Source: Telegraph
Rafael Benitez steals the limelight at Liverpool
Moyes and his players could be said to have done as much for the game's health this season as their neighbours, admirably though Liverpool have performed in setting a pace for Manchester United – and dramatic though the champions' chase has undeniably become. Yet it is Benitez whose face is splashed across the newsprint. Even Rick Parry, the chief executive with whom Benitez is at odds over the final say on transfers, gets more publicity than Everton and I guess that's why they call them the Blues.[LNB]You could partially ascribe it to the nature of the media: feed us and we will beat a path to your door. Benitez proved that with his entertaining criticisms of Sir Alex Ferguson's behaviour towards authority as represented by referees, the Football Association and even the Premier League's fixture compilers. And now he provides a classic power struggle on the model of that which preceded his departure from Valencia. Remember his lament as he surveyed the signings overseen by the club's sporting director, Jesus Garcia Pitarch: ''I asked for a table and they brought me a lampshade.''[LNB]There is one big difference. In 2004, Benitez had just combined a second Liga title with success in the Uefa Cup. But again he behaves as though speaking from a position of strength, placing reliance in the fans (''the best judges I will ever have''), and no doubt the anxiety of the dominant American co-owner, Tom Hicks, not to swim against the tide of his popularity will be a key factor in the issue's resolution.[LNB]Will Hicks sideline Parry, risking a resignation, and give Benitez as much power as any Premier League manager in the interests of peace during the championship challenge? His assurance that Benitez will be in charge for another five years suggests as much. But truly the politics of Anfield have become an insult to the club's glorious past: at once highly visible and impenetrable, they do little but offer the players an excuse (which, to their credit, they show a reluctance to take) for missing out on Liverpool's best chance of a domestic title since 1990.[LNB]Meanwhile Moyes has been reminding those of us who care to take notice that the best thing to do with a pile of excuses is tear them up, throw them in the gutter and raise your eyes to the stars. We are thus presented with a League table that shows Everton, whose season was almost written off a few weeks ago, on course for a Uefa Cup place at the least. Almost without a fit striker to their name, they can be counted among an elite group of six clubs. The others are Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Aston Villa and membership is granted when it becomes accepted you will be in the Premier League next season.[LNB]With Yakubu likely to be out for the rest of the season due to an Achilles-tendon injury, Louis Saha suffering recurrent hamstring trouble and James Vaughan recovering from a knee operation, much has depended of late on the remarkable striking talent of Tim Cahill, an attacking midfielder whose style has always involved an element of surprise, yet who has adapted to the change of role with characteristic enthusiasm. This is the mark of Moyes's Everton. And still the challenges keep arising.[LNB]The latest is a suspension that will rule Marouane Fellaini, Moyes's big summer signing, out of both derbies. The Belgian's extraordinary aerial power has given Everton an extra dimension and now it is temporarily lost. How will Moyes endeavour to compensate? We shall see at Anfield.[LNB]Whatever the result, Moyes ought to be regarded as one of the leading managers for what he has achieved – even a Champions League place that slipped away soon after Everton were unlucky enough to draw Villarreal in the qualifiers – since moving from Preston in 2002. As his chairman, Bill Kenwright, recently observed: ''Not a lot has changed in David's attitude since he arrived. But a lot has changed in the stature of this football club.'' Does that not contain a pretty good definition of what management should be about?[LNB]In this context, it is worth noting that Liverpool's results have not radically improved – at least not on the domestic front – since Benitez took over from Gerard Houllier in 2004. The transformation is in the quality of the squad and it must be conceded, even by those of us who abhor debts incurred through a change of ownership, that the Americans have done no harm in this context. On the foundations of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher has been built a structure featuring Fernando Torres, Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso among others; there is no better balanced squad in the League and I still think Liverpool can end their long wait for the title.[LNB]Especially if their talking is done on the pitch: Benitez used to be so like Moyes in this respect and a return to the basics once so immaculately observed at Anfield, in the days before the sell-out to absentee landlords, would be helpful as the race enters a crucial stage.[LNB]But that buck stops with Hicks, not Parry or the manager. [LNB]
