Study the extended sequence of numbers below and see if you can
crack this week's sporting enigma code.
The puzzle is: 6, 6, 4, 7, 5, 5, 6, 2, 9, 7, 5, 5.
Any ideas? No, it's not some tedious Sudoku grid. It isn't Stephen
Hawking's chassis number. It's got nothing to do with bingo either,
although it is associated with a lottery of sorts.
The sequence actually details the extraordinary number of changes
made by Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez in every game this
season.
Following victory over Aston Villa on the opening day, the Anfield
boss has chopped his personnel around so often that he is averaging
more than five changes per match.
When his team is winning, this squad rotation policy can be seen as
an astute management of resources. But when Liverpool struggle,
Benitez is cast as a man trying to solve a Rubik's cube despite
being colour blind.
Fiddling for fiddling's sake doesn't provide an answer, as another
magnificent statistic demonstrates; one so startling it deserves to
be served on a silver platter and accompanied by a glass of vintage
red. In a total of 153 matches, Benitez has named an unchanged side
only once.
On that night, Benitez confounded everyone by selecting the same 11
against Bordeaux in the Champions League, a wild and crazy notion
that was rewarded with a 3-0 victory.
Afterwards the Liverpool manager justified this behaviour, saying:
'I thought if we are playing well, we have the confidence and we
have time, then we can use the same team.'
Brilliantly simple. But not so brilliantly simple that he ever
tried it again. And if that was his rationale back then, are we to
presume that he hasn't opted for the same line up again because his
side hasn't been playing well in the intervening period? Not even
after beating Derby 6-0? Or was Benitez being contrary for a more
selfish reason that night?
The Bordeaux game was his 99th in charge and it is more likely his
selection had less to do with fitness and more to do with him
wanting to dodge headlines referring to a 'century of
tinkering'.
Whatever the reasoning, all this twisting and turning is obviously
not doing much good right now. It's not so much a rotation policy
as a tragic roundabout.