Rafa Benitez’s beard is clearly one of the worst examples of facial hair in modern football. While the Liverpool manager’s goatee won’t win him any style points on the touchline, his comments today regarding fantasy stud Fernando Torres’ hamstring injury won’t win him any sanity points either.
“There are too many international games and the demands on the players are too much,” the vagina faced Spaniard whined whilst suggesting that “weaker” countries should play one another first, and only then face off against “stronger” countries in World Cup qualification.
Benitez’s rotation policy is well chronicled and this recent outburst seems to re-affirm his belief that modern day footballers (the fittest non-Olympian athletes in the world) somehow need to rest and stay fresh after running for 90 minutes twice a week.
Fantasy managers who owned Torres should look at Adebayor, Rooney and Defoe as natural top tier replacements. Liverpool fan fantasy managers looking to get cheeky may take a punt on Robbie Keane, but the Irishman has yet to play to his potential in a Reds uniform.
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Yossi Benayoun has scored 3 goals in Israel’s first 4 WC qualifiers and should see some time with Torres out, if Kuyt partners Keane. Could be an interesting “Against the grain” selection…
Well, in all honesty, the top teams having to risk their players while wasting time and resources playing the likes of Liechtenstein or Androrra in front of 500 people is just a little silly. I actually agree that a pre-qualification round (รก la tennis Grand Slams) would not be a bad idea…
Rafa- the world doesn’t “rotate” around you. Your statement was about as smart as starting Steven Gerrard on the flank last season for the first 10 games.
@ silent Jay: I disagree. Look at Luxembourg’s win over Switzerland in UEFA’s Group 2. Switzerland now face an incredible uphill climb against Greece and Israel to qualify for the World Cup. Luxembourg are ranked 150 in the world.
Second, I don’t agree with the argument that players are “risked” for injury when playing for their countries. They are risked for injury week in and week out when playing for their clubs too, if they weren’t playing in WC qualifiers, they would just be playing in club games instead.
Torres played a whole season, then went to the finals with Spain in Europe, and now is playing every game this season – that’s what got him injured – being overworked with no rest, not qualifying for the beautiful and greatest event in the world – The World Cup.
So you reckon Luxembourg actually has a chance to qualify for the WC? I don’t think I’ll put any money on that one myself…
Regarding injuries – I don’t care about club/country or who gets injured playing for which. But it is a risk every time a team plays. And the less completely pointless games they play, the better.
Also, players get paid (a lot) by their clubs. They play for their countries for “free.” So if they get injured playing internationally it’s like a punch in the nose for their clubs. Like someone borrowing your Mercedes and handing it back one head-on collision later.
I just think the lengthy qualification is unnecessary. If a “minnow” is good enough to challenge the big boys, they’ll prevail in the pre-qualification. And then we’ll have some real matches.
Of course Luxembourg doesn’t have a chance to qualify for the WC, but no Olympic swimmers have a chance against Phelps and no runners can beat Bolt, so should they just stay at home?
You are right (from a club’s perspective) about expensive damaged goods, but last time I checked, no one forced these players to represent their countries, they do it out of national pride, and clubs just have to deal with it. It’s annoying to hear the same complaints over and over year after year during Intl breaks. Clubs know what the deal is when they sign these players. It’s international football, just deal with it.
PS If there was a “pre-qualification” Liverpool probably would still lose Skrtel (Slovakia is not a “big country”) Benayoun (Israel) maybe even Robbie Keane (is Ireland that good?) so where do you draw the line?