[lfc-news] Mark Lawrenson column - Post

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Liverpool Daily Post, 19 Oct 2004
The decisions canny Benitez has to make
By Mark Lawrenson, Daily Post

LAST season whenever Liverpool had a good result, Gerard Houllier would say
they had turned a corner.

As time went on though, his frequent corner-turning revealed a manager and
team who had lost their way and were unable to build a consistent run of
form when it mattered.

Saturday's victory at Fulham would no doubt have been hailed as a right
angle successfully navigated by the former manager, but Rafael Benitez is
too canny to fall into that trap.

From the start of the season the Spaniard has been giving every player a
chance in the first team to see what they can do, even those who he must
have had an idea about already.

The point to that exercise is to see who he can rely on and build a team
around and to decide who cannot play a major role in his new Liverpool,
with each game helping him compile a list of checks and balances against
each player's name.

He hinted at where that process of elimination is after the Fulham victory
when he said the team played at 60% of their potential.

Leaving the goalkeeper aside, that's four outfield players he will be
chasing to make the team up to what he wants.

I read in the Daily Post that one of those could be Fernando Morientes,
which I think would be a tremendous acquisition.

So far, Milan Baros and Djibril Cisse have not meshed as a pair, but the
Real Madrid striker is a classic frontman, who can hold up the ball and is
strong in the air. He also gets his fair share of goals and would add
something different for Benitez to work with.

However that will have to wait until January and the transfer window.
Between now and then, he will continue to work with what he has got.

For the players and the manager it will have been important to register
their first away victory.

If you look at Liverpool's record though, it has not been that bad.

They drew at Tottenham in the first game of the season, lost at Bolton in a
game they should have drawn thanks to Luis Garcia's disallowed goal, and
then suffered narrow defeats at Manchester United and Chelsea, where not
many teams will get anything.

The manner of the victory in London will have left Benitez more puzzled
than any of the previous away games though.

Looking at the team, I thought by picking John Arne Riise, Salif Diao and
Dietmar Hamann in midfield, he set out his stall to be strong defensively,
thereby letting Garcia and the strikers win the game.

As it was Fulham strolled through with two simple goals and Diao and Hamann
where nowhere to be seen.

It wasn't until Xabi Alonso came on that Liverpool looked like a team,
mainly because of his superb range of passing.

Alonso always looks to go forward when he is in possession of the ball,
while he has the ability to play the ball where the person receiving the
pass wants it, and where the defender marking them cannot get it.

Iknow from playing in the same teams as Graeme Souness, Jan Molby and Liam
Brady just how much of a difference that makes.

As for the man he replaced, I think Diao will be on his way before too long
because he just doesn't offer enough at this level. By contrast Hamann has
been an excellent servant for Liverpool as the guardian of the back four.

Despite that his contract is being allowed to run down, which suggests to
me that Liverpool have a replacement for the German lined up.

Will that be another January transfer move? We will wait and see with interest.


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