New Liverpool-Kop writer Tim Ellis examines Neil Warnock’s recent outburst against the club, describing the perrenial whinger's comments as ‘a load of abhorrent nonsense’. Tim examines the ‘sacrificial mentality’ pervading the modern game, and argues that clubs like Liverpool are right to look after their own interests.
All Liverpool fans will be aware of the scenario but here it is anyway: Due to Liverpool’s Champions League success over the last two seasons, Rafa has decided to rest key players in Premiership games immediately preceding important CL games.
Like last year, Rafa chose to rest players against Fulham, in anticipation of last night’s semi-final first leg against Chelsea. Fulham are of course battling relegation, which meant that the outcome of the game was not only important to them, but other teams trying to avoid relegation too.
Last season, Fulham beat Liverpool and eventually avoided the drop, whilst Neil Warnock's Sheffield United team got relegated.
Here’s what Warnock had to say just before last weekend’s game:
"My advice to Reading, Bolton and the rest would be, if you're expecting any favours, don't hold your breath. They will have to do it themselves. The fact of the matter is that if Liverpool were already out of the Champions League and needed to win to get fourth spot, they would play their strongest side.”
The fact is, Liverpool are NOT out of the Champions League and did not need to win to get fourth spot. Consequently, it wasn't necessary to play the strongest team against Fulham. So far, so obvious. Warnock added:
“It's part of a big club's mentality. They look after themselves and they don't bother about anyone else.”
Isn’t this mentality of every sports team in the land? If you’re a professional sportsman and you have guilt about the knock-on effect of a game YOU WIN, you’re in the wrong business! Warnock continued his tirade:
“The whole story that Sheffield United were going down and me having a pop at them afterwards was just treated like fish and chip paper by them. Liverpool didn't care because they weren't the ones getting hurt by it all.”
Warnock focused on Rafa Benitez next:
“Integrity, doing what is right for the game, comes way down Rafa's list of priorities.”
Notice the false dichotomy: doing what is right for the game (whatever that means!) versus doing what is best for Liverpool.
What Warnock doesn’t realise is that doing what is ‘right for the game’ is precisely doing whatever is right for Liverpool! The only thing Liverpool should be concerned about is doing what is best for themselves.
What is good for the game is open competition where clubs are free to play whatever team they want against any opposition they want. What kind of a warped mentality would suggest that a sports team (or any business for that matter) should be interested in the wellbeing of its rivals?!
All that aside, Warnock’s Sheffield United team had 38 games to amass enough points to avoid relegation. They didn’t, and that’s football. Warnock also forgets the last game of the last season against Wigan Athletic; A win would have kept them up, but they lost.
What exactly does Warnock expect anyway - that a more successful club somehow has a responsibility to not act in its best interest in case another club could possibly incur an advantage/disadvantage as a result?
What if all clubs did this? The bigger clubs would go into games actively looking to not win where possible, after all, who wants to “hurt” another club by beating them?!
As always with this kind of sacrificial mentality, it’s the successful clubs that are to be penalised precisely because they are successful.
Clearly, in Warnock's world, the clubs with the biggest squads should be forced to play their best teams in EVERY game. Why? Because they have the biggest and best squads. In other words, the better you are, the more you should be penalised and held accountable for taking advantage of your superiority!
But what about Sheffield United and other small clubs? Why doesn’t anyone talk about them pulling their finger out and wining more games?!
Liverpool went on to lose in the Champions League final last year, but imagine if a full strength had turned out against Fulham - Rafa probably would have been arguing that if he had rested his key players at Fulham to avoid tiredness/injury, the final could have been won.
People would probably have laughed at him, and Warnock wouldn’t have had anything to say. But when Warnock complains because Liverpool acted in their best interest, it’s all over the TV and the papers.
What is wrong with this mentality? In a word: altruism. Basically, the notion that acting in someone else’s interest OVER your own is somehow virtuous, more moral, nobler and for the “greater good”.
Well, in my view, that’s nonsense.
Every club must act in its own self-interest, regardless of the effect on other clubs. Play whatever team you want; play however you want, and at the end of the day, you will stand or fall based on how successful YOU are – not on how other clubs are!
Those who don’t want to operate within this fair and competitive framework are those who are afraid of losing in a fair fight; those who can’t actually achieve success themselves but have to rely on others to do the work for them; those who aren’t actually good enough to succeed on their own merit.
In other words, people like Neil Warnock.
All Liverpool fans will be aware of the scenario but here it is anyway: Due to Liverpool’s Champions League success over the last two seasons, Rafa has decided to rest key players in Premiership games immediately preceding important CL games.
Like last year, Rafa chose to rest players against Fulham, in anticipation of last night’s semi-final first leg against Chelsea. Fulham are of course battling relegation, which meant that the outcome of the game was not only important to them, but other teams trying to avoid relegation too.
Last season, Fulham beat Liverpool and eventually avoided the drop, whilst Neil Warnock's Sheffield United team got relegated.
Here’s what Warnock had to say just before last weekend’s game:
"My advice to Reading, Bolton and the rest would be, if you're expecting any favours, don't hold your breath. They will have to do it themselves. The fact of the matter is that if Liverpool were already out of the Champions League and needed to win to get fourth spot, they would play their strongest side.”
The fact is, Liverpool are NOT out of the Champions League and did not need to win to get fourth spot. Consequently, it wasn't necessary to play the strongest team against Fulham. So far, so obvious. Warnock added:
“It's part of a big club's mentality. They look after themselves and they don't bother about anyone else.”
Isn’t this mentality of every sports team in the land? If you’re a professional sportsman and you have guilt about the knock-on effect of a game YOU WIN, you’re in the wrong business! Warnock continued his tirade:
“The whole story that Sheffield United were going down and me having a pop at them afterwards was just treated like fish and chip paper by them. Liverpool didn't care because they weren't the ones getting hurt by it all.”
Warnock focused on Rafa Benitez next:
“Integrity, doing what is right for the game, comes way down Rafa's list of priorities.”
Notice the false dichotomy: doing what is right for the game (whatever that means!) versus doing what is best for Liverpool.
What Warnock doesn’t realise is that doing what is ‘right for the game’ is precisely doing whatever is right for Liverpool! The only thing Liverpool should be concerned about is doing what is best for themselves.
What is good for the game is open competition where clubs are free to play whatever team they want against any opposition they want. What kind of a warped mentality would suggest that a sports team (or any business for that matter) should be interested in the wellbeing of its rivals?!
All that aside, Warnock’s Sheffield United team had 38 games to amass enough points to avoid relegation. They didn’t, and that’s football. Warnock also forgets the last game of the last season against Wigan Athletic; A win would have kept them up, but they lost.
What exactly does Warnock expect anyway - that a more successful club somehow has a responsibility to not act in its best interest in case another club could possibly incur an advantage/disadvantage as a result?
What if all clubs did this? The bigger clubs would go into games actively looking to not win where possible, after all, who wants to “hurt” another club by beating them?!
As always with this kind of sacrificial mentality, it’s the successful clubs that are to be penalised precisely because they are successful.
Clearly, in Warnock's world, the clubs with the biggest squads should be forced to play their best teams in EVERY game. Why? Because they have the biggest and best squads. In other words, the better you are, the more you should be penalised and held accountable for taking advantage of your superiority!
But what about Sheffield United and other small clubs? Why doesn’t anyone talk about them pulling their finger out and wining more games?!
Liverpool went on to lose in the Champions League final last year, but imagine if a full strength had turned out against Fulham - Rafa probably would have been arguing that if he had rested his key players at Fulham to avoid tiredness/injury, the final could have been won.
People would probably have laughed at him, and Warnock wouldn’t have had anything to say. But when Warnock complains because Liverpool acted in their best interest, it’s all over the TV and the papers.
What is wrong with this mentality? In a word: altruism. Basically, the notion that acting in someone else’s interest OVER your own is somehow virtuous, more moral, nobler and for the “greater good”.
Well, in my view, that’s nonsense.
Every club must act in its own self-interest, regardless of the effect on other clubs. Play whatever team you want; play however you want, and at the end of the day, you will stand or fall based on how successful YOU are – not on how other clubs are!
Those who don’t want to operate within this fair and competitive framework are those who are afraid of losing in a fair fight; those who can’t actually achieve success themselves but have to rely on others to do the work for them; those who aren’t actually good enough to succeed on their own merit.
In other words, people like Neil Warnock.
4 Comments - Disagree? Add your comment!:
So you're saying that football teams should just pull the ladder up and screw everyone else? A selfish me me me attitude is never a good thing in football, and whilst warnock is a fool, he does have the kernel of a point. Shouldn't teams go out to win every game? To not do so devalues football in my view.
sure, but they had their eyes on the bigger prize; the european cup!
football is also about tactics.
if they put their first team out for a game that means hardly much, they risk disadvantaging themselves on an important win.
yes, I am saying that that game was virtually a friendly.
that's not to say the team they did field did not aim to win the game. Of course they wanted to win. It is in each player's and the team's best interest for everyone to perform. too bad the other team was just better.
Anon, you make the same error that Warnock himself makes:
the choice is not between thinking of all others clubs, OR thinking "screw everyone" - that is the same false dichotomy I point out in the article.
Every football club (and of course every business) must put itself first. The idea is to win, by any legal means necessary, and to that end you must make whatever decisions are in your club's best interest. If that means that another club looses, tough. If that means another club gets relegated, tough. Why? Because it is THEIR responsibility to look over themselves. How? By being successful! If clubs aren't good enough, that's sport. Liverpool have a responsibility to win for Liverpool, not for anyone else.
Surely, the point here is that if several clubs have assembled large squads at great expense, then they are going to use them! There has been a seismic shift in English football that we might describe as "the Scotlandization" of English football. Just as Scotland effectively only has two successful teams, so England now only has 4--and the other teams simply can't keep up.
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