Why Mrs Benitez would be happy if Rafa even rotated her rotisserie
Brian Reade 29/09/2007
My Heart goes out to Rafa Benitez's wife Montse as she tries to make the daily breakfast only to walk into the following verbals...
Rafa: Take the bread from the toaster, dear. Today we use the oven grill.
Montse: But the toaster's quicker.
Rafa: If you say to me, the toaster is best, I say OK, but I have three machines for browning bread and I must use them all.
Montse: But it'll make the kids late for school.
Rafa: We are a few weeks into the school year. If you want the toaster performing at a good level next June, then OK, you must rest it now.
Montse: Right. Oven it is. Can I use the toaster tomorrow?
Rafa: Who knows? I have to consider the George Foreman Grill also.
There was much frustration among Liverpool fans last Saturday as Fernando Torres warmed the bench for an hour as Dirk Kuyt and Andriy Voronin laboured horribly against a mediocre Birmingham defence. Understandable frustration.
What was harder to fathom were those fans who booed at the final whistle and contacted phone-ins and websites to claim Liverpool will never win the Premiership under Benitez so he may as well head back to Spain.
They overlook the fact that, Torres aside, the team he put out against Birmingham was his strongest available and more than capable of winning. So what happened to the other ten players?
They fail to see that Benitez, with two new strikers, is still testing out partnerships for a 60-plus game season. In ten games he has tried out all six different striking combinations, which is a high-risk strategy.
But Benitez is unbeaten in all competitions and he has a much better idea of what horses he needs for which courses. And in the long-term that could prove invaluable.
As could easing the inexperienced 23-year-old Torres into a league which is far more physical than the one he's left and a team whose big game workload is probably 20 matches a season more than he faced with a poor Atletico Madrid side who never played a minute's Champions League football.
Maybe Benitez sensed Torres's move had left him burning up too much mental energy, felt it was responsible for his stinker against Porto, and decided to hold him back from three games a week for the time being.
Maybe he sensed another frustrating game against a deep-lying Birmingham defence might dent his confidence, so held him back for the Carling Cup game at Reading where he knew he would make the kind of dramatic arrival statement that sets him up for the season. And it might just have worked.
How many League starts has Arsene Wenger given his expensive Ferguson given to his £32million pair Nani and Anderson?
The game has changed since the days when breaking the club record for a striker like Kenny Dalglish meant you let him get kicked all over the park until he dropped.
Can Torres really be expected to start every game? If so, wouldn't that turn Liverpool from the one-man team of Steven Gerrard to the oneman team of Torres? And didn't he leave Atletico precisely because he was tired of being the one man in a oneman team?
Before fans lay into Benitez the next time he benches Torres, they should remember he is a young man at the very beginning of what could be six mind-blowing years at Anfield.
Then ask themselves if it hadn't been for Benitez whose minds would his skills be blowing? Those in Milan, Barcelona, London or Manchester?
Booing and carping won't change Benitez's methods. The ones that took Valencia to two La Ligas and Liverpool to two European Cup Finals. Like Montse his missus, you either accept and embrace him for what he is or you will force him to leave.
I know which one Torres would prefer.
CLICKY
Brian Reade 29/09/2007
My Heart goes out to Rafa Benitez's wife Montse as she tries to make the daily breakfast only to walk into the following verbals...
Rafa: Take the bread from the toaster, dear. Today we use the oven grill.
Montse: But the toaster's quicker.
Rafa: If you say to me, the toaster is best, I say OK, but I have three machines for browning bread and I must use them all.
Montse: But it'll make the kids late for school.
Rafa: We are a few weeks into the school year. If you want the toaster performing at a good level next June, then OK, you must rest it now.
Montse: Right. Oven it is. Can I use the toaster tomorrow?
Rafa: Who knows? I have to consider the George Foreman Grill also.
There was much frustration among Liverpool fans last Saturday as Fernando Torres warmed the bench for an hour as Dirk Kuyt and Andriy Voronin laboured horribly against a mediocre Birmingham defence. Understandable frustration.
What was harder to fathom were those fans who booed at the final whistle and contacted phone-ins and websites to claim Liverpool will never win the Premiership under Benitez so he may as well head back to Spain.
They overlook the fact that, Torres aside, the team he put out against Birmingham was his strongest available and more than capable of winning. So what happened to the other ten players?
They fail to see that Benitez, with two new strikers, is still testing out partnerships for a 60-plus game season. In ten games he has tried out all six different striking combinations, which is a high-risk strategy.
But Benitez is unbeaten in all competitions and he has a much better idea of what horses he needs for which courses. And in the long-term that could prove invaluable.
As could easing the inexperienced 23-year-old Torres into a league which is far more physical than the one he's left and a team whose big game workload is probably 20 matches a season more than he faced with a poor Atletico Madrid side who never played a minute's Champions League football.
Maybe Benitez sensed Torres's move had left him burning up too much mental energy, felt it was responsible for his stinker against Porto, and decided to hold him back from three games a week for the time being.
Maybe he sensed another frustrating game against a deep-lying Birmingham defence might dent his confidence, so held him back for the Carling Cup game at Reading where he knew he would make the kind of dramatic arrival statement that sets him up for the season. And it might just have worked.
How many League starts has Arsene Wenger given his expensive Ferguson given to his £32million pair Nani and Anderson?
The game has changed since the days when breaking the club record for a striker like Kenny Dalglish meant you let him get kicked all over the park until he dropped.
Can Torres really be expected to start every game? If so, wouldn't that turn Liverpool from the one-man team of Steven Gerrard to the oneman team of Torres? And didn't he leave Atletico precisely because he was tired of being the one man in a oneman team?
Before fans lay into Benitez the next time he benches Torres, they should remember he is a young man at the very beginning of what could be six mind-blowing years at Anfield.
Then ask themselves if it hadn't been for Benitez whose minds would his skills be blowing? Those in Milan, Barcelona, London or Manchester?
Booing and carping won't change Benitez's methods. The ones that took Valencia to two La Ligas and Liverpool to two European Cup Finals. Like Montse his missus, you either accept and embrace him for what he is or you will force him to leave.
I know which one Torres would prefer.
CLICKY
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