Chelsea Fans Should Trust Benitez to Get His End-of-Season Juggling Act Right

Chelsea’s well-deserved 1-0 victory over Manchester United in their FA Cup quarter-final replay at Stamford Bridge on Monday afternoon has fully justified head coach Rafa Benitez’s much-publicised and controversial team selection on the South Coast two days earlier.

The Spaniard was heavily criticized from all quarters in the immediate aftermath of the West London club’s surprising 2-1 defeat at struggling Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon, a match in which the Blues had made a number of eye-catching team selections.

Benitez was accused by all of trying to beef up his already impressive managerial CV by wanting to add yet another trophy to it at the expense of trying to secure Chelsea a place in the top four of the Premier League come May time, and with it a spot in next season’s Champions League, an end-of-campaign target which the club’s hierarchy had made an absolute priority for the manager when he agreed to take over from Roberto Di Matteo last November.

However, not only were these arguments disingenuous, but they also completely misunderstood Benitez as a top-level manager.

For starters, the likes of substitutes Ashley Cole, David Luiz, Eden Hazard and Demba Ba had all played for their countries in competitive fixtures during the international break, unlike their fresher replacements at St Mary’s. Another sub, Brazil midfield player Ramires, was struggling with a groin injury, while Gary Cahill was injured and Juan Mata was ill.

And, with the club facing the exertions of having to play in two must-win fixtures in the space of three days, Chelsea’s starting XI pretty much picked itself against the Saints, not that one would have known that from reading the match reports the following day.

Not only that, but to also hear the many post-match cries from both the press and Blues supporters alike that the former Valencia, Liverpool and Inter Milan head coach was only selfishly interested in massaging his managerial portfolio was simply laughable.

For one thing, how many coaches are there in world football who actually like losing? And if there are any out there, and by the way I do not know of any, then I suggest they think of a change of vocation.

Whether you like Benitez or not, one thing is for sure: the Madrid-born trainer is a winner. Always has been, and always will be, hence a CV that stands scrutiny with the very best coaches currently operating on Planet Football.

And that was what the Spaniard was trying to do against Mauricio Pochettino and Co on Saturday, but clearly still with one eye on Monday’s stiffer examination against United, although in the end the Saints proved a far harder test than the Premier League champions elect.

Benitez wanted to beat Southampton, and United too preferably, as he wants to win every game when he takes charge of the Blues, or any other club for that matter.

However, what he was obviously doing was playing a dangerous balancing act involving team selection and the fixture list, something he was an expert at while coaching Liverpool when he was often forced to juggle his line-ups between key Premier League fixtures in order to get the Merseysiders into the top four of the league and massive cup ties.

And almost always, he got the balance just right.

Benitez would have looked at the top-flight standings on Saturday morning, the fixtures that Chelsea have coming up, the fitness levels of the players who he had available to him after international duty and then decided on his starting XI.

If you had given him, or Chelsea fans for that matter, the choice prior to kick-off on Saturday between winning one of their Bank Holiday fixtures, then it is a no brainer to opt for the United match.

As now, not only are Chelsea still in the Cup with a great chance of winning two trophies this season (and yes, both those will end up on Benitez’s CV, something I am sure Arsenal fans would not turn their noses up at), but Champions League qualification remains very much in their own hands as they lead fifth-in-the-table Arsenal by two points, and trail third-placed Tottenham Hotspur by only two, but with a game in hand on Andre Villas-Boas’s men, with just eight matches of the season now left to play.

And, if you look at the three respective teams’ top-flight run-ins between now and May 19, you would back the Blues to secure that coveted top-four finish, even with what looks like severe fixture congestion along the way.

"The priority for us is to finish in the top four but in a top side you have to keep in every competition and try to win it,” said Benitez in his press conference after the United victory.

"The race for the top four will be up until the end of the season but we are in the top four with a game in hand, we are in the semi-finals of the FA Cup and the Europa League quarter-finals, so it is a great season so far.”

The much-maligned Spaniard is right in what he says about the potential for this so far dispiriting and at times often poisonous campaign in west London to climax in glory, although you’d be hard pressed to ever hear anyone at the Bridge use the words “great season” and “Benitez” in the same sentence.

And maybe if Rafa gets his juggling act just right, all three targets can be achieved, which much as Chelsea fans may find hard to believe, would greatly please the Spaniard as he departs the Bridge this summer.

Read more Chelsea news on BleacherReport.com

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