The Worst Decision Ever Made?
That was the statement made by John Aldridge in reference to Gerrard's withdrawal from the action last night.
There have been several defining moments looking back through previous seasons, and I'm afraid we all witnessed another last night at the JJB in the aftermath of Wigan's late equaliser. I had to rub my eyes in the stands as I saw Gerrard starting to walk over to the touchline.
Is he going over to take instructions from Benitez? Taking on some fluids for the final few minutes? He then walks off, sits in the dugout and is replaced by Robbie Keane. My jaw hit the floor, and while others around me vented their frustrations, I just stood there in shock. We'd just conceded with less than 10 minutes to go in a game we simply had to win, had already removed Torres through tiredness, taken off our goal scorer Benayoun, and we're now taking off our captain and only remaining goal scoring threat as he was apparently tired. I'm still in shock today.
The worst decision the manager has ever made? I'm finding it hard to disagree with that statement, and it could certainly turn out to be a defining decision in the future of this club and his position as manager.
In the past few weeks, we've drawn 4 games back to back. In each of those games, there has been next to no urgency to win the game late on. For a side that is supposedly hungry for that league title, you'd expect to see men pouring forward in search of a winner; yet last night we witnessed our saviour on so many occasions being taken off and practically accepting the point. Is that good enough if we want to win the league? No.
I've been labelled as a Rafa apologist on a number of occasions. I've defended him time and time again in the face of fierce criticism, but this time, I can't defend the indefensible. There was no excuse for taking off Gerrard last night. Benitez claimed he was tired in his post match interview, but surely he had enough energy to play out the remaining 7 minutes in search of a much needed winner? This is the man that has rescued us time and time again late in the game. The only player left on that pitch capable of creating a goal out of nothing. How can anyone defend taking him off? It was accepting a point, which is nowhere near good enough.
When he came to this club, Benitex inherited a squad in disarray. I've covered my thoughts on his rebuilding in previous articles, and I stand by those. He's worked wonders in his 4 years in charge and given us some of the greatest nights of our lives, as well as presenting us with a realistic chance of winning the league; something that was unimaginable when he first came to the club.
In that first season, we may have won the European Cup through some act of god, but we finished the season a massive 37 points behind the champions, Chelsea. The fact we're now up there and within a few points of the leaders is a testament to the work he's done at the club. But the man responsible for getting us into this position, is now the man responsible for ensuring we go no further. He is costing us all chance of winning this league title, and I never thought I'd see the day I said that. It hurts to say it, but last night was a slap in the face for the likes of myself that defended him and believed in him.
If we want to win this league we need winners. We need a manager that wants to win every game, and a set of players that will go out there and give their all in search of 3 points every single week.
At the start of the season we had that. We fell behind in numerous games, but responded with late winners time and time again. At home to Middlesbrough, Benitez took off the full backs, threw on an extra couple of forwards and went for it. We turned the game around and rescued another 3 points. That approach gave us all the belief we could go on and win it.
Against Hull, we soon fell 2 goals behind, and the reaction was immediate. We poured forward, scored 2 goals to get ourselves back into the game, and could have been 5-2 in front by the time the half time whistle blew. Yet during half time, the manager decided the game was too open and changed things around in order to "control the game". As a result, we did have a lot of the ball, but slowed the game down to snail pace, and the result was a 2-2 draw. Hull were there for the taking and feared an onslaught; yet we let them off the hook in a big way. All through the manager's fear of not controlling a game.
But the game in this country isn't a game of chess. It's a game of football against 19 others sides, all of whom play different styles of football. A different approach is needed in the games against lesser sides that will put men behind the ball, yet Benitez still hasn't seemed to grasp that concept. He's a genius in the big games, where his tactical chess moves seem to work. But against the lesser sides, throw caution to the wind, and 9 times out of 10 the better side will succeed. Not draw.
If we want to have any chance of getting back into this title race, then I'm sorry Benitez, but you need to throw that cautious approach out of the window and release the shackles. Stop playing the likes of Lucas and Babel that are just not good enough and offer nothing to the side, play your best 11 and go for it. We've got nothing to lose anymore. Our support is now accepting defeat and facing up to the reality of United drawing level on 18 titles come May. The only way to stop that is to respond on Sunday with a new approach, and continue with it for the rest of the season.
Play your best 11 and attack, attack, attack attack attack!
Benitez still seems to think he's untouchable and loved by the fans. The majority of the press also seem to have this belief, and maybe the owners of the club as well, with Tom Hicks recently backing him in a bid to get fans onside (sorry fat head, you'll never do that no matter what you do). But let me give all of the above a reality check; the time when he was untouchable has long since passed.
Every single fan walked out of that away end last night dejected and distraught. Everyone questioning the decision to take Gerrard off when we needed that winner. He did the same at Goodison last season, replacing Gerrard with Lucas, and got away with it when Kuyt put away a late penalty to win the game. Without that winner, the backlash from the fans may have come sooner. But make no mistake, it's been brewing for a while and last night it surfaced in a big way.
People have been questioning why our away support has been so poor in recent months. Some have blamed Thomas Cook getting tickets, day-trippers getting tickets and other such excuses that pop up all the time. But the reality is our support at Stoke and Wigan was 90% scouse and full of the regular faces. It wasn't an end full of "new fans" demanding instant success. The away sections were full of the faces you've seen everywhere for years, our proper support. The lads that have followed us everywhere. Yet we now turn up at games knowing exactly what to expect and it deflates us before we even reach our seats.
When the team was announced last night, the wind was knocked out of the sails of anyone who had even the slightest bit of optimism that we might go there and have a go at them. We all knew what was to come and it proved to be true.
He's losing the support fast, and unless there is a change in his approach, he's going to lose it completely.
There are signs appearing of Gerard Houllier Mark II. Post match interviews where he treats us all like idiots. Gerrard being tired and controlling the game. Both complete rubbish, and does nothing but infuriate the travelling fans even further.
I'm off to drown my sorrows and hope this acts as a wake up call. But sadly, I very much doubt it will.
Some leopards never change their spots.
Paul Jones
That was the statement made by John Aldridge in reference to Gerrard's withdrawal from the action last night.
There have been several defining moments looking back through previous seasons, and I'm afraid we all witnessed another last night at the JJB in the aftermath of Wigan's late equaliser. I had to rub my eyes in the stands as I saw Gerrard starting to walk over to the touchline.
Is he going over to take instructions from Benitez? Taking on some fluids for the final few minutes? He then walks off, sits in the dugout and is replaced by Robbie Keane. My jaw hit the floor, and while others around me vented their frustrations, I just stood there in shock. We'd just conceded with less than 10 minutes to go in a game we simply had to win, had already removed Torres through tiredness, taken off our goal scorer Benayoun, and we're now taking off our captain and only remaining goal scoring threat as he was apparently tired. I'm still in shock today.
The worst decision the manager has ever made? I'm finding it hard to disagree with that statement, and it could certainly turn out to be a defining decision in the future of this club and his position as manager.
In the past few weeks, we've drawn 4 games back to back. In each of those games, there has been next to no urgency to win the game late on. For a side that is supposedly hungry for that league title, you'd expect to see men pouring forward in search of a winner; yet last night we witnessed our saviour on so many occasions being taken off and practically accepting the point. Is that good enough if we want to win the league? No.
I've been labelled as a Rafa apologist on a number of occasions. I've defended him time and time again in the face of fierce criticism, but this time, I can't defend the indefensible. There was no excuse for taking off Gerrard last night. Benitez claimed he was tired in his post match interview, but surely he had enough energy to play out the remaining 7 minutes in search of a much needed winner? This is the man that has rescued us time and time again late in the game. The only player left on that pitch capable of creating a goal out of nothing. How can anyone defend taking him off? It was accepting a point, which is nowhere near good enough.
When he came to this club, Benitex inherited a squad in disarray. I've covered my thoughts on his rebuilding in previous articles, and I stand by those. He's worked wonders in his 4 years in charge and given us some of the greatest nights of our lives, as well as presenting us with a realistic chance of winning the league; something that was unimaginable when he first came to the club.
In that first season, we may have won the European Cup through some act of god, but we finished the season a massive 37 points behind the champions, Chelsea. The fact we're now up there and within a few points of the leaders is a testament to the work he's done at the club. But the man responsible for getting us into this position, is now the man responsible for ensuring we go no further. He is costing us all chance of winning this league title, and I never thought I'd see the day I said that. It hurts to say it, but last night was a slap in the face for the likes of myself that defended him and believed in him.
If we want to win this league we need winners. We need a manager that wants to win every game, and a set of players that will go out there and give their all in search of 3 points every single week.
At the start of the season we had that. We fell behind in numerous games, but responded with late winners time and time again. At home to Middlesbrough, Benitez took off the full backs, threw on an extra couple of forwards and went for it. We turned the game around and rescued another 3 points. That approach gave us all the belief we could go on and win it.
Against Hull, we soon fell 2 goals behind, and the reaction was immediate. We poured forward, scored 2 goals to get ourselves back into the game, and could have been 5-2 in front by the time the half time whistle blew. Yet during half time, the manager decided the game was too open and changed things around in order to "control the game". As a result, we did have a lot of the ball, but slowed the game down to snail pace, and the result was a 2-2 draw. Hull were there for the taking and feared an onslaught; yet we let them off the hook in a big way. All through the manager's fear of not controlling a game.
But the game in this country isn't a game of chess. It's a game of football against 19 others sides, all of whom play different styles of football. A different approach is needed in the games against lesser sides that will put men behind the ball, yet Benitez still hasn't seemed to grasp that concept. He's a genius in the big games, where his tactical chess moves seem to work. But against the lesser sides, throw caution to the wind, and 9 times out of 10 the better side will succeed. Not draw.
If we want to have any chance of getting back into this title race, then I'm sorry Benitez, but you need to throw that cautious approach out of the window and release the shackles. Stop playing the likes of Lucas and Babel that are just not good enough and offer nothing to the side, play your best 11 and go for it. We've got nothing to lose anymore. Our support is now accepting defeat and facing up to the reality of United drawing level on 18 titles come May. The only way to stop that is to respond on Sunday with a new approach, and continue with it for the rest of the season.
Play your best 11 and attack, attack, attack attack attack!
Benitez still seems to think he's untouchable and loved by the fans. The majority of the press also seem to have this belief, and maybe the owners of the club as well, with Tom Hicks recently backing him in a bid to get fans onside (sorry fat head, you'll never do that no matter what you do). But let me give all of the above a reality check; the time when he was untouchable has long since passed.
Every single fan walked out of that away end last night dejected and distraught. Everyone questioning the decision to take Gerrard off when we needed that winner. He did the same at Goodison last season, replacing Gerrard with Lucas, and got away with it when Kuyt put away a late penalty to win the game. Without that winner, the backlash from the fans may have come sooner. But make no mistake, it's been brewing for a while and last night it surfaced in a big way.
People have been questioning why our away support has been so poor in recent months. Some have blamed Thomas Cook getting tickets, day-trippers getting tickets and other such excuses that pop up all the time. But the reality is our support at Stoke and Wigan was 90% scouse and full of the regular faces. It wasn't an end full of "new fans" demanding instant success. The away sections were full of the faces you've seen everywhere for years, our proper support. The lads that have followed us everywhere. Yet we now turn up at games knowing exactly what to expect and it deflates us before we even reach our seats.
When the team was announced last night, the wind was knocked out of the sails of anyone who had even the slightest bit of optimism that we might go there and have a go at them. We all knew what was to come and it proved to be true.
He's losing the support fast, and unless there is a change in his approach, he's going to lose it completely.
There are signs appearing of Gerard Houllier Mark II. Post match interviews where he treats us all like idiots. Gerrard being tired and controlling the game. Both complete rubbish, and does nothing but infuriate the travelling fans even further.
I'm off to drown my sorrows and hope this acts as a wake up call. But sadly, I very much doubt it will.
Some leopards never change their spots.
Paul Jones
RAFA 
Comment