Premier League - Jim White: Keane's Mersey blues

Eurosport - Wed, 28 Jan 12:58:00 2009

If you are looking for the most miserable man in English football right now there can only be one candidate.

2008-2009 Liverpool Robbie Keane - 0

Just six months ago, Robbie Keane landed his dream job. A Liverpool fan from childhood in Ireland, he was thrilled when the club paid Spurs £20 million for him and handed him the number seven shirt. As he posed in the very number that had been graced by Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish and Peter Beardsley, he looked like the cat who had discovered a secret route to the cream store.

The fans too were thrilled: in the era of the mercenary, when the likes of Pascal 'It's all about the money' Chimbonda change clubs with the frequency of a serial philanderer, here was someone who shared their love of the institution, someone who knew the value of the shirt. He was immediately installed as a legend in the making. But instead of the chants ringing down from the Kop, a mere 20-odd weeks later he finds himself so far off the Liverpool map he doesn't even have a post code. Spurned by Rafael Benitez, uncertain even of a place on the bench, he is in footballing purdah. It is enough to make the strongest man weep.

Being Liverpool, a club so mired in boardroom politics Machiavelli would have difficulty navigating his way through Anfield, the conspiracy theories are already spinning. Benitez's decision not to pick Keane even as a substitute for Sunday's FA Cup tie against Everton is being reported in several quarters as being part of a wider battle between manager and board. Benitez, anxious to have complete control of transfer strategy is demonstrating his power by demoting the club's costliest recent acquisition.

Personally, I don't buy that. How would such a manoeuvre strengthen his position? Why would it make the board think, 'OK, so we spent £20m on a player, the manager doesn't want him so the best thing to do is to give him total control of spending another £20m on another forward he might not like the look of'? In fact it is likely to provoke the opposite reaction, with the American owners insisting that a watch is kept over the cheque book to prevent a further £20m being squandered in this way.

It is rather more logical to see this as it is: entirely a footballing issue. Keane is not doing the business as envisaged by Benitez. His performance in the Premier League Merseyside derby was woeful, the product of a man low on confidence and form. In all objective analysis he deserved to be dropped. Some have said that the best thing to do with Keane would be to love him, to give him an extended run in the team and let him play his way back to his best.

But Benitez is no schmoozer. He is a systems analyst, not a psychiatrist. His approach to management is tactical, not inspirational. He believes in a style of play and assumes that footballers, being adults and being paid large sums of money, are capable of motivating themselves sufficiently to fit into the system. Keane isn't doing so, so is dropped. End of story.

This is by no means the first time this has happened. Since Benitez has been at Liverpool, only four players - Reina, Carragher, Gerrard and Torres - have been untouchable. Everyone else rotates around them. And he expects players to slot quickly into their place in the machine; issues of confidence and morale do not overly concern him.

It means there has been a ferociously high through-put of forwards, who tend as a breed to be more prone to dips in confidence: Crouch, Bellamy, Fowler, Morientes, Voronin, Torres, Kuyt, Babel and Keane have been signed by Benitez in his time. Only one of that list has been an unequivocal success (though in addition to Torres, Kuyt has provided good service in a modified position). Keane is but the latest to find that patience is not Benitez's greatest virtue.

That does not necessarily mean the player is on his way. When asked, Harry Redknapp may well have said he would be interested in taking him back to Spurs. But then Harry says he's interested in anything with a pulse.

Keane will be desperate to stay at Liverpool, to prove himself worthy of the shirt. But what he will have learned over the course of the last week is that Benitez will not bend the system to accommodate him. He must work out how to play himself back into the team, how to find a way to dovetail with Torres and Gerrard. It won't be easy. But the incentive is there to find a solution.

Jim White / Eurosport

Comment 25 - 44 of 104

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  1. To all you commenters.Thats why we are ALL THE BEST­ MANAGERS.Earning loads of money while the likes of­ Raffa and wenger are doing nothing.Think before you­ write things down that you know nothing about.

    From steve c, on Wed 28 Jan 6:22PM

  2. Haiiiiiiii Jim .....

    Welcome back ....

    Nice article­ as well.....

    From Hrishikesh Kulkarni, on Wed 28 Jan 6:16PM

  3. Benitez is the wrong man for the job - my wife is a­ hardened scouser so i as a man utd fan have to watch­ every liverpool game - yawn!
    Time they got rid of this­ numpty and got a real man manager in there (martin o­ niell springs to mind). Anyway, personally i hope they­ keep Benitez forever and Man Utd will continue to­ reign!!

    From jonnythehippo, on Wed 28 Jan 6:14PM

  4. Keane is the right forward for Liverpool. Both are­ rubbish

    From Half A Brain, on Wed 28 Jan 6:08PM

  5. Benitez is an idiot. People give him credit for­ achieving things he's ''done'' at­ the club. Fact of the matter is he has one truely world­ class player that drags them out of holes all the time­ and its Gerrard. Benitez played him out of position for­ ages, that alone shows how bad of a manager he is for­ liverpool. The Keane saga is just terrible. Just when­ he started to get goals. I think it was 3 goals in 2­ games(correct me if i'm wrong) he gets dragged off­ the pitch, first relegated to the bench and then­ relegated of the team full stop. Again this shows how­ badly he's managing a team that has potential to be­ excellent(that's coming from a utd supporter) and­ by excellent i mean consistantly winning trophys every­ season but for that too happen you need a regular­ strike partner and Keane and Torres could be that if he­ had of been giving the chance but lets not forget Keane­ isn't Spanish and we all no how Benitez feels about­ his Spanish players. Keane it's time you move on­ cause your services are clearly wasted there, unless­ Benitez is fired or walks out your days are numbered­ there.

    From David J, on Wed 28 Jan 6:07PM

  6. If these yank directors have any power, they'll get­ rid of Rafa now. He's gotten too big for his boots­ and needs to be taken down a peg or two. Robbie Keane­ is probably one of the best strikers in the league­ given a run of games. No new player come in and­ automatically starts banging in the goals, it takes­ time to settle, and the pressure must have been on­ Keano seeing as it was his childhood team, that i think­ added to the pressure.

    From OMG WTF, on Wed 28 Jan 6:02PM

  7. Good to see you back Jim.
    Fergie stuck with Berbatov­ through a pretty long bad patch and now Berba is gettin­ better every game.
    Rafa should have stuck with Keane­ too. I blame Rafa as all strikers play on confidence­ and Keane's now appears to be shattered.

    From bobo_spam.master, on Wed 28 Jan 5:52PM

  8. keane could well be on his way at the end of the­ season, as he cant be in rafas gang, you only have to­ look at josemi,nunez who both got shifted after 1­ season, yet harry kewell was given a life time to get­ fit, benitez would rather play his strikers out wide­ than play them in the middle, rafas only chance to­ silence his critics is, pair torres and gerrard again­ up top and win every remaining prem game left.

    From wallaseyrob, on Wed 28 Jan 5:51PM

  9. First off, I'd have said that Babel has been an­ outstanding success, probably going to become a top­ winger. Second, it's being regularly circulated­ that it was the board's decision to get Keane­ (though of course Benitez must have had something to do­ with it). Thirdly, Keane's low goals-game ratio­ has, whenever I've watched him, been almost­ entirely down to poor passes from the midfield,­ assuming that he's both 6'4" and Speedy­ Gonzalez. It's ridiculous - whenever he's­ missed sitters, it's because 1) he's low on­ confidence, and 2) he's hardly touched the ball in­ the game as yet! I still believe that he will begin­ scoring and providing plenty of goals regularly -­ it's just that the team also needs to learn how to­ accomodate him too.

    From AR WB, on Wed 28 Jan 5:39PM

  10. lmfao Keith, I think they base which players to burgle­ on appearences so Keane is safe for ohhh I dunno....few­ more seasons, oh no wait he'll be back with Spurs­ by then and I don't blame him he may get to­ reacquaint himself with a football and the goal there.

    From andy, on Wed 28 Jan 5:34PM

  11. I strongly beleive that RAFA simply is not a Liverpool­ man?
    by this i mean...he is not a Shankley or a­ Paisley...
    I think RAFA will be gone by the­ summer..

    but i am not sure with all the backroom stuff­ Going on...!! who will be the best chap to take­ over?

    A difficult One.

    From Stevo1, on Wed 28 Jan 5:28PM

  12. Keith R (comment 32), pure comic genius

    From James AKA Jiggy, on Wed 28 Jan 5:27PM

  13. Never mind.....look on the bright side..... Keane hasnt­ been burgled yet has he?

    From Keith, on Wed 28 Jan 5:17PM

  14. Frank and Glen, some spot on points!! Liverpool have­ got to be one of if not the dullest teams to watch, not­ just in the prem but all the leagues. As for his rant­ saying Everton came for a draw I think he may want to­ take a look at his own team before castigating others,­ just as he had his rant about other teams receiving­ assistance from ref's again, take a look at your­ own team for that one. Benitez is the problem and no­ matter how good or bad a player they're always­ going to struggle to score either from the bench or in­ Keane's case merely watching his team mates play­ and just dreaming of the bench.

    From andy, on Wed 28 Jan 5:09PM

  15. i think the problem is that the board have signed keane­ not rafa because if rafa had signed him he would be­ playing week in week out but i think the keane signing­ is down to parry this is why rafa wants total control­ over the players.
    lets face it if rafa had signed him­ for 20 million and he doesn,t even get a place on the­ bench ahead of ngog then he is making a mochery of­ himself so i think he is trying to prove a point but­ what a dear point this is going to be.
    Thank you dave­ quinn in runcorn liverpool fan

    From SHARON, on Wed 28 Jan 5:05PM

  16. Welcome back Jim, thought we had the last of your­ quality articles when your football focus thing ended­ last month. You are the best columnist, kick Parker off­ and write more!!

    From XS, on Wed 28 Jan 5:04PM

  17. Any wonder the Anfield hierarchy won't let Benitez­ have the say on transfer funding after his appalling­ judgement on the purchase of Keane. Let's not­ forget too all the money spent on having a reserve side­ and the academy 'School of Excellence', when­ Benitez barely allows anybody to come through from­ these teams.
    Benitez ... You are a waster of someone­ else's money !
    Col W.

    From colinwalker, on Wed 28 Jan 5:04PM

  18. i think the problem is that the board have signed keane­ not rafa because if rafa had signed him he would be­ playing week in week out but i think the keane signing­ is down to parry this is why rafa wants total control­ over the players.
    lets face it if rafa had signed him­ for 20 million and he doesn,t even get a place on the­ bench ahead of ngog then he is making a mochery of­ himself so i think he is trying to prove a point but­ what a dear point this is going to be.
    Thank you dave­ quinn in runcorn liverpool fan

    From SHARON, on Wed 28 Jan 5:03PM

  19. I cant have sympathy for someone who supported such a­ boring one nil & lets kick it back to the keeper­ all day team . Sorry but if he supported them it wasnt­ for the entertainment it was for the trophies so he­ deserves it .

    From Glenn T, on Wed 28 Jan 4:58PM

  20. We're talking about a guy who has as a kid was a­ Liverpool fan, and has now been given the oppotunity to­ realise his childhood dream......maybe he needs to wake­ up!

    When i come to work, i get paid to do my job, my­ boss isnt interested whether i'm motivated or not,­ i'm paid because of my ability. Likewise Liverpool­ paid £20m to get him, and £50k a week for his services­ ....sorry, but if i performed at that level, or used­ motivation as an excuse for underperforming, i'd be­ out of a job.

    If he can't find the goal, someone­ take him on an 'Anfield Tour' and show him­ ..... hey, thats what the goal looks like.!

    He wanders­ round on the pitch like a school kid more interested in­ what time lessons finish....sory Mr Keane, your lesson­ is over. Produce the goods or go.

    From frankrogers_uk, on Wed 28 Jan 4:56PM
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