After being critical of his players on Monday in the wake of the 2-0 defeat by Fulham at Craven Cottage, he drew back from issuing a further public savaging after an even worse result, although perhaps he felt that last night’s 2-1 defeat said all that needed saying, while their Premiership position of thirteenth speaks for itself.
The supporters who jam the airwaves of radio phone-in programmes will have their opinions, but instead of naming names last night, Benítez preferred to praise Julian Speroni, the Palace goalkeeper, and emphasise once again the work ethic of his team.
“If they worked hard, I don’t like to say bad things about my players,” he said, adding only minor variations on that theme. “We worked hard, we lost, and you can say nothing. We created opportunities and it is not like the other day (at Fulham. We started the game well, and now you cannot change it.
They continued working hard and it is not always easy. If we had scored in the first half from one or two of the chances we had, it would be different. If you create opportunities you need to score, and the goalkeeper made a lot of good saves. You can’t say the players didn’t work. We must try and re-try.”
The return of Steven Gerrard after picking up an injury playing for England against Austria was one of few bright spots, as was his goal to equalise Dougie Freedman’s opener for Palace, but there were few impressive performances elsewhere. Benítez made seven other changes from the team beaten by Fulham, but two players given another chance after their part in that match let him down once again.
Fernando Morientes looks nothing like the player whose goals took AS Monaco to the Champions League final in 2004, while Harry Kewell’s most memorable contribution was to block a header at goal by Peter Crouch — who has yet to score in 11 games for Liverpool — with a tender part of his anatomy.
Benítez excused both on the grounds that they were still recovering from injury. “Harry Kewell and Fernando Morientes were injured, one month, two months in the case of one of them and the other one three or four months, and they need to play games to improve their level.”
The squad players that he drafted in also failed to impress, but Benítez said: “I am the manager and I have a squad and I tried to use my squad.” He believes in the quality of his strikers, he said, and that they will score — although his entire squad has now managed only six goals in nine domestic league and cup games. Nor was the defence blameless as the unmarked Marco Reich volleyed Palace’s winner in the second half.
Iain Dowie, the Palace manager, struck a more optimistic note, but then he could afford to be magnanimous in victory. “They have missed Steven Gerrard, who is the heartbeat of the team, but when they get all their players back, like (Boudewijn Zenden, I’ll be amazed if they are not in the top four.” On last night’s showing, many more will be amazed if they are.