WALK OFF!

Rafael benitez IS LARGELY TO BE BLAMED FOR THE REDS’ SLIDE AND MATTHEW YONG ARGUES THAT WE NEED THE PASSION BACK TO RECAPTURE LAST TERM’S FORM

From the start of the season, it was a clearly known fact that our team was not well prepared and the biggest sad news was the departure of Xabi Alonso, the instrumental one behind our successful previous season. Perhaps, if Rafael Benitez had treated him better, Xabi would have chose to stay. Many other questions remain unanswered. There’s no saying who’s wrong and who’s right here, probably, Benitez has his own views and his way of managing things. I duly respected Benitez - the Champions League in Istanbul will be in our thoughts forever.

He deserved some credit for winning that and assembling a passionate team but bear in mind that it was our instrumental heroic Captain ‘G’ whose leadership led us to a victorious and memorable day in history. A year or two later, we were still performing considerably well but some mistakes in some games cost us the title yet again. Benitez then adopted a knack of switching player’s to unfavourable positions according to his tactical plan. Yet, some of us still ask ourselves the same questions like: "If that was Torres, it would have been a goal?"

Yossi Benayoun has proved himself but isn’t a regular and I wouldn’t blame him should he choose to leave. Last season, Benitez ignored him and relied mostly on his ‘Duracell Pet’, Dirk Kuyt.

Though Kuyt is hardworking, the Benayoun-style telling passes and crosses did not come. Benitez doesn’t field an important first team and give chances to the younger ones as part of the grooming plan, the Arsene Wenger policy.

We have now a Krisztian Nemeth at hand but Benitez chose to loan him away and stick with Andriy Voronin in case Torres gets injured. Injuries do happen in football. It is a common thing and I would feel rather immature to blame the losses on injuries.

If we do lose so be it but at least the players can give their passion and desire to win and it would satisfy any fan. Well, if Benitez choose to rest some players for other games, would the next game be more meaningful than the current one? For if we do not win the current one, the next few games are simply irrelevant.

We have been relying too much on Gerrard and Torres that we don’t have sufficient depth in other areas. The moment one of them or both gets injured, we seem to be handicapped.

It is clear that our defence this season has let us down. Honestly speaking, our defence did make mistakes but the entire blame should not be on their shoulders.

The midfielders seem unable to protect our defence and it loses direction whenever Stevie’s missing. But in actual fact, it was our they who were doing holding and distributing the passes and crosses.

Now, they don’t know what to do or how to play but because game after game their confidence is slowly diminishing. In the past, we did leak at the start but we came back didn’t we? We kept winning games and the confidence boosted our players.

We started this season wrongly, some are not well prepared, some are injured, some were bad selections. The core of our success in the past was not about money or contracts but it was based purely on player’s passion, desire and the fans.

Being cash-strapped, no doubt we are unable to afford comparing to the other top three clubs, but the least what we could have done was to get cheaper players within our budget.

Provided the player bought have the desire and passion to don our jersey, play his heart out and win games. We need to regain the long lost passion.

BLOGGER NOTE: This article is republished from the LSCM E-Newsletter and is not representing the opinion of the blogger, one way or the other and shall not be liable to any legal prosecution.