishing rant about Fergus, about how he influences the referees and the game`s authorities, not to mention his constant whining about the fixture list. It was painful to hear … except for one point: every single thing that Rafa said was totally true. ManU lapped it all up: on Saturday stalls were selling mock Rafa T-shirts that described the Liverpool manager as "Deranged! Ludicrous! Insane!" One banner at Old Trafford said "Rafa`s cracking up. The front cover of ManYoo`s Red News fanzine recently had Rafa superimposed into a straitjacket. The irony of all this couldn`t be funnier.
Liverpool used as motivation for their clinical demolition of Real Madrid firstly the Madrid President`s remarks that Madrid wouldall over Madrid. President Boluda predicted that Madrid would win 3-0 at the Bernabeu and 2-1 at Anfield. He certainly got that right. Rafa also used the comments from Madrid coach Juande Ramos that Rafa`s Liverpool was boring. And on the day of the match last week, Fernando Torres held up the front page of 'Marca`, the Real Madrid court circular, which had, splashed across the front page "This is Anfield … so what".
These are powerful motivation tools. Did Liverpool use, in the run-up to Saturday`s game, the banal but ill-advised comments by Wayne Rooney about how he used to hate Liverpool and that that hasn`t changed? Or was it the continued mockery of Benítez by ManU? Or was it the confident prediction by various ManU players that Liverpool would be knocked out of the title race by Saturday afternoon. Let`s just say that the net result was that, whilst United were jaded and complacent, Liverpool were stoked up.
Compare and contrast this calculated reply with that of Siralex. Firstly there was the fact that Fergus didn`t speak to Sky news before and after the game. The reason for this? A protest against a 12:45 kick-off time. Yes, readers, that`s a kick-off time that allowed maximum revenues (via Sky) for the club. That`s a kick-off time that had been suggested by the police, and discussed with both clubs. And agreed by both clubs. Apparently it hadn`t been to the liking of Siralex, who boycotted Sky.
Siralex already boycotts discussions with the BBC. The reason? It`s lost in the mists of time, based on a documentary on the BBC that questioned Fergus` son`s transfer dealings. A key element was when one BBC journalist dared to ask a critical question to the Knight of the Realm about Juan Sebastian Veron. Juan Sebastian Veron, that`s the midfielder who was purchased from Lazio for £30 million. To the question that Veron had been involved in an argument with his team-mates, Siralex blew a gasket: "People are always going on about f**king Veron. You tell me, what's wrong with Veron?", he fumed. "What's this thing about fights and all the rest of this sh*t? It's absolute nonsense, you know it's nonsense. Absolute lies. On you go. I'm no f**king talking to you. He's a f**king great player. Yous are f**king idiots." 4 months later Siralex flogged 'f**king great player` Veron to Chelsea at £15 million.
2 years ago, Siralex launched an astonishing attack on the BBC, saying that the national broadcaster is "arrogant beyond belief". Read that again: Fergus the bogeyman accuses the BBC of being not only arrogant but "arrogant beyond belief". You can`t make this kind of thing up.
Actually, I`ll tell you what you really can`t make up: after seeing his side hammered on home soil 1-4, demolished from A to Z, outmanoeuvred and tactically belittled, the best that Professor Mind Games could come up with was to claim that United had been a "better team". "It's a hard one to take as I thought we were the better team," he said. "We have to accept that it was a bad day in terms of the goals we lost, but I cannot fault the display." No really.
As Chelsea fans, we have every interest in hoping that ManU slip up. We didn`t manage to do that ourselves, but Liverpool have just helped make that possible. It would be boring if ManU go on to win a third successive League, let alone any of the other elements of their quintuple. It would also suggest that English football is not actually that competitive. Thanks to Liverpool, maybe an element of competitiveness has been reintroduced. That`s good news for Chelsea. For the moment, Chelsea and Liverpool are allies in hoping that ManU slip up again.
Fergus, if I were you I`d be looking nervously over your shoulder because (forget about José) you have met your tactical and psychological match in Rafa. And for the teams facing ManU in the coming matches, read Benítez`s comments and watch the DVD of the Liverpool game to see how ManU can be beaten. We owe it to football to push ManU and open up the League.
Thanks for that Rafa.
http://www.chelsea.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=513701
top notch article
