Injury blows add to Benitez´s Liverpool woes

January 15, 2010

Just when Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez thought things could not get any worse, he found himself facing up to the prospect of being without star players Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard.

The pain felt around Anfield following Wednesday’s shock extra-time FA Cup defeat by second division Reading, was compounded Thursday by news that Torres, Gerrard and Yossi Benayoun had all sustained injuries during the 2-1 extra-time loss.

Torres, who lasted barely half an hour at Anfield, faces the longest lay-off of the trio.

The Spain striker is set to be sidelined for six weeks with a knee injury while inspirational club captain Gerrard, substituted at half-time, is expected to be out for a fortnight with a hamstring injury.

Meanwhile, Israeli playmaker Benayoun – one of Liverpool’s better players in a terrible season so far for the Merseysiders – sustained a fractured rib against Reading and could be unavailable for at least a month.

Torres is to undergo an operation but England midfielder Gerrard may not need surgery.

“Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres both underwent scans earlier today (Thursday) after coming off in the FA Cup tie against Reading,” a Liverpool spokesman said.

“Steven has a hamstring strain and will be out for a fortnight, while Fernando has torn a cartilage in his right knee. The injury will require surgery and he is expected to be sidelined for six weeks.

“Yossi Benayoun also suffered a fractured rib in the game and will be unavailable for between three and four weeks.”

The trio will miss this weekend’s match against Stoke and the subsequent Premier League encounters with Tottenham and Wolves but the Reds will hope to have Gerrard back in time to face Bolton on January 30.

But the extent of Torres’s injury means he is set to miss next month’s Merseyside derby against Everton and February’s league match with Arsenal as well as the fixture with high-flyers Manchester City.

As well as being a blow to Liverpool, Torres’s injury will be a concern to European champions Spain ahead of this year’s World Cup finals in South Africa.

The injury setbacks came as pressure grew on Benitez, with former Liverpool captain Ronnie Whelan calling for the Spaniard to be sacked.

“He should have gone a long time ago,” Whelan told the BBC. “They have got to do it now.”

Liverpool started the season fancied to end the club’s 20-year-wait for the English title but they are currently 12 points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea.

Benitez recently “guaranteed” the five-times European Cup winners would finish in the top four and so qualify for next season’s Champions League but they are currently seventh in the table, having already crashed out of this season’s tournament at the group stage.

Now the only chance Liverpool, desperate for finance but hampered by the stand-off between feuding American co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks, have of winning a trophy this season rests with the Europa Cup.

It was only last year that Benitez signed a contract extension that is set to keep him with Liverpool until 2014 and doubts remain over whether, even if they wanted to sack him the club would be willing to afford the multi-million pounds pay-off they would have to give the Spaniard.

A defiant Benitez, speaking after the Reading match, said he’d got used to criticism.

“For three months everyone was talking about me. At the end, as a manager you have to be disappointed but then move forward and think about Stoke on Saturday,” added the Spaniard, who has been in charge at Anfield since 2004.

“We are frustrated but you have to carry on.”

And as the knives were being sharpened, Benitez did at least receive support from former Liverpool striker John Aldridge.

“We can turn the tide, I don’t think to get rid of Rafa now is the answer,” he told Sky Sports.

LONDON (AFP)

Tags: cartilage, club captain, everton, extra time, fa cup tie, Fernando Torres, fractured rib, half an hour, high flyers, knee injury, liverpool manager rafael benitez, manchester city, merseyside derby, midfielder, six weeks, star players, Steven Gerrard, time loss, yossi benayoun

Arsenal, Chelsea aim to recover from Euro exits

May 10, 2009

LONDON (AFP) – A sense of anti-climax will hang heavy over the Emirates Stadium as Arsenal and Chelsea return to Premier League action on Sunday after their dispiriting exits from the Champions League in midweek.

Although the manner of Arsenal’s comprehensive semi-final defeat to Manchester United couldn’t have contrasted more with Chelsea’s agonising stoppage time loss to Barcelona, the end result was same; a nine-month quest to be crowned king of Europe for the first time terminated with the holy grail within touching distance.

Although Chelsea were closer to reaching the Rome final, the consequences for both these London rivals will be felt long after the bitter memories have started to fade.

While the history books will record that Andreas Iniesta’s away goal was the cause of Chelsea’s exit, no player or supporter at Stamford Bridge blamed anyone but Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo, who turned down four strong penalty claims by Guus Hiddink’s team.

Defeat in such controversial circumstances was too much to take for Didier Drogba, who harangued Ovrebo as he left the pitch and continued his foul-mouthed rant to a live television audience before running down the tunnel to continue his verbal assault of the referee.

Hiddink insists Drogba, who could miss Sunday’s game with an ankle injury, won’t be punished by Chelsea because he apologised publicly.

But the Ivory Coast striker and team-mate Michael Ballack, who is also accused of abusing Ovrebo, could face lengthy European bans and it remains to be seen if either will even be at Chelsea next season.

With Hiddink set to return to his role as Russia coach, there are likely to be substantial changes on the horizon for an aging team that once has fallen short in Europe once too often and Drogba and Ballack could lead the departures.

Hiddink knows Chelsea, six points behind leaders United, must refocus because a win this weekend would stretch their lead over fourth-placed Arsenal to nine points with only two games to play, giving the Blues a guaranteed place in the Champions League next season, while Arsenal would have to endure the qualifying stages.

“We must be strong. The players must put what happened behind them and be very energetic,” Hiddink said.

Wenger expects Chelsea to find it harder to get back on track quickly than Arsenal because Hiddink’s team suffered a more crushing exit.

“I believe Chelsea have the right to be more disappointed than us because they were qualified and you could not see how Barcelona could come back,” Wenger said.

“The game on Sunday will be down to the team who deals best with the disappointment, who wants it more and who has more strength of character.”

While Chelsea try to recover their equilibrium, Wenger stubbornly refuses to let the obvious gulf in class between his side and United change his philosophy of youth development.

The Arsenal boss will look to strengthen his squad in the close-season but he has no intention of bringing in new faces at the expense of the club’s emerging talent.

“If you look at our team on Tuesday, our oldest player in midfield was 22. They were in the best four teams in Europe, so why should we panic?” Wenger said.

“I believe we have to take on the chin the critics, but it is down to how strongly we believe in ourselves and how good I think the team is.

“You cannot imagine that we work as we did with young players and give them a chance, then let them go.

“We are criticised because we play young players, then we are supposed to let them go when they are in a position where they start to perform at the top level? That is not acceptable.”

Wenger’s hopes of closing the gap on Chelsea will be dented if Andrey Arshavin fails to recover from a virus that forced the Russian midfielder to miss two days training this week.

Tags: Andreas Iniesta, ankle injury, arsenal, Barcelona, bitter memories, CHELSEA, controversial circumstances, Drogba, Emirates Stadium, English Premier League, Europe, guus hiddink, hiddink, holy grail, iniesta, Ivory Coast, king of europe, live television, london, Manchester, manchester united, Michael Ballack, ROME, russia, stamford bridge, stoppage time, substantial changes, team mate, television audience, time loss, tom henning, Tom Henning Ovrebo, verbal assault

London rivals aim to recover from European exits

May 10, 2009