Liverpool FC Forum

by **stmichael** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 3:49 pm

The problems facing Benitez are: how do you get more great players into your side than Arsenal have in theirs? How do you match Arsenal's team-ethic? And how do you assemble a new team that can compete with a ready-made, already-gelled one? We have half a side who can clearly already compete with Arsenal (Kirkland, Hyypia, Gerrard, Kewell, Owen, Cisse); the trick will be in assembling the other half, as currently they don't come close enough. So Benitez has to make the most of those he already has, and only then consider who to bring in.

So my hunch is that even if Benitez favours the lone striker, he should play Michael Owen and Djibril Cisse together, because they are top quality and you simply don't ignore such talents. The blend might not be ideal initially, and it may need some tweaking, but two such match-winners in your side should be potent, and to my mind it's a manager's job to achieve that. If you cannot play two such prolific strikers in the modern game and make a success of it, then I'd be worried; of course, if your five best players are all strikers, you cannot go down the route of unbalancing your side by playing them all.

Now you simply need to balance your midfield to have them be both robust and creative. Kewell and Gerrard pick themselves. Didi, if you want to play a diamond formation, is the perfect base.

I think GH tried to buy versatile players: all-round footballers who could fulfill numerous roles; but too many were lacking in the basics of the game. Control. Composure. The ability to find time on the ball, and space on the pitch. The ability to pass the ball - and that also means judging the speed of a teammate running so you lay it nicely into their path, not five yards behind. Our great sides were built around players with these all-round strengths.

Both Heskey and Diouf - GH's two main investments - failed in the roles they were purchased for. That is arguably their fault for not playing well enough, and GH's fault for buying players either not good enough, or failing to get the best out of them; and then playing them in another position when, put simply, they were arguably never going to be good enough (by Liverpool standards) for ANY position. I still believe good players adapt; after all, football is mostly employing "transferable skills" to different roles: you pass, you control the ball, you run with the ball, you tackle, head the ball, you shoot, you cross. A centre back will do all of those things - even shoot - except probably cross the ball. Otherwise, it's all part of football. Good players can do all those things; average players some; bad players too few.

Of course, you couldn't buy a tiny, skinny flair player like Thomas Rosicky (six stone when ringing wet) and play him at centre half. Every player will have his optimum position. But those whose job it is to attack, should be able to attack from any position across the front or midfield, or even full-back. Diouf has half the skills to be a wide-midfielder - trickery and energy. But he cannot finish, and he cannot cross. He has no composure. Where on the pitch can you succeed without composure?

Look at John Barnes: up to 1990 he was the total flair winger - as good as this country has seen in league football, and he wins Football Writers' Player of the Year; then adapts to centre forward in 1990 and scores 28 goals and wins Football Writers' Player of the Year again; then in 1991 suffers serious injury which removes his pace, so he plays centre midfield in later years under Roy Evans, and while not everyone's cup of tea, still scores a few goals and doesn't misplace a pass for an entire four entire seasons. That's a footballer for you, not a ball-juggler or circus sideshow. Players of that calibre are rare, but Wenger has unearthed a few. It can be done. Although we've not seen the best of Harry Kewell, he is closer to Barnes as an all-round footballer than to El Hadji Diouf.

So while Benitez will inherit the nucleus of a quality side, with some top young talent, and great facilities, he will have his work cut out winning the league at Liverpool; and it will be wrong to expect he will do so. However, we want to believe we might just be able to do it... And if we do win the title, it might be a one-off, with the next a few years away, as our rivals spend big once more. But after the wait, I'd be more than happy with that.

what do you reckon?

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