SID LOWEhears the goalkeeper insist Liverpool's title challenge is not over when they can still gain more points than last season
IT WAS the most short-lived title challenge in history. In eight days, Liverpool lost as many league games as they had in the previous season, their title chances gone in the blink of an eye. Beaten at White Hart Lane, a home defeat to Aston Villa, and they could forget it. A Guardian poll captured the mood by asking if it was all over; almost half of those who voted said it was. It wasn’t even September.
Small wonder Pepe Reina rolls his eyes. Sold by Barcelona after just 30 first-team appearances, he knows about snap judgments but as summary trials go this verdict takes some beating.
Over? No, he says, Liverpool’s season won’t even have started until they face Burnley this afternoon. More importantly, those who have sentenced them have focused on the wrong evidence. Rafael Benitez’s side may not win the Premier League – in fact, Reina describes the title as an “unrealistic” objective – but it will not be because they lost to Tottenham Hotspur and Villa.
Those results are a red herring. Last season, Liverpool became the first side to lose just two games and not win the league. Their failings must be sought elsewhere: if Reina talks of “resignation” it is not over early defeat on the pitch but defeat off it.
“Everyone has a right to say whatever they want,” he concedes. “But judgments should be made at the end, not now.
“It’s difficult to take and of course it creates anxiety because it’s not normal to have lost twice already. It’s hard to come off the back of two defeats and trail to Bolton, a side who aren’t exactly virtuosos with the ball. But we’re experienced enough to keep our heads; we turned that game round, and what’s really not normal isn’t the two defeats already this season – what’s really not normal is that it was only two defeats in the whole of last season.
“Our opponents weren’t poor teams – Villa and Tottenham will be near the top at the end – and what cost us last season weren’t the defeats but the draws, struggling at home against teams that closed up. This season the champions will have fewer points, there are more strong teams, and if we can win five or six and lose two or three of the 10 we drew, we’ll actually be much better placed.”
The difficulty, claim Liverpool’s critics, is winning those five or six; that there is little evidence of Benitez having found the solution. Xabi Alonso has gone, his replacement, Alberto Aquilani, is not fit and Liverpool’s only other major signing was Glen Johnson, a full back.
Some believe the problem is Benitez himself; one player intimated that the relentlessness of a coach who pulled Jamie Carragher aside to criticise his marking as the players celebrated reaching the 2005 Champions League final is tiring the squad.
Put that to Reina, though, and the response is swift. “Rafa is very demanding but the player that grows tired of having demands made upon him no longer deserves to play for Liverpool. We’re there to win things. And by signing Johnson, Rafa was looking for a Dani Alves figure, someone to add depth to our attacks, who can overlap and go beyond defences – someone to unlock those games when we couldn’t find a way through.”
For all the bullishness about Liverpool’s short-term start, when Reina speaks there is a sneaking pessimism about their long-term future. As the Spaniard analyses the draws that cost his side dear, one theme keeps returning: what Liverpool lacked. A season later they still lack them.
“Teams like Manchester United have lots of players who can tip the balance; we haven’t got the individuals,” he says. “There are games that get congested and we haven’t got the vision other sides boast. Chelsea have Didier Drogba who can bring down any ball.”
Johnson’s arrival is a palliative but Liverpool have still not bought the creativity they require. The dependency on Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres remains acute.
“That is a problem,” Reina admits. “We have to hope they don’t get injured because they’re fundamental.”
It is, in short, all about the money. The nagging feeling remains Benitez’s side have not progressed. And with Benitez able to spend just €1.7 million of the €11.5 million made on Alonso and buying Aquilani, the tension and frustration surely grows.
“There isn’t frustration, there’s resignation,” Reina says. “The buying power of clubs is very different. You can’t sign players if you don’t have money. As a player, there’s nothing you can do. We know what’s in the squad; we can’t do anything about it. All we can do is roll up our sleeves, work hard and try to win matches.
“It would be good if the owners made an effort economically, if they pushed. It would be lovely if we could find ourselves in an economic position where we can bring players in and build a squad that can compete. But it’s up to the owners to try to bring players in, not us.
“Can we win the league? I think so but there are other teams that are very capable of winning it – Chelsea, United, Arsenal, Manchester City. We can’t set ourselves objectives. We all want to win the league but right now it’s not a realistic objective. Right now, all we can do is beat Burnley and keep winning.
“Then we’ll have time to see if the objective is the league, the Champions League slots or a Uefa Cup place.”
