Liverpool - Rafa Benitez needs a good start
Each time that Rafa Benitez gets his ducks nicely in a row then that Scotsman, that Portugese, that Frenchman comes along and spoils it. And this year there is another Spaniard in town with Juande Ramos at Spurs. Each time Benetiz says he needs more money but the squabbling Americans umm and err over the cash. His great success was Fernando Torres, but he probably needs more class and the cash for David Villa would be a tantalising proposition. The trouble is the money men seem more interested in building the new Stanley Park stadium about which they now talk as if it is a leading edge football team. It could well be the world’s first 4-3-3 architectural build.
But Benitez has often bought strangely and there are conundrums to his management style. Peter Crouch is surely the foremost shock tactic attacker in the league and should be brought on with a winger to feed him on 75 minutes in every game and yet the rumours say he will be sold which could make Portsmouth with Jermain Defoe a force to be reckoned with. And then there is Steven Gerrard, to some England and Liverpool’s footballer of a generation, albeit his trophy cabinet is more naked than www.sapphicerotica.com. Is he the disrupting force that stops the others from playing? The solution of playing him up front as Torres strike partner also changes the complexion of the team.
Dirk Kuyt played tirelessly for Holland at Euro 2008 on the right and obviously would rise to the kind of fast end to end movement that Van Basten believed in rather than the slow slow Spanish style push and shove. And where in this mix does the luring of Gareth Barry from Aston Villa quite fit, unless it be to free Gerrard even more?
The Anfield faithful believes it is entitled to the Premiership title again. They are 7/1 The Anfield faithful believes that they can be champions of Euope again. The odds are 14/1. On Saturday August 16 they open the campaign at Sunderland, for once perhaps they can get off to the kind of start they need and not be looking up the table from mid September onwards. Roy Keane may have other ideas.
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