Bleacher Report - Rafael Benitez

Barclays Premiership Awards: A Blessing or a Curse?

Carolina Tiger — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 11:49:02 -0500

The Barclays Premiership Manager of the Month Award has become synonymous with the proverbial poisoned chalice. The winners of the trophy seemingly become a big fat loser after been the conqueror of all before them.

This weekend, Carlos Ancelotti, the current recipient of the Award, and his Chelsea side lost to Manchester City. This against a Manchester City team that were on the Premiership's longest drawing streak in it's history with seven consecutive draws.

Chelsea had gained maximum points from the month of November with great victories against the arch rivals, Arsenal and Chelsea. Another interesting incident of this weekend was the injury to Hull City's Jimmy Bullard.

Bullard had been instrumental in Hull City's great November with the Tiger's getting eight points from a possible 12 points and rightly won the Barclays Player of the Month Award.

It seems that the Premiership Awards are indeed a poison chalice, but let's see if the commonly held idea that if a manager wins the award it causes a blip in his teams form?

This season, the winners of the awards have been Ancelotti (Chelsea) for November, Roy Hodgson (Fulham) for October, Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United) for September and Harry Redknapp (Tottenham Hotspurs) for August.

Ancelotti gained nine points from a possible nine points, then lost to Manchester City the game after winning the award.

Hodgson gained eight points form a possible 12 points, then lost to Roma in the Europa League, then drew against Wigan.

Ferguson gained nine points from a maximum nine points, then drew with Sunderland.

Redknapp gained 12 points from 12 possible points, then lost to Manchester United.

So what does this prove? Nothing on it's own except that each manager did a great job during the months that their teams won the award. They then had some very tough games to follow their awards.

Up to 2005, the average points gained by manager who won the monthly award was 2.6 points per game and after been awarded the trophy the points tally was 1.6 points per game.

If a team was to get 2.6 points per game all season, they would win the title with a huge points total of 98.8 points for a Premier League season. A tally of 95 points is the most a team has ever won the Premier League title with. This was by Chelsea in 2004/5 from 38 games. Manchester United managed to win it with 92 points in a 42-game season in the 1993/4 season.

If a team got only 1.6 points per game all season, they would be on around 60 points and over the past 10 seasons the average points tally for a European qualification place has been 59.9 points. So even if manager could get their team to get a consistent points tally of just over 1.6 points per game without winning the trophy they would still be in the European places in most seasons.

In the past five years, of the 45 manager awards given out, only 13 have gone to clubs that did not end up in the European qualification spots. Two of those clubs ended up getting relegated, Middlesborough last season and Southampton in 2004/5 season.

Also there were only two other teams that ended up out of the top half of the table. Phil Brown last season for Hull City who had a fantastic start to last season but ended up in 17th position and Portsmouth in 2004/5 season who ended up in 16th place.

Of the none European qualifying winners, the managers are usually very early winners in the season, when teams are still getting up to speed for the season. Or, on two occasions, teams that were trying to stave off relegation late in the season. Midseason the managers to win the award will almost certainly end up in the European spots.

An interesting aside to this is that of the managers that have ended up winning the award and been in the bottom half, twice the winner was Harry Redknapp. Once with Southampton and once with Portsmouth, and he has won the award five times in total in the past five seasons. Winning two more awards than Arsene Wenger of Arsenal, who managed to win three times and the same amount as Rafa Benitez of Liverpool.

So what does this really tell us? It tells us that the managers that tend to win the award are usually consistent performers with teams that are challenging for European spots in that season. The months that managers tend to win the award are months when their teams have performed exceptionally.

It would appear that after a great month a manager slips up, but that isn't the case. A manager and his team just generally revert to their usual standards of high quality football. The curse is in-fact a return to good form after a spell of great form.

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Patrick Vieira, A January Target for Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Spurs

Willie Gannon — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:17:58 -0500

With only a few weeks until the January transfer window opens, the rumours are beginning to surface. But the most surprising of which sees 33 year old Patrick Vieira at the centre of a four-way tug of war between Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Spurs.

Chelsea have become the latest suitors for the French international. The Stamford Bridge side is bracing itself for the absence of several important players during the African Nations Cup in January.

Among those missing will be Michael Essien and John Obi Mikel, so there will be a dearth of combative type players for a month that could decide the league title. Vieira would fill what is likely to be an important midfield gap for the Blues for that month, as well as providing important cover for the rest of the season.

The Pensioners will have learned a valuable lesson from Rafael Benitez's disastrous signing of Alberto Aquilani during the summer. The Italian player was injured when signed and has yet to begin a match for the Anfield side.

This loss of an important midfield player in the side has resulted in Liverpool's title challenge being over by October and early elimination from the Champions League.

Chelsea seem unwilling at this stage of the season to take a risk and sign no cover as they lose important players, and are believed to have offered the Frenchman a deal worth £50,000 per week for the next 18 months to head off interest from his preferred destinations of Arsenal or Liverpool.

With Liverpool's midfield thread bare at the moment Rafael Benitez will be looking for short term answers that are invariably cheap.

Patrick Vieira fits this bill perfectly for Rafa. He is available for next to nothing and would almost go straight into first team action in place of Lucas Leivia, who has yet to reach the levels expected of him.

Benitez would only be able to offer Vieira a six month deal, but the lure of first team football on the eve of the World Cup in South Africa would be a huge attraction.

Arsenal are also looking for Vieira but for different reasons again.

Wenger sees his former captain as the ideal influence his young team needs off the pitch. The Gunners are badly lacking character and Vieira would bring that in spades.

Although the move would go against Wenger's footballing philosophy, it would be a huge boon to have someone of Vieira's stature in the dressing room, a player unafraid to take responsibility.

The signing could even add to Wenger's armoury in fending off the inevitable interest from Real Madrid and Barcelona for Arsenal's skipper Cesc Fabregas.

The young Spaniard is the midfield lynch-pin of the Gunners and takes on responsibility at every turn, but all too often he has to do this by himself. Vieira coming in would enable him to shed the load while learning from one of the games great midfielders.

Tottenham's interest in Vieira has waned somewhat since the summer, when the Frenchman was on the verge of a move to White Hart lane only to pull out at the last moment when Arsenal signalled their interest.

Harry Redknapp wants Vieira for the exact same reasons as his North London rival but has since switched his attention to Brazilian U-20 captain Sandro, and Moussa Sissoko of Toulouse.

However, Redknapp has built a reputation for getting the best out of players who others believe are past their prime and there is no doubt that Vieira would be a welcome addition to Tottenham's dressing room.

Conventional wisdom would suggest that at 33 Patrick Vieira's best days are behind him, but with four of England's best managers all showing signs of interest there is obviously life in those old legs yet.

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Steven Gerrard Not Able to Inspire Liverpool On His 500th Appearance

Nabeel Khokhar — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:09:12 -0500

Once again, following a morale boosting victory, Liverpool have failed to capitalize in their next game. This time around the Reds were held to a disappointing scoreless draw by Blackburn Rovers this afternoon.

Last weekend, the Reds scrambled past Everton to grab three points when really they did not deserve more than one.

The Merseyside derby is always a critical game for both teams in any season and a win against city rivals goes a long way in lifting morale and confidence. Liverpool's trip then to Ewood Park was expected to result in solidifying away victory.

It was also to be a landmark game for Steven Gerrard who was making his 500th appearance for the Reds and as coincidence would have it, against the very same team against whom he made his debut in 1998

Congratulations to Gerrard goes out from all Liverpool fans and what those fans would have given to see the Liverpool captain put in one of his trademark performances.

But without his attacking mate, Fernando Torres, in his 500th game, Gerrard and Liverpool once again looked toothless and lacking attacking flair and creativity.

Once again, Rafa Benitez deemed his expensive Italian summer signing fit enough to take a place on the bench, however not seemingly match fit enough to play any part in the game.

Many fans are now beginning to question why, if Alberto Aquilani is able to make the bench, he is not playing any part in the action itself. Surely, if it is match fitness the Italian needs, then he is not going to get it by being named as a substitute and then not being given any time on the field of play itself.

On an afternoon where Liverpool craved for some creativity and spark, once again, Benitez held his Italian ace at bay. Rafa has reiterated on many occasions that Aquilani is at Anfield for the long run and will not be rushed into action. But if his fitness is enough for him to take a place on the bench, then surely 15 or 20 minutes in the action would benefit the Italian enormously.

Liverpool once again stutter and falter to deceive and wait for their season to take some direction. Any springboard that they create for themselves, they do not take advantage of.

Steven Gerrard's 500th game for Liverpool will not be one that lives long in his or any of the fans' memory and push Liverpool's stake for a Champions League place come the end of the season, further away.

Much has been made recently of Liverpool's upcoming fixtures over the festive period and the potential for them to collect a significant number of points from these games. However, much of that may depend on the outcome of the first of those matches which is a home game against Arsenal next Sunday afternoon.

Should Liverpool come out of this fixture will a morale boosting three points, they must this time take advantage of this springboard to go on and give themselves a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

But regardless of whether the Reds go into the holiday fixtures on the back of a victory against Arsenal, failure to accumulate a significant number of points in those matches may see fourth place seem like an awful long way away.

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Why Pepe Reina is Liverpool's Unsung Hero

Nabeel Khokhar — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:07:15 -0500

In July 2006, Liverpool signed José Manuel "Pepe" Reina from Villarreal for £6 million and at the time little was known of the goalkeeper that Rafa Benitez heralded as "the best goalkeeper in Spain."

Liverpool fans took Benitez’s claims with a pinch on salt. After all this meant that the Reds had just signed a stopper that was being proclaimed as better than Iker Casillas of Real Madrid and Victor Valdés of Barcelona!

Pepe Reina did however come to Liverpool with an undisputed reputation of being one of the best penalty savers in the business.

Talking of saving penalties, it was only a few months earlier, in May 2005, that Jerzey Dudek was establishing himself as one of Liverpool Football Club’s goalkeeping legends, with his penalty saves in the Champions League final on that memorable night in Istanbul.

Along with millions of others, Pepe Reina watched Liverpool’s No. 1 at the time emulate Bruce Grobbelaar’s antics on the goalline during the penalty shoot to win the Champions League for Liverpool for the fifth time.

Having secured himself firmly in the hearts of Liverpool fans, Dudek never again played for the Reds on a consistent basis, only appearing in cup-ties and other occasional appearances before ironically leaving for his replacement's hometown club of Real Madrid.

Despite taking the place of an obvious hero of the Kop, Reina quickly showed the fans that Liverpool’s goalkeeping gloves were in good hands.

In his debut season, the new Reds stopper broke club record after club record. He eclipsed David James’ previous record of five successive clean sheets in a Premier League game, by shutting out Premier league opposition an amazing eight consecutive times. During that record breaking run, Reina posted a stunning Liverpool Football Club record by keeping 11 successive clean sheets.

In April 2006, Pepe Reina celebrated his 50th appearance in goal for the Reds with yet another shut out, thereby beating Ray Clemence’s club record of the least number of goals conceded by a Liverpool stopper in his first 50 games. Reina, astonishingly only had to pick the ball out of his net on 29 occasions whereas Clemence performed this task on 32 occasions.

In his first season in English football, Pepe Reina won the Premier League’s Golden Glove, the league’s top award for a goalkeeper, keeping a remarkable 20 clean sheets.

The Spanish stopper’s first season at Liverpool culminated in the FA Cup Final against West Ham. In a game forever to become known as the ‘Gerrard Final’, it was equally Pepe Reina’s final.

Steven Gerrard’s stunning strike took the final into extra time and from then on it was the Pepe Reina show. During extra time, the Red’s stopper pulled of a number of crucial saves that kept Liverpool’s Cup dream alive, but it was his saving three of West Ham's four penalties that won the FA Cup for Liverpool.

The following season again saw the Spaniard and Liverpool involved in a penalty shoot out, this time in the Champions League semi-final against Chelsea. And once again, the Red's stopper showed his expertise in saving spot kicks, saving two of Chelsea's three penalty kicks.

For a second successive year Pepe Reina picked up the Premier League's Golden Glove Award, keeping 19 clean sheets that season.

A half century of shut outs was achieved in 2008 in only 92 Premier League appearances, beating the previous league record by three games.

Reina was once again awarded the Premier League's Golden Glove Award for a third consecutive time, this time keeping 18 clean sheets.

In March of this year, the Spaniard became the fastest goalkeeper in Liverpool history to keep 100 clean sheets, a feat he achieve in only 197 appearance for the Reds in all competitions.

In what has been a troubled season to date, Pepe Reina has been the rock in an otherwise uncharacteristically shaky defense. He has pulled off fantastic saves, where it seemed inevitable that the opposition would score and kept his team-mates in games they would otherwise have been out of.

In the Merseyside derby last weekend, Reina pulled off a stunning double save, first denying Tim Cahill's header that seemed destined for the back of the net, then saving from Fellaini’s follow-up from close range.

With the Red's protecting a slender lead and Everton piling forward, Liverpool were under pressure most of the second half, an equalizer would have turned the game around. It may have led to Everton pushing on to score the winner if they had gotten level.

The agility, positioning and concentration of Reina allowed Liverpool not only to repel waves of Everton attacks, but to break away and grab a second which effectively killed off the game, giving Liverpool a much needed, if not altogether deserved, three points.

Pepe Reina has not only become a towering presence on the pitch. Off the field, he has become one of the most liked members of the squad. Always up for a laugh and a joke, the Spaniard is always seen smiling with teammates. He even insists that having settled so well at Liverpool, his daughter is a real Scoucer!

His passion, love and commitment to the Liverpool cause was epitomized in the victory over Manchester United in October. When David Ngog scored Liverpool's second goal in the 90th minute, Pepe Reina sprinted the entire length of Anfield to jump on Ngog in celebration. What was all the more impressive was that he was the first Liverpool player to reach the young Frenchman!

In an otherwise turbulent start to the current season, one of the few Liverpool players to still be performing to the extremely high standards demanded by Rafa Benitez and the fans, has been Pepe Reina.

If it were not for our superb Spanish stopper, Liverpool's plight would have been far worse than it is now. Rafa Benitez, the Liverpool team and fans owe a huge debt of gratitude to Reina for keeping their season alive.

Pepe Reina was and is, but hopefully won't always be, Liverpool's unsung hero.

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Rafa Benitez Still Quite Capable of Breaking Dalglish's Anfield Hoodoo

illya mclellan — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:21:11 -0500

This season has seen Liverpool progress rapidly from being every pundits pick for the title, to a team that is now trying to stay in the top four to guarantee champions league representation next season.

It is almost nauseating the amount of coverage the so called "mistakes" of Rafa Benitez have gotten and the various solutions that have been suggested in hindsight has become almost as sickening.

It is, of course, ridiculous to look on a beleaguered manager and venture to suggest that you yourself or another manager could have succeeded where they have failed.

But the temptation to do so often grips the most eloquent sports writers on the planet because of the lure of presenting controversial copy and the added coverage it gets due to its inflammatory subject matter.

What has recently been forgotten is that Benitez is in the Liverpool job because he is essentially one of the best football managers on the planet. He has proved this in taking Liverpool back to the pinnacle of Europe. Restoring Anfield as a fortress in which they have regularly put the best teams in Europe to the sword.

Never mind the manner of the Champions League victory and the endless debate that goes with it, they were essentially at the time they won it the best team in Europe according to the barometer that fans and the media rate the best by.

This has all been forgotten in recent months as the knives have been drawn out faster than they were for Julius Caesar by his dear friend Brutus and his companions. Pundits who once sang the praises of the Spanish master tactician were all of a sudden seen calling for his head!

Pages and pages of vitriolic copy were written about his failure to accommodate for the loss of Xabi Alonso and the reliance he seems to have on his twin stars, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres and the various other mistakes that others would never have made in their various jobs hiding behind the safety of their keyboards, screens and editors.

I have also recently been guilty of this and to a certain extent I have realized that it is foolhardy to look upon the mistakes of others if you yourself have no notion of the day to day pressures that those in the midst of the cauldron of top level management face.

But it is also in some ways laughable for those who may have had distinguished careers in football and football management to rubbish one of their contemporaries because of difficulty and strife that has befallen them.

It is well known in football circles that Benitez certainly knows what he is doing, after all they were agonizingly close last season to prying the EPL trophy from Sir Alex Ferguson's vice like grip. Stuttering at crucial times cost the team and Benitez the chance to finally bring the title back to Anfield for the first time since Kenny Dalglish last did it for Liverpool in 1990.

The league is certainly a different kettle of fish than it was back in the eighties though, as the advent of the new elite and the sheer amounts of money being spent has meant it has been increasingly difficult for teams that are not in the money spinning champions league positions to mount serious challenges for the title.

This point seems to be the one that Benitez and his Liverpool future will rely on in the coming months. As long as he is able to stay in touch with the leaders and make one of the top four places and preferably top three, he will keep his job and be back for another crack at the title next season.

If he does not keep them in the economically magical top four spots he may well have to bow out gracefully rather than hang on for dear life as others have before him.

Luck is a cruel mistress and can tear off your arm as she helps you out of the abyss, as Benitez well knows, for after riding a wave of good fortune several seasons ago to the Champions League trophy itself, it was his poor performance in Champions League fixtures that many people thought would lead to his demise as manager of one of the proudest clubs in European football history.

It remains to be seen in the coming weeks whether the crucial victory in the derby match will be the chrysalis for the rebirth of Liverpool this season as one of the sides that will be impossible to beat at home and a formidable opponent on any ground in England and Europe.

For that is what they once were for many years and it is the memory of Liverpool sides and the consummate ease with which they would play the top sides of Europe off the park that remains for those who follow them to this day.

They have in recent years seemed to have been driven more by moments of brilliance and desperation, than the pure footballing brilliance and skill that the teams of the past were able to rely on. It has no doubt been the promise of the return to the magnificence of old, in moments like the mauling of United at Old Trafford and the demolition of Real Madrid at Anfield, that spark the memory of what the Liverpool juggernaut once was.

Benitez has proven in the past he is quite capable of leading Liverpool back to their former glory and he has done more than any manager since Dalglish to restore the glory of this proud club.

He has another chance and has been given time by his employers, it will be with much hope and trepidation that Liverpool fans around the world will watch their gaffer try to turn the ship into the waves again, to find that blessed current of league success that has so eluded them for so long.

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