David Lacey
February 23, 2008 12:45 AM
Something Rafael Benítez said this week did not quite add up. That hardly made him unique among managers but it still fell a few quid short of a balance sheet. Speaking after Liverpool had beaten Internazionale 2-0 in the first leg of their Champions League tie, Benítez explained his policy of ever-changing team selections thus: "I rotate because I want to win ... we have to rotate because our squad is not as good as Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester United." No argument there, but surely a lack of depth in a squad is a reason not to keep tinkering with the side, because the replacements will all too often be inferior players.
Later the Liverpool manager made another challenging statement when he admitted he found it easier handling things in the Champions League than he did in the Premier League. "In England it is a different style of football and more difficult to influence what goes on," he explained. "It is not as simple to influence the game with tactics in England the way it is elsewhere in Europe."
In that case long live the Premier League. The less players have to perform in a tactical straitjacket the better. Not that Anfield supporters would necessarily see it this way since Liverpool under Benítez are more apt to appear hogtied by their coach's theories in domestic competitions than in Europe.
Coaches have an important role to play - provided they are good coaches. Sometimes it is hard to resist a longing for simpler times when the only coach a team saw was the one in which they travelled to away matches, and even then most went by train. In the 1950s Brighton and Hove Albion were managed by Billy Lane, a slightly pompous character whose claim to fame was that in 1933 he had scored a hat-trick in three minutes for Watford against Clapton Orient. Lane was not a coach and never preached tactics but he was a shrewd assembler of teams and Brighton usually played entertaining football in the old Third Division (South).
Their manager did subscribe to a policy of rotation but only in the sense that once a month he would turn up for training in a smart blue pinstripe with red carnation and knock off early to attend lunch at his local Rotary Club. The sole advice the players were likely to receive as they lapped the running track came from the trainer, Joe Wilson, who from time to time would urge them to "keep off that bloody grass!"
Eventually Albion won promotion to the Second Division where their subsequent labours persuaded the board to appoint a proper coach, George Curtis, as manager. Curtis was highly regarded in coaching circles but proved an utter loss when it came to running a League team. He had all the jargon, speaking profoundly of "peripheral vision" and "flanking corridors", but this only left the players confused and Brighton slid from Second to Fourth divisions in successive seasons.
Benítez is a bit better than that but one win in the first leg of a Champions League tie, achieved more through perspiration than inspiration, cannot hide the fact that Liverpool are 19 points behind the league leaders, Arsenal, and as far away as ever from regaining the championship they last won in 1990. Should Benítez achieve a second Champions League success this time, that barren run will remain to be addressed whereas for Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea, whatever happens in Europe, the race at home will still be on.
In the European Cup, of course, this is more or less where Liverpool came in 43 years ago when they beat Inter 3-1 at Anfield in the first leg of the semi-finals. But for inspired goalkeeping by Giuliano Sarti they would have scored five and hopes were high for the return. Dodgy refereeing did for them at San Siro, however. Inter were allowed to score direct from an indirect free-kick and again after the ball had been kicked out of goalkeeper Tommy Lawrence's hands before Giacinto Facchetti scored a glorious winner.
Bill Shankly came home fuming but at least Liverpool had won the FA Cup. Shanks never went in for rotations, not until he reached his grave anyway.
Later the Liverpool manager made another challenging statement when he admitted he found it easier handling things in the Champions League than he did in the Premier League. "In England it is a different style of football and more difficult to influence what goes on," he explained. "It is not as simple to influence the game with tactics in England the way it is elsewhere in Europe."
In that case long live the Premier League. The less players have to perform in a tactical straitjacket the better. Not that Anfield supporters would necessarily see it this way since Liverpool under Benítez are more apt to appear hogtied by their coach's theories in domestic competitions than in Europe.
Coaches have an important role to play - provided they are good coaches. Sometimes it is hard to resist a longing for simpler times when the only coach a team saw was the one in which they travelled to away matches, and even then most went by train. In the 1950s Brighton and Hove Albion were managed by Billy Lane, a slightly pompous character whose claim to fame was that in 1933 he had scored a hat-trick in three minutes for Watford against Clapton Orient. Lane was not a coach and never preached tactics but he was a shrewd assembler of teams and Brighton usually played entertaining football in the old Third Division (South).
Their manager did subscribe to a policy of rotation but only in the sense that once a month he would turn up for training in a smart blue pinstripe with red carnation and knock off early to attend lunch at his local Rotary Club. The sole advice the players were likely to receive as they lapped the running track came from the trainer, Joe Wilson, who from time to time would urge them to "keep off that bloody grass!"
Eventually Albion won promotion to the Second Division where their subsequent labours persuaded the board to appoint a proper coach, George Curtis, as manager. Curtis was highly regarded in coaching circles but proved an utter loss when it came to running a League team. He had all the jargon, speaking profoundly of "peripheral vision" and "flanking corridors", but this only left the players confused and Brighton slid from Second to Fourth divisions in successive seasons.
Benítez is a bit better than that but one win in the first leg of a Champions League tie, achieved more through perspiration than inspiration, cannot hide the fact that Liverpool are 19 points behind the league leaders, Arsenal, and as far away as ever from regaining the championship they last won in 1990. Should Benítez achieve a second Champions League success this time, that barren run will remain to be addressed whereas for Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea, whatever happens in Europe, the race at home will still be on.
In the European Cup, of course, this is more or less where Liverpool came in 43 years ago when they beat Inter 3-1 at Anfield in the first leg of the semi-finals. But for inspired goalkeeping by Giuliano Sarti they would have scored five and hopes were high for the return. Dodgy refereeing did for them at San Siro, however. Inter were allowed to score direct from an indirect free-kick and again after the ball had been kicked out of goalkeeper Tommy Lawrence's hands before Giacinto Facchetti scored a glorious winner.
Bill Shankly came home fuming but at least Liverpool had won the FA Cup. Shanks never went in for rotations, not until he reached his grave anyway.
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