Roux’s Rough Words for Rafa
If there’s one thing that I can’t stand, or even begin to stand, it is managers from other clubs criticising our boss for any reason whatsoever. Put simply, it whacks of disrespect, especially when the man who comes out with the quotes is only doing so because an old favourite of his isn’t getting a game at the European Champions. Guy Roux is the man who coached £14 million man Djibril Cisse at Auxerre and brought him up through the ranks; apparently, he is also the man Cisse calls on whenever he is upset at not starting.
"I have had Djibril on the phone a lot in recent weeks. He is not in a good way but I have told him not to get annoyed and wound up.”
Ok, I accept that.
"It is not hard to see why Djibril is confused. The manager has made some strange decisions.”
I suppose that’s just his opinion.
“When I watch Liverpool, I find it hard to understand what's going on. They're playing a big guy up front, who looks like he would take at least 14 seconds to run 100metres — whereas with Djibril you've got one of the fastest players in the world. It's difficult to work it out, especially when Peter Crouch is hardly banging in the goals. Why does Benitez play Cisse wide on the right? That isn't the way to get the best out of him, and I should know.”
However, this to me is not acceptable coming from another coach. Rafa Benitez has won a Champions League, a UEFA Cup and 2 la Liga titles at relatively un-fancied clubs in recent years, and Guy Roux starts questioning his managerial abilities? What right does Roux have to knock Peter Crouch? We all accept that Cisse isn’t a right winger, and Rafa does too, but as the squad is bereft of a wide man that is simply where Djibril is asked to play. As soon as Cisse starts banging in every chance which comes to him, Roux can maybe say that he’s upset at the Frenchman not playing – but when he misses chances such as those he missed against Blackburn on Saturday, I’m afraid he is not worthy of automatic selection – and Roux is not right to go public with his views on Rafael Benitez’s tactics and selection.
The Match – vs. Blackburn
Listening to Radio City on the way to the match, I heard the words ‘and this selection may just raise a few eyebrows’ and froze. Rafa’s selection policy has simply scared me at times; games such as the one away at Crystal Palace last season and even away to Burnley have highlighted that the manager wants to use his entire squad, sometimes at the expense of using a tried-and-tested system. It did sound as though Liverpool would begin with a 3-5-2 on Saturday, and I groaned slightly – the good news here was that Cisse and Crouch would be starting up front at home, something I have wanted to see tried out properly.
The match began brightly, with sloppy passes filling the first few minutes and Blackburn taking advantage of some careless play. Liverpool’s formation, meanwhile, switched between 4-4-2 and 3-5-2 throughout the match, with Carragher, Traore and Josemi slotting in as three centre-backs at times. Nothing much occurred in the opening period in all honesty; Bolo Zenden frustrated with a series of wasteful decisions, whilst Xabi Alonso and Momo Sissoko attempted to slowly dominate the centre of the park, struggling with the ever-present tenacity of Robbie Savage in doing so. The general Red play was varied, with the team looking for a short pass when possible and then seeking the ‘escape root’ of a high ball up to Peter Crouch if nothing else was on – this method is much-maligned and criticized by football fans, but in the English game there’s no doubt of its effectiveness if you have a player good enough to hold the ball up such as Crouch. Passing the ball accurately and creatively is no problem for Crouch and he gives defenders countless problems on his day, that is unquestionable.
Blackburn made the most of our vulnerability at the back when Josemi and Traore were stand-in captain Jamie Carragher’s only helping hands, and nearly found a way through when the ball was slid back into the path of an arriving Savage. Just as his foot pulled back, however, the now-irrepressible Alonso put in a tremendous tackle and rendered the effort lame as well as off-target. Many people have been asking questions of Xabi Alonso’s form in recent weeks, but whilst I have seen less fantastic passing, I have also seen an increase in crunching tackles and defensive midfield play. Benitez has quite obviously worked with the Spaniard on the defensive side of his game, which is crucial if Steven Gerard is to be protected in his attacking exploits; Alonso now sacrifices his preferred ‘pretty’ football for the brutality of the English game, yet still giving the ball away with rarity and picking out stunning passes when he can. When both aspects of his game truly merge together, Liverpool will have quite some player on their hands.
Nothing troubled the Liverpool goal in honesty after the Savage effort, and a Red counter-attack stemmed from a breakdown in Blackburn possession. Zenden, until now irritating and ineffective in his apparently revered central role, slotted forward a direct and perfect pass for Djibril Cisse to latch onto with his known explosive pace. The Frenchman’s first touch was magnificent, drawing the ball away from defender Zura Khizanishvili and inviting the inevitable tackle. Cisse, to this point, had missed some free headers and was fairly frustrated; as the referee pointed to the spot when he tumbled to the floor all of that frustration must have wasted away in an instant. Crouch had his eye on taking the penalty and getting his first Liverpool goal – that was until referee Mark Halsey consulted his assistant and gave a free kick instead, rightly so having seen the replays.
Khizanishvili was also sent off, rather harshly in my view, for being the last man, although it could be argued that Cisse was in a goal-scoring situation. Furious that no penalty would come, I only became more agitated when Zenden’s well-struck dead ball bounced off the top of the bar and over. The match just had a feel of ‘one of those days’ and sure enough, Blackburn changed things around to enable a ‘10 men behind the ball’ policy to emerge. Liverpool only threatened tamely again in the first period and the next real chance came for Cisse in the second half.
Luis Garcia, introduced by Rafa to inject some life into a difficult attacking job, slotted a neat pass into Cisse’s path, 12 yards out. With the goal at his mercy, the striker fluffed a shot wide and incurred the sickening chants of ‘How’s your leg, Cisse?’ from a few Blackburn fans with bad taste. With a quarter of an hour to go, after nearly 50 minutes of pure domination all over the pitch and terrific ball-winning from Sissoko and Alonso, Cisse’s much-needed moment arrived. A free kick came just as John Arne Riise was introduced and I admit to calling for the Norwegian to have a ‘Manchester United strike.’ But, sure enough, Cisse proved all of his detractors wrong as Alonso touched it for him to simply slam it home from outside the box, with poor positioning from Brad Friedel only helping the Liverpool cause.
That was the game won in all honesty and the feeling was one of elation and most of all, relief. Morientes came on for the tireless but unlucky Peter Crouch to a good ovation and promptly missed three knife edged chances – had he missed them when the game was still deadlocked, the Spanish hitman would have been crucified by the Kop, I’ve no doubt. But he has the excuse of a lack of sharpness and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. The goals will come eventually.
Overall, the game brought Liverpool a much-needed three points and provides a basis on which the team can now build a winning run of games, truly accumulating more points in the league. That can only be a good thing, and whilst yes, the play from the Reds was at times stuttering and dumb, at other times it was intelligent and productive. Liverpool totally overran the match after the sending-off and better finishing would surely have allowed for a victory of 3 or 4 goals. Now, Rafa, let’s use this as a positive and go on from here. Liverpool need to start winning consecutive games – and they have to perfect opportunity to start now.
Kewell Comeback
There’s some good news regarding Harry Kewell this week – he will be with the squad when it travels to Belgium to face Anderlecht in the Champions League on Wednesday. Yes, we’ve all heard it all before: Kewell is the right man for the left, this time he means business, this time he can make the difference, this time he’ll be like he used to be. I’m not a massive fan of the bloke and felt that some of his performances last season were utterly lethargic; if the reason for this was purely physical, then maybe he should not have been playing.
But I always suspected that his confidence was at a low ebb and that he simply didn’t believe that he could beat a man on the wing anymore. Now, the Australian is on the verge of playing for Liverpool without an injury, and must surely feel a desire to overturn the harm done by his substitution in the Champions League Final – according to him, “the worst and best night of my life.” I have a good amount of hope that he can finally come into the squad and offer a true option on the left hand side, as opposed to using defenders and central midfielders in that position. It’s time for Kewell to now stand up and be counted as a great player once more – it could be his last chance to do so in a red shirt otherwise. As Rafa said, “Harry knows this season is important for him.” Now let’s see some evidence of that and get a fully-fit winger providing some much-needed natural width for the team and the terrific headers of Peter Crouch and Fernando Morientes – let’s see Liverpool scoring some goals again.