Are Liverpool losing nerves?

This started as a very promising season for Liverpool as the Reds finally look like a serious title contenders after quite a while. Liverpool last won the league title in 1990 and the team’s impressive performances at the start to the season hinted the long drought could soon be over. However, some pundits thought that the team could break under pressure of expectations and it seems that they were right. Despite having a lot of success in Europe under Rafa Benitez, every Liverpool fan would change all their trophies for just one league title. This is why the players were under enormous pressure lately and that has started to affect the results.

Still, nobody could believe that usually calm and composed Benitez would be the first to show the signs of weakness but it seems that he is a human being after all. He launched an astonishing attack on Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson in a press conference when asked to reply to Ferguson’s comments that Liverpool might get too nervous later in the season. Benitez went on to say that Ferguson was the only manager who would not be punished for criticizing referees and that United had a preferred treatment by the referees. I am still not clear why he chose to attack Ferguson, when the FA is responsible for imposing bans and delegating referees. It is evident that Benitez is simply under too much pressure and that he started showing that in public.

Coincidentally, it was after this outburst that Benitez’s team suffered two major setbacks to their title race, having failed to beat Stoke and Everton. United, on the other hand, won the big derby against Chelsea and also the next two league games, thus taking over the top of the Premier League. The champions are back in the driving seat, while the Reds will now be under even more pressure as they will be chasing United. It is interesting how everything changed in just two weeks and Rafa Benitez has to take the blame for the recent dip in form. Everything was going rather well before his aforementioned attack on Ferguson, and instead of letting it pass he decided to react angrily on Sir Alex’s mind games, which certainly had an adverse effect on Liverpool players. Now he faces a real fight to save his season and I just hope that he is aware of all the problems he has caused and that he won’t make the same mistake again.

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