Benitez gets his excuses in early

Liverpool face a long journey to Thursday’s UEFA Cup semi-final against Atletico Madrid. Because of the volcanic ash which is causing severe disruption to air travel in Europe they left Liverpool by train yesterday for their game 1,200 miles away.

Conditions

They will reassess their plans almost hourly as the conditions could change very quickly. Their plan was to stay last night in Paris and then fly direct to Madrid if Northern French airspace was open. If not, as seems likely, they will leave Paris on this morning and travel to Bordeaux by train. From there they can take a flight to Madrid, as Bordeaux airport is unaffected.

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez is not happy that his team have to play the game.

“In these special circumstances it could be better to postpone the game but we have to go.”

Benitez is concerned that his players might not be in the right frame of mind for the game.

“We had some time yesterday to rest the players. It will not be ideal but we will try to do the best for the players. We will go to London and see what can happen. Maybe then the airports will be open and maybe we can fly from there. We have the organisation for coming back as soon as possible but anyway it will be Saturday, which is not the best for the Premier League game. If the airports are open maybe we can fly directly but at this moment it is more difficult to come back than it is to go. We are assessing things hour by hour. We have two or three options going and at this moment just one coming back but we will see if we can improve that.”

If anyone thought that top class players were spoilt and lived in a ridiculously comfortable manner then this really does go some way to prove it. They are only playing a game of football on Thursday evening for goodness sake. Surely after a complete day of rest followed by a fine 3-0 win over West Ham, a coach trip and train journey followed by a night in a luxury hotel, followed by a flight to another luxury hotel with over twenty-four hours to recover before playing the game is not impossible for these fit young men is it?

Player

Benitez went on to say that the journey reminded him of his days as a player in the Spanish second division back in the 1980s.

“When I was playing we were doing 12 to 14 hours by coach. Now you expect something more comfortable”

I am not saying that the preparation is ideal but it does seem a little churlish to complain about it. If the players aren’t ready for a European semi-final, even if they’ve spent a few hours on a coach, then the players and the management staff would have to take a good long look at themselves. It isn’t a manager trying to get his ready made excuses in first is it?

Difficult

In the other semi-final Fulham also face a difficult eleven hour trip by coach and Euro-tunnel to Hamburg in Germany for their first leg tie. Fulham boss Roy Hodgson has expressed concern for the Fulham fans trying to get out to Germany but he hasn’t moaned about the arrangements for him and his players.

I accept that I have got a bit of a downer on Rafa Benitez and I always manage to see the worst in him, but this complaining and moaning just makes him look a bit silly doesn‘t it?