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Manchester United supporters have a trick up their sleeves for tomorrow's visit to Liverpool that does not involve hidden beach balls. Twelve years after the Kop proclaimed "Au revoir Cantona, come back when you've won 18", their hated rivals and now equals as English champions intend to accept that invitation by donning Eric Cantona masks at Anfield. Should Liverpool fall to a fifth consecutive defeat for the first time since September 1953, Rafael BenÃtez may need one of his own.
A defining moment is upon Liverpool and their manager, and how Sir Alex Ferguson would love to be the man to send both into freefall. While United followers are torn between trying to smuggle beach balls or face masks past Liverpool stewards under instruction to confiscate inflatables, the dilemma facing the home support is of far greater significance.
Thousands of Liverpool fans are expected to demand regime change before kick-off in the latest protest march against the divided ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett. For the first time since he replaced Gérard Houllier as Liverpool manager in 2004, and certainly since it emerged the Americans had saddled the club with serious debts while offering the Spaniard's job to Jürgen Klinsmann, BenÃtez is no longer immune to criticism from within.
This week, comprising a defeat at Sunderland wrought by an official Liverpool beach ball and a stoppage-time defeat to Lyon in the Champions League, has been "different", according to BenÃtez. He is not yet fighting for survival at a club that could not afford a pay-off in excess of £20m, nor has the Madrileño lost the majority of the Anfield support or dressing room. But BenÃtez is battling to preserve a reputation that was always liable to be the first victim of the dysfunctional regime he works under, and he will not alter his view that his way is the only way forward.
"People have asked about the bigger picture and I have the big picture," said the Liverpool manager, who spent Thursday relaxing with his young family before settling down to watch United games on DVD. "I think it will be better in the future. How can we do this? First we need to win some games to change the mood on the pitch. After we have to keep doing things in the right way. I have some ideas and I think it can be better."
Hicks and Gillett will be in attendance tomorrow and asked whether it was fair that the manager should be the subject of such scrutiny, BenÃtez replied: "The only way to change things at this club is to concentrate on what I can control. What can I control now? I can work with the players, analyse what has gone wrong and try to do the right things on the pitch. I cannot talk about other things because they have no influence on the game. I have to concentrate on what I can do with the players. I will not use the [stalled plans to build a new] stadium now as an excuse. We know there is a massive difference in the money [generated at Anfield and Old Trafford] but we have better fans. So I am pleased."
Tomorrow marks BenÃtez's 200th league game as Liverpool manager and at any other time, against any other opponent and arguably at any other club it would be a moment for a proud declaration, not fear that the bicentennial could mark the unravelling of a regime.
Only Kenny Dalglish can boast a better win percentage after 200 league games than the Spaniard, who is level with Bob Paisley on 113 victories and will move ahead of the three-times European Cup- winning legend should Liverpool pull off another of their dramatic recoveries against the champions. For added perspective, Arsène Wenger won 110 of his first 200 at Arsenal while a pre-knighted Alex Ferguson is way back on 87. "The numbers are not bad," reflected BenÃtez. "Maybe some people don't see the big picture but we have to prepare for the game. We cannot change the vision of some people."
What undermines BenÃtez in comparison with his illustrious Anfield forebears is league championships won in that period. Dalglish had collected three inside those 200 matches and Paisley two.
But they both inherited teams whose last league championship was 12 months previously, not 14 years, as BenÃtez did, although he still somehow made European champions of Djimi Traoré, Harry Kewell, Milan Baros, Josemi, Antonio Núñez and Igor Biscan by the end of his first season.
The protection afforded by that remarkable Champions League victory of 2005 has been threatened by a start to a season that brought exalted expectations, but has so far witnessed mediocrity in Europe and the Premier League. Defeat to United would leave Liverpool 10 points behind their Old Trafford rivals and sick at the thought it may be Ferguson, not BenÃtez, who gets to 19 titles first.
"It's an important game because it's United but also because of our position," admitted the Liverpool manager, who will give fitness tests to Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson today but is expected to be without his captain tomorrow. "We know we have to win and then we will be four points behind. We have to think about the positives. If we beat United, after everyone talking about Liverpool for the last two weeks, we will be just four points behind.
"We need to do the right things at the right moment, it doesn't matter whether that's on or off the pitch. At this moment the right thing is to prepare for this game because, 11 against 11, we can beat anyone."
BenÃtez has sought advice from his coaches, Sammy Lee and Mauricio Pellegrino, as he attempts to resurrect Liverpool's season, as well as "friends who played football with you in the past". Wisely, he has paid less attention to the airwaves or the column inches that have called for his head. "The supporters are important but you have too many," insisted BenÃtez. "There are 60 million managers in England so you cannot listen to everyone. It is important to know which people can give you advice but I can guarantee you that in the last two days the fans have been very supportive and positive. I was in a big store the other day and four or five came up and no one asked me about substitutions against Lyon. They just told me to beat United."
Gillett shrewdly kept the wolves from the door after the Lyon defeat by assuring BenÃtez that his job was safe. Arguably the words that mattered most to the Spaniard, however, came yesterday from Dalglish, brought back to the club in the summer in a dual role as ambassador and youth academy adviser and the last Liverpool manager to preside over a run of four successive defeats.
"Everyone within the upper echelons of this club has no doubt whatsoever about Rafa – I know that for a fact," insisted the Liverpool legend. "Everybody at Liverpool Football Club knows Rafa is the right man to get the club through this. No one is pumped up and panicking in any way, shape or form. Everyone is being as helpful and supportive as they possibly can be to the manager.
"Everybody is hurting – everybody wants the same thing – to get a victory on the board. The best way to do that is to stick together and have nobody pointing fingers or going round corners and having sneaky conversations. Yes there's criticism, but there's no way Liverpool Football Club and the majority of people would want Rafa to go anywhere."
