Benitez alive to Rivaldo threat - Telegraph

Daily Telegraph, 28 Sept 2004
Benitez alive to Rivaldo threat
By Sam Wallace in Athens

It was in late April that English football last saw Rivaldo, wrapped up in
a leather jacket and cap outside Manchester's Lowry hotel, wondering, no
doubt, how cold Bolton would be come Christmas.

Despite Sam Allardyce's best efforts, the 32-year-old Brazilian was the one
senior citizen of world football who got away from Bolton Wanderers,
although there were serious suggestions that he treated his two days in
Manchester as a means of stirring up interest from elsewhere. The interest
never materialised, which is why the World Cup winner will grace the modest
Olympiakos line-up against Liverpool tonight.

He might be the only serious threat in an Olympiakos team who have never
got past the Champions League group stage, but it is a threat that
Liverpool's Spanish manager, Rafael Benitez, knows well from the
Brazilian's time at Barcelona.

Benitez will also know that, as his predecessor Gerard Houllier's reign
spun out of control last winter, Liverpool examined the possibility of
signing Rivaldo although, like Bolton, they were deterred by the enormity
of his financial demands and the vagueness of his intentions. Released by
AC Milan last summer, where he was reputed to be earning about £90,000 a
week, he had mistakenly expected the Premiership to come begging.

Instead, his reputation has frayed during a short stint at his original
club side, Cruzeiro in Sao Paulo, as well as a brief spell in the Qatar
domestic league. The decline in his career has coincided with a divorce
from the mother of his two children.

On a salary of £1.2 million a year, comfortably a record in Greek domestic
football, Rivaldo will be Olympiakos's key threat tonight although Benitez
was polite enough to mention a few others yesterday.

"Rivaldo is a very good player but the problem he had last season was that
he is very expensive to keep and a lot of teams couldn't afford him,"
Benitez said. "His age and the position he plays also makes it difficult
for him to find a club.

"He is not the same player that he was five years ago. But that happens to
every player. When you get to 30-32, your level drops."

The fears that Liverpool might have held about facing the rest of the group
stages without Steven Gerrard have been allayed by the performance of Xabi
Alonso against Norwich, and the Spaniard will continue his midfield
partnership with Dietmar Hamann. Benitez has to decide whether he will
accommodate Steve Finnan or Luis Garcia on the right side of midfield and
whether Harry Kewell is fit enough to play on the left

It would take more, you suspect, than a little enforced tinkering with the
midfield to faze Benitez who, at the very least, has that accomplished 2-0
win over Monaco in the first group game to reassure him. The Liverpool
coach has proved mysteriously devoid of nerves or temper so far and he has
even been prepared to tackle the European legacy of his new club, a subject
that was always guaranteed to raise the ire of Houllier.

"I am aware of the tradition here because, when you talk about English
clubs in Spain, normally people think of Liverpool from the Seventies and
Eighties," he said. "However, we can't play with those same players. We
have a good squad here with some good experience in Europe, but we can
always do with more experience and playing in the Champions League will
help them."

Olympiakos (Probable): Nikopolidis; Pantos, Schurrer, Anatolakis,
Venetidis; Rivaldo, Stoltidis, Kafes, Georgatos; Giovanni, Okkas.

Liverpool (Probable): Dudek; Josemi, Carragher, Hyypia, Riise; Garcia,
Hamann, Alonso, Kewell; Cisse, Baros.

Referee: P Collina (Italy).