From www.guardian.co.uk - another quality read:
Disillusion and confusion bear the hallmark of Bentez
Rafael Bentez looked and sounded like a man in deep shock, and it was hard not to turn away as he kept repeating the most meaningless explanation for defeat ever invented: what can you do, he said, when you go four goals down before half-time? But it is to his credit that he did not duck the obligation to appear before the television cameras late on Tuesday night, in the immediate aftermath of Liverpool’s worst result at Anfield in living memory.
Only once since he arrived at the club have his players flirted with a humiliation of similar proportions. In May 2005 they went three goals down to AC Milan in the first 45 minutes in Istanbul, and never in the 50-year history of the European Cup final had a team looked so comprehensively outclassed. But from the depths of the club’s history Steven Gerrard and his team-mates summoned a spirit that enabled them to break their opponents’ will.
Bentez took a winner’s medal, although the victory on the night had little to do with him. But if he could not claim much credit for that success, the manager was certainly responsible for this week’s disaster. Over the course of 90 astonishing minutes, the principal flaws of his stewardship emerged with terrifying clarity.
First came his insistence, true to his policy of rotation, on making nine changes to the team who had lost to the same opponents three days earlier, retaining only Steven Gerrard, the captain, and the No2 goalkeeper, Jerzy Dudek, who had given an uncertain performance on Saturday. Even though that first defeat by Arsenal had removed them from one of the two domestic knockout competitions, Bentez evidently did not take the other tournament seriously enough to contest it with the best available players.
If the old League Cup has any purpose, it is to provide clubs with an extra chance of winning at least one trophy in a season - something that in the past has brought comfort to the staff and supporters of the mightiest teams in the land, including Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest and Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. Out of the FA Cup, out of contention once again in the Premiership and facing the formidable prospect of a meeting with Barcelona in the Champions League, Liverpool have now been made to pay an extra price for their manager’s priorities.
When Arsne Wenger sent out a team packed with teenaged reserves on Tuesday, it was part of a long-term strategy with a twofold purpose. Wenger is using the Carling Cup to satisfy the desire of his talented youngsters for first-team action, and to temper their talents in the flame of real competition. As a result he could well become the first English club manager to win a senior knockout competition with what amounts to his 2nd XI.
Not everyone applauds Wenger’s reluctance to put his trust in young English players. The success of his approach, however, ensures a prosperous future for the club. He saw a problem, and he fixed it with a radical solution requiring considerable faith. All one hears from Liverpool are complaints about products of the Melwood academy, and vague suggestions that it is all the fault of Grard Houllier, who left the club 2 years ago.
The second major accusation levelled against Bentez arises from his habit of bringing to the club players who lack the sort of quality that would restore Liverpool’s eminence. Xabi Alonso and Luis Garca may have matched the contributions of Didier Hamann and Vladimir Smicer to the Houllier era, and the injury to Mohamed Sissoko came at an unfortunate time, but if Peter Crouch has a place in Liverpool’s history then it is surely only as a modern equivalent of the hapless Tony Hateley, while Jermaine Pennant, Mark Gonzlez, Fbio Aurlio and Craig Bellamy belong one rung down the Premiership ladder.
And then, on Tuesday night, came a display by Gabriel Paletta that made one wonder on what evidence Bentez based his decision to spend 2m to bring the 20-year-old centre back from the Argentinian club Banfield. Speed, strength, composure, positional sense, anticipation, technique - Paletta appeared to lack the lot as he allowed Jrmie Aliadire, who made little impression during loan spells with Celtic, West Ham and Wolves, to run rings around him. Bentez spends a lot of time explaining to the world that he does not enjoy the resources available to Ferguson or Jose Mourinho, but the same could be said of Wenger. The successor to Shankly and Paisley, however, shows few signs of being able to make the best use of what he has, and Tuesday night may come to be seen as the defeat that finally undermined his regime.
You could only feel sorry for Danny Guthrie, a 19-year-old academy graduate given his second start of the season on the right of Liverpool’s midfield.
Toiling amid the rubble, he still managed to show flashes of deftness and invention. Had he been wearing an Arsenal shirt on Tuesday night, we might have been hailing the arrival of a world-beater.
forced the directors to bin him sooner than 18 months after he’d passed his expiry date.