FAN SCENE: Uncalled for vitriol aimed at manager

Oct 26 2007 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

I’M old enough, and I think wise enough, to accept that it’s rare to find a real consensus of opinion when it comes to football, but I find myself becoming increasingly agitated with the doom-mongers and anti-Rafa-istas out there.

It’s true that we are going through a bad patch and our European campaign looks fairly dead in the water, but it’s not the end of the world for us, is it?

The invective unleashed following the defeat to Besiktas wasn’t surprising, but I was still shocked to hear some of the moronic comments saying “Sack Benitez”. Aside from the pointlessness of these rallies to oust the manager, it shocked me that these comments came from fans.

They are probably the same people who were hailing the manager as the messiah returned to Anfield following Istanbul and though fickleness can be an attractive trait in the under-10s the past week’s diatribes have just angered me.

Let’s take the Besiktas game as an example. I thought it was perhaps our best European performance so far this season, and we lost due to a combination of bad luck, low confidence and intense pressure. Tactically we were fine, but it just wasn’t happening for the lads.

So off the back of a great derby win (and it was a great win) and a much-improved European performance from the Marseilles debacle, it seems a little churlish to be calling for the manager’s head.

We’re still unbeaten and will only be behind by three points if we get the right result on Sunday. Impressive? Not if you listen to the rabid callers to the phone-ins.

There’s no argument that we need to improve, but Benitez is the man that will do it, and certain Reds should stop bleating and start supporting a bit more.

And I’ve got to stop listening to the phone-ins – my blood pressure can’t take it anymore.