Stop criticising players in public, Rafa - YOU are the architect of Xabi Alonso's downfall

When is Rafael Benitez going to learn that club affairs, whatever they may be, should be conducted behind closed doors?! The recent public spat between Benitez and Tom Hicks made the club a laughing stock and made a mockery of the Liverpool way of doing things. Benitez should have learned from that farcical situation, but his latest comments about Xabi Alonso prove that he hasn’t learned a thing.

Quite simply, Benitez's recent public comments about Alonso are graceless and completely unacceptable:

"Xabi needs to step it up. When you are not 100 per cent fit, you want to play every game because you need to play more games to build up your fitness. But if Gerrard, Mascherano or Lucas are playing well, it means there is competition for places, which is good for the team. Xabi knows he needs to work harder if he wants to have a place in the team."

What possible benefit does Alonso gain from these needless comments?

And if, as Benitez states, 'Xabi knows he has to work harder' then why is it necessary to say the same thing in public?

Benitez has repeatedly proven that he is woefully lacking in man-management and motivational skills, and it’s no surprise if his idea of motivation is publicly criticizing players.

In my December 2007 article ‘Has Rafa’s Rush Job Inadvertently Ended Xabi Alonso’s Liverpool Career’, I argued that Benitez’s handling of Alonso would lead to the gifted Spaniard leaving the club.

Well, with new reports indicating that Alonso is set to leave Anfield at the end of the season, it seems I was right, though, of course, no one would accept my contention at the time.

What makes all this worse is the fact that Benitez himself is arguably to blame for Alonso’s demise, for the following reasons:

1. Failing to utilize Alonso properly and play to his strengths.
2. Shunting Alonso around to accommodate Gerrard.
3. Forcing Alonso to change his game from skilful, creative playmaker to defensive midfielder tasked with doing all the donkey work for Gerrard.
4. Signing Javier Mascherano and Lucas, thus marginalizing Alonso’s role in the team and making the competition for midfield players too intense.
5. Rushing Alonso back from his early season metatarsal injury.

The last point merits further analysis, as I believe Benitez's poor decision to rush Alonso back after his injury has contributed to his stuttering season and inability to find form or consistency.

Let’s recap briefly: In the first months of this season, Alonso had already been an early victim of Benitez's rotation policy, starting 4 games and warming the bench for 3, including being an unused sub in two Champions League encounters with Toulouse.

With Gerrard out injured against Derby, Alonso seized his chance and proceeded to run the show as Liverpool battered the rams, with Alonso scoring 2 of the 6 goals that day.

Then disaster struck: Alonso was injured against Portsmouth on September 15th 2007 - a devastating blow for the Basque maestro, who was clearly high in confidence after his Derby heroics.

So Alonso was injured. It happens to most players at one time or another, so need for alarm. The fatal blow came 43 days later, when Benitez inexplicably rushed him back from injury and put him in the starting line up against Arsenal.

It was gamble by Benitez that spectacularly failed to pay off. Alonso aggravated the same injury he had suffered against Portsmouth and was forced off. Just for the sake of clarity, here is the proof that it *was* the same injury:

Portsmouth Injury Report: http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/archivedirs/news/2007/sep/20/N157043070920-0839.htm

Arsenal Injury Report: http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/archivedirs/news/2007/oct/29/N157487071029-1303.htm

Alonso was rushed back after just six weeks, which was a major mistake considering every player in world football who has had the same injury has taken much longer to recover. Examples: Wayne Rooney - 14 weeks. Steven Gerrard - 10 weeks. Daniel Agger – almost three months!

Xabi Alonso was rushed back into the team after 6 weeks.

As a result of that catastrophic decision, Alonso missed a further 5 weeks of the season, and since returning from injury, he’s been in and out of the team, with precious little time to build up any rhythm or consistency.

So, given the circumstances, for Benitez to come out and criticize him in public exposes a dispiriting lack of class – something I never previously associated with Liverpool’s Manager.

Benitez is developing a habit of negative public comments about players. Indeed, earlier in the season, he accused Steven Gerrard of ‘not playing with his brain’ and scolded Peter Crouch for not having ‘the right character and mentality’

Whilst I agree with the Gerrard comments, both were unacceptable public criticisms, and given the destabilizing period recently undergone, negative public comments should be the last thing coming out of the club.

The name of the game is UNITY at the moment. Public criticism of players has never been the Liverpool way, and Benitez should know that.

Far from having a positive, galvanizing effect on Alonso, I am sure Benitez's comments will just hasten his departure.

It would be a tragedy to lose Alonso, as he is one of Benitez’s finest signings and is blessed with an essential skill that Steven Gerrard just does not possess: the ability to intelligently dictate the pace of play.

He is a quintessential Liverpool-type player, cut from the same cloth as the likes of Jan Moby and Ronnie Whelan – an exquisite passer of the ball and an asset to any team serious about challenging for honors

The sad truth is this: Benitez has a depressingly cautious, defensive mentality, with the emphasis on not losing and preference for defensive-minded players. Javier Mascherano is symbolic of this, which is why he is the current midfield flavour of the month.

Conversely, Alonso is the opposite of Mascherano, and represents flowing, creative, expansive football, i.e. EXACTLY what Liverpool FC should be about. Such a style of play is, however, the antithesis of Benitez’s painfully dull Liverpool team, which is why Alonso will be forced out.

Ultimately, Alonso leaving will be a good move for the player; in fact, I would argue that it is essential for the further improvement of his game, because what is plainly evident is this: no creative player with creative instincts can thrive in a Benitez team.

And that is the most depressing thing of all.

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Keep Reina, Agger, Carra, Alonso, Lucas, Benayoun and Torres - Scrap the rest.

Liverpool’s wretched season reached its nadir against Havant and Waterlooville last weekend, with the non-league minnows embarrassing Anfield's lumbering primadonnas and once again exposing the obvious truth: Liverpool are as far away from winning the premiership as they've ever been, and the club's deadwood is dragging the team into oblivion.

Four years into Rafa’s reign, and the rebuilding process is only just beginning. People may not accept that, but it is depressingly self-evident. In my view, the signing of Fernando Torres heralded the start of the real rebuilding process. Until players of Torres’ standard are consistently bought and developed, Liverpool will continue to wallow in premiership mediocrity.

There are, apparently, 60 players on Liverpool’s books. 60! Unfortunately, 95% of them are not good enough. To my mind, Liverpool have only 8 players who are capable of being part of a premiership winning squad - by that I mean they:

1. Are good enough in terms of quality and technique.
2. Have a positive, winning mentality
3. Do not unbalance the team.
4. Can form part of an effective 4-4-2/3-5-2/4-1-3-1-1 system.
5. Do not symbolise the counter-productive, ultra cautious 'safety first' approach so entrenched in Rafa Benitez's Liverpool.

The list of players Liverpool should keep is below:

Pepe Reina
Daniel Agger
Jamie Carragher
Xabi Alonso
Lucas Leiva
Yossi Benayoun
Peter Crouch
Fernando Torres

The following players should be sold and replaced:

Steve Finnan
A fine servant for the club, but does not offer enough going forward. A very good player, but needs to make way for the new breed of right-back i.e. marauding and offensive.

Sami Hyypia
My favourite player – a true Liverpool legend, but his time has passed. He should stay as cover and hopefully move into the coaching set-up too pass on his defensive genius to younger players.

Fabio Aurelio
Always injured and not reliable enough as a defender or an attacker. Great technique but too often flatters to deceive. Not the solution to the left back problem.

John Arne Riise
How the mighty have fallen. Once a potent attacking threat and a capable defender, but his form has tailed off badly over the last two seasons. Too often a passenger and a liability these days. Needs to go.

Alvaro Arbeloa
Competent, lightweight, unremarkable player who doesn’t really excel at anything, whether it’s defensive duty or attacking play. Sometimes, it’s hard to even remember he’s on the pitch. Doesn’t bring anything special to the team, and in the modern game, an effective right-back has to offer more, especially going forward.

Harry Kewell
He’s past it, pure and simple. It doesn’t matter how much faith Benitez has in him, the Harry Kewell of old died as soon as he signed his Liverpool contract. He’s lost his pace and sharpness and hardly ever beats his man these days. Liverpool don’t have time for him to ‘come good in the end’. The team needs a left wing specialist NOW, not next year.

Jermaine Pennant
Has vastly improved over the last year, but his goal return is negligible, as is his assist ratio. Pennant is a good player, but he belongs at Blackburn or Portsmouth, not Liverpool. Just compare him to a winger like Cristiano Ronaldo. Enough said. That is the quality Liverpool need on the wings. Pennant just doesn’t cut it.

Steven Gerrard
A great premiership player, but if Liverpool want to move to the next level, he needs to go. His presence restricts other players (especially Alonso) and stops Liverpool from becoming a fast moving, technically adept team. Gerrard’s positional indiscipline is legendary, and his inability to pay with his head and dictate the pace of the game is a problem.

Then there’s the perennial conundrum: Where does he play? In the centre; on the right; behind the front-man? Gerrard excels in none of these roles, and wherever he plays, the whole team has to dance to his tune. The bottom line is, if Gerrard plays well, the team plays well. If he has a bad patch, the team has a bad patch.

This needs to stop. Liverpool need all players taking responsibility instead of one player trying to do everything and overpowering the team. Just look at Arsenal after the apparently ‘irreplaceable’ Thierry Henry left. This is exactly the type of change Liverpool need.

The team is stagnating. There is no sign of forward progress in the league. Just look at the current debacle of a season: Gerrard has a purple patch of playing well, the team plays well. Gerrard’s form has dropped off again, the team can’t win!

On top of all this, he is a poor captain, and this has been proven again with the team’s diabolical performances in 2008 and his failure to motivate the team over the last few months.

Gerrard also needs to leave Liverpool for his own benefit – he is not improving as a player, and the problems with his game will not improve unless he abandons his comfort zone and tests himself in a different environment, where he feels the pressure of having to perform, instead of being guaranteed a starting place at Liverpool regardless of his form.

Javier Mascherano
In December I argued why it is madness to spend 17m on a defensive midfielder - my feelings have not changed. Liverpool's priority needs to be creative, attacking players, not more defensive-minded players. Furthermore, spending 17m on a defensive midfielder is indicative of the negative, 'safety first' culture so depressingly evident at Anfield these days.

I don't care how much Man United spend on Carrick or Hargreaves - they can do so because they already have the creative side of the team sorted out.

I have no doubt that Liverpool could find an excellent DM for 8-10m; to suggest otherwise is ridiculous. This would leave 7m left over to put towards creative players. If the club can get Mascherano for 10m all inclusive, then go for it. If not, let him go and find someone else.

Andriy Voronin
A sprightly player who always tries his best but he is just not good enough for Liverpool. Even as a fourth striker, Liverpool need more quality. Taking a player on a free just to make up the numbers should not be part of Liverpool’s buying strategy.

Dirk Kuyt
Has to go. It’s that simple. Not good enough for Liverpool and will never be a free-flowing goalscorer. Who cares if he runs 20 miles a game – his job is to SCORE GOALS, and on the front, he is an utter failure. He reminds me of Emile Heskey, except Heskey (amazingly) scored goals occasionally!

Ryan Babel
Will never make it at Liverpool. The excuses for his dire performances are already verging on the cliché:

‘Thierry Henry took a year to settle’
’Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t set the premiership alight in his first season’
’He just needs time to adapt to the league’
’Next season we’ll see the real Ryan Babel’

I don’t buy it. Babel himself admits that he ‘can’t cope’ with the pace of the premiership. If he doesn’t believe in himself, then Liverpool are in real trouble. Such a defeatist attitude is not what Liverpool need. I haven’t seen anything this season that suggests Babel will be a future success. And if he was so great, why did Ajax sell him in the first place, and why did Arsene Wenger cool his interest?

Spending 11m on Babel was a mistake, as was spending 11m on Emile Heskey, and 10m on El Hadji Diouf.

Rafa (or whoever the club’s next Manager will be) needs to be ruthless - get rid of all of the above players and use the money to buy quality players (especially attacking players) who will fit into a system that will bring league success.

And it’s not just about spending huge amounts of money. Tomas Rosicky and Alexander Hleb cost Arsenal about 12m combined. They are superbly creative, technically gifted players – just the type of quality Liverpool should be buying.

It is possible to find the right players at the right place if you have an excellent scouting system in place. Liverpool clearly do not.

And it’s not even the scouting system that is most important here; Liverpool need a complete change of philosophy. At the moment, the team is built around defensive-minded players, which was also the way under Gerard Houllier.

This needs to change. Like Arsenal, the team needs to be built around attacking players and the emphasis has to be on offensive play.

Until this happens, Liverpool will never win the Premiership.

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Has Rafa's injury gamble ended Xabi Alonso's Anfield career?

Rafael Benitez’s fatal decision to rush Xabi Alonso back from injury earlier this season may have a profound and unwanted effect on the Spanish playmaker's Liverpool future.

Add to that the form of Javier Mascherano; the rise of Lucas Leiva; interest from Athletico Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus and a need for first team games to to ensure Euro 2008 selection, it is not inconceivable that Alonso may call time on his career at Anfield.

Before he was injured against Portsmouth on September 15th, Alonso had been an early victim of Rafa’s rotation policy, starting 4 games and warming the bench for 3, including being an unused sub in two Champions League encounters with Toulouse.

With Gerrard out injured against Derby, Alonso seized his chance and proceeded to run the show as Liverpool battered the rams, with Alonso scoring 2 of the 6 goals that day.

Then disaster struck: Alonso was injured against Portsmouth - a devastating blow for the Basque maestro, who was clearly high in confidence after his Derby heroics.

So Alonso was injured. It happens to most players at one time or another, so need for alarm. The fatal blow came 43 days later, when Benitez inexplicably rushed him back from injury and put him in the starting line up against Arsenal.

It was gamble by Benitez that spectacularly failed to pay off. Alonso aggravated the same injury he had suffered against Portsmouth and was forced off. Just for the sake of clarity, here is the proof that it *was* the same injury:

Portsmouth Injury Report: http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/archivedirs/news/2007/sep/20/N157043070920-0839.htm

Arsenal Injury Report: http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/archivedirs/news/2007/oct/29/N157487071029-1303.htm

Alonso was rushed back after just six weeks, which was a major mistake considering every player in world football who has had the same injury has taken much longer to recover. Examples: Wayne Rooney - 14 weeks. Steven Gerrard - 10 weeks.

As a man of fixed footballing ideas, who regularly espouses the positive virtues of regular rotation, It's puzzling that Benitez completely contradicted himself with his Arsenal team selection.

What was the point of playing Alonso, who was nowhere near match fit? Why didn't fully fit Lucas Leiva or Momo Sissoko play instead? Using barely fit players surely flies in the face of Benitez’s philosophy of rotating to keep them fit?

As a result of that catastrophic decision, Alonso has missed a further 5 weeks of the season – a period of time that has coincided with Liverpool’s electric run of form.

What is perhaps most worrying for Alonso though is the rise and rise of Javier Mascherano. Such is Benitez’s desperation to sign the Argentinean permanently, he has willingly incurred the wrath of the club’s owners by (allegedly) attempting to broker a secret deal behind the scenes.

Benitez has also been singing Mascherano’s praises in the press, making it abundantly clear how highly he rates the midfield stopper:

"He is playing well and everyone knows he is a good player and there are not too many world-class holding midfielders around. He wants to stay, our supporters like him and we will try to keep him."

None of this looks good for Alonso who, by his own admission, needs first team football in order to ensure selection for Euro 2008:

"I…want to play for Spain at Euro 2008 so want to get the necessary minutes on the field."

At this moment, that is impossible. When he returns from injury, how will Alonso dislodge the in-form partnership of Steven Gerrard and Mascherano? The team has seemingly discovered a winning formula, and Benitez would be mad to break up a winning team.

On top of everything else, Alonso has the emergence of Lucas Leiva to contend with – a player who is similar in style and ability to the cultured Spanish International.

In the midst of all this, the rumours floating around about Athletico Madrid's interest don’t seem to be going away, and Alonso himself has not done anything to publicly refute them. Indeed, in a recent interview, without being prompted, Alonso mentioned interest from Barça, the club where his father was a hero during his playing days:

"I have heard about the rumours involving Atlético and maybe Barcelona too but, formally, I know nothing".

Freudian slip? I doubt it.

Who knows what might have been if Rafa had just waited one more game and allowed Alonso’s injury to heal properly. Instead, Alonso is stuck on the sidelines whilst the team goes from strength to strength in his absence.

With Alonso’s comments, Gerrard and Mascherano cementing their partnership, the emergence of Lucas and Euro 2008 looming in the distance, I can really see Alonso leaving in January. It’s already December and he’s still not fit; can he really afford to risk being kept on the sidelines by the form of others or Rafa’s rotation policy?

The proposed signing of Mascherano is ominous for another reason: You don’t spend 17m on a player and then leave him on the bench. It’s almost a certainty that Benitez sees Mascherano as a starter, and there’s no way Steven Gerrard is going to be dropped, so where does that leave Alonso?

I would rather Liverpool kept Alonso, let Mascherano leave and used the 17m to buy a genuinely creative winger. After all, with Gerrard, Sissoko, Alonso and Lucas, do Liverpool really, desperately *need* Mascherano that much? Is it the case that if Mascherano was to leave, Liverpool would wither and die? Again, I would argue no.

One thing is clear – Athletico Madrid Manager Javier Aguirre is a big fan:

"Alonso is a big player and very important to any team because he helps defenders and also links with the attack. Today this type of player is almost unique and very valuable for a club."

It would be a tragedy to lose Alonso, as he is one of Rafa’s finest signings and is blessed with an essential skill that Steven Gerrard just does not possess: the ability to intelligently dictate the pace of play. He is a joy to watch, and Liverpool should do everything to keep him if and when the time comes.

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