December fixtures 705

Okay. Then I will point to our longest wining run for almost 3 years in defence of Benitez.

Cisse wants to play as a striker but Rafa employs down the wing. He does a job but you can't compare him to a regular right-winger as he is afish out of water. This frustrates him especially as he waited so long to be back in the first team and playing upfront scoring goals. You can understand his plight. However no-one is bigger than the club so he grudgingly plays the role even though he doesn't want to. This is reflected in his body language and he seems to a have a problem with his workrate and attitude. Well so would you if you were hired for an office role at your company but were sent to work in the warehouses due to staff shortages.

I think it is fair to say that Crouch is at his lowest right now and he is stiull able to do a job for us. He can only get better and the sooner he gets round to it the better it would it be. I see more potential in him than Heskey but I'm no scout.

The same was only said of Josemi in his first few games. Once the honeymoon period was over he was being labelled very clearly as a liability, which he was. Sissoko has played roughly the same amount of games so far as Josemi did and he looks a lot more comfortable in the position. He is not being outshined in the middle and playing alongside Gerrard, Alonso or Hamman that is a difficult task.

Okay, maybe Zenden isn't a direct replacement for Smicer but an improved replacement none the less.