Ridiculous 'Rafa'

In what can only be described as utter madness and lack of judgment; Ridiculous Rafa took off Fernando Torres in the second half against Birmingham. For Fernando Torres it was a look of surprise and sheer disgust at his number coming up for substitution and Gerrard was bemused to say the least. iSporter Chirag Mansukhani shares his thoughts on the Liverpool manager.

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The first half was reasonably disappointing from a Liverpool perspective as one felt that Liverpool would come out and grab the game by the scruff of the neck However that certainly didn’t happen. If Liverpool were to have any scope of coming fourth this season it was imperative that they win all of the remaining six games of the season including this one against Birmingham.

must be said that Birmingham are certainly a tough nut to crack at home. Having said that though, it could only have been an absolute moment of madness that made Rafa take Torres off the pitch.

Gerrard gave Liverpool the lead early in the second half when Glen Johnson misdirected a shot which landed straight at the feet of the Liverpool skipper who didn’t disappoint. Liverpool at this point in time seemed to have everything under control. Birmingham though had other ideas and managed a goal soon after.

With the game poised at such a critical stage Rafa Benitez chose to take off Fernando Torres, the start striker and golden boy of the Liverpool team. Rafa certainly seems to have lost the plot or one may say that he’s doing his best to ensure that Liverpool don’t make the last four.

There was not much for Liverpool thereafter. Ngog had a good opportunity to score on more than one occasion but failed to convert. Ngog had a great chance in the ninetieth minute but failed yet again. Ngog was certainly disappointing and what was more frustrating was that our star talisman had been taken off just on the whim of one Rafa Benitez. One can only imagine if Torres was on the pitch he probably would not have made the same mistakes.

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It must be said that what goes through the mind of the Liverpool manager is absolutely mind boggling and he says he likes to ‘focus’ on one game at a time but he certainly isn’t ‘focusing’ on anything at the moment. Liverpool are already five points off fourth place Manchester City and there is little hope that they will actually make a Champions league spot this season.

As an ardent Liverpool fan myself I have been frustrated this season but have never failed to hope and believe that the race for fourth is not over. However, one must say that now it would be only a miracle that could give the Scousers’ the fourth place spot.

With a manager like Rafa Benitez one can certainly say that we certainly aren’t going anywhere. In my opinion Rafa should have gone long ago. We have given the man a lot of time to prove himself and he has failed miserably with maddening substitutions coming at important times through out the season.

Whatever happens to Liverpool this season and even if we miraculously make it to the coveted Champions league spot one gets the feeling that Rafa’s number at Liverpool certainly is up.

Having taken a 1-1 draw out of his match against Birmingham, we go four points behind Manchester City although they have a game in hand. It appears that the sun has set on Liverpool’s hopes of a Champions league spot. As for Rafa I’m all lost for words because the man has gone mad.