One week on…The Champions League Final
May 30th, 2007 by EoinAs Frank mentioned I had an eventful trip to Athens last week. There had been many a set back before I left Ireland and, since I had already planned to go to Barcelona to meet my brother’s beautiful new baby boys, I spent the last few days before the Final in Spain. By the time departure day arrived I was VERY sick and so couldn’t travel on my early flight from Barcelona to Liverpool. It seemed that after overcoming so many set backs I had to finally admit defeat.
As anyone who has been following my Liverpool posts this season will know, giving up is not the Liverpool way and it was killing me that I wasn’t going to be there. Something that not many people can understand is that it was the fact that there would be two empty seats at the Champions League Final that was bothering me more than the money I had spent on the trip that would now all go to waste.
I contacted a few friends to see if there was any way to get the tickets to someone else and a few more for some consolation in my lowest moments. It wasn’t possible to get a taker for the tickets. Frank was one of those I contacted and despite not being a football fan himself he told me to continue my journey and get to the Final. Yes I had missed the flight I was booked to travel on, but there was a later flight from Barcelona to Liverpool that would get me to John Lennon Airport in time for my flight to Athens.
Despite my health worries - which by the way still hadn’t improved - I realised that I had come to far. I had overcome to many obstacles to give up now. I had to go to Athens and do my best to help Liverpool bring home number 6.
And so I went, I suffered, and we lost.
Yes, yes, laugh it up! The thing is though that had this final turned out to be anything like the last Champions League Final I attended it would have been a story that I could have dined out on for years to come. It didn’t but I’m still proud to have been there and proud of the team I support for their performances in every Champions League game other than the Final.
Having been so convinced that Liverpool would once again triumph, where did it all go wrong? Well I lay the blame solely at the feet of manager Rafael Benitez.
The starting 11 was a mistake. It was clear long before the Final that Zenden wasn’t up to the job. Riise left-wing with Arbeloa at left-back or starting Kewell and then switching to Riise, or maybe even bringing on Zenden depending on the situation, would have been a much better option. Playing Kuyt up front on his own was also stupid. It has been tried before playing for both Holland and Liverpool. It has never worked! And then there was the idea to switch from the 4-4-2 formation that got us to the final and play 4-5-1. Of course our 4-4-2 is almost a 4-5-1 at times with the way Kuyt plays so deep, but then that’s my point about him playing the lone striker isn’t it?
I could go on but it won’t change anything. I don’t understand why Rafa made so many mistakes with his team sheet or why his substitutions were so poor but I still believe that he is the right man for the job. The funny thing is that when I went to Istanbul I went with very little faith in Benitez but hope in my heart. In Athens I went full of faith in Benitez’s ability to out wit Milan tactically and certain of victory. It’s a funny old game!
There are positives to come out of the game and the season however. Benitez performed excellently in Europe, the home form in the Premiership was fantastic and players like Pennant have started to find their feet. Benitez is continuing his ruthless ways by axing Gonzalez after just one season and looking to offload Bellamy also. Kewell gave a few decent displays in the final weeks of the season but his days still seem numbered unless he can do something to convince Benitez to keep him on as a squad player. Perhaps the most encouraging sign for the future though can be seen in the faces of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher after the final whistle in Athens. These two men are the backbone of the club and to have them hurting so badly can only be good for the many more years they will spend playing for Liverpool. I can say with 100% certainty it is not a feeling they will want to repeat.
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May 30th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
That’s a little absurd. We dominated the game in the first half largely because Gerrards role behind Kuyt enabled him to nullify Pirlo’s influence on the game, whilst also freeing up Mascherano to keep a lid on Kaka. Zenden was in because the alternative was an unfit Kewell and he had actually been in a pretty rich vein of form in the run up. It was tactically sound and would likely have won the game but for a dodgy freekick just before half-time. Tactically it was sound. We weren’t out played or outclassed. He could have brought Crouch on earlier but it’s all sixes and sevens as to whether that was going to make that much difference. In the end we struggled, as if we have against far less impressive opposition on numerous occasions, because we didn’t have that extra depth of quality players to pick open a resilient defense. The truth is, apparently, that Benitez has been hamstrung by Liverpool’s procrastinating ever since he arrived. All in all, the game was there for the taking but we didn’t have the resources open to do what was needed. No amount of tactical acumen is going to make up for that.
May 30th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
I agree the game was there for the taking but don’t believe it was a lack of strength in depth that cost us.
While we did dominate the game for large periods we didn’t have anyone in the box when we got up that far because Kuyt was gone walkabout again. This was the problem with the formation and team selection and this is why we didn’t finish our chances.
With all this going on we had our top scorer, and someone who has proven time and again that he knows how to play the lone striker role, sitting on the bench. Add to that the statistic that Crouch hasn’t scored off the bench all season and you wonder what the think behind it was.
As for Zenden, yes he had been in a rich vein of form, for Zenden. The truth is that despite working very hard he just isn’t up to the standard required. All season he has had openings in front of him on the pitch and not seen it until it was too late. How many time did a player pass to Zenden only for his to be too slow to realise it was coming. Riise is a much better option for left midfield if Rafa felt Kewell wasn’t up to starting.
Naming two left-wingers and a possible left-back on the bench was foolish too. Fowler would have given us another option and having Sissoko to come on if he felt he really had to take Mascherano off might have stopped the second goal.
I’m sorry but for all his good work this season it is Benitez who needs to take the blame for that defeat.
May 30th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
That’s a good article Bif. I’ve heard a lot of it before but that puts in very clear terms. I agree the squad isn’t good enough, but I think that explains the Premiership campaign rather than the European one.
May 30th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Simply put, we had a tactic for the game that was working. It had worked in the past and would have done but for conceding from the free-kick just before half-time. Nobody who was watching the game can dispute that. The problem came when, a goal down with 45 minutes to go, we needed to change up our tactics to try pry open a tough and well organised defense. A tactical change would have been needed but we didn’t have the quality of player needed to do that. It’s that simple. You can argue Riise for the left but, for everything he does for us, I’ve never seen him pick a defense open. Crouch up front, great idea but not much use unless you have someone picking him out or creating space for him. Crouch may know the lone striker role against Wigan Athletic or some such shit but Milan are a different kettle of fish. Yes, there were maybe, with the kindness of hindsight, a few little things that could have been done differently. Benitez isn’t infallible but the tactics and team selection were as sound as you could have had at the time without the benefit of a time-machine. It is the football fans delusion that we always think there’s this one thing or the other that would have changed everything. Sometimes you just lose. This time our lack of creativity was exposed, glaringly and not for the first time. None of the changes you’ve suggested would have changed that. In the end it just came down to a dirth of quality, creative personnel.