Why Lady Luck Is Finally Turning Against Rafa Benitez

Rafa Benitez has always had luck on his side, Istanbul, FA Cup final, you could even say that with last season's run to second place as Arsenal and Chelsea stumbled and Manchester United had a poor first half of the season. His titles at Valencia were won when the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid had abnormally poor seasons.

Liverpool's luck this season has been terrible, from the beach ball goal to the amount of injuries suffered, to last minute goals going against them. Drawing a match against Birmingham after having 77.9% possession and 7 shots on target compared to Birmingham’s 2 which ended up goals. Everything seems to be going against Liverpool, the season imploding as we speak. Why is this happening though? In conjunction with the Spaniard obvious management failures, there are some far greater forces at play.

Benitez is known to be a stubborn person and over the years he has fell out with countless people that he's worked with, the Valencia board, and directors at Real Madrid. It was no surprise that by the time he reached Anfield he fell out with the Chief Executive Rick Parry and the Liverpool owners. 

Benitez had a vendetta against Xabi Alonso after he rightfully missed a Champions League tie against Internazionale to attend the birth of his child. Benitez then tried to sell the Basque across Europe, in the summer of 2008, what would have been an humiliating experience. In the end Alonso forced his move to Madrid, who could blame him? The Spaniard has also forced out the likes of Pako Ayestaran, Robbie Keane, and Rick Parry due to various clashes. 

After a boardroom tussle that forced out Rick Parry, Benitez finally had unprecedented control at Anfield, control of transfers, and control of the Academy. He wasted no time using that power, sacking ten Academy staff, and six other long serving employees. People who did not deserve to be sacked. These were people lived and breathe Anfield most of whom had been there longer than he has, and had over 100 years of service between them. This obviously had its destablishing effects at Anfield. When one does something like this, on top of everyone he's forced out of Anfield, its got to have its consequences. Benitez is a man that likes to control everything, now he can't control the forces going against him, he can't control luck. Karma has reared its ugly head and luck is turning against Benitez and Liverpool are paying for it.