A Prayer before Firing

When Guillem Balague wrote his book Season on the Brink, a tale of the unlikely victory by Liverpool in the Champions League Final, no one expected that title to hold sway on the Reds again so quickly, and for such different circumstances.All season, Benitez has been under fire by the American owners, by the Liverpool faithful, and by pundits who generally give Liverpool a wide berth, but much of the criticism is of his own making. I won't get into his rotational policy. All European managers, or at least the successful ones, rotate players in and out for different competitions. His problem lies simply in that he has failed himself.Rafa Benitez did not beat AC Milan by himself.

He had a backroom staff that he brought over from Valencia, led by Chief Scout and ex-Merida and Albacete coach Paco Herrera, assistant and fitness coach Pako Ayesteran, and goalkeepeing coach Jose Ochotorena, who have all left since that victory in Istanbul. Ochotorena returned to Valencia to become their goalkeeping coach under apparently amicable circumstances, and Pako Ayesteran famously left under a cloud, as his friend and confidante Benitez threw him under the bus, taking away much of his authority as an administrator and trainer for the club. Ayesteran was also widely seen as a good cop to Rafa's bad cop to the players, and his presence or lack thereof has been mentioned by some as a reason why the club have underperformed, but frankly these are professionals.

They shouldn't need coddling by an understanding and sympathetic assistant.I believe the primary reason why Benitez is under fire is that he never adequately replaced Paco Herrera who left to become Sporting Director at RCD Espanyol, and with ex-Periquito Ernesto Valverde, he has taken the Barcelona club to within a breath of the La Liga leaders.Benitez on the other hand has been in charge of a revolving door of washed up players like Bellamy, exuberant workmen like Dirk Kuyt, and not-ready for prime time players (yet) like Ryan Babel. He lucked into Mascherano and had the brilliant signing of the new decade in Fernando Torres.

Now, obviously I'm no Liverpool fan, and I'll probably get the most flack I've ever gotten with this post.Just know that I've been following Benitez since before his Valencia days, as he was about to take over from Cuper, and I sided with him in his battles against Mourinho (see one of my early posts on this blog in fact), but I can't see where this will end well for him.We can blame the media for a perceived bias against Scouser Nation, or the lack of support from the new foreign owners, but ultimately Benitez has failed himself. He had a staff in place to deflect criticism and share responsibility which allowed him to do what he does best: develop tactics to defeat his opponents. Rather than continue with his winning formula, he never adequately replaced his backroom staff.