Let's learn from history lesson

Oct 25 2006 Red Watch by Andy Proudfoot, Daily Post

ASK your average Kopite who George Santayana was, and they'd probably hazard a guess at Newcastle's latest centre-forward, or John Wayne's adversary in a thousand Westerns.

Yet it is this American philosopher's most famous quote that they might paraphrase to Rafa Benitez, given the chance: "Those that cannot learn from history, are doomed to repeat it".

Not too long ago a Liverpool manager, who had made an impressive start to his Liverpool career and delivered a respectable haul of trophies, lost his way as results turned against him and, despite all the evidence to the contrary, stubbornly insisted that he was right and that all his critics were wrong.

Now hopefully we're someway short of having to suffer Benitez quoting meaningless statistics by way of self-justification, or uttering increasingly eccentric pronouncements of how each successive failure is really a blessing in disguise.

But the parallels with the latter years of Gerard Houllier's reign are beginning to feel distinctly uncomfortable, and Rafa would do well to pause and reflect as to whether the rotation policy which served him well in Spain is as relevant to the Premiership.

The quiet, respectful concerns expressed by fans and pundits alike at the start of the season when Rafa declared his intent to rotate his team on a regular basis have now grown into a mutinous clamour for the manager to pick a settled side until results pick up.

Of course you want your manager to have the courage of his convictions, but when the vast majority of the supporters can see something which is apparently beyond him, then conviction can start to look like stubbornness or, at worst, arrogance.

Keeping players fresh for the season's end-game seems a little pointless if all you're playing for by then is the fourth Champions League spot.

Abject performances like that delivered at Old Trafford cannot be regarded as aberrations, especially when set in the context of other dismal away displays this season. Something's going wrong, and needs changing.