Slipperduke
The Camden Cad
Eagle-eyed readers will know that I had Liverpool to beat Stoke 3-0 in my weekend predictions, a bold but fair shout given the collapse in form from Tony Pulis' side. What you won't know is that just three hours after filing that article, I was sat on my sofa watching Rafa Benitez's press conference through my hands and wishing I could change my answer. What on earth was he thinking?
His ridiculous rant, all four minutes and 22 seconds of it, was so utterly pointless, ill-judged and self-defeating that I'm only surprised a Liverpool-supporting journalist didn't rush the stage and knock him out for his own good. It couldn't have been more Kevin Keegan-esque without a final burst of, "I would love it if we beat them, love it!"
I never really held with the view that Sir Alex Ferguson was some kind of psychological genius, defeating his rivals with mysterious Jedi mind-games because, let's be honest, confusing and upsetting Keegan isn't quite the same as outwitting Garry Kazparov, is it? The poor man is so highly strung that if you twanged him, only dogs would hear the note. When Ferguson tried to out-psyche Kenny Dalglish by comparing his team to Devon Loch, the famous racehorse that inexplicably collapsed just before the finish line, the Blackburn boss just ignored him. That's how powerful 'mind-games' are. They can be neutralised just by keeping your mouth shut.
Let's deal with the rant quickly though, because I can hear the rattle of a thousand angry Liverpool fans pounding their keyboards already. Everything Benitez said was correct. Bang on. Ferguson berates referees, whinges about fixtures and doesn't always get punished for his comments. No-one's disputing the facts, we're just a little confused as to why Benitez thought now was a good time to stuff them all into a cannon and open fire on Old Trafford. Ferguson isn't the only manager who shouts at the officials, as Benitez demonstrated at Stamford Bridge earlier this season. He doesn't always get punished by the FA because they'd need to build a new wing on their headquarters just to cope with the paperwork. As for his fixture whinges, they're just laughable. Only Ferguson could accuse a computer of being biased in favour of Liverpool. He's not taken to task for it in the same way that mad old men in London pubs are rarely engaged in debate. They're so obviously wrong that we just avoid them instead.
Liverpool are top of the table and were looking good. Their win at Newcastle was their most complete performance of recent years and even cynics like me were starting to wonder if they could go all the way. Benitez should have taken Ferguson's comments as a compliment because he rarely attacks teams he doesn't fear. Instead he's declared all-out war and there's only going to be one winner. The old Scotsman works so hard to cultivate a siege mentality at Old Trafford and Benitez, by drawing attention to his faults, has just done all the leg-work for him.
The saddest aspect of this whole sorry episode is the identity of the culprit. All season long, we've been looking at the Liverpool team and trying to figure out which player would crack under the pressure first. No-one ever thought it might be the manager.
His ridiculous rant, all four minutes and 22 seconds of it, was so utterly pointless, ill-judged and self-defeating that I'm only surprised a Liverpool-supporting journalist didn't rush the stage and knock him out for his own good. It couldn't have been more Kevin Keegan-esque without a final burst of, "I would love it if we beat them, love it!"
I never really held with the view that Sir Alex Ferguson was some kind of psychological genius, defeating his rivals with mysterious Jedi mind-games because, let's be honest, confusing and upsetting Keegan isn't quite the same as outwitting Garry Kazparov, is it? The poor man is so highly strung that if you twanged him, only dogs would hear the note. When Ferguson tried to out-psyche Kenny Dalglish by comparing his team to Devon Loch, the famous racehorse that inexplicably collapsed just before the finish line, the Blackburn boss just ignored him. That's how powerful 'mind-games' are. They can be neutralised just by keeping your mouth shut.
Let's deal with the rant quickly though, because I can hear the rattle of a thousand angry Liverpool fans pounding their keyboards already. Everything Benitez said was correct. Bang on. Ferguson berates referees, whinges about fixtures and doesn't always get punished for his comments. No-one's disputing the facts, we're just a little confused as to why Benitez thought now was a good time to stuff them all into a cannon and open fire on Old Trafford. Ferguson isn't the only manager who shouts at the officials, as Benitez demonstrated at Stamford Bridge earlier this season. He doesn't always get punished by the FA because they'd need to build a new wing on their headquarters just to cope with the paperwork. As for his fixture whinges, they're just laughable. Only Ferguson could accuse a computer of being biased in favour of Liverpool. He's not taken to task for it in the same way that mad old men in London pubs are rarely engaged in debate. They're so obviously wrong that we just avoid them instead.
Liverpool are top of the table and were looking good. Their win at Newcastle was their most complete performance of recent years and even cynics like me were starting to wonder if they could go all the way. Benitez should have taken Ferguson's comments as a compliment because he rarely attacks teams he doesn't fear. Instead he's declared all-out war and there's only going to be one winner. The old Scotsman works so hard to cultivate a siege mentality at Old Trafford and Benitez, by drawing attention to his faults, has just done all the leg-work for him.
The saddest aspect of this whole sorry episode is the identity of the culprit. All season long, we've been looking at the Liverpool team and trying to figure out which player would crack under the pressure first. No-one ever thought it might be the manager.
