[lfc-news] Didi Hamann interview - Guardian

The Guardian, 22 Jan 2005
Metronome out to restore Reds' rhythm
Dietmar Hamann tells Dominic Fifield that Liverpool's form has been
unacceptable but believes Rafael Benitez will raise sights above fourth
place eventually.

Melwood was a cheerless place to be on the morning after the night
before. The sombre hush that engulfed Liverpool's training complex
following Tuesday's FA Cup exit to Burnley was punctured only by the
metallic rat-a-tat accompanying Xabi Alonso as he heaved himself through
reception, although the sight of the Spaniard on crutches did little to
improve the mood.

These are trying times, albeit principally because modern-day football
leaves little room for patience. From the outside looking in, Liverpool
under new management are as they were a year ago under the ancien régime
- gasping well off the pace set by the top trio and embroiled in a
reluctant, if necessary, chase for fourth. It would be convenient to
consider this a season of transition. "But the fact that a new manager
has come in and is changing things doesn't mean we can stop playing for
a year," said Dietmar Hamann. "We can't accept a place in the bottom
half, or a finish outside the Champions League. We don't have an excuse
to underachieve."

At a nervy St Mary's this lunchtime, nothing short of victory over a
struggling Southampton side will quell the first pangs of disquiet to
unsettle Rafael Benítez's reign. Any sense of frustration is relative -
down the road at Bellefield, Everton are rejoicing in the pursuit of a
top-four finish - but expectation pursues Liverpool relentlessly. Hamann
is aware of that much, though the German midfielder has, like his
team-mates, greeted despondency with defiance.

The 31-year-old has experienced a myriad of emotions during his six-year
spell on Merseyside, ranging from the giddy cup successes of the Gérard
Houllier era to the months of bitter anticlimax that prompted the
Frenchman's eventual departure last summer. Now he is part of the
regeneration under Rafa, though that promises to be as undulant a
process as much that preceded it. There are similarities between this
and Houllier's first campaign in charge six years ago, though Liverpool
cannot contemplate a repeat seventh-place finish. Transition demands
time but, with Everton seven points ahead of them, that is precisely
what Liverpool lack.

"By our standards, I don't think we've picked enough points up by this
stage of the season, so it won't be easy to come fourth," said Hamann.
They actually boast three points more than at this stage last season,
when they also sat fifth. "Everton have got to come here to play us but,
even if we beat them, we'll be four points adrift so it's hardly a gimme
to secure that last Champions League place. Our inconsistencies have
been down to a few factors - not just injuries, but the fact that new
players have come in who have been adjusting - but we just haven't had
the level we should have had, the level you need to compete right at the
top.

"It's been a tough year for the club, but you can't judge the manager
yet. He's still deciding which players he wants to keep and those he
doesn't. He's not looking short term. He's going to be at Liverpool for
four or five years. He's experienced, but look at the task he has taken
on. He's come to a club absolutely desperate to bring the league back to
Anfield, yet we find ourselves up against Chelsea's money, not to
mention Arsenal who went 49 games without losing.

"Throw Manchester United in there as well and the Premier League is
probably as tough as any league in the world to win. It's a huge task.
Yet he's very confident that he can and will win things. That rubs off
on you. I've been very impressed with the way he's worked with us since
taking over, and I have every faith and belief that we will turn things
around." A renaissance clearly remains realistic.

Hamann watched the ignominy at Turf Moor last week with dismay. It was
more the level of Liverpool's performance than the team selection that
disappointed the club's fans; a side that had excelled in propelling the
club to the Carling Cup semi-finals spluttering in the Lancashire mud.
Few could argue with Benítez's post-match assertion that Liverpool
simply do not possess the squad to compete effectively in four major
competitions, though the FA Cup surely offered a better route to
ultimate success than, for example, the Champions League.

The scale of the criticism after elimination stung the first team,
though it did not surprise them. "It's black and white," said Hamann,
for once not referring to his time as a Newcastle player. "The manager
has selected sides like that in the Carling Cup and been praised for
giving the kids a chance, but when he loses a game everyone's on his
back criticising the decision. He's big enough to handle it. Remember,
Burnley's a tough place to go. Even if we'd gone there with the first
team, there was no guarantee that we'd have gone through. Look at the
pitch. It was awful."

The manner in which the seniors had huffed and puffed to an unconvincing
first-leg victory over Watford in the Carling Cup semi-final at Anfield
a week earlier suggested as much. Faith in Benítez has been unswerving
from the fans this season, sympathy prevalent given that an entire team
of first-choice players has succumbed at one time or another to major
injury already. Yet the Spaniard could do with the likes of Antonio
Núñez, Luis García and Josemi justifying his own support with improved
form in the coming weeks.

In the circumstances Hamann's presence, a metronome around which Steven
Gerrard can syncopate, is reassuring. The veteran's form has mirrored
that of the team to date - "nothing to get excited about" - but, with
Alonso sidelined until March, he has become pivotal. Negotiations are
under way over a one-year extension to his contract, which expires in
the summer, with Hamann intent upon remaining.

On the south coast today he will come up against one that got away. "It
was a bit of a surprise to see Jamie Redknapp go to Southampton,
particularly as he was captain at Tottenham when he left," added the
German. "But with his dad taking over there, I suppose it made sense.
You're getting a lot with a player like him because he has been at the
highest level. He'll help them steady the ship.

"You need players who are calm and keep the ball, and that's exactly
what he does best. He's technically very gifted and a very good passer
of the ball. That's what he'll bring to them, though I don't know how
he'll react to being at the other end of the table for once. But while
you need people to put their foot in and work and graft, you also need
players who give you something else. Something extra and different. I
think that's what Jamie can give them.

"We've not done too well down at Southampton in the last few years, but
we need to start winning again. Finishing fourth's a big ask, but we can
still make the season a success. We're in the semi- finals of the
Carling Cup, in the last 16 of the Champions League and we are still
competing for that fourth place."

That struggle resumes today.


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