Like most managers of leading clubs, Rafael BenÍtez hates international breaks, but he may just reflect that this one brings respite from his continuing difficulties at Liverpool. With murmurs of unrest in the dressing-room as well as the boardroom, BenÍtez can only hope that a little time away from Anfield helps to refocus his players’ minds before a daunting trip to face Chelsea on Sunday.
Where once the only minor grumbles came from Peter Crouch at being in and out of the team too often, or Steven Gerrard at being asked to play on the right-hand side of midfield, other senior players have expressed dissatisfaction with BenÍtez at recent events on the pitch at Anfield. Jamie Carragher was unhappy at being moved to right back against Sunderland on Saturday, while John Arne Riise has sought to clear the air with the manager and, more surprisingly, Xabi Alonso, a long-time BenÍtez loyalist, is understood to be deeply unhappy at his recent exclusion from the starting lineup.
Alonso, along with José Manuel Reina and Javier Mascherano, was regarded as being one of those most likely to leave Liverpool in the summer if BenÍtez is dismissed by the club’s owners, but relations between player and manager are said to be extremely strained. Alonso, the subject of longstanding interest from Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, is unhappy at his failure to regain his place after a period on the sidelines with a fractured foot, with Mascherano seemingly preferred alongside Gerrard in central midfield. Alonso refused to answer questions about his situation at Liverpool when he was interviewed in Spain yesterday.
Alonso’s omission from the 16-man squad against Sunderland on Saturday caused further angst, but BenÍtez said that the midfield player needs to raise his game if he is to reclaim his place in the starting lineup. “Xabi needs to step it up,” the manager said. “When you are not 100 per cent fit, you want to play every game because you need to play more games to build up your fitness. But if Gerrard, Mascherano or Lucas [Leiva] are playing well, it means there is competition for places, which is good for the team. Xabi knows he needs to work harder if he wants to have a place in the team.”
These are difficult times at Liverpool BenÍtez’s position is clouded by continuing unrest in the boardroom, where the relationship between Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the co-chairmen, remains strained, while Dubai International Capital ponders a renewed bid to buy out the Americans but Steve Finnan, the full back, believes that they can put their recent problems behind them by beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on this weekend.
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“We’ve got a big game coming up next Sunday and we’ve got to get as many points as possible to try and get in that top four,” Finnan said. “These are games you relish as a player. You want to be playing against the top clubs and, hopefully, it will bring out the best in us. We need to do better away at these grounds because we haven’t really done that well at them in recent years, but hopefully the win against Sunderland will give us the confidence to go and get a result at Chelsea.”
Finnan is one of those players who will spend this week training on Merseyside, having retired from international duty with Ireland recently. By contrast, Yossi Benayoun, the midfield player, is back in Israel and was in his home town of Dimona visiting family and friends when a suicide bomber struck yesterday morning. Benayoun was not among those injured in the blast. His agent, Ronen Katzav, said: “Yossi is OK, but he is upset about what happened in Dimona.”