Rafa Benitez launches attack on Fergie

So, Rafael Benitez decided to pull out a prepared written statement at his weekly press conference about how Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United manager is the source of all evil in the world.

Lets take a closer look at what exactly he said and whether he presents a logic argument or not.

"But I have seen some facts. On November 1, they played Hull and Mr Ferguson had a two-match touchline ban and a £10,000 fine after confronting Mike Dean, the referee, for improper conduct."

Oh, ok, so he is unhappy with Fergie's comments towards the referee which he was punished for. This is not his business, it's the FA's, but this is fair enough I guess.

"Mr Ferguson was charged by the FA for improper conduct after comments made about Martin Atkinson and Keith Hackett.
He was not punished. He is the only manager in the league that cannot be punished for these things. "

Oh, ok, so your gripe is that Fergie is never punished. Well, I guess you might have a point...but...wait a second Rafa. Didn't you explicitly point out less than 30 seconds earlier than he was punished earlier in the season?

"Then he was talking about the fixtures. Two years ago we were playing a lot of early kick-offs away on Saturdays when United were playing on Sundays. And we didn't say anything."

Well, I'm not sure why you would say anything Rafa. If you play first and win, it puts pressure on the other team to win their game in hand knowing that they need to win or they will lose ground. Putting teams under this pressure is an obvious advantage

"And about his behaviour with referees. The Southampton manager he knows how Mr Ferguson works and how he works, he was very clear. I am not playing mind games, just facts."

Sorry Rafa. You have already made an incoherent point earlier with regards to his conduct towards referees. This is beginning to sound suspiciously like a nonsensical ramble.

"If he wants to talk about fixtures, and have a level playing field as you say in England. There are two options if we don't want more problems with fixtures. One is the same as in Spain, the draw for the first part of the league is known, everyone knows which weekend. In the second half everyone plays the opposite, so you all know. Sky and Setanta have the right to choose their games and it will be the same for everyone. So Mr Ferguson will not be complaining about fixtures and a campaign against United. Or there is another option. That Mr Ferguson organises the fixtures in his office and sends it to us and everyone will know and cannot complain. That is simple."

Lets not get silly and childish now Rafa. United had to play away from home against every team that finished in the top 10 of the league last season, in the first half of this season whilst all the other sides have to play an equal balance of weaker and stronger teams throughout the whole season. This included playing BOTH Liverpool and Chelsea (two of the top 4 sides) and away to Portsmouth (the FA Cup winners) in their first four games which may have seen them 9 points behind the leaders before a ball has hardly been kicked. Having 3 of your first 4 games away from home is crazy, even more so when they are the top sides in the league.

"All managers need to know is that only Mr Ferguson can talk about the fixtures, can talk about referees and nothing happens. We need to know that I am taking about facts, not my impression. "

Again Rafa, you have said that Fergie is never punished, whilst earlier pointing out his hefty punishment earlier this season.

"The result does not matter to us, if we win at Stoke that result (United vs Chelsea) does not matter."

There are no trophies handed out in January, so United's game against Chelsea does matter. While its important to keep winning games, other games are obviously relevant to Liverpool's hopes. Its a very odd comment to make about a side who are within a hair of Liverpool in the league, without even playing well.

"It is a massive difference to play early on a Saturday, say, after a European match in midweek"

Again, it depends if you are playing on Tuesday or Wednesday in Europe. Its not as if all European games are on one night, exactly the same as all Premier league games are not on the same night. Also, it has been historically proven that teams who play games away from home domestically after a European game are statisically more likely to drop points in the Premier league. Yet, United play away from home domestically after EVERY European game this year. Yet, Liverpool were at home domestically after playing in Europe FOUR times, which is a massive, massive disadvantage to United and advantage to Liverpool.

"But they will play the second half of the season with home matches against the other top teams, and that is a massive advantage to them."

By which time, after being crippled by difficult away fixtures, they may have already have been too far behind in the title race to have a realistic hope of winning the league. Again, not a good point.

So, what have we learned? Every point was flawed, and he made contradictory statements. This is worrying seeing as this was a prepared statement. It is worrying how he could spend time thinking about these things and not see flaws in his logic. Perhaps, if he prepared his team for todays game against Stoke City instead of preparing an illogical argument about Manchester United, his team may have won today.

Its also shocking that he is outraged by Fergie, but not by Joe Kinnear whose conduct is arguably the worst of any manager in the league? Perhaps it is because Newcastle don't pose a thread to Liverpool winning their first league title for 18 years or perhaps its because he is not jealous Newcastle's success or lack thereof? Its another anti-United witch hunt.

Perhaps Rafa is trying to deflect attention from Robbie Keane, who he paid £20 million for, but is now struggling and is only good enough to be an unused substitute most weeks and who had three of the misses of the season in one game against Preston last week?

Who knows? One thing is for sure, Rafa Benitez is a con-man, who is living on a reputation based on a Champions League win which was surrounded by so much luck, it was beyond belief.