15 Dec 2011

BARNES admits: Benitez/Houllier problem STILL exists under Dalglish...

Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez were very different managers in many ways but one thing they shared was a preference for hard-work and stamina over unpredictable flair and creativity. Players like Dirk Kuyt and Emile Heskey symbolised the footballing philosophy of both managers, and Liverpool legend John Barnes believes that Liverpool are still suffering as a result of prioritising hard-work over genuine creativity.

Speaking to ESPN, Barnes - who is one of the most creative players ever to grace the Anfield turf - observed:

"Liverpool haven't had the right balance for many years. We relied to heavily on Torres and gerrard for 3 or 4 years, and now we're relying on Suarez.

"Liverpool are playing 'catch-up' in terms of getting better quality. In an attacking sense, I think they have hard-working players with a good work ethic, but they need more creativity".


I agree with Barnesy here. I imagine that when he refers to 'creativity', he means match-winners like Luis Suarez, who can regularly come up with a bit of game-changing magic, and create goals for themselves.

Suarez and Gerrard aside, Liverpool do not have other genuine match-winners. of course, there's Craig Bellamy and Max Rodrigues, but they spend more time on the bench than starting games.

Stewart Downing, Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson has scored/created less than Charlie Adam, despite collectively costing 67m more in transfer fees. Barnes also expressed concern over Liverpool's ability to attract top players:

"Are Liverpool going to be able to get the better players to come to Anfield? The best players coming to England are going to go to Man United, Chelsea and Man City before Liverpool".

Champions League football and money will obviously be the deciding factors for many top players, but Liverpool attracted Suarez, so there's definitely hope.

Despite this apparent handicap, Barnes is 100% behind his old manager:

"Kenny is taking them in the right direction; he's got them consistently playing well. They're not scoring lots of goals, but they perform well.

"I don't think they're good enough to be first or second, but if they can finish 4th, that will be a great season for them".


I actually have to disagree with Barnes here; I think Liverpool are definitely good enough to finish second, and even win the title, but only if the club can score more goals.

Jaimie Kanwar


20 comments:

  1. benitez again???!!!i've came to the conclusion that jaimie must be sexually attracted to rafa benitez,what other excuse can there be for you're daily obsession with the man...you complain about well...just about everything the man's ever done...when u really want to say"i wish he'd shave off that silly goatee n wear tighter trousers!!..:)

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  2. Two Champions League final, won in Istanbul, one FA Cup with Liverpool, twice La Liga title and one UEFA Cup title with Valencia.. He may not Sir Alex or Jose Mourinho class, but with that records, Rafa Benitez deserves respect..

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  3. I'd never listen to a word Barnesy says. Great player, but doesn't know his a##e from his elbow when it comes to his analysis of the game. He was the one who thought Hodgson would be a perfect fit. He was also the one who said Kenny was far too long out of the game. Now he's on the Kennys great bandwagon. He should just keep his trap shut in future.

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  4. I agree mate.  We're very good defensively, creating loads of chances. If we were taking them we'd be right in there.

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  5. I just think what we have lacked is out and out goalscorers. They have appeared too sporadically, e.g. Owen, followed by 3 years and then Torres. Now we have a quality striker in Suarez but he doesn't appear to fill the goalscorer void. I'd like to see him paired with a striker of genuine class. I have no idea what our transfer budget stretches to this January, maybe Carroll will start firing. But my observation is we have lacked telling goalscoring partnerships such as Yorke/Cole, Shearer/Sutton. We had the 08/09 season when we were scoring goals for fun, scored the most in the league, conceded the least and had the best goal difference, but that aside, we are quiet on the goalscoring front.

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  6. Who said anything about Benitez *not* deserving respect?

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  7. He's entitled to his opinion just as much as you.  Why don't you respect his view instead of belittling it? Better still, why don't you argue against it in a civil manner?

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  8. One good striker in january would get us cl spot

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  9. Rafa set up a deal for David Silva but Hicks and Gillette wouldnt pay the paltry £12m.Rafa also wanted Alves.When Rafa was at Valencia he begged the board to sign Drogba and Ronaldo,when they were available for a fraction of what they ended up going for,but the board were happy to just live on the success of winning la liga and stop still.Rafa wasnt given the backing to buy the calibre of flair player LFC needs.Dalglish has been but decided to but British and there are no flair creative quality British players.Rafa created all LFCs wealth,and had to fight for every penny getting his 4th or 5th or 6th target who could do a job,trouble is the 4th 5th or 6th choice player couldnt be a top flair player so Rafa through no fault of his own had to make do.When Rafa was conquering europe with LFC he was till being criticised by fans saying we want the premiership,whatever Rafa did was wrong in some peoples eyes and we will always suffer from letting him go.On the plus side weve got a league cup semifinal beckoning and if a miracle happens we could still nick 4th spot on the last game of the season on goal difference if other results go our way.ynwa Rafa.

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  10. Dear old Barnesy.  You gotta love him, although clearly he was asleep during 2008-09 when we had many players all clicking together.  We were told then we were a two man team.  Alonso left and all the media said it was terrible having spent the past year telling us we were a two man team.  It's tripe to be honest.

    It's something that is often trotted out when ex-players don't have anything else to say.  I remember the days when Rushie got injured and we suffered badly in scoring, but the level of scrutiny was not as big back then so everyone assumes we were blessed with creative talent, when in fact what we had in the early 80's was a great team that knew each other.

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  11. *9x the fee rather than 90% more I think?

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  12. Barnes and Keegan said to stick with Hodgson, after the fans knew long before he needed to be gone, there opinion means noting to me, from now on, these ex players did not used to get paid for there brains.

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  13. Well said Barnes. We still have the same problem, over relinance on a few players.

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  14. Yet again moron jk gets shirty..... When someone states their point of view. I notice how my post never got added yesterday btw. I also said I wouldn't post again but couldn't miss the opportunity of highlighting AGAIN what an offensive fool you are. Make yesterdays point all the more valid (not that you posted it or probably this one fire that matter)

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  15. Can anyone tell me if Barcelona dont have a high work ethic ?? what a lot of garbage from Barnes.

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  16. 5th at the very best. End of story.

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  17. Also, lay off Rafa. The man's a living legend.
    Thank you.

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  18. Good article overall I think he is probably right. 
    One comment other than that though, I'd work on your maths skills because 90% more than 7 (or whatever Adam cost) does not add up the combined costs of Henderson, Downing and Carroll. As 10% of 7 million is 700,000, 90% is 6.3 Million and last time I checked 6.3 + 7 doesn't add up to 75 Million. 

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  19. Yes, you're right. I'll update the article :-)

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  20. The way I see it is this. Liverpool never seem to have more than 3 star players in the first 11. Look at United, they had Tevez, Ronaldo and Rooney at one time. Now they have Hernandez, Rooney and Nani. Chelsea had Drogba, Lampard, Essien, Robben. No need to name the stars in the Man City team now. Tottenham are also up there now with Bale, Vanda Vaart and Abdebayor.

     The only stars you can name in the Liverpool team is Suarez, Lucas (who is out for the season) and a past his peak Gerrard. Reina and Agger are star players but that has nothing to do with attack.  Notice that the only time Liverpool had a title challenging season (how we didn't win it with only 2 losses and the most goals scored is beyond me) with players like Alonso, Mascherano, Gerrard and Torres. 

    People can defend the new signings all they want. But Downing, Carroll ( I don't think age has anything to do with his form), Henderson ( good potential but not a star right now) are not star players that will get Liverpool a top 2 finish. Bellamy and Rodriguez have come in and done very well, but they are both 32 and 30 respectively. They are not the long-term solution to a title challenging team, however they should not be wasted in the short-run. The real problem in this is Carroll and Downing (although he doesn't play that bad). Compare these players with Silva and Aguero, Nani and Hernandez, Mata and Drogba. There is a gap. And that brings us back to Suarez. We are extremely lucky to have this players because he is arguably the best player in the league. We cannot waste this chance and fail to give Suarez some support because he is a player that can be mentioned in the same breath as Messi and Ronaldo. He is always doing something that takes the breath away, especially his trademark nutmegs. A world class striker is a fundamental need in January. Fingers crossed. 

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