THE EFFICACY OF RANTING:

Stellar show by faithful Torres eclipses Ronaldo's self-service (James Lawton, 17 March 2009, Independent)

Was it really just that Rafa Benitez picked up Sir Alex Ferguson, put him in his pocket, and administered the mother of all tactical tours de force? Or could it also have been of some significance that Cristiano Ronaldo, the reigning world player of the year, was at times made to look like an inconsequential bit player beside his potential successor Fernando Torres?

Naturally, given all the previous, the Benitez-Ferguson issue had most play, and certainly it is true that the master of Anfield's deployment of both Torres and Steven Gerrard achieved a remarkable coup in the disintegration, for a day at least, of Nemanja Vidic.

But then we can go only so far with Benitez versus Ferguson, partly because the Liverpool manager, except for urging potential allies to attack the centre of United's defence with as much resource as they can muster for the rest of the season, largely resisted the urge to give back some of the recent ridicule aimed at him by the Old Trafford commander.[...]

Less speculative is the fact that Benitez has in Torres a brilliant centrepiece to all his hopes while Ferguson in Ronaldo does not. [...]

[T]here can be no dispute about the fact that against Real Madrid and United, Torres was nothing less than luminous as he made Fabio Cannavaro, Italy's captain and the man of the 2006 World Cup, look old and distraught, and then proceeded to undermine so severely the Player of the Year candidacy of Vidic. This was not so much a surge of form as confirmation of both superb talent and a burning competitive spirit.

Among his other woes, Ferguson could only have yearned for even hints of such commitment from his own superstar.

In a few weeks of fragile fitness Torres has become a fierce disciple of Benitez's cause. He wears a Liverpool heart on his sleeve, while, it it is difficult not to conclude, Ronaldo mostly sports one kind of advertisement or another for himself.

Unfortunately, it's the nature of this game that just having the superior side would not necessarily have been enough had it not been for an episode that the Brits refer to as "Rafa's rant." A couple months age, Liverpool's manager ripped into the favorable treatment that Manchester United consistently gets from referees. Thus, on Saturday, when Man U was whistled for a foul in their box it was the first penalty kick given to an opposing team on their home ground in a year. Absurd as it must seem to anyone but an NBA fan, the officiating really is that unbalanced and often decisive.

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Posted by Orrin Judd at March 16, 2009 7:14 PM