James Lawton

[Rashid]

James Lawton is a huge Rafa fan and has spent countless hours trumpetting his triumphs - so why has he turned? This is the 2nd negative article on Rafa in under a week.

 

James Lawton: Even in stalemate, Arsenal's fluid ambition surpasses Liverpool's laboured triumph

 

In terms of creativity and rhythm the journey between Anfield on Tuesday and the Emirates on Wednesday was one between famine and fertility

Friday, 22 February 2008

 

The week was Liverpool's, but who owned the future? It was surely Arsenal. It belonged to them in the way they played, in the scale of their ambition. Final execution was lacking, yes, but this is something that can sometimes elude the best of talent. You can practice execution. Ambition is something else and in this Arsenal team, plainly, it came at birth.

 

Liverpool do have a certain ambition but it is so much narrower and often it seems as though it is choked at the first signs that it might take life.

 

This week they made what could prove to be a significant stride towards their third Champions League final in four years. It is a dazzling prospect until you get up close. Then you see the flaws – and feel the touch of a robot.

 

Arsenal were without goals but not the vibrant life which comes with the belief that beautiful football will sooner or later bring its own rewards.

 

This may be romantic but it is also logical despite Rafa Benitez's latest smash-and-grab that takes him to San Siro in three weeks' time cushioned by a two-goal lead over the masters of Italian football, Internazionale – a week after Arsenal may well have been punished in the same stadium for their failure to exploit the chances that came against reigning European champions, but current Serie A makeweights, Milan.

 

Did we say logical? Yes. Arsenal may not have gained a single new friend – and lost quite a number of old ones – at Old Trafford last weekend but against Milan they compressed into one move that ended with a misdirected shot by Emmanuel Eboué more pure football than Liverpool managed in 90 minutes against 10-man Inter.

 

First Arsenal sparred intriguingly with the older, more practical heads who secured revenge last spring for Liverpool's extraordinary comeback in Istanbul. Then they dared to be great before their years.

 

It is true they misfired around goal right up to the final moments when Emmanuel Adebayor picked out the crossbar rather than a gaping net but in terms of creativity and rhythm the journey between Anfield on Tuesday and the Emirates on Wednesday was one between famine and fertility.

 

Pragmatists, who now seem to exclude all others in the manning of the Benitez barricades, will argue that the manager of Liverpool got the job done and Arsenal's did not. But then we have to return to the question that has dominated the week. What really is the job? It has to be the developing of a team that, potentially, can win in any circumstances on any field. If this is indeed the guideline, Arsenal still score heavily over their Merseyside rivals.

 

They are, it has been made easy to forget by the brilliance that has taken them five points clear at the top of the Premier League, supposed to be in a season of transition, one in which some even doubted their ability to hang on to the European place that comes with a top four finish.

 

Much of the doubt rested on the belief that they would be lost without the inspiration of Thierry Henry, and some of that resurfaced this week when the old hero was producing an exquisitely trademarked finish for Barcelona against Celtic – while Adebayor was misplacing the killer touch that has been so vital to his young team's growth over the past few months.

 

There were always going to be such occasions. Henry was not likely to forget how to score subline goals from time to time. Adebayor wasn't going to turn into an unerring goal machine in a few months. However, the trade-off surely remains hugely in Arsenal's favour.

 

Henry's overwhelming influence in the team wasn't, after all, anywhere near as central to team performance as it had once been and, if we are looking for an example, his finishing in the Champions League final in Paris in 2006 was no less wayward than Adebayor's this week. In the Togolese striker's favour, strongly, is the fact that he gives so much weight and variety to his leadership of the forward line, something which, strictly speaking, Henry never did. Against Milan, Adebayor required Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta to resurrect so much of what had shaped down the years two of the greatest defenders the game has ever known.

 

Even as Liverpool congratulate themselves on the lead they take to Italy, it is difficult to recall any moments when they had marched impressively beyond some dismaying recent form, including the public relations disaster against Barnsley.

 

They outslugged a largely passive Inter who eventually lost their two central defenders and were required to play a man down for an hour, but if you took away the goals of a labouring Dirk Kuyt and Steven Gerrard the lack of uplift was gnawing.

 

For Arsenal Alexander Hleb was some way from his most acute powers of penetration and Cesc Fabregas and Mathieu Flamini could never quite convert some passages of exciting promise into sustained control, but all of them announced superior talent. By comparison, Liverpool's Xabi Alonso was rooted on the bench against Inter. The difference between the attempted reach of the teams was simply immense. For periods in the second half Arsenal played as though the collective reputation of Kaka, Seedorf, Gatusso, Pirlo, Maldini and the young Brazilian virtuoso Pato, was not a challenge but a provocation.

 

In the wake of the Barnsley catastrophe, Benitez said his team were walking in the footsteps of Arsenal's latest starburst of team development. It was a secret he had kept entirely to himself – and even after victory over Inter remained impenetrable.

 

There can never have been such an enigma in English football, such a gap between week-in, week-out performance and potential achievement. Three European Cup finals in four years and possibly two victories would read for Benitez like the deeds of dynasty – and at a time when Sir Alex Ferguson craved his second win and Arsène Wenger his first.

 

Yet this week, when Fabregas found again some of the sharpest of his wit, the urge to crack the Benitez code suddenly seemed rather less compelling. It was enough to be seduced, if not entirely fulfilled, by what was happening before your eyes.

 

He was trumpetted as a great journo over the past few years, I wonder if he will now be called a cunt.

[Dirk]

Oh no, another attempt by Rashid to start a thread criticising the manager. It's getting tedious now, can you just shut up for a bit please? Pretty please?

[theRedHorse]

Oh no, another attempt by Rashid to start a thread criticising the manager. It's getting tedious now, can you just shut up for a bit please? Pretty please?

 

with fucking sugar on top. For fucks sake Rashid.

 

Who gives a shit whether a journalist has "turned". Journalists are about as consistent as Luis Garcia (bless him). They'll go wherever the fuck the herd goes.

[theRedHorse]

Just reading it.

 

He called our game a smash and grab. Even though we had hammers at their heads thw whole game.

 

Thats how "smart" James Lawton is.

[fivetimes]

Is there ANYONE on here who is not fed up of this tedious new-sky-fan bollocks on EVERY thread?

 

No wonder so many of the regulars dont come on here anywhere near as much as they used too.

[Spy Bee]

Rashid, shut up, just shut up!

[zigackly]

James Lawton was once a very good writer, who I used to look forward to every week until he won the sports writer of the year award a couple of years ago and then became a pompous, opinionated baffoon, who either writes long-winded, labyrinthine polemics or obscurely sycophantic editorials. I haven't read that piece and I'm not going to. It's a great shame to see a once-talented writer descend into solipsistic senility, whence he can only rage against the dying of the light, to use his favourite catchphrase.

[coop]

I watched both the Liverpool game and Arsenal game and how he has come of the opinion that we struggled but Arsenal are left to rue their wasted chances is beyond me.

 

I will admit we didnt exactly make the Inter Milan keeper pull off save after but that was thanks to a very good Milan defence, especially Corboda who i thought was superb.

 

What we did do is keep the ball and kept probing for spaces in the Milan defence which had become extra compact after Materazzi got sent off.

 

I personally thought we were superb on Tuesday night against a very Inter Milan team and if Arsenal, Man Utd or Chelsea had put that performance in then they would have been showered with compliments.

 

The Arsenal game for me was a very even game and on a couple of occasions Milan were unlucky as Lehman pulled off a couple of good saves from Maldini.

 

All this 'sexy football' Arsenal were playing was getting them nowhere and any chances they did create were done by long ball over the top by Fabregas.

 

Only one British team won this week in the Champions League and only one team us coming under fire because of that performance and that team is Liverpool.

 

I honestly think none of them watched the match and just looked at the stats which showed Milan had a player sent off and we didnt score until the 85th minute so presumed we must have struggled.

[Paul Don]

James Lawton was once a very good writer, who I used to look forward to every week until he won the sports writer of the year award a couple of years ago and then became a pompous, opinionated baffoon, who either writes long-winded, labyrinthine polemics or obscurely sycophantic editorials. I haven't read that piece and I'm not going to. It's a great shame to see a once-talented writer descend into solipsistic senility, whence he can only rage against the dying of the light, to use his favourite catchphrase.

 

Some top wordage there.

 

Re - the article, as someone pointed out the other day, the media love to wax lyrical about Arsenal's 'lovely young attacking team'. When they grind out a 1-0 with high balls to Adebayor do you see negativity in the media at all? Do you bollocks. When we do it, albeit fairly sparingly this season, we are castigated as dull and anti-football. Yet when we do play free-flowing attacking football, again even more sparingly this season, the silence from the media is deafening.

 

We have and always will be the bottle of Cava to Arsenal and Man Utd's Champagne, in their eyes anyway.

[KevieG]

People need to chill out. Lawton on the whole has been good to us under Rafa's reign.

 

He has a point about viewing the big picture and not viewing the week in isolation but I'm sure that point will the lost in the pathetic hysteria that he's somehow "turned" or become a cunt.

 

For the record another so called Red, Dion Fanning has been saying similar stuff this week. Maybe they're all cunts

[Lapskaus]

I miss Luis

[KevieG]

Some top wordage there.

 

Re - the article, as someone pointed out the other day, the media love to wax lyrical about Arsenal's 'lovely young attacking team'. When they grind out a 1-0 with high balls to Adebayor do you see negativity in the media at all? Do you bollocks. When we do it, albeit fairly sparingly this season, we are castigated as dull and anti-football. Yet when we do play free-flowing attacking football, again even more sparingly this season, the silence from the media is deafening.

 

We have and always will be the bottle of Cava to Arsenal and Man Utd's Champagne, in their eyes anyway.

 

Problem is, Arsenal on a bad day play better football than us on a good day. That doesn't bother me though as that rings true when you compare their football with almost every other team.

 

If we were playing great football and the media were saying it was shit then people may have a point. I think we have it in us to do that, the move at the end of the first half showed that.

[G Richards]

I enjoy James Lawton but I have to say in this instance I thought he was a little bit off. I don't mind criticism, but I thought this was a little bit unfair (e.g. the part where he said our victory was smash and grab - when any cursory analysis would lead to the conclusion that we were on the front foot all night probing against the best team in Italy).

 

Arsenal should have won their game. They played good football but couldn't get the job done. We get hammered by the press when that happens.

 

This was a week where our result was was the best by far of any of the British teams in the CL. It's only half time and we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, but credit where credit is due in my book.

[Turkish Delight]

Am I right in reading that he effectively believes that if we win the European cup again this season and Arsenal win nothing then Wenger has achieved more with his current team because his young team are full of potential with nothing to show for it while our young-ish team have less potential but are winning trophies?

 

Don't get me wrong, Arsenal are a long way ahead of us this season and there is no doubting that they have the potential to be awesome but their ultimate goal is the Champions League and if we won that this season how can this article be treated as anything other than a load of shite. It effectively says "So what if Liverpool win Big Ears? Arsenal might win it one day so they have far more to be excited about".

 

As a side note, if we got wanked over every time we played well but failed to take our chances and ended up with a draw we'd have drowned in the worst possible way a long time ago.

[robslappa]

How anyone can criticise the team or manager over the other night is beyond me. What a load of bollocks.

 

It's a results business and we got the result we needed against a team who many were saying were the best in Europe before Tuesday.

[dave u]

That article is seriously shit and I like Lawton.

[Guest TK-421]

Haha, RiS was right - somehow Arsenal's performance is better.

[wiiksie]

Is there ANYONE on here who is not fed up of this tedious new-sky-fan bollocks on EVERY thread?

 

No wonder so many of the regulars dont come on here anywhere near as much as they used too.

Bingo.

[Rashid]

What this article is saying is that Rafa getting to 3 finals in 4 yearsd means fuck all which is utter shite. Rafa is without peers in the CL and Europe (OK Ancellotti is close) but he cannot be criticised especially when you consider the money spent by other teams.

 

Less of the aggro too you gang of blood hungry wolves.

[zigackly]

People need to chill out. Lawton on the whole has been good to us under Rafa's reign.

 

He has a point about viewing the big picture and not viewing the week in isolation but I'm sure that point will the lost in the pathetic hysteria that he's somehow "turned" or become a cunt.

 

For the record another so called Red, Dion Fanning has been saying similar stuff this week. Maybe they're all cunts

 

No, you've missed the point. He writes shite about whatever he writes about. He used to be very good once, but has long since descended into self-regarding tripe which bears no resemblance to the subject matter.

[REDTALISKER]

The press have been saying the same old thing for years about Arsenal. It's all pleasing to the eye but for a big team Wenger's european record is quite frankly dreadful. This fact is overlooked by the press time and time again. Don't see why this year will be any different.

[TLW]

this was the bit that especially pissed me off

 

"against Milan they compressed into one move that ended with a misdirected shot by Emmanuel Eboué more pure football than Liverpool managed in 90 minutes against 10-man Inter."

 

Must have missed that move that ended with Gerrard squaring the ball across the box just in front of Torres then. Or the move that saw Mascherano slip that brilliant pass into the path of Finnan, who's cross was cleared just before Torres got there.

 

There were other slick moves too, but that doesn't fit in with what he'd decided he wanted to write, so it gets ignored.

 

Fair enough, when we play shit have a go, but credit where it's due, we were really fucking good the other night.

[Rashid]

He hasn't been shite for that long, he has only been shite since he started having a go at Rafa this week and many of you know it. Whilst I agree that this article was utter horse shit by him it wasn't long ago that he was writing this.

 

James Lawton: Benitez's safe hands milk the Special One's muddle

 

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Chelsea 1 Liverpool 2: Mourinho's miscalculations let Liverpool refine winning plan

 

Monday, 24 April 2006

 

Liverpool's second big victory over Jose Mourinho's Chelsea carried more caveats than an index of government health warnings but it still had the power to provoke some intriguing questions.

 

It asked simply this: when the long race is run, when the starting assets of Benitez and his now bitter rival are most clinically assessed, who will emerge as the better football man? Whose heart will be most firmly attached to the spirit of the game? Whose will and ability to get the best out of the players - which of course is the the very kernel of the job - will prove more enduring? Perhaps most importantly of all, who will have proved that he had the safer hands and the least susceptibility to the dangerous impulses of ego?

 

In the aftermath of Liverpool's arrival in their second straight major cup final - at the expense of Chelsea - there could only be one answer. Benitez, yet again, showed that he understood the fine margins between victory and defeat and that a coach who projects himself far above his players, who comes down from the mountain top before every match with his personally inscribed tablets of stone, is not only risking individual results but his own long-term credibility.

 

Mourinho's, plainly, will hold for some time. A small blizzard of Portuguese titles, the Uefa Cup and Champions' League with modestly resourced Porto, and successive titles with the financial behemoth Chelsea is an astonishing body of work for any 43-year-old football man.

 

But then Benitez, three years older, does not compare so unfavourably: two La Liga titles for Valencia, triumphs swept from beneath the noses of a Real Madrid some way still from their current decay and Barcelona; a Uefa Cup win; a quarter-final place in the Champions' League after ransacking Gérard Houllier's Liverpool, before leading his new club to the Champions' League in his first season and on a fraction of Mourinho's budget, also speaks of dazzling accomplishment.

 

But the questioning has to be refreshed now - two years into their English careers, Mourinho and Benitez have developed a fierce rivalry made all the more remarkable by the imbalance of their resources, and any snap appraisal at the weekend would surely have left few in doubt about who was more comfortable in his own skin.

 

It says almost everything about what we have come to know of Mourinho that nothing he did before, during and after Chelsea's FA Cup semi-final had the capacity to create too much surprise.

 

His lack of grace, expressed on this occasion by his refusal to shake the hand of the victorious Benitez, has become a fact of football life. Nor could his bizarre team selection have raised too many eyebrows; leaving out all three of his three most creative wide players, and denying a fourth, the hugely expensive but lost Shaun Wright-Phillips, a place on the bench, was certainly bewildering, as was the sight of a full-back, Paulo Ferreira, playing in front of a midfielder, Geremi... but then so was his decision to play three of them from the start in Barcelona recently. That was a move which robbed Chelsea of their greatest strength, a formidably balanced midfield, and before Saturday's aberration seemed to have crowned a spurt of increasingly erratic behaviour.

 

Naturally, Mourinho blamed defeat not on this team-sheet gibberish but the bad aroma of two of the decisions that the referee, Graham Poll, made in favour of Liverpool and, according to some unbiased professional observers, breaking an astonishing tendency to rule routinely for Chelsea in anything that sniffed of 50-50. No, Mourinho was emphatic, this was another mythical defeat of Chelsea by Liverpool.

 

Benitez, typically, refused to comment on Mourinho's team selection, other than in the most oblique way. However, he did say: "I was surprised by the things Mourinho said." Was he disappointed? "No, I was doing my job before the game, playing to win. I had two plans depending on how they came into the game: they could play with three strikers, 4-5-1 as normally, or with two centre-forwards. We had plans for that.

 

"For 60 minutes we had a fantastic game against good players. When you see [Arjen] Robben, [Damien] Duff and [Joe] Cole on the bench you know how strong they are. We are closer to Chelsea now. If you talk about one game with them we can win. If you talk about nine months we need a bigger squad.

 

"I like to win against the best teams. Chelsea are one of the best teams in the world. We must give credit to our players and our staff. We must be happy.

 

"They brought on Cole, Duff and Robben. They can change everything. We don't have the same possibilities. We change some things, they can change everything. They can play three strikers, quick, with ability, good in the air."

 

In other words, Mourinho could do what he wanted. He could line up his solders any way he pleased.

 

Benitez's job of countering any Chelsea formation, interestingly, relied not on wild theory but accepted strengths. His team was freely predicted before the game; the question was how well they would perform, a challenge uncomplicated by the need to play in unfamiliar positions and instantly find old zones of comfort and confidence.

 

Extraordinarily, with the exception of the stalwarts Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia, and Steve Finnan and Harry Kewell - a wide player reminding Mourinho of the value of skill applied at pace - Liverpool were quite some way from their best. Steven Gerrard was anonymous for long passages of the game. Xabi Alonso was disappointingly peripheral at that time when Chelsea, at last provided with some width and skill by Mourinho, came surging back into the game, and if Momo Sissoko had been any more profligate with the ball at his feet he might as well have worn a blue shirt. Luis Garcia was himself, which is to say about as economical as Wayne Rooney's girlfriend let loose in Knightsbridge or Oxford Street. But then he conjured a goal touched by genius.

 

But Benitez's hands were indeed safer. He didn't burden his players with an unworkable game plan. He didn't offer an astonished opposition a huge start into the game. In future he will want better performances from key players, but there was a unity of purpose to Liverpool's effort.

 

By comparison, Chelsea had to grope their way into the match. They had to wade through their coach's ego.

 

In the first rush of his fame as a coach Mourinho, for whom the challenge of playing professionally was too much, said: "I hate to speak about players individually; players do not win trophies, squads win trophies. I cannot say I love a player. I love players who love to win." You cannot imagine Benitez saying such a thing, no more than you could any of the great coaches, however far you go back. Squads don't win trophies until they have been formed into teams of fine balance and well-distributed talent. You cannot win trophies by sticking a pin into a list of players.

 

Maybe that's not quite how the Special One arrived at his team on Saturday.

 

Maybe he did something rather more scientific. Unfortunately, the effect was roughly the same.

 

Mourinho or Benitez? You have to take your choice. For the moment at least it is not something to tax the brain - and still less the heart.

 

[EmilHamilton]

It was a shit article from a good writer. Fuck off Rashid.

 

It was more a dig at the whole team and not just Rafa. He's just up Arsenal's arse at the moment, as are the whole country.

[Christian]

Eboue is a cunt

The article is shit

Wenger is a cunt

Arsenal are wankers.