I'm back!

Rafael Benitez just can’t win, can he? When Benitez brought Robbie Keane to Anfield in the summer for 20.2 million pounds, he was chastised for ‘paying over the odds’ for a player who was ‘over the hill’, a player who would not fit into the Liverpool team.

Six months later, Keane is back at White Hart Lane and the same ‘critics’ of Keane feel ‘disgusted’ and ‘revolted’ at how a player of Keane’s ‘undoubted quality and class’ could possibly have been so sparingly used by Benitez. “An absolute insult!” They throw their arms up in mutiny as Benitez continued to deny Keane even a place on the substitute’s bench.

Do not misread my intentions. I have nothing against Robbie Keane and neither do I wish to besmirch his short and ultimately unsuccessful Liverpool career. Robbie Keane is a terrific footballer and it was probably no fault of his that his Anfield career petered out into a hugely disappointing anti-climax. Whether it is true that it was Liverpool’s chief executive, Rick Parry, who brought Keane to Anfield without Benitez’s full endorsement, we will never know. I do wish Keane all the best in his second coming at White Hart Lane.

I digress. The point is this: it was never about Robbie Keane. It was about Benitez. It was about Liverpool Football Club. There just seems to be sections of the media and the press who have an agenda against LFC and Benitez. Suddenly, Benitez has lost it. Liverpool are in crisis. Liverpool have blown their best chance of winning the league title for the first time in 19 years. This, with Liverpool sitting two points behind Manchester United, albeit with the Old Trafford club having a game in hand. Sadly, then followed Liverpool ‘fans’ demanding for Benitez to be sacked.

Well, I am writing this as a Liverpool fan, and I hope all genuine fans listen to what I have to say.

Yes, we are all frustrated with the recent draws that have seen a seven point lead over United disintegrate into a potential five point deficit. Yes, we are all frustrated that United sit above us in the table, and we shudder to think of the possibility that United would equal our record eighteen league titles should we fail to prevent the title from once again going to Old Trafford. And yes, I have to agree that Benitez’s rant against Alex Ferguson (you can forget it if you think I am going to afford him the salutation of ‘Sir’ in MY COLUMN) was extremely ill timed, coinciding with Liverpool’s recent run of poor form.

Yet perhaps we are just getting ahead of ourselves. How many of us would have gladly taken the position of being in second place in the league, two points adrift of the leader, when offered in August, before a ball was even kicked?

I have been asked many, many times while Liverpool were top of the pile, if this is the year Liverpool would finally reach the holy grail of a 19th league title? I have always tired to diffuse the overwhelming and suffocating wave of optimism by presenting Benitezesque pragmatism by reminding fellow fans to take it one game at a time. The important and crucial detail was, I told them, that Liverpool was still in title contention when the New Year swung around. I still stand by that view.

Last season, after twenty-five games, Liverpool had 44 points, 12 points behind then leaders Arsenal, with no realistic chance of challenging for the title, let alone winning it. This season, after twenty-five games, Liverpool has 54 points, 2 points behind leaders United. Where are the rest? Chelsea are already 7 points behind United. Arsenal? As precocious a talent as Andrei Arshavin is, it would require a monumental slip-up from everybody else for the Gunners to overturn a 12 point deficit; instead, Wenger would be relived if his team can wrestle fourth place away from an impressive Aston Villa outfit, who are themselves 5 points behind United, yet unlikely to last the pace of a title sprint. Make no mistake. United are in imperious form (I do give credit where it is due, unlike many Mancurians) and it is now a question of the rest playing catch up. Crucially, who is closest to United in the table? Crucially, how long has it been since Liverpool were in this position; actually challenging for the title in February? (I am no mathematician, neither am I a statistician yet I struggle to understand how Liverpool’s title challenge is OVER, with the team 2 points behind United and 39 points still to be contested)

Let me reiterate if you do not already know. I am a fanatical Liverpool fan, dare I say, more than many of you reading this. I was gutted when Everton dumped us out of the FA Cup. I am hugely disappointed that seven draws in our last twelve games have seen us relinquish a rosy-looking perch atop the Premier League table. I do not always agree with Benitez’s tactics neither do I attempt to gloss over the deficiencies in the team. Three defeats in thirty-eight games suggest that we have become increasingly difficult to beat under Benitez’s regime (Just 1 defeat in the league, coupled with 9 draws), yet thirteen draws in the same span also suggest that we do lack the killer instinct and guile to kill off teams while dominating games. It is also true to a certain extent that the team is still too reliant on our talismanic skipper Steven Gerrard and ‘El Nino’, goal-scoring extraordinaire. (Yet we did manage to beat United earlier in the season without both players) Perhaps many of the draws could have been converted into wins had Fernando Torres not been injured for huge chunks of the season and how many times have we seen our inspirational skipper dragged us out of the throes of defeat? Still, Benitez knows, the fans know, and most importantly, the players themselves know that there is enough quality in the squad to compensate for the absence of the two, hugely important though they are to Liverpool’s cause. Players like Dirk Kuyt, Yossi Benayoun, Albert Riera and especially Ryan Babel, I feel, must step up to be counted as Liverpool enters the critical phrase of the season. Consistency is the key and bar the excellent Xabi Alonso, many of Liverpool’s attacking players have lacked the consistency required of a title-winning side.

The reality check is this: Liverpool may yet surrender their proud record of being the most decorated domestic champion in English football league history; Liverpool may yet win nothing this season. Yet this is not the time to be turning against the team, against Benitez. I struggle to understand how ‘genuine Liverpool fans’ merit the campaigning of sacking Benitez in February. Would bringing in a new manager now guarantee the league title comes to Anfield? Neither can I fathom the incessant bitching and whining that Liverpool are ‘off the pace’ and ‘falling apart’. Twenty points off the pace we are then.

Another self-inflicting wound in an ‘injury-ravaged’ season then. First, the broad room power struggle between the American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, continues, culminating in Benitez refusing to sign a new contract, as he soughts to get control over team affairs and transfers. Then came Benitez’s bizarre and untimely rant against Ferguson. Torres’ lengthy enforced absences through injury and of course, the captain’s arrest for assault have only combined to undermine and potentially derail Liverpool’s quest for ‘No. 19’

Then came the coup de grace.

“ A few weeks ago, we were in first position, then a certain individual from the club attacked another individual from another club, and since then, we have lost form and slid down the table”

Disgruntled fan? Supposedly ‘knowledgeable’ football pundit cum ex Liverpool player? Hardly. That ‘hugely enlightening’ sound bite came from none other than George Gillett. It is absolutely galling and disgraceful that a football club owner can come out and publicly ridicule the manager while the club is in the midst of challenging for the league title. Of course, Mr Gillett conveniently suffered the sin of amnesia when he chose to forget who got the club to ‘first position’ in the first place.

George Gillett and Tom Hicks (even with his ongoing war with Gillett and friendly overtures towards Benitez) are no fans of Liverpool. Coming from where they come from, they probably don’t even understand the game, let alone begin to remotely comprehend the foot balling institution that is Liverpool Football Club. Pure and simply, they are in for the money and God willing, may the club be put out of the hands of these mercenaries as soon as possible.

If you choose to do a ‘Gillett’ and proclaim yourself a fan, I honestly do not know where you are coming from. Me? I am just a supporter and I do what I know best. Support the team through thick and thin. Would you rather walk alone?