Myth Busting Part One: Redeeming Rafa Benitez

The mainstream media, don't you just love them? Afterall they give many of us the quotes and stats on which we base some of our most deeply held football opinions and can give us conviction when arguing on the most banal of sporting subjects.

Sometimes though, they have their own agenda, which can get in the way of the facts. When all is said and done, they exist to make money and form opinion, so convenient stories can easily get in the way of the truth.

This is the first in a series of 'myth busting' attacks on the mainstream media, and it concerns the alleged 'rotation' of Fernando Torres by Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez. Now if you believe many of the most pervasive media outlets, from Sky Sports, to Match of the Day, you would think that Torres has been left out by Benitez with great regularity, that if only Rafa had played the Spanish goal machine more often, Liverpool might have featured more prominently in the title race.

Now here is the truth.

Liverpool have played 30 league games so far this season. Fernando Torres has started 24 of those games. Now if were as simple as that, then fair enough, leaving Torres out for 6 matches, or 20% of games, would appear to be verging on madness when you have a player with such a prolific strike rate.

Of course, it is not quite so simple, nor as crazy, as it may appear. For 3 league matches, Torres has been unavailable due to injury. So now we sit at 24 out of 27 possible starts for Torres. Further to that, on all 3 occasions when he has been fit but not started, he has been brought on from the substitute bench, against Portsmouth, Fulham and Birmingham respectively. So Torres has featured in 27 of Liverpool's 30 league games this season, or 90%. In those 3 games in which he did not start, Liverpool did not lose any, with only the 0-0 draw at home to Birmingham being realistically any 'points dropped'. The Fulham game was won 2-0, with Torres scoring as a substitute, the Portsmouth game was drawn 0-0, the same scoreline managed by Arsenal at Pompey, while Chelsea and Manchester United were both held 1-1 at Fratton Park.

All 3 of those games in which he was benched were in the first 10 games of the season, when Torres was very much the new kid on the block in a new league with new team-mates and new opponents. In those circumstances, surely it is only common sense to introduce a player gradually, especially when the heavy International schedule brought about by the climax of the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign is added to the mix, as well as the existence of fellow new strikers Ryan Babel and Andrei Voronin needing time on the pitch to acclimatize to their new surrondings just as quickly as Torres for the benefit of the rest of the season.

By way of contrast, lets compare Fernando Torres' season so far to that of the biggest EPL name of all, Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo has started 23 of Manchester United's 29 league matches in 2007-2008. He was suspended for 3 matches in August after being sent off in the aforementioned game with Portsmouth, so that makes 23 starts in 26 matches, or 88.4% of games compared to 24/27 for Torres, or 88.8%. So Torres has started virtually the same number of league matches this season as arguably one of the 3 best players in the world, who is in his 5th season in English football.

I will repeat that, for the hard of thinking. Fernando Torres has started the same percentage of games when available as Cristiano Ronaldo has when he has been available.

Further to that, in the 3 games that Ronaldo did not start for Manchester United against Bolton, Aston Villa and Fulham, Utd actually lost one. The game was against Bolton in November, and it came after an international break. Ronaldo was not injured, but did not feature even as a substitute for United. They lost 1-0. Ronaldo featured as a substitute in the two other games he did not start. United won the other two matches, so in the 3 games in which Torres was rested, Liverpool got 5 points, in the 3 matches that Ronaldo was rested, United got 6 points. Wow, a 1 point difference, when Liverpool currently sit 8 points behind the Champions who also have a game in hand. Hardly the stuff necessary for headlines and endless debates is it? Try watching Jeff Stelling and co on Sky Sports on a Saturday afternoon with that in mind, it really is mindblowing.

So there we have it, two great players, two great teams, two great managers. One manager is charged with rotating one great player too much, a charge not backed up by any statistics. The other manager leaves his best player out and loses a league game, yet no-one bats an eyelid.

I am not suggesting that Alex Ferguson should have received any criticism for the Bolton defeat, of course he shouldn't. He is paid to make decisions, and no-one could deny that the vast majority of the decisions he makes as a manager are correct, so he is rightly given respect for his achievements, and a little leeway when there is an opportunity, however tiny, to offer criticism.

Why, in the face of virtually the same statistics, is a manager who has won two league titles, a UEFA Cup, a Champions League, and an FA Cup, not afforded the same leeway? There lies the crux of this story, and the pervasive nature of the media. They always have an agenda, they hype things to the nth degree, and, when all is said and done, they flagrantly lie if the occasion suits them.

I look forward to busting more myths before the season is out. Don't believe everything, or maybe anything? you read or hear, its always better to check things out for yourself before judging.