Testing times ahead
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It's a difficult scenario for Benitez at the moment and some of what I say you may disagree with but I'll say them anyway.
It must be born in mind that all managers sign players who fail to make the impact expected, be they Houllier, Wenger, Ferguson or even Mourinho, so in that respect it is completely unrealistic to expect all of Benitez' signings to be exceptional.
Much was expected of Garcia, particularly as he was part of an exceptional Barcelona squad. Initially he looked promising, but has lapsed in to an unacceptable level of medocrity of late. Hard to put the finger on why, he clearly has skill but is failing to perform at fundamental basic levels at the moment. He may turn it round, he may not.
Alonso has been successful. Josemi and Nunez bought for very little have, as yet returned very little. Pellegrino is a stop gap measure and Morientes should have enough in is game to be a success.
Then there is the question of whether it is best to import players our buy domestic. With a limited budget, Benitez has admitted that players based overseas are more attractive because Premiership based players are generally excessively priced (although this isn't always the case). It'll be interesting to see who Benitez makes as his first domestic signing.
Personally I feel that people are getting too hung up on the need for large scale investment to bankrole radical changes to our player roster. Benitez has changed the playing system, but it would also be fair to raise an eyebrow at the fact that, individually, very few players have improved significantly under Benitez. More importantly, the team as a cohesive unit has failed to find the sort of consistent level of performance and togetherness that teams of supposed lesser ability seem to find regularly.
Now, I don't mean to be harsh on Benitez, because despite some worrying issues, I do rate him as a very talented manager who is generally moving the club in the right direction, but that does not absolve him from "constructive criticism".
To be fair, this is Benitez first season in England as a manager, and I think at times he has shown he has not adapted to the rigeurs of the English domestic challenge, nor has his coaching staff.
For teams in England to be successful, they must use width effectively, an area we have significantly failed to develop in. All the talk is of keepers, central defenders and strikers, but it's quality wide men we need to provide the attacking verve missing from our play.
I also have grave concerns about the mental state of our captain. I believe his mind is elsewhere and has been all season. Exceptional talent that he is, there is a rumour that he han't gotten over the summer antics.
My concerns surfaced around the Olympiakos game. His comments about needing to be challenging were a distraction and while he prove to be the hero of the night, I can't help but feel lucky that his petulance didn't have him removed from the pitch long before he scored his wonder goal.
More instructive I felt, was his post-match comments about believing we had blown it and weren't going to make it through until much later on in the game. My point is if Gerrard doesn't have the belief in the team that it will succeed at all times, in the same unswerving way that say Keane has always had for Man Ure, then that feeds it's way in the mentality of all the other players.
Funnily enough, I happen to think that if Gerrrad does depart in the summer we may come out of it better (in much the same way Everton have with Rooney's departure). Gerrard's desire to win is important but I contuinure to be concerned with his impact on the team as a whole. The unthinkable has now become thinkable.
Gordon Strachan wrote a wonderful article about Gerrard a few months back stating he was the most complete player he has ever seen. Herein lies the problem.
As good as he is, he is in danger of becoming the cliched jack of all trades and master of none. Better than his peers in most areas of the game, he fails to better them in individual key areas. Gerrrad doesn't dictate the pace of a game like Vieira, can't grab a game by the scruff of the neck and close it down like Keane (witness him being outplayed by Keane on Saturday) and doesn't offer the atacking potency of a Scholes.
Moreover, Gerrard, unlike say Alonso, doesn't appear to have developed the abilty to get players around him lift their game to new heights. Gerrrad has been seen to carry Liverpool on occassion, with an outstanding performance by him gaining results, not an outstanding performance by him prompting others. In a sense when Gerrard ticks, worryingly it doesn't mean the team ticks which is worrying.
The player Gerrrad is most commonly compared to in recent history is Bryan Robson. The difference being, that while he was captain courageous at Man Ure while they were underperforming, I don't recall him ever stating that he was leaving if Man Ure didn't start winning the League..
There is a sense, that despite his obvious love for the club, Gerrard may be part of the malaise that has set in, preferring to seek pastures new than concentrating hard on the task in hand.. namely helping the players round him reach new heights.
Gerrard hasn't added the spark that makes the team perform at a higher level.
Harsh... but a necessary comment I feel.
Selling Gerrard and gaining the sub 30% investment that Moores & Parry alledgedly favour may actually be enough to give us the finance to improve the team as a whole.
It could be argued that a few astute purchaces and a bit of luck would even negate the need for either... let alone a full takeover.
I remain to be convinced that having the clout to buy left right and centre wouldn't actually just add a layer of complexity to the whole situation, what with expectations raised to titanic proportions and the possibility of ego's running wild in the dresing room.
In football, confidence is everything, and we don't have it. If we don't believe we can beat any team, at the very least on our day, and if we don't have players that believe they can go to Burnley without Gerrrad and win then an uncomfortable malaise has set in.
Teams of supposed limited ability have proven time and time again that they can suceed with togetherness, passion and committment combined with belief. These are areas that managers can not teach. They may try and instill the right mentality, but that's not easy.
If our captain is unsure about the future and unsure about the teams ability, then to an extent, it doesn't matter what players arrive (unless you build a complete new team from scratch and accept the length of time and the risks involved in doing that).
Ultimately, it could be argued we have not progresed significantly since the summer. Benitez has not, as yet, taken us through the thresehold of when we go from becoming an also-ran to a challenger. Also are we still in a critical phase of our development. We have been in this critical phase for years with all the changes to playing and coaching staff not as yet expediting the development needed. More radical change may not bring the new dawn quickly either.
Injuries will always occur, some new players will always fail to find their feet and players will always encounter periods of poor form, but the underlying reasons for our underperformance still remain.
Gerrard hasn't provided the spark to overcome it and despite showing promise, neither, as yet, has Benitez. I like him as a manager and I rate him... but it's going to take time for hard evidence to materialise as to whether he'll be ultimately successful or not.
It's not that the future looks bleak, it's just that it looks much the same as it always has in recent times.. the bonfire of success still waiting for the right spark to start the fire.
It must be born in mind that all managers sign players who fail to make the impact expected, be they Houllier, Wenger, Ferguson or even Mourinho, so in that respect it is completely unrealistic to expect all of Benitez' signings to be exceptional.
Much was expected of Garcia, particularly as he was part of an exceptional Barcelona squad. Initially he looked promising, but has lapsed in to an unacceptable level of medocrity of late. Hard to put the finger on why, he clearly has skill but is failing to perform at fundamental basic levels at the moment. He may turn it round, he may not.
Alonso has been successful. Josemi and Nunez bought for very little have, as yet returned very little. Pellegrino is a stop gap measure and Morientes should have enough in is game to be a success.
Then there is the question of whether it is best to import players our buy domestic. With a limited budget, Benitez has admitted that players based overseas are more attractive because Premiership based players are generally excessively priced (although this isn't always the case). It'll be interesting to see who Benitez makes as his first domestic signing.
Personally I feel that people are getting too hung up on the need for large scale investment to bankrole radical changes to our player roster. Benitez has changed the playing system, but it would also be fair to raise an eyebrow at the fact that, individually, very few players have improved significantly under Benitez. More importantly, the team as a cohesive unit has failed to find the sort of consistent level of performance and togetherness that teams of supposed lesser ability seem to find regularly.
Now, I don't mean to be harsh on Benitez, because despite some worrying issues, I do rate him as a very talented manager who is generally moving the club in the right direction, but that does not absolve him from "constructive criticism".
To be fair, this is Benitez first season in England as a manager, and I think at times he has shown he has not adapted to the rigeurs of the English domestic challenge, nor has his coaching staff.
For teams in England to be successful, they must use width effectively, an area we have significantly failed to develop in. All the talk is of keepers, central defenders and strikers, but it's quality wide men we need to provide the attacking verve missing from our play.
I also have grave concerns about the mental state of our captain. I believe his mind is elsewhere and has been all season. Exceptional talent that he is, there is a rumour that he han't gotten over the summer antics.
My concerns surfaced around the Olympiakos game. His comments about needing to be challenging were a distraction and while he prove to be the hero of the night, I can't help but feel lucky that his petulance didn't have him removed from the pitch long before he scored his wonder goal.
More instructive I felt, was his post-match comments about believing we had blown it and weren't going to make it through until much later on in the game. My point is if Gerrard doesn't have the belief in the team that it will succeed at all times, in the same unswerving way that say Keane has always had for Man Ure, then that feeds it's way in the mentality of all the other players.
Funnily enough, I happen to think that if Gerrrad does depart in the summer we may come out of it better (in much the same way Everton have with Rooney's departure). Gerrard's desire to win is important but I contuinure to be concerned with his impact on the team as a whole. The unthinkable has now become thinkable.
Gordon Strachan wrote a wonderful article about Gerrard a few months back stating he was the most complete player he has ever seen. Herein lies the problem.
As good as he is, he is in danger of becoming the cliched jack of all trades and master of none. Better than his peers in most areas of the game, he fails to better them in individual key areas. Gerrrad doesn't dictate the pace of a game like Vieira, can't grab a game by the scruff of the neck and close it down like Keane (witness him being outplayed by Keane on Saturday) and doesn't offer the atacking potency of a Scholes.
Moreover, Gerrard, unlike say Alonso, doesn't appear to have developed the abilty to get players around him lift their game to new heights. Gerrrad has been seen to carry Liverpool on occassion, with an outstanding performance by him gaining results, not an outstanding performance by him prompting others. In a sense when Gerrard ticks, worryingly it doesn't mean the team ticks which is worrying.
The player Gerrrad is most commonly compared to in recent history is Bryan Robson. The difference being, that while he was captain courageous at Man Ure while they were underperforming, I don't recall him ever stating that he was leaving if Man Ure didn't start winning the League..
There is a sense, that despite his obvious love for the club, Gerrard may be part of the malaise that has set in, preferring to seek pastures new than concentrating hard on the task in hand.. namely helping the players round him reach new heights.
Gerrard hasn't added the spark that makes the team perform at a higher level.
Harsh... but a necessary comment I feel.
Selling Gerrard and gaining the sub 30% investment that Moores & Parry alledgedly favour may actually be enough to give us the finance to improve the team as a whole.
It could be argued that a few astute purchaces and a bit of luck would even negate the need for either... let alone a full takeover.
I remain to be convinced that having the clout to buy left right and centre wouldn't actually just add a layer of complexity to the whole situation, what with expectations raised to titanic proportions and the possibility of ego's running wild in the dresing room.
In football, confidence is everything, and we don't have it. If we don't believe we can beat any team, at the very least on our day, and if we don't have players that believe they can go to Burnley without Gerrrad and win then an uncomfortable malaise has set in.
Teams of supposed limited ability have proven time and time again that they can suceed with togetherness, passion and committment combined with belief. These are areas that managers can not teach. They may try and instill the right mentality, but that's not easy.
If our captain is unsure about the future and unsure about the teams ability, then to an extent, it doesn't matter what players arrive (unless you build a complete new team from scratch and accept the length of time and the risks involved in doing that).
Ultimately, it could be argued we have not progresed significantly since the summer. Benitez has not, as yet, taken us through the thresehold of when we go from becoming an also-ran to a challenger. Also are we still in a critical phase of our development. We have been in this critical phase for years with all the changes to playing and coaching staff not as yet expediting the development needed. More radical change may not bring the new dawn quickly either.
Injuries will always occur, some new players will always fail to find their feet and players will always encounter periods of poor form, but the underlying reasons for our underperformance still remain.
Gerrard hasn't provided the spark to overcome it and despite showing promise, neither, as yet, has Benitez. I like him as a manager and I rate him... but it's going to take time for hard evidence to materialise as to whether he'll be ultimately successful or not.
It's not that the future looks bleak, it's just that it looks much the same as it always has in recent times.. the bonfire of success still waiting for the right spark to start the fire.