The Soccer Blog: Focus

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Tuesday, 1 March 2011

Video: Rafa Benitez on Football Focus

By: Noel | March 1st, 2011
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“They thought that Liverpool Football Club was a business, a company, a fanchise, and it’s more than this when you can see the fans, see the feelings, see the stadium atmosphere. So it’s different, it’s not where you go and you just eat hot dogs and then go to another city with another franchise. Liverpool Football Club was different, the fans are different, and I think that they didn’t realise this.”

These long off weeks do have a way of bringing the past around for a quick visit, and with Rafa Benitez doing his first sizable interview for television since his time at Inter ended and he returned to his home on Merseyside, it was likely only a matter of time before I would in turn take the chance to pass it along here on the Liverpool Offside. Though there are a few awkward moments where he does his best to avoid answering the questions as asked, there are some informative passages in it such as when he touches on the issue of having to sell to buy over his final seasons at the club. He doesn’t get into the details of having made a profit in his last five transfer windows under Hicks and Gillett, an important point often ignored by those who continue to insist he’s the one who left the squad looking so threadbare, but it’s clear he holds some level of resentment towards the at times shabby treatment he received for his “thin squad” full of bargain basement players who weren’t Liverpool quality when he had had little choice but to scrape the bottom of the barrel as the years passed and money became scarce with a growing debt to service.

Also of interest is his talk of the how managers can’t admit to individual mistakes to the media following a match because it would lead to them being constantly undermined. That doesn’t mean they haven’t made mistakes and aren’t trying to address those shortcomings honestly with both themselves and the team, and it seems a fairly obvious reality of holding a top managerial position, but it does bear repeating as some can at times forget this reality when managers stick to an us against the world mentality when the going gets tough. Still, as he says, a good manager has to be constantly critical of himself and looking to improve the way he does things no matter how well or poorly things are going on the pitch and with the club, even if admitting that publicly in tough times would be the quickest way to get one’s walking papers.

The best part, though, comes towards the end when he talks about working under the previous owners, and the way that the trip to Athens and a Champions League final in their first season, followed up by the purchase of Torres, gave him hope for the future that obviously didn’t last. When the club did start to run into problems, or when it simply needed the guiding hand of men who knew the sport and culture, it became obvious just how little they knew about Football, the club’s history, or what it took to compete at the highest level in England and Europe.

To round things off, there is also talk about only wanting to go to a new club and job when he can find a project, something that he can work on and build over a number of years, and of the difficulty in finding a situation where a manager might be afforded that kind of time and leeway. He does think that England is slightly more set up to have such opportunities than the big continental leagues, and he also talks of his family being settled in England, so one expects that whenever he does take another job it will be in the Premier League somewhere. Whether it might be back at Liverpool or not, though, is obviously a subject he tries to side-step, instead choosing to praise Dalglish. That, at least, is obviously a big change from the at times antagonistic stance he took towards Roy Hodgson, a man whose presence he clearly felt was a disservice to the club and its supporters when on some level it seems clear that he himself is still a fan.

Needless to say, it will be interesting to see where he ends up going forward, and one imagines a lot Liverpool fans will always have a soft spot for him just as he does for many of them.

Some Related Liverpool Posts:Video: Safe StandingVideo: The Liverpool GrooveVideo: Carragher and Agger v. ChelseaVideo: U19 England 2, U19 Slovakia 0Rehabilitating Rafa, and Other Friday Notes

Category: Miscellaneous, Premier League

Tags: George Gillett, History, Kenny Dalglish, Miscellaneous, Premier League, Rafa Benitez, Roy Hodgson, Tom Hicks, Video Killed the Radio Star
Tweet « Blog Pollin’: Steven Gerrard’s Best Position | Home | GrubbOh... Hotdogs are for eating?PDubz18Being an Inter fan who happens to also like Liverpool, I hate Benitez. His philosophy of managing and coaching a club is deeply flawed, and to put on top of that he has a horrible touchline personality. He might have worked very hard for Liverpool, but he is a horrible tactician, and has no idea how to win a big league title. (Let's be real here, the Spanish league requires 4 big wins, and not much else.)

We Inter fans tried to give him a chance, the Rafa experiment looked very good on paper, but in practice he had no idea how to adapt to the Italian game. He showed no emotion and just took notes during each game, showing an attitude that needless to say does not inspire players. There was a bust-up in the dressing room before the first game against Juventus this season, which ruined him for everyone on the team. Marco Materazzi asked of Benitez one thing, and that was to play in the Club World Cup finals. Every fan who has any sort of interest in Inter can see that Marco is a huge dressing room personality, and can make or break a manager's control of the team.

And then finally, there was the Werder Bremen match in the group stages of the Champs League. We could have easily won the group with a win over Werder, but instead Benitez put in the 2nd team and let Tottenham win the group.

I'm sorry to all those Benitez supporters out there, but he should not be trusted with any sort of responsibility with a large club. Since he left, We have won 12/15 matches...which just shows how much negativity Benitez brought to Inter.cheekyfellowDude, no offense, but Italians are difficult to deal with. Materazzi is a whiney toolLonelyportraitPretty sure Benitez beat the Inters' with the Mancinis and Mourinhos on a far less talented squad with Liverpool everytime in the Champions League. Horrible tactician? Hmm.

Horrible touchline personality? Guess you didn't catch Liverpool's 2005 run of the Champions League; he was taking notes when Gerrard scored the belter against Olympiakos, he was still taking notes when we came back against Milan. Everyone celebrates but he never shows it, does it mean he doesn't feel happy? No.

No idea how to win a big league title? He's got two with Valencia when there's supposed to be only a big 2 in la liga. He got Liverpool the highest points tally which would've won the league in most seasons except that one. No idea, seriously?

Can't manage the dressing room? Well, unfortunately players like Gerrard and formerly Torres and Mascherano flourished the most under Benitez himself. Perhaps it was just an old Inter team that got taken out of their comfort zones and childishly decided to spite the manager instead.LucasLeiva21Appreciated your response to PDubz. Personally didn't want to dignify his comment with my own response but appreciated yours.

On a side note, am I the only one here who is terrified if Mancini gets sacked at Man City and is replaced by Rafa?justinI just don't understand how some people can't see what Benitez has achieved in spite of it all.

Yes, he looks like a cold personality on the field but every individual has their own methods of conducting themselves and while it might not work for all, they all have the pros and cons no?

RB has over the years been the easiest target to scapegoat simply because he has made mistakes (of which he admits) but place someone else in his situation and there is no guaratee other managers won't make the same mistakes.

Even if you were to argue on Benitez's flaws, at least balance up the argument by providing others perspectives than the usual "Benitez is shit, tactics are shit, bought shit players, spent loads of shit" theme. I'm just really annoyed how people just lump it all to Benitez instead of reflecting on how other parties might've contributed to the "negativity" of whatever situation might've occured. He's not a one-man show you know, players and owners and fans play a part.LucasLeiva21Exactly. I believe you've covered it all, but I will add to your points that Rafa walked into a squad of older players who had all played 40, 45, some 50 matches in a Treble-winning season. Then, said aforementioned exhausted squad has most of its members participate in the World Cup in the summer. Overworked squad in turn receives a rash of injuries, and new manager Rafa (with no summer reinforcements) was handed a weaker squad.

Ultimately, comparing the successes of "The Special One" with Rafa's failures at Inter amounts to a straw man argument. Rafa held his own tactically with Jose with weaker squads in the EPL, and gosh darn it, that should be recognized, more so than the Inter experience.NoelYou're not the only one--especially if they hold onto a Champions League position this season. Though of course if they do that it's hard to see Mancini getting sacked.RoscoWell that's the big ugly Serb out of Sunday .broi will always look as rafa as one of are grates because he did a lot for us on and of the pitch. he help get rid of the those 2 disasters owners aswell because he had the guts to express his thoughts and feelings and concerns of there commitment and desires to as he relised they were only going to destroy are club and he risk being sacked by ways of letting the fans no. he got us kenny back. he got a grate youth team witch next season may pay off. never mind what he won us or how much he earnt the club revenue with constant champions league and how far we went in them. he got us are highist ever points tally in the prem ever but just so unlucky that the time we did it was won by the highist ever. he made bad choices he made bad signings who has not. but made some excellent to. he loves the club.RoscoHow long has this post been up Noel? The Rafa-bashing brigade are rather slow this evening.

Some un-related football humour in the shape of every time Ashley Cole touches the ball tonight it's followed by cries of . . . SHOOOOOT

Top drawerNoelI don't recall much bashing when I put up a bit about the redeveloped academy a week or two back, so perhaps they've moved on to other targets. Or the timezones just aren't lining up, or something.EdIs that actually happening? Been watching at work with the volume off and wrote something lame about it on Twitter.

Apparently I've been outdone.RoscoAt least one of their January signings has an eye for goal.RoscoFunny thing is it's hard to tell which end it's coming from. One would assume a jibe from opposing support.
But then again, cockney humour n all that.ChrisOThere's also a 25 minute interview on Dan Walker's blog at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/dan.... No idea if it will play in the US. Or Oz.NoelThanks, looks like a good one. Seems to play in Canada at least, but unfortunately it's not embedable. People with a bit of time should definately go take a look at it, though, if they haven't seen it before.Bekim SejdijaBring him back to Liverpool. Rafa and Kenny will take us where we should be. Rafa YNWATom FooleryNot the worst idea, a dangerous one though. After the events of the last year, it does seem we need the people in charge to actually care about LFC. Kenny and Rafa clearly show this in heaps. Together, though...there may be a conflict of power. I think that what Rafa did (especially since he brought the King in and they worked together well), still rings true in our current managers ears. So, in a way, Rafa is still working for the club. He revamped the academy, and instilled the values that us fans deem as important. In order to avoid a clash of the titans, I think we just need to use Rafa as an example (both the good and bad), and move on from here.Hadi365"So, in a way, Rafa is still working for the club. He revamped the academy, and instilled the values that us fans deem as important. In order to avoid a clash of the titans, I think we just need to use Rafa as an example (both the good and bad), and move on from here. "

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Thursday, 6 January 2011

Let Man City Play Defense, Gooners Should Focus On The Arsenal

By: Sairax | January 6th, 2011
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You have to love living in the internet age. Never have we been more connected with people around the world and never have we been able to have such immediate access to information. Of course this means that we also have the ability to share our thoughts in real time and let our opinions be known to so many more people. I, for instance, no longer share my Arsenal-related thoughts solely to my cat who gazes at me in wide-eyed wonderment as I muse about Cesc and Nasri becoming our very own Xavi and Iniesta.

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What’s my point here? Nothing really, I’m just amused at all of the reaction from last night’s game against Man City. Many gooners out there are upset and frustrated at Mancini’s tactics and his assertion before the game that they came to win. I understand the feeling, but I really am not fussed to be honest. Man City are in a unique position of having ridiculous amount of money to spend. Not just, ‘I can buy and elephant’ kind of money. Not even ‘Can I bring my dog with me when I go on a shuttle tour in outer space’ kind of money. They’ve got, ‘can I resurrect dinosaurs so I can recreate Jurassic Park’ kind of money. So automatically people are going to expect results. Fast-tracking success tends to be built on a solid defense. Even when promoted teams come into the Premier League they make sure they have a solid defense, first and foremost. Birmingham ended up finishing 9th last season, primarily due to their ability to keep the ball out of the net. Once you have that foundation, then you can move on to your attack.

Right now, City’s main focus is to get into the Champions League, and if they are lucky, even win the league. I don’t like their approach and I wouldn’t want Arsenal to go that route, but it is working for them, so I’m not at all surprised that they parked the bus against us yesterday. I think that they would have been better off trying to win though. Man Utd are laughing right now because the two teams chasing them for the title both dropped points. I also think Man City have good enough attacking options that they could have scored against us or even snatched a victory. Surely they’ve seen how other teams have exposed our defensive frailties? Perhaps they could have tried to go for the whole 3 points.

But hey, I’m not really complaining. Why do I care they didn’t want to win? The important thing is that we tried to win. We tried to attack and score, but ultimately it just didn’t work out for us. Reading John Cross today I was struck by his argument that we didn’t shoot enough, or that we could have gone ‘route one’ much earlier in the match. He also claims we didn’t have a shot on target that came from outside the box until the 61st minute (thank you for reminding me in the comments yesterday. I have provided the video of the shot below), which is incorrect as Jack had a strike from outside the area in the first half that stung the palms of Joe Hart (check the MOTD highlights from yesterday around the 3rd minute). We also hit the bar quite a few times, so I don’t think it was a lack of shooting that was our problem. Really, Man City defended resolutely and in large numbers, particularly in the second half. I don’t care what team you are, scoring against such a tight defense is always going to be difficult. Some say we should have put on Bendtner or Chamakh and thrown crosses into the box. Really? Because that worked out so well when we’ve done that against Chelsea in the past. First of all, crossing isn’t exactly our forte. Secondly, City’s players are so huge, they’d be laughing all day long heading out crosses. I think we did try different things in attack. Theo wasn’t able to get crosses in during the second half because Zabaleta was tailing him every second. We brought on Arshavin to try a different approach, but that didn’t end up working out. I think we played a good game, but we lacked a bit of luck. If we were going to get a goal, it would have been during our first half blitz, or it would have had to have come from something very special. We didn’t score, but we got a point and kept a clean sheet. Not great, but not a disaster so let’s all take a deep breath before we start ruing the complacency and wastefulness of Arsenal because I think that’s really unfair on yesterday’s performance by the team. And don’t even get me started on the people saying we should park the bus against Barcelona. There are too many things wrong with that idea that it makes my brain hurt just thinking about it.

With the Man City game out of the way we have gotten through most of our tough fixtures, by which I mean games against the top 5 contenders. We still have to face Man Utd at home and spuds away, and you can throw in Liverpool coming to the Emirates as well. That’s not bad at all, especially considering that Man Utd still have to play Chelsea home and away, spuds away, us at the Emirates, and Man City at Old Trafford. Throw in Liverpool (they beat Chelsea remember?) and that’s a lot of tough games coming up for them. Man City, Chelsea, and the spuds all have tough games ahead, not to mention upcoming ties in the FA Cup, Champions League, and the Europa League. All is not lost, so keep all of this in mind before thinking we have no chance left at the title.

As you probably remember, Sagna picked up a red card last night in the closing minutes of the game. I’m sure Sagna was reacting to something Zabaleta said because Sagna does not lose his cool like that ever. Zabaleta got sent off as well and will be appealing the red card, but we will not be appealing Sagna’s red. Wenger thought both players should have just gotten yellows, but Sagna did go in to headbutt Zabaleta, so the red card can be justified. Wenger probably knows that and looked at the fixtures he’ll be missing and decided that Sagna may as well serve the suspension and get a much needed rest. He’s played all of our games through the Christmas period and is one of our most consistent players, so a rest could do him some good. He will miss out on the Leeds FA Cup tie this weekend, the first leg of the Carling Cup semifinal against Ipswich, and the league match away to West Ham. He’ll also be missing the Barcelona tie in the Champions League due to the red card he received against Partizan, so it looks like Bac is getting his own little winter break.

Speaking of the Carling Cup this weekend, Wenger has indicated that he will be making plenty of changes for the game against Leeds. I think we all expected this. With our opposition being Leeds, I think that our lineup against Wigan would do well against them. Our starters need rest and we have a huge number of games coming in the next couple of months, so rotating is a necessity at this point. Nasri and van Persie have picked up little knocks so there’s little chance we’ll be seeing them. This will gives players like Bendtner and Denilson a chance to get some time on the pitch after being out with injury for so long and then not being able to get in the first team due to other players performing well. Gibbs will be back in the squad and hopefully he will be fit enough to play and not pick up another injury.

In other news, Nasri is currently in talks to renew his contract with Arsenal. Apparently, Barca are after him in the transfer market, but who knows how true that story is. Anyway, I expect him to stick around and we’ll probably hear soon enough that he has officially renewed his contract. Owen Coyle has come out and confirmed his interest in taking Carlos Vela on loan. It would be a good option for Vela and Coyle is doing a great job at Bolton so I have no issues with this. The most important thing is that Vela gets some time on the pitch. Finally, Havard Nordtveit has officially signed for Borussia Monchengladbach and I know you’ll all join me in wishing him all the best in his career.

In case you missed it, here is an interview with our Captain Fabtastic talking about all the lovely trophies he would like to win with Arsenal. I’m sure some will think Cesc doth protest too much and some will think this is proof that he will stay with us, but I say, just watch it like it’s an interview with our captain or else you’ll drive yourself nuts.

I leave you with a few links of some of the more amusing pics and gifs from the Man City game. Eboue knows fashion and Song seems to be paying tribute to his uncle Rigobert with his new look. Look closely and you can see Mr. Arsenal in attendance!

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Category: Alex Song, Arsenal News, Arsene Wenger, Bacary Sagna, Carlos Vela, Cesc Fabregas, Emmanuel Eboue, Injury Report, Kieran Gibbs, Manchester City, Randoms, Rants, Samir Nasri, Video

Tags: Alex Song, Arsenal News, Arsene Wenger, bacary sagna, Carlos Vela, Cesc Fabregas, Emmanuel Eboue, Havard Nordveit, Injury Report, Kieran Gibbs, Manchester City, Randoms, Rants, Samir Nasri, Video
Tweet « Arsenal 0 Manchester City 0: The Mack Truck in Front of City’s Goal is Blocking My View | Home | Melon ManI could be wrong, but I imagine you couldn't "park the bus", even if you wanted to.
That seems to be the only criticism of your style of play I could level at you, and indeed Barca.
You have a way of playing football which is easy on the eye, and brings results more often than not, but Mancini is looking for more flexibility from City.
Perhaps Mancini's vision will not allow for the sort of footballing heights acheived by your club, but with the right personnel, it may be possible. I sincerely hope so, and I believe we've seen glimpses of the future this season, especially with David Silva running the midfield.
It would be nice if other fans recognise City are a work in process, despite the sums of money spent, and recognised the stages neede to reach on the way to the summit - you seem to be intimating you see what is being striven for to your credit.
I don't think we could go head to head with united and Arsenal this season without our best eleven fit and available, it seems sensible not to get beaten, if not for the point gained, but the psychological damage avoided by a heavy defeat - we didn't like the 0-3 loss to you at Eastlands at all.
Good luck to you for the rest of the season.ibrahimlets see if u can park the bus in barcelona match like man city did....Gigi_manI think we can, if we decided to.
But we wont go for that.
If I was AW I would, but I am not, (man am I a kind of Mou..??? noooo).
SairaxI'm assuming this is some sort of sarcastic remark but no we couldn't park the bus like Man City did. We're not equipped to do that as a team. We know that defense is not our forte and much of our game is focused on getting the ball forward and keeping possession. Also, Wenger would not suddenly change tactics like that.Paul_fazSairax,

Thanks for your honest and accurate appraisal of what is only a mid season clash. I am a City fan and understood the respect that we showed to Arsenal, who have been whipping us for years. If we drew then we stayed second, it was a tactical game and not too much more than that should be read into it.SairaxWell, it's not really my cup of tea in terms of style of play, but I can only worry about how Arsenal approach a game. Still think you could have gotten a goal or two if you had pushed numbers forward.

Could you guys at least beat United? Who wants to see them win the league unbeaten? *shudder*blog comments powered by Disqus