by tonyeh » Sat Dec 13, 2008 7:42 pm
Well, another couple of points fücked away...and let's be very clear about this...it was Benitez's fault, pure and simple. But not a bad result, considering Liverpool were playing with ten men.
I've called Rafa a cowardly manager in the past and on the basis of todays awful choices, he still is. Playing 4-5-1 (or 4-5 in actual fact) against Hull was and incredibly bad decision. It was a cowardly decsion. A decision made by a manager who is afraid to play attacking formations.
And it's cost us dearly today.
Now, we're all just fans on here, but I'd wager that there isn't a single person on this that would have played that lineup against Hull City. Yet, here we have 19 million pounds "worth" of manager choosing to play a defensive formation with possibly (no ABSOLUTELY) the worst choice of "striker" possible.
To single out Kuyt today may be a tiny bit unfair, when Bennayoon, Arbeloa, Dossena and even Masch had pretty bad games. Especially, the former two. But, while the other players made some contribution, Dirk Kuyt gave us NOTHING in the position the manager chose for him. And before the usual Kuyt concubines start bleating about energy, understand this...energy is useless when it is directed aimlessly into nowhere and all too often that is where his much touted "energy" goes.
Only a manager like Raphael Benitez would choose to play Kuyt as a lone striker in a Title challenging team. Not only that, he is the only manager that would leave him on the pitch when quite clearly his contribution is nil. I simply cannot imagine Wenger, Ferguson or Scolari playing Kuyt in this position. In fact, they just wouldn't have him in the side in the first place.
To compound that, Benitez not only left Dirk Kuyt on, he made his usual stubborn and un-necessary substitution of Babel (a forward) for Riera (a Left midfielder) and also chose not to double up his strike options, but instead brought on more midfielders!
Can there be really anyone on here that honestly thought those substitutions made an ounce of tactical sense? Really?
No, Benitez is most absolutely to blame for being insturmental in throwing away 2 points AND the top spot today.
And as for Robbie Keane, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if there was some altercation going on between him and Rafa behind the scenes and what's more, if I was keane I'd be asking for a transfer in January, because how Benitez is choosing to use him has been absolutely terrible.
These carelessly dropped points at home are the games which Liverpool fans will be looking back on at the end of the season as the turning points of the year, if we yet again end up in 3rd or 4th spot and results like today can be avoided if the manager did his homework and had a bit more balls to try an attacking formation.
As I type this Utd are being held at 0-0 in the second half of a lacklustre game and once again I am hoping that both they and Chelsea somehow fück up and get us out of jail yet again. I won't hold my breath though.