Source: Daily_Mail
HATCHET MAN: You can make numbers prove anything Rafa - except that Liverpool are a good side
Rafael Benitez should thank the number crunchers at UEFA for providing him with a mask for his deficiencies.
Those dedicated gatherers of statistics at the European game's governing body have given the Liverpool manager the formula which has allowed him to claim his team is the best in Europe.
'The facts are there for all to see,' he said after the wonks came up with coefficient which most fans will not be able to fathom. 'Anyone can see what I have done here.' Liverpool's Champions League record under Benitez is hard to argue against, but the statistics behind their European ranking are not as meaningful as he suggests.
UEFA also collect numbers for the players with the most assists in this season' s premier club competition and, before this week's games, Anders Due of AaB Aalborg was second with four. Does that make him better than Barcelona's Xavi, who only managed three?
As a yardstick for general progress at Liverpool, the UEFA stats are even less meaningful.
Benitez says they have progressed because this season they temporarily challenged for the Premier League title, but it is not the first time they have done that.
The Spaniard's predecessor Gerard Houllier guided the club into second place in 2002, something they haven't done since and may well not manage this season as they focus on Europe.
The Frenchman's record in the five years before he left was also comparable in terms of League placings to those of Benitez, and he didn't always have the respect of those around him either.
Whatever figures UEFA or the Liverpool manager can come up with, it is obvious Benitez can produce in the Champions League but not in Premier League, where consistency not the vagaries of knockout competition count. We've got his number.
