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REDS WILL AVENGE LISBON LOSS
I have no doubts that Liverpool will move into the quarter finals of the Champions League with victory over Benfica this week – but they've made life far more awkward than was necessary.
I have a tremendous amount of confidence in their ability to handle whatever situation is put in front of them these days. For more than an hour in the first leg in Lisbon I really felt Benfica were very modest opponents by Champions League standards and I honestly thought they were there for the taking.
At the same stage of last season's competition Liverpool went to Leverkusen - albeit in the second leg - and really got hold of the game from the first minute. They got the tie done and dusted before Leverkusen could even think about a comeback. If Liverpool look back on the game in Lisbon then they will realise they had the opportunity to do exactly the same there. I felt a bit short-changed by Liverpool at the end of the match, not because it was an awful performance, because it was far from that, but because the game should have been won. They are a lot better than their opponents and they didn't make that show on the night.
It was rather ironic that they scraped through the group stages of the Champions League more by luck than judgement last season and then changed gears when they needed to in the knock-out phase.
This year they've looked very assured through the group stages but they haven't started the knock-out stages as well as I would have expected them to.
When you hear Benitez talking he mentions, over and over again, about the need to have control of games. He believes that if his team can maintain a level of control during a match then they will have the power and ability to win it. They had that control for a long time in Portugal and didn't win it. They won't make the same mistake at Anfield.
For me, the main difference between controlling a game and winning a game is still Steven Gerrard. He is an immense influence on that team. When he plays he makes an impact. He gives the team a real change of gear. All things being equal he will start in the second leg. Benfica will have to face him for 75 minutes more than they had to in Lisbon and I think that will prove decisive.
Although I fancy them strongly to qualify for the last eight, I do think the odds are against them winning it again. Why? Simply because no team has retained the trophy since Milan in the early nineties and no side has ever retained the Champions League.
Whereas Liverpool went into the knock-out stages a year ago as genuine outsiders and probably in the bottom half of the betting, this time they will be in the top half of the betting and we know three or four excellent sides are going to go out simply because of the way the matches have been drawn.
They have self-assurance and know-how. They are course and distance winners and they know they can do it. There are a lot of pointers to suggest why they could win it again, but it's just the odds which tell me it's unlikely.
To win it two years in a row and to win it at the end of the longest football season any English side will ever have to play is a huge ask. They're managing the situation very well so far, however, and so they're certainly contenders.
Another thing in their favour is the fact that they are playing better than this time last year and they're certainly a better team than they were twelve months ago. In fact I'd go as far to say they're a considerably better side than the one we saw last season.
The players are coming to believe in Rafa's ways more and more and, without any question of doubt, they are evolving into an impressive outfit.
If you listen to any of the phone-ins on the radio at any stage of the season for any club then you'll hear some criticism of the manager, but I think Rafa carried the fans through the darker moments of last season. They always seemed to have faith in him.
I saw four or five below standard away performances in the Premiership last year and I must admit that at the time I thought serious question marks were being raised about how long it would take Rafa Benitez to come to terms with what was required in the weekly grind of domestic football. I felt that strongly about it. There was no steady graph of improvement. Some of those performances were at the start of the season, some were in the middle and some were at the end. When we got to the end of the season, even though they were parading the European Cup, I think there were question marks about how far Liverpool had come as a real Premiership force.
It's a different story now, however. It's very clear to see that progress is being made, particularly since the addition of a few more players.
It's not cautious football but it's a careful, watchful style of play and Rafa is certainly managing Liverpool with a very steady hand through what is a very unique season.
For the season to begin as early as it did - and I won't get started on that subject because I think UEFA got it totally wrong - and for it to take in two cup runs and a trip to Tokyo, a very considered style of management has been required and that's one of his greatest strengths. He's a very thorough and considered manager and his team are responding really well to his ideas.
It may sound like there's an undercurrent of criticism in the way I'm talking because I'm not using words like sparkling, brilliant or magnificent but I don't think he would want people to talk in those terms at the moment. There are times when they thrill but more often than not they are extremely self-assured and confident in everything they're doing.
It struck me in the game against Chelsea in the Champions League that Liverpool knew they could play for another couple of hours and Chelsea just weren't going to score. They know they're good now and Rafa deserves a tremendous amount of credit for the way he has gone about managing the club.
Of course the highlight of his reign so far was last season's Champions League final. It's difficult even now to find the words to describe the whole night. In a sense I went through a shade of what every Liverpool fan went through because, irrespective of whether people think I'm a Liverpudlian, an Evertonian or a Manchester United fan, what I am is a selfish creature who wants to see English clubs do well in the Champions League because it's good for me and good for ITV.
I remember the conversation I had with Andy Townsend when Liverpool were 3-0 down at half-time in Istanbul. I was looking through my records about biggest European Cup final wins when Andy said to me 'this will finish 3-0'. He said this would be the most boring second half of football that's ever been played and in many ways, from a selfish point of view, that was the biggest fear. There was a chance the second half could be a non-event.
The three second half goals were only the beginning of the story really because there were all sorts of dramas still to unfold. The six minutes in the second half represented the best period of the night but they weren't the story of the night because all they did was get Liverpool back to where they were at the start. The unlikely nature of the heroes who emerged that night will remain a part of Anfield legend forever and a day.
It was a privilege to be there and to witness it all unfold live, and I know in my job I'm fortunate to have been at many great Liverpool games over the years.
When I left Radio City and joined Granada I got the inevitable backlash from fans who had been used to hearing me shouting and screaming about Liverpool and Everton and then suddenly they were hearing me shout and scream about Man United on the TV. I got a lot of stick then and, of course, after they won the Champions League in 1999 everyone branded me a United fan.
Despite that, I've always been made to feel very welcome at Anfield. I'm not a Scouser, even though I spent 12 or 13 years of my working life on Merseyside, but whenever I go back to Liverpool it always feels like a bit of a homecoming. I couldn't name two other clubs in the country where I'm made to feel like that.
Quite apart from the atmosphere they generate - and you've only got to ask Jose Mourinho about that because he's a manager who's very grudging in his praise for the Liverpool team but very open with his praise for the supporters - Liverpool fans are different, but they don't need me to tell them that.
When you pass Burtonwood services on the M62 it's like going into an independent nation. It really feels like you're moving into a different country. Sometimes you have to come out of an area to appreciate it more and I'm certainly very appreciative of the way people react to me when I go back to Liverpool.
I'm sure I'll have more trips back to Liverpool to enjoy before the season ends because I'm extremely confident the Reds' Champions League adventure will continue beyond this week. |
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樓主: 奧雲仔仔
發表於 06-3-7 05:58 PM
發表於 06-3-7 06:02 PM
