Benitez can ill-afford costly bargains

KEVIN McCARRAbelieves the rest of the season will really test Rafael Benitez's bargain buys

THE REMAINDER of the season must have been viewed with glazed eyes by Liverpool supporters on Tuesday night even if they did put on a show of boisterousness for 15 minutes. It came while they were held in the Puskas Stadion following the 1-0 win over Debrecen that did not avert elimination from the Champions League.

That was a show of defiance while the cameras and microphones were switched on in Budapest. There is no rebellion but it would still have been dismaying for fans to think of the dullness to come now that the side’s interest in the Champions League is at an end. The remainder of the campaign, however, will be absorbing for Rafael Benitez.

The Liverpool managing director, Christian Purslow, claimed after the match with Debrecen that the financial harm need not be severe. He will, all the same, be speaking in wholly different terms if the club does not make up the present five-point gap to clinch its usual top-four finish in the Premier League. There is work ahead for Benitez and it had better be effective.

He himself has a security of sorts. The Spaniard is in the early days of a five-year contract that would make his dismissal breathtakingly expensive. The owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, will feel all the more attached to him when they think of the sums a new manager of the customary high profile would demand as he insisted on reshaping the squad.

The usual verdict on Benitez is he buys well when spending heavily but flounders when hunting for bargains. Beware the footballer whose fee in millions was not in double figures. At this stage in the accusation it is obligatory to mention the €7.7 million Andrea Dossena, where the argument may have substance.

On the other hand Daniel Agger was a bargain at €6.4 million and all that is wrong with him is an injury record for which Benitez is not to blame. If fans have not yet taken the €5.5 million Lucas to their bosom, the reasons for taking exception to him are diminishing.

Of late, David Ngog, bought for €1.7 million from Paris St-Germain, has begun to assume some significance.

His claims were, of course, enhanced when he added the second goal in a 2-0 win over Manchester United this month but there is also a general improvement. In Budapest Ngog showed more confidence and caught the eye with persistent contributions.

He is no prodigy but there are merits. Ngog, (20), regularly turns down interview requests from the French media with the disarming comment he will speak when he has done something worth talking about. Should the progress of a fairly strong and quick attacker continue, he may soon face the microphones. Note has been taken of the young striker and Paul Le Guen, once the manager of PSG, has begun to argue an under-used Ngog should have been more patient when at the club. Comments like that will make Benitez feel satisfied with his scouting system.

Ngog may not be on the rampage in the Premier League but he epitomises the sort of option Liverpool crave. Their squad, as it is, lacks the depth of those at Manchester United, Chelsea and conceivably Arsenal. Injuries have trained a harsh light on that fact.

Still, a slow process of evolution at Liverpool might have been applauded if players had not been hurt. Benitez shies away from suggestions he has been trying to add adventure to the ranks but it is hard to interpret the arrival of, say, Glen Johnson in any other way.

There has been a desire to alter the characteristics of the squad, even if the wish has been thwarted for much of the time. He has been eager, for instance, to stick with the Argentinian Emiliano Insua, even if the 20-year-old’s lack of positional sense led to Lyon’s equaliser earlier this month.

The mistake ought to have been covered by Sotirios Kyrgiakos but the Greek centre-back looked exactly like one of those cheap squad players who turn out to be costly indeed. It is in having to resort to such stop-gap recruits that Benitez’s predicament is apparent.

The easing of Liverpool’s load will be to his distaste, with the Europa League campaign unlikely to drain players as the Champions League would, but it could be a help on the domestic scene. Steven Gerrard should regain full match fitness, Fernando Torres will return and one day the €22 million Alberto Aquilani could start a match.

GuardianService