IT WAS the best of times; it was the worst of times.
Though it’s doubtful that Charles Dickens had Marseilles and Reading in mind when he penned that immortal opening to A Tale of Two Cities, no more appropriate comment could be made on the fortunes of Rafa Benitez this week.
Pilloried for his approach to the game against the Premier League strugglers, when he did everything but throw a towel on the pitch to indicate the importance he attached to the game, he then came up with yet another European tactical and motivational masterclass to add to the ever – expanding anthology of occasions when victory was delivered when really needed.
Quite what persuaded Rafa that he should play a 4-3-3 formation at Reading with Crouch and Voronin out wide is beyond most of us mortals, when a minor adjustment omitting the latter for Babel or Kewell in a more conventional 4-4-2 would surely have delivered at least a point.
The withdrawal of Torres and Gerrard may well have helped prepare them for the Marseilles game, but such a naked admission that the game wasn’t worth saving would have had Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and the entire occupants of Anfield Cemetery turning in their graves like wind turbines in the North Sea.
Heaping such pressure on yourself when your job is under review is the act of either a supremely confident individual, or one who has fallen into the habit of over-analysing situations: ‘trying to be too clever’ to you and me.
I’ll leave you to form a view on that one, but what cannot be doubted is the determination, energy and skill which Benitez’s side summoned up in Marseilles.
To call him vindicated is perhaps too strong; the Premier League table at the end of the season will be the judge of that.
Yet should we beat Manchester United on Sunday, who is to say that the manager has not conjured a satisfactory outcome to yet another ‘defining week’ in Liverpool’s season?
We will be at least in touching distance of the league leaders, and preparing for an encounter with one of the big names in the knock-out phase of the Champions League. Difficult to argue with isn’t it?
Given the disappointment at the Madejski, Tuesday’s performance was the ideal balm to apply to wounded ambitions.
The early cushion provided by a typical Gerrard drive into the box, and the sublime skills shown by Torres as he increased our lead, was just the thing to banish memories of their backsides retreating to the dug-out last Saturday.
Given the goal contribution of these two in recent weeks, no doubt we’ll soon be criticised for being a ‘two-man’ team – oh well that’s a 100% improvement in anyone’s book.
Personally I find Torres quite the most exciting player to watch since John Barnes in his heyday; the impact he’s had on the Premier League in his first season is nothing short of astonishing. He’ll only be helped by rationing his appearances, though it would be preferable to see him rested when we’re 3-0 up rather than 2-1 down. Particularly pleasing was the performance of Kuyt, which shamed those critics who rushed to the airwaves after the Blackburn game to demand his immediate banishment.
His well-taken goal crowned a display of unceasing effort and intelligent running, making space for Torres and helping frustrate the French players into mistakes. He’s tailor-made for these European away games, as vital in his way as Didi Hamann was for many a season.
So Milan, Inter, Barcelona and Real lay in wait; but you can guarantee that we will be the side all these clubs will wish to avoid.
