SAMMY LEE believes there is never a friendly match involving Liverpool such is the desire of their opponents to take one of the most notable scalps in world football.
The Liverpool assistant manager’s theory may not have been proven beyond all doubt against Rapid Vienna but in subjecting Liverpool to a narrow, but fully deserved, defeat the Austrian outfit certainly provided some compelling evidence to support his hypothesis.
Rapid may not eat at European football’s top table, having to make do with the scraps that the Champions League big boys don’t gobble up, but they gave Rafael Benitez’s side exactly the kind of stiff test of their credentials which is needed at this stage in their preparations.
In their opening friendly match against Swiss side St Gallen, Liverpool had laboured to a goalless draw as Rafael Benitez used the game as an opportunity to give every single available member of his first team squad some valuable playing time.
That non-descript performance may not have done much to whet the appetite of the Liverpool fans but all the noises coming out of the team camp indicate that their pre-season preparations are going at least as well as can be expected at this stage.
But against Rapid they struggled badly with precious few chances being created in attack and far too many being conceded in defence and had it not been for the errant use of a linesman’s flag the home team’s margin of victory could have been greater.
Performance wise it would be hard to pinpoint too many Liverpool players who did themselves justice and although, as every single manager is at pains to point out, it is fitness that matters most at this stage of proceedings, Benitez is sure to impeach his charges to raise their standards in the days and weeks to come.
There are countless mitigating circumstances of course, none the least of which is the fact that the Liverpool boss is happy to use these early pre-season encounters as glorified training matches as he tries to give as many players as possible some much needed playing time.
As the clock ticks down towards the kick off of Liverpool’s Premier League campaign at Spurs on August 16 then Benitez’s approach will become increasingly refined with the wheat being separated from the chaff but for the time being it is quantity rather than quality which remains the order of the day.
Maybe things would have turned out differently against Rapid had Krisztian Nemeth taken a very presentable headed opportunity in the early stages.
But seeing as that was the only chance of any real note that Liverpool created in the entire 90 minutes then it would be stretching credulity to the point of breaking point to suggest that a single strike could have altered proceedings too dramatically.
Rapid looked sharper and more cohesive throughout, particularly against a Liverpool back line which was notable only for its unfamiliarity and for the fact that it ended the game without a single left footed player as Jay Spearing was asked to fill in at left back following the substitution of Emiliano Insua.
What Benitez made of the performance of Philipp Degen is anyone’s guess.
On the plus side the staff at Vienna’s A&E department will have breathed a huge sigh of relief as the Swiss international came through his second successive game without being injured.
