You've got to hand it to Gerrard Houllier; he certainly knows when to pick a fight. Now that Rafa Benitez is no longer at Anfield, Houllier has launched an out-of-character attack on the Spaniard by claiming he was responsible for the Benitez' greatest achievement during his tenure at Liverpool: the 2005 Champions League.
It's a bit odd that Houllier is choosing to make a Mourinho-styled attack on Benitez NOW instead of saying something during the Spaniard's five years at Liverpool. But since Houllier brought it up, and since Benitez has been uncharacteristically quiet on the rebuttal, let me bring up a few points that might refresh the Frenchman's memory on how that 2005 Champions League campaign panned out.
First and foremost, no one, not even Rafa himself, would deny that the 2005 Champions League winning squad was by and large assembled and put together by Houllier in the previous seasons. And yes, of the three scorers on that historical night in Istanbul, two (Gerrard and Smicer) hailed from the Houllier regime. But the third Liverpool player on the score sheet that night was one of the five players brought in by Benitez in his first season in charge. And let's not forget that it was a pint size midfielder by the name of Luis Garcia who scored those decisive goals against Juventus and Chelsea that brought Liverpool to Istanbul in the first place.
So if my math serves me well, two out of the five players signed by Benitez played a huge part in winning Liverpool's fifth European Cup. Not a bad statistic, no? So yes, Houllier, 90% of that squad was built by you but it was two of Benitez' men that contributed more to that victory.
No comments:
Post a Comment