RED WATCH: It's Rafa's head, not his squad, in a spin

Oct 3 2007 by Andy Proudfoot, Liverpool Daily Post

IF Montse Benitez has any sense, she’ll have purged the household of rotisseries, microwave ovens and electric toothbrushes in recent weeks to provide a calmer environment for her workaholic husband.

Anything which even hints at rotation must be banished to the cupboards if Rafa is to maintain his sanity in the face of near constant enquiry, speculation or criticism over the efficacy of his trademark long-tem selection policy.

Hardly a day goes by without him having to explain his reasoning, sometimes in words of one syllable, to a curious hack or disgruntled fan from Malaysia.

How he refrains from gripping some of his interrogators by the lapels and shouting ‘how many more times must I explain this?’ I’ll never know. Because like it or loathe it, one thing is certain – he’s not going to stop it.

Strong finishes to the last few seasons would appear to support his argument about taking a long-term view, though detractors would argue that the accompanying slow starts made late freshness irrelevant, at least in the Premier League.

But we’ll only be able to pass final judgement at the end of a season in which Benitez has been able to implement his policy with the comfort of a squad large and talented enough to facilitate its execution.

Whether that will be this season or not is the moot point. Much has been made of the quality of the additions to the squad in the close season and our bench has looked pretty impressive at times since August.

We’re unbeaten, have produced some good performances and already have three away league wins under our belt

Yet stuttering performances in recent weeks have brought fresh doubts, undermining the credibility of our title pretensions.

Sure, only Arsenal are truly on fire at present, and their mettle will be tested once they suffer their first setback.

But we still need to show more creativity in dealing with the defensive formations we’ll be increasingly faced with.

For this reason, the claims of Benayoun to a (more) regular starting place are becoming harder to ignore.

He’s scored more goals in the last two games than Pennant has since he arrived at the club some 60-odd games ago – and gives us the penetration that made Luis Garcia’s generally wasteful distribution worth tolerating.

For those with longer memories, Benayoun is reminiscent of the likes of Jimmy Case, Sammy Lee and Ray Houghton, true right midfield players rather than out-and-out wingers who can contribute much more to the team than a flurry of wayward crosses.

The temptation of course will be to play Yossi on the left, where we’re still not looking convincing; though this would continue the undesirability of playing right-footed players on the left, which has cramped our style on a number of occasions recently.

Riise’s deterioration is nearly complete, and Aurelio has yet to quell doubts about his suitability for the Premier League.

We may have to wait until Babel and Leto mature before we really get what we need on the left, though a top-class left-back might be a priority for the January transfer window.

So while the outlook may be on-the-whole encouraging for Liverpool, I’m afraid it looks bad news for Montse: barbecued chicken is out for the foreseeable future.

Stop the ‘dodgy’ dealings

ASSISTANT Referees, or ‘linos’ in old money, are coming in for some stick at present over dubious offside decisions.

Judging by some of the guidance they’re getting from their governing body, the snappily-named Professional Game Match Officials Ltd, it’s hardly surprising.

Coach Paul Rejer advised them that it was better to give a ‘dodgy’ goal than a ‘dodgy’ offside, as this was likely to lead to less criticism as the attacker was given the benefit of the doubt. Forgive me, but I thought that the basic idea was that play should be continuous, and only stopped by the officials when an infringement had occurred.

This implies that assistants should only flag for offside when they’re sure of it – it’s not a question of weighing up probabilities. The ‘advantage’ should be given to fluent play, not to either side.