Benitez: Bale made Maicon look like a Volvo taking on a Ferrari
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Your support makes all the difference.Gareth Bale made Maicon, the Uefa Defender of the Year, look like a Volvo racing a Ferrari, suggested Rafael Benitez yesterday.
The Internazionale manager was responding to critics, including his own chairman Massimo Moratti, of his tactics during Tuesday's 3-1 Champions League defeat at Tottenham. Even as he was speaking he was further chastised by the winning manager, Harry Redknapp, who said Ian Holloway would have done a better job.
Redknapp said: "Were they [Inter] clever tactically the other night? Leaving Gareth Bale one-on-one with their right-back? When he keeps ripping him up? I don't know. I was surprised. I think Ian Holloway would have doubled up on him."
Benitez's defence was to point out the match situation. "I have played many times against Bale," Benitez said. "I know that he is quick and difficult to mark. It's not a question of the wide players covering him, but the problem was that we were losing. We needed to attack [so our midfielders were advanced]. When we lost the ball Bale was quicker in the space and it was tough to contain him. If I drive a Volvo against a Ferrari on a straight, I lose. The Volvo is a good car because it's our sponsor, but the Ferrari races faster."
Tottenham play at Bolton Wanderers today, so the task of containing Bale will fall to Gretar Steinsson, with assistance from Lee Chung-yong. "How do you stop Bale?" said the Bolton manager, Owen Coyle. "With difficulty. But it is the same every week in this league. If it is not Gareth Bale, it is Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres, Wayne Rooney or [Dimitar] Berbatov. That is why we love being at this level."
Coyle described Redknapp as the "perfect" candidate to be the next England manager when Fabio Capello steps down in 2012 but the Spurs' manager was circumspect. "I appreciate Owen's comments, but no one knows where you are in six weeks' time in this game, let alone two years. If I'm not doing well I'll be forgotten about."
He added he would like it to be an Englishman, again using Holloway as an exemplar. "It's time to have belief in our coaches. Look at what Ollie's done at Blackpool. Even Jose Mourinho would struggle to do better. I think Mourinho's fantastic. But you put him in at Blackpool and do you think he could've had 13 points by now? I wouldn't bet on it."
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