So has Rafa gone Rogue??

A goalless draw against a bottom three club, an unexpected outburst from a usually placid manager, a 20million-pound striker stuck on the bench for 90 minutes, and still top of the league... surely this was a bizarre, random and shocking event in the recent history of Liverpool Football Club? Well, no it isn’t. According to Spanish journalist Guillem Balague, Rafael Benitez has a habit of keeping his mouth shut the vast majority of the time, and occasionally broadcasting his pent-up rage like a spitting cobra that hasn’t eaten for a week. And in this bizarre rollercoaster of a season, points are picked up and thrown away faster than Ronaldo’s Ferrari.

Rather than dissecting the dismal performance at the Britannia Stadium, and risking the wrath of every defensive Liverpool fan reading, I will proceed to look at the comments of the clearly vexed Spanish manager, made on Friday about Sir Alex Ferguson, and in particular what Benitez sees as the Scot’s solipsistic attitude to fixture arrangements. After this, I will look at the situation around the Reds’ disappointing result and assess the team’s progress this season so far, as well as their prospective title chances.

On Friday, Benitez claimed to be talking about facts. The facts are, four goalless draws against West Ham, Fulham, and Stoke (twice), three of which were at Anfield, are the reasons why Liverpool are not plain sailing and ten points clear at the top of the league. Yes, for every Liverpool fan who has suffered Ferguson’s taunts year after year as United edge closer to the Kop’s league titles record, Benitez’s rant provided entertaining television, but the one truly relevant fact is that Liverpool’s inability to pick up points in these kinds of fixtures is proving their downfall.

Here’s another fact. At the start of play in the Stoke game, Liverpool had the same number of points as they had at the same stage last season. Looking at the table, it would appear they have improved on previous years but the reason they are in pole position is down to the bizarre early season failings of United and the Chelsea Pensioners' mid-season wobble down at Stamford Bridge. In the Stoke game, Liverpool couldn’t even muster the usual claim that they failed to convert a number of gilt-edged opportunities; they were simply awful all over the pitch. The usually rock-steady figures of Carragher and Reina looked uncomfortable at the back, and Mascherano and Lucas’ inability to find an incisive forward pass between them in 90 minutes meant that the attacking foursome in front of them had little impact on the game. Gerrard’s one and only attacking surge came right at the death when his chip over the onrushing keeper hit the woodwork to deny Liverpool an undeserved victory.

Benitez seems to have come unstuck this season in some of his match tactics. His preferred 4-5-1 formation last season featured Mascherano sitting in front of the back four and Alonso pulling the strings behind Torres with Gerrard having a free role in behind the Spanish frontman. The purchase of Robbie Keane saw an early season shift to a 4-4-2 in which Gerrard played a deeper role, pushing forward to support the front two when needed. It took a while but just before Torres got injured, this formation was beginning to take shape. Keane was starting to find Torres when he dropped into the space between the defensive lines looking to link up play and Gerrard was finding the net from his deeper role. Riera’s crossing ability was well used with bodies in the box, and Dirk Kuyt was relishing his role as a right sided midfielder, proving the reds’ top scorer early on in the season.

After Torres’ injury, Benitez decided to switch back to his 4-5-1 style, playing Keane out of position as a lone striker. After weeks of frustration, Keane claimed in a post-match interview that he wasn’t a lone striker and that his position was playing behind a main striker. Following these comments, Benitez proceeded to play Kuyt as a lone striker, a player whose lack of explosive pace, height or any real strength make him an even less suitable candidate for the role. Shifting the Dutchman, so prolific on the right side, into the centre and leaving Keane on the bench removed a big chunk of the Reds’ goalscoring potential, crushing Keane’s fragile confidence in the process. Add to that Keane’s bizarre omissions from the starting XI after each of his two-goal performances this season, and what is left is a shocking lack of logic in Benitez’s selections up front.

This wasn’t the problem on Saturday however. Even if Benitez had started with Torres this weekend as he was broadly expected to, it would have made no difference. The Spaniard’s selection of Mascherano and Lucas in the same squad always perplexes me. Both players have had good games this season when asked to do their prescribed job of winning the ball and giving it to Alonso to start an attack, but when the onus is on the pair to spark Liverpool’s creativity, they are constantly found wanting. Even Setanta commentator Jon Champion, who hilariously referred to Brazilian Lucas and Argentinian Mascherano as ‘Liverpool’s South African midfield duo’, could see that Lucas was out of his depth being asked to fill Alonso’s boots. The game was crying out for Gerrard to move back next to Mascherano, with two strikers up top, yet Lucas and Mascherano both played the full 90 minutes.

Arsene Wenger set out with Robin Van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor up front against Bolton last weekend, and when it was still 0-0 after 70 minutes, he decided to take off the defence-minded Eboue and put on a third striker, Bentner, who scored the only goal of the game with 5 minutes to go. Yet Benitez seems intent on obstinately sticking by his original tactics no matter what happens, almost as if he has to prove something to anyone who doubts his methods. Even when he brought Torres on for midfielder Riera, he dropped Kuyt back into midfield and refused to change a cautious system that clearly wasn’t working.

With United now seemingly able to pull off eternal chains of 1-0 wins, it seems the only chances the Reds have now of keeping up with them are if Torres goes on a run of scoring form, and Benitez starts swallowing his pride and making the brave decisions needed to change games if his tactics aren’t working. The Spanish manager has been a great servant to the club; he has stuck by the fans and players despite being undermined by naive owners and has patiently put together an excellent squad with a much smaller budget than his main rivals. He has recently put his health on the line for the club, but only when he is willing to sacrifice his pride will Liverpool truly make the step up to defending their league record by winning the Premier League title for the first time.