Liverpool FC

[The Baron]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/r...ust-have-gsoh/



Wanted: New Liverpool manager. Must have GSOH


By Rory Smith Football Last updated: January 28th, 2010


I do not know what will happen in four or five months. In football, things change” – Manuel Garcia Quilon

Let the music play and the dance start anew. Liverpool supporters know the steps. A big job on the continent becomes available. Rafael Benitez’s name is brought up. A fairly anodyne suggestion from his agent, Sr Quilon, that he cannot predict the future – after all, Benitez may be king come May, he may have ditched football for a role as a TV handyman – is picked at, pored over. Whispers of contracts, of unhappiness, of the lure of some exotic city, grow into a cacophony, countered only by acquaintances and friends insisting he is happy on Merseyside. Round and round and round we whirl. Only in August, when the merry-go-round ceases and the dizziness stops, will we know. A nervous nausea or the elation of adrenalin? It depends what happens. It depends what you want to happen.

First, then, some facts. Juventus is the job du jour for the beleaguered Liverpool manager. La vecchia signora wants rid of her boy-toy, Ciro Ferrara, after finding he simply could not give her what she needed. A more experienced fancy man is required, a man who knows what an Old Lady wants, and she is prepared to wait until the summer to get him. Maybe a few months of being single will do her good (yes, that’s quite enough of that). Benitez is the number one choice for the role, on a long-term basis, of Juve’s numerous powerbrokers. Roberto Bettega, Alessio Secco, Jean-Claude Blanc and Lapo Elkann, the power behind the throne, are in agreement. An offer will be made. They are confident they have the financial muscle to lure him to Turin.

That it is Juventus is almost by-the-by. There is a good chance that, once the sun returns to these shores, both of the jobs at the San Siro will be up for grabs, and possibly Real Madrid, too, depending on the whims of Florentino Perez. Benitez will be linked to all of them. With his position at Liverpool under unprecedented scrutiny and a growing number of fans convinced a change is needed, there is every chance the Spaniard’s love of Merseyside and his desire to see through the project which he began six years ago will be superceded. The rumours have swirled for years. This time, they could come true.

Enough has been said on whether that is the right thing to do for Liverpool. That issue boils down, basically, to whether you happen to believe Benitez has done enough in his time at Anfield to warrant a chance to rectify his mistakes of this campaign. The majority, probably, would suggest he has. A growing minority disagree. It’s a personal choice.

Rather, it is perhaps time to consider what may happen to Liverpool should Benitez go, what may happen in the long, arduous search for a man to replace him and what that could mean for a club desperate for success now.

Conventional wisdom suggests Liverpool would have their pick of the litter when it comes to a new manager. Fans, understandably, want a Mourinho, a Hiddink, a Lippi or a Capello. What, though, is the advertising pitch? “Famous old club seeks man to move in to bijou home for title tilt. All candidates must be able to win the Premier League on a pittance – but you can spend what you raise in sales! – and capable of adapting when, without warning, your bosses decide they need to pay down the debt they promised not to laden the club with at the expense of your transfer funds. Warning: goalposts may shift. Must have GSOH.”

Is that likely to tempt one of management’s A-listers? No. Aim lower. How about Roy Hodgson or Martin O’Neill, the leading domestic contenders? Possibly, but Hodgson is 63, and O’Neill would think twice about swapping one good American owner, in Randy Lerner, for Messrs Hicks and Gillett. The club has pull, yes, but the owners possess plenty of push.

Abroad, then. Unai Emery? Valencia would love that, and he’d cost a pretty penny. Liverpool don’t have two of them to rub together. Lower. Laurent Blanc? You’d have to see off Inter, if Jose leaves. Lower. Jorge Jesus (the Benfica manager, fact fans)? Domingos Paciencia, of Braga? Jurgen Klinsmann? That sort of level. Is that definitely a step up on Benitez? Even those who have grown to loathe him would hardly be convinced.

Say an ambitious young manager does take the job on. What happens on the pitch? How do they stamp their authority on the side without any money to spend (and, quite possibly, no Champions League football)? Well, you would sell off the Benitez stalwarts and the squad ballast, if possible. Dirk Kuyt, Lucas, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Philipp Degen, Damien Plessis, Albert Riera, Ryan Babel and Diego Cavalieri would bring in around £40 million or so of spending money (possibly – at Liverpool, the gap between the cushions and the sofa tends to be quite large). Javier Mascherano may choose to make his move to Barcelona. Another £30 million, though Benitez’s putative replacement would hope to persuade him to stay. Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina? Both are settled enough to allow a new man chance, and Juve, if that is to be who tempts Benitez away, can afford neither. Retaining Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher would be vital to ensure some sense of continuity.

Whoever the new manager was, they would retain the core of a very good team. Reina in goal, with Glen Johnson and Martin Kelly the right-backs, Carragher, Daniel Agger and/or Martin Skrtel in the centre, and the promising Emiliano Insua at left back, and maybe Fabio Aurelio. Mascherano, possibly, and Alberto Aquilani in the middle, Maxi Rodriguez on the right, Yossi Benayoun on the left, as well as the world’s best attacking midfielder and the world’s best striker. Youngsters like David Ngog, Daniel Pacheco, Nathan Eccleston, David Amoo, Daniel Ayala, Peter Gulacsi and Krisztian Nemeth provide a bit of depth. Plus around £40 million to spend. Maybe. Benitez may even bequeath his successor Marouane Chamakh and Milan Jovanovic, as Gerard Houllier left him Djibril Cisse. Thanks for that, Gerard.

Liverpool would not be finished. But then neither would the jigsaw of ending their 20-year wait for a title. Benitez’s replacement would need a centre back, a left-back, a central midfielder or two, another winger and a striker. At least. And Hicks and Gillett, through Christian Purslow, would need to provide the new man with a staff and a salary, and possibly compensation to his old employers. All for £40 million. It wouldn’t go very far. Liverpool would be stuck with £5 million players again, when what they need are £15 million ones.

The same cycle of trying to build a team to challenge football’s princes from the position of pauper would begin again. And round and round and round they’d go, because Liverpool’s woes do not begin or end in the Boot Room. Yes, Benitez has his faults. Yes, a new manager may solve some of the problems the club faces, but it is not a panacea for all of Liverpool’s ills. It is in the boardroom and on the balance sheet that there must be a change for the dance to stop.

[Colchester Kev]

tl;wtkm

[The Baron]

Tomkins:

One thing really bothered me earlier in the season: accusations from some quarters that Liverpool lacked character.

 This didn't tally with what I believed to be the case. Last season, time and time again, the Reds showed incredible character to rescue lost causes, and lose so few games.

But a confidence crisis can mask effort; it's not that the players weren't trying, but it's harder to want to the ball, and do something special with it, when your touch is awry.

The fact that Liverpool have dug their way out of a slump with a mixture of gutsy performances and tactical know-how, in the face of some of the most incredibly hyperbolic football reporting I've ever seen, goes some way to reassure me that I hadn't got it wrong after all.

Flair is certainly present in the squad, but 2010 has been about battling for the points, often against long-ball or overtly physical teams, with 6ft 4"+ midfielders and strikers.

When Torres, Benayoun and Johnson return, and when Aquilani and Maxi are more acclimatised (the last few games will have been like nothing they'd experienced in Italy and Spain!), the play can become more expansive - but the new year to date has been about character, first and foremost. Dig in, grind out.

The fact that Steven Gerrard appears to be getting back to his best is another major factor that will help in the improvement of the aesthetic side of the game, and an increase in confidence - and a lessening of the hysteria (and the insane pressure it brings, not to mention Anfield edginess) - should help free the players to express themselves.

I hate to say it, but yet again we've just seen another shocking refereeing display, with the number of inexplicable decisions against the Reds rising and rising. Thankfully, Liverpool are now playing well enough to override this misfortune. But it shouldn't have to be this way.

Even in victory, and even if Kyrgiakos' sending off was technically correct, the incidents involving Pienaar on Mascherano (straight red card, no debate), Fellaini kicking a prone Kuyt in the face (straight red card, no debate) and Fellaini going for Kyrgiakos' shin instead of the ball (straight red card, no debate) need to be highlighted as yet further examples of more going against the Reds than for them - this season at least.

A couple of years back, Kuyt could easily have seen red at Goodison, and that's the way it goes; the Reds were very lucky that day, especially as he stayed on and scored the winner, and an Everton penalty was denied soon after.

But this season, time and time again, it's been letter-of-the-law stuff that hasn't been applied correctly, from beach balls to double-touch penalties to studs just below a player's knee so that his shinpad ends up around his ankle.

Even so, the Reds are starting to rise above the worst season for injuries and refereeing decisions I can remember. So the guts, the character, is there.

This campaign has been a testing time for everyone with an interest in Liverpool FC, from fans to players to management, but the media's intoning of the team's last rites has (yet again) proved premature. The ailing patient is up and fighting.

Fourth place is still far from a formality - lots can happen yet - but suddenly even third isn't beyond contemplation.

I got hugely frustrated a few weeks ago when people were going on about Birmingham, at that point above the Reds, being better than Liverpool; teams like this almost always fall away sooner or later. But some people cannot see beyond the league table at such points in a season. I guess that they panic. I had people talking to me as if it was May already.

Some teams don't have the quality and consistency to stay up there; or the stamina; or, when the going gets tough, the bottle. Time and time again under Benítez, Liverpool have proved that they have all three.

In little over a month, an eight-point deficit for fourth place has become a one-point comfort zone. And while Manchester City have games in hand, their defeat at Hull puts a different complexion on their challenge.

Long-term, you have to worry about what their spending policy will mean to rivals, but even with a squad that costs over £100m more than the Reds', they still haven't really taken advantage of the absence of Torres and others.

The good news for Liverpool is that, bar any dramatic changes, these key men can be slowly introduced back into a side in form, rather than thrown into the fray in desperation.

I could talk all day about the qualities of players like Torres, Gerrard, Carragher, Agger, Reina, Johnson, Mascherano, Benayoun, et al, but I often gain more pleasure from highlighting the successes of the unsung and the overly criticised.

No player is perfect. And obviously, in any team, some players are better than others. But everyone contributes something. And if the less-heralded players are doing a great job, then someone needs to redress that balance.

Half of Liverpool's team of late - Kyrgiakos, Lucas, Kuyt, Insua and N'Gog - have been rubbished at some point this season, if not for most of it. Not good enough for the Premiership? Not good enough for Liverpool? On recent evidence, they are. It's not about everyone being 'world-class', it's about the team as a whole.

A microcosm of Kuyt's worth could be seen in a couple of second-half derby minutes. Aside from that moment at Goodison, I don't think I've ever seen him lose his head (even if he could have literally lost it yesterday, when it was treated like a football).

You could see how fired up he was after scoring the goal, his face flushed with anger and visibly scarred by Fellaini's stud marks. And anyone who knows football is aware that scoring goals can lead to 'switching off', when the excitement takes over and the brain goes into hiding.

And yet there was the Dutchman, so shortly after that big adrenaline burst, in the right-back position, to make a goal-saving interception. It'll never make a YouTube compilation, but it was a spell of football that won Liverpool the game. That's why he kept being selected even when not at his best; he has the heart of a lion, and he will always turn things around.

Ditto Lucas. The Brazilian doesn't score goals, and suffers the daft fate of being compared to the stereotype of his fellow countrymen (as if every single Brazilian international was a showboat king).

Yet I'd take the heart and guts of this young player over a work-shy trickster like Robinho, who has failed to contribute at Manchester City to the point where the £32m man has been loaned back to Santos. Some players are great when their team is playing well and having a stroll. Lucas rolls his sleeves up and puts in every last ounce of energy, whatever the situation.

To me, Lucas has looked the more worthy of a place in the Brazil team based on his form this season. He can't do the really exciting things like Robinho (although he has shown some nifty footwork in tight situations), but it only takes one big-name player to not look bothered to drag the rest down to walking pace.

Indeed, that's why Fernando Torres has been such a success: he matches ability with effort. In the latest edition of FourFourTwo, he talks about his incessant desire to get better, and places his massive improvement since arriving at Liverpool at the door of Benitez, whose perfectionism and advice helps him find that little extra in the penalty box. (Not that the manager gets such credit when others talk about Torres.)

But such players need those like Kuyt and Lucas doing the legwork behind them - but also showing the tactical nous that goes unnoticed by a lot of people.

Just as Kuyt had earlier got back to deny an almost certain goal, when Anichebe finally got past Insua, Lucas was the one back making a last-ditch intervention that, by denying the Everton striker a clear last-minute shot, could well have been worth two points.

Insua and Ngog are two others - both 20 when the season started - who get some quite baffling criticism as they learn the game. Ngog hasn't scored for a few weeks, but his hold-up play is superb for one so young (and when he's filled out a bit, he'll be able to use strength as well as scontrol), and Insua has come through the blip all youngsters experience to once again show his ability.

Many fans (of all clubs) are quick to call for youngsters to be thrown in, then get instantly dismayed when they're not the finished article, and angry over every mistake they make. As Opta recently noted, Liverpool's average age this season is the second-lowest in the Premier League, behind Arsenal. So the side is young enough already.

It's been tough at times, but the adversity will have helped Ngog and Insua - not mention the five others to feature in major games when aged 20 or under.

On another note, I thought it was brilliant to see Rafa standing up to Sky's questioning of zonal marking before the derby, retorting with the example of how Tim Cahill scores most of his goals against teams deploying man-marking.

And how did Liverpool end up winning the game? From a corner in which Phil Neville was so intent on grappling with Dirk Kuyt (as was Tim Howard), he totally forgot to bother about the ball.

Last week I Tweeted about Chelsea conceding another set-piece goal, and I had a reply saying that they only sometimes concede them, but 'we concede MOST goals this way'. The fan also accused me of misrepresenting facts in general.

So I checked with Opta; Liverpool have conceded 13 of their 26 league goals from set-pieces: 50 per cent.

Chelsea (a physically imposing side who man-mark) had conceded 15 of their 20 league goals from set-pieces: 75 per cent.

Yet someone felt assured enough, even though he was quite, quite wrong, to tell me I was talking rubbish. But that's football for you.










Couldn't disagree more with the first third of that. We've lacked so much ight this season it's untrue and for long runs of games.

[Colchester Kev]

tl;wtkma

[neeko]

Great insight, read every word, agreed with everything he said.

FYP

Liverpools last 10 prem results

DLWLWWDWDWW

[KarmaDope]

Jovanovic to Anfield in the summer, reports BBC. Thoughts?

I know nothing about this guy, never heard of him. Will he fit into the team?

[kinboshi]

Been chatting about the possibility of him coming to Liverpool since the middle of January on a Liverpool forum I'm on.  The general consensus is that he's better than Voronin!

[KarmaDope]

Been chatting about the possibility of him coming to Liverpool since the middle of January on a Liverpool forum I'm on.  The general consensus is that he's better than Voronin!

I'm better than Voronin, so that really doesn't inspire confidence

[The Baron]

Been chatting about the possibility of him coming to Liverpool since the middle of January on a Liverpool forum I'm on.  The general consensus is that he's better than Voronin!

A deal done because Chamakh doesn't want to come to us. Bah!

GG tonight Howard webb. He just bottles major decisions every time.

[Karabiner]

Been chatting about the possibility of him coming to Liverpool since the middle of January on a Liverpool forum I'm on.  The general consensus is that he's better than Voronin!

A deal done because Chamakh doesn't want to come to us. Bah!

GG tonight Howard webb. He just bottles major decisions every time.

I presume you're talking about the pen decision denied to Bentner

[The Baron]

Been chatting about the possibility of him coming to Liverpool since the middle of January on a Liverpool forum I'm on.  The general consensus is that he's better than Voronin!

A deal done because Chamakh doesn't want to come to us. Bah!

GG tonight Howard webb. He just bottles major decisions every time.

I presume you're talking about the pen decision denied to Bentner

Yeah I thought so too although I thought it may have been outside the box. There were too many more to mention. Even the handball came from an imaginary free kick given for no real reason.

The bloke is crap.

[relaedgc]

He was standing right there at the end! How does he miss that hand ball.

[Josedinho]

Maxi had another stinker tonight. I know you have to give him the 6 months to get used to the league but do you think this is a signing that isn't going to work out?

[77dave]

Solid away point. One closer to the magic 40.

How did spurs get on against Wolves?

Lost at home ldo

But you are Liverpool, The Kings of 4th place.

ouch

[The Baron]

Maxi had another stinker tonight. I know you have to give him the 6 months to get used to the league but do you think this is a signing that isn't going to work out?

Yeah maybe. He seems to have no pace in this league.