Antony Haddley gives his views on Rafa Benitez’s wrongly-deserved reputation in England and asks that Chelsea fans give him a chance…
Football is a fickle game, and if ever this reputation seems to be at stake, you can always rely on Roman Abramovich to step up and unceremoniously fire the current Chelsea manager. Yet, this fickleness also manifests itself in the media and it only takes one look at recent back pages to see how Rafael Benitez is still portrayed after his time as manager of Liverpool Football Club.
It is remarkable that a man who led Valencia to two La Liga titles, led Liverpool to their highest points total ever in the league and to their fifth Champions League is so roundly considered a poor manager. Particularly when his public perception seems a world apart from managers like Harry Redknapp for example, whose top honour is the FA Cup, or Roy Hodgson, who led Fulham to a Europa League final.
Simply put, Benitez is a victim of a skewed projection of his personality and methodology by the media which has created a mockery of the man and his ability to create competitive football teams that win the highest prizes. An example of these myths is the idea that Benitez is stubborn for sticking to zonal marking – a system that doesn’t work.
Yet, though there isn’t compelling proof to show that zonal is better than man marking, there is evidence to show that Liverpool’s zonal system was effective. In the time that Benitez managed in the Premier League, Liverpool conceded an average of 10.5 goals from set pieces a season, comparable to Manchester United’s average of 8.5 and Chelsea’s average of 11.
Another assertion is that Rafa is stubborn for sticking to squad rotation. But why should he have deviated? Squad rotation has been proven to work: Manchester United won the league and the Champions League in 2006-7 without playing the same eleven in consecutive matches and Guardiola made an average of five changes to the Barcelona team in every league game in 2008-9.
The list goes on and these arguments are, of course, ignored by the media. Benitez’s track record is completely forgotten in light of the more ‘newsworthy’ elements – his role in the tumultuous final year of the Hicks and Gillett regime at Anfield or his misjudged rant about ‘facts’ for example. Yet, when Sir Alex Ferguson, or particularly Ian Holloway, embarks on a tirade at a press conference, it’s brushed off as being humorous and other managers are consistently backed in their battles against the board. It seems there is one rule for most but another for Rafa Benitez.
Why do the media dislike the man so much? Is it because he doesn’t wind down the window of his car to speak to journalists, or that he doesn’t celebrate when his teams score? The answer would require a significant analysis beyond these 500 words. There is no doubt Benitez has made mistakes – perhaps the ostracising of Xabi Alonso being the worst (though the £22 million profit on selling is often forgotten) – and his reign at Inter Milan was far from a success.
But what is clear is that Chelsea fans need to look beyond the back pages conveying an entitlement to be disappointed at the appointment of Benitez. It can be easy to be swept up by the opinion of the media, but Rafael Benitez should be judged on the record that he wrote for himself and not one that others wrote for him. The least he deserves is to be given a chance by those at Stamford Bridge to remind us what makes him one of the very best.