High price of ignoring Rafa
IT'S an old football saying - back him or sack him - and it's one Liverpool should be adopting with Rafa Benitez right now.
I share Rafa's belief that Gareth Barry would be an excellent addition to Liverpool's present squad. Equally I accept that he's not worth £18m.
But if the money is available in the club coffers and the manager wants to spend it, he should be given those resources.
That's how successful football clubs work.
Except it doesn't seem to be working that way at Anfield right now.
If the manager is allowed to buy the players he wants, you can then judge the manager on how those signings perform.
If Rafa signs Gareth Barry, and Liverpool don't progress into at least the top two, then the manager wouldn't have any excuses for a lack of progress. At the moment the Reds boss would be justified in saying he is not being allowed to do the job to the best of his ability.
To go away on day one is always tough, especially a passionate place like Sunderland, and the priority must always be to collect three points.
Xabi Alonso received the post-match plaudits at the Stadium of Light, but as always it was the big players, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard, who produced.
Torres' strike was magnificent, while Gerrard performed like a real captain, constantly driving his side on throughout.
I was also pleased to see Alonso make the kind of impact he did when he came on at half-time.
He has had injury problems over the past two seasons and also suffered a loss of confidence, but there's no doubt he is a quality player.
I would like to see both Gareth Barry come in and Xabi Alonso stay.
In the end, though, it comes down to the manager's judgement being backed by other people at the club and then judge him on his performance.
If you don't do that, you can't really complain if he fails to take the club forward.
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