CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:FABIO AURELIO is now in his seventh season in the employ of Rafael Benitez and has never witnessed the Spaniard erupt as he did at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. It takes something extraordinary for the Liverpool manager to remove his detached reserve in front of players. The first half in Florence sufficed.
Pandemonium reigned around Benitez at half-time in Istanbul, with Liverpool trailing by three goals in the 2005 Champions League final against Milan, players lying around injured or shell-shocked, yet he managed to hold his nerve and cool. Not at half-time on Tuesday night.
Stevan Jovetic’s two goals may have polished an eye-catching display from the 19-year-old Montenegrin, Fiorentina may have clicked beyond even their own expectations, but Benitez could not excuse a feeble and complacent display that ignored all his pre-match instructions.
“The manager was really angry. I think that was the most annoyed we have ever seen the manager,” revealed Aurelio, who spent two seasons with Benitez in Valencia before following him to Anfield in 2006. “But we were all angry. We all felt like that after the first half and I think that’s why you saw a better performance in the second.
“We didn’t need harsh words at half-time, we all knew that we were not playing well and that we had to be much better. The manager was not the only one who was annoyed at half-time. In the second we were a different side and if it had been like that from the start it could have been a different result.”
It could have been a different result, true, but Aurelio’s assessment is in keeping with a Liverpool display that appeared wise only after the event.
Benitez submitted the second-half improvement as justification for selecting Aurelio, a left-back returning from a lengthy knee injury, alongside Lucas Leiva in central midfield. The principle behind the decision was sound enough, in that it allowed Steven Gerrard to support Fernando Torres in attack and not water-carry in midfield. But it undermined the manager’s argument that Fiorentina’s exuberant display held no surprises and that Liverpool knew what to expect.
The visitors were light on top-class central midfielders when they arrived in Tuscany, Javier Mascherano having pulled out of the trip with a hamstring strain and Alberto Aquilani approximately three weeks away from his Liverpool debut. They were well-stocked with the supporting cast for Torres. Gerrard was required next to Lucas in the circumstances, and only the paucity of Benitez’s options in midfield was exposed as the captain waited for possession that never came through.
The Spaniard insisted Aurelio and Lucas were not the problem, and they certainly were not the only one in Florence, but will he select them at Chelsea should Mascherano pull up lame again?
“We didn’t do what we usually do well away in Europe,” admitted Gerrard. “We usually play with a high tempo, pass the ball well and play really well on the counter-attack. Those things weren’t there and it was all over the pitch – from front to back.
“Now we have to get this result out of our system and show a reaction at Stamford Bridge.”
Liverpool’s confidence will survive a first Champions League group defeat in almost two years, the last at Besiktas in October 2007, and they have a habit of responding instantly under Benitez.
Their defence, however, slipped even further from its formidable reputation in Italy, with Emiliano Insua and Glen Johnson frequently exposed at full-back and Martin Skrtel suffering a meltdown. The sight of the Slovakian throwing his hands up and stopping his pursuit of Jovetic as the Fiorentina forward raced by once more was beyond belief.
Daniel Agger, who made a 68-minute comeback from a back injury for the reserves on Tuesday, must be under consideration for Chelsea.
“It was so unlike Liverpool, especially in the first half when we could not find a way to play against them and they played really well,” Aurelio added.
