First of all this article is not another dig at Rafa Benitez, it is designed as a constructive criticism of Rafa Benitez’s five year stay at the club. I, as a Liverpool fan like every football supporter, look for where the team and manager could have done better and can improve upon in the future. Like all managers, Rafa Benitez has made mistakes, but it is whether the gravity of these errors have affected the performance and direction of the team which I am most interested in. Do you think any of the 5 below are glaring enough mistakes that Rafa should be called upon?

1) Xabi Alonso

I doubt I will have many arguments on this one. Alonso became unsettled at Liverpool after Rafa Benitez’s long and failed pursuit of Gareth Barry. Despite rumours of being sold to Juventus the summer before last, Alonso endeavoured to have one of his best seasons at the club last season and was definitely my player of the year. He controlled the midfield with deadly, accurate diagonal balls, raking passes left to right and providing Steven Gerrard with the ball to set up attacks. Alonso no doubt became disillusioned with life at Anfield after Benitez’s interest in Barry and Xabi said himself after his move to Madrid that it played a large part in his move back to Spain. The sale has been costly at the start of this season.

2) The Rant

Unlike many newspapers, I don’t believe that Rafa’s rant against Ferguson last January cost Liverpool the title. Too many draws were the real problem. What the rant did do was to make it look like Ferguson had won the psychological war over Benitez. There is no doubt the rant was used as motivation by Ferguson for his players and helped them overhaul Liverpool’s lead at the top of the table. When Rafa made his criticisms of Ferguson, I agreed with everything he said but it was fundamentally the wrong time to do it. Never let it be known that another manager is getting to you because it will backfire. The most surprising thing about it was that it came out of the blue; Rafa generally is quite coy when speaking to the media but when he let rip it came as quite of a shock and the press latched onto it that Rafa was feeling the pressure. It may not have cost them the title but it certainly didn’t help matters in a crucial point during the season.

3) The sale of Michael Owen

I was pretty shocked when Michael Owen left for Real Madrid at the start of Benitez’s reign. 8million for a world class striker was not a lot either but he was nearing the end of his contract. Whether Owen wanted more money or Benitez wanted him out of the club, it took a fair few seasons for Liverpool to find another striker to fill his boots. I certainly wouldn’t have minded a strike pairing of Fernando Torres and Michael Owen. Both potent attacking threats, they would have caused problems for any Premier League defence. Benitez has also had the opportunity to buy the striker a couple of times since he left Merseyside but he opted last summer not to take a risk on him presumably due to his injuries and he couldn’t compete with Newcastle’s 17m offer when his Madrid move turned sour. I am sure we will never see him in a Liverpool shirt again now he has opted for Manchester United.

4) The purchase of Robbie Keane

Robbie Keane’s transfer to Liverpool a couple of seasons ago was always a curious one. According to an interview Benitez did with The Times, Gareth Barry was the pre-requisite to Keane’s signature for they would both form part of a new tactical system at Liverpool in a 4-4-2 formation. With Benitez’s failure to capture Barry during that summer, Keane was not so much already surplus to requirements, but was bought for a system that never materialised. Keane played some games early on the 2008/09 season but never looked confident. Benitez decided to cut his losses on the player and return him to his previous club Tottenham, leaving in the process a big gap where there should have been the presence of another striker to back-up Fernando Torres. The lack of firepower has certainly been troublesome for Liverpool this season.

5) Replacing Finnan and Riise with Degen and Dossena

This is probably the most curious out of the five. Although Finnan had suffered from injuries and Riise had suffered a drop in form in the 2007/08 season, they had formed a backline which over the previous few years had been very solid. I had no problem with both of them leaving if Rafa had better players lined up, but the replacements were a step down rather than a step up. Philipp Degen, injured for the majority of his stay at Liverpool, is a right-back who seems far happier in the opposition half than in his own, and Andrea Dossena, who cost 7million, may have a good cross but he is slow and cannot mark pacey wingers. At least Rafa has realised his mistake in the shape of bringing in Glen Johnson at right-back, but the left hand-side is still up for grabs with Aurelio still hampered by injuries and Insua still learning his trade. Defensive issues this season are not in direct correlation to these acquisitions but they have certainly contributed to defensive instability.

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