The plot to turn Chelsea boss Rafa Benitez into a fool
IN “Rafa lost the plot”, the Sun’s Steven Howard says Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez is a failure. Another view might be that Chelsea lost their FA Cup semi-final to Manchester City by a single goal, and were unlucky that Aguero wasn’t sent off and no penalty was awarded for a foul on Torres. You might also say that Chelsea showed sings of fatigue having played in the Europa Cup earlier in the week.
But Howard has a different view:
The game was crying out for the injection of fresh blood, but Benitez refused to budge. When he did finally make changes in the 70th minute it was too little, too late.
And then, confusingly:
It wasn’t until the 65th minute that he finally dusted himself down, took off John Obi Mikel and sent on Fernando Torres to partner Demba Ba. Within 60 seconds Ba had scored to turn the match on its head.
So. Doesn’t that make Benitez a good tactician?
Re-energised, re-focused and superbly led by Eden Hazard, Chelsea did everything but take the game into extra-time.
But to Howard, this is a sign that Rafa is not as good as Mourinho (“always been big enough to admit his mistakes”) and has a brain made of “confetti“. He says Benitez had to bring on more subs, like Lampard and Terry. Howard fails to say who would have made way for them, or what formation and tactics Chelsea would have adopted. Just bring on the two ageing English players for their “leadership” qualities.
Says “SUN man Shaun Custis”:
…the longer the game went on the stronger Chelsea became.”
Such are the facts.
Posted: 16th, April 2013 | In: Sports Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
