Has Rafa Benitez gone bonkers?

Today is a somewhat slow day in terms of footy news, the biggest item being Doncaster defeating Aston Villa 3-0 in the Carling Cup. *yawn*

Budden hor, as I was reading the other football stories in today's online newspapers, I came across two particular headlines and quotes attributed to Rafael Benitez:

Benitez Expected Gerrard To Scoop Award

"I was waiting, maybe expecting, to hear that Steven Gerrard would win the European Footballer of the Year award..."

Benítez Says Kewell Must Rediscover The Skip In His Stride

"Peter Crouch... has been the key [to Liverpool's rise in form], keeping the ball for us and giving us so much."

Señor Rafael Benitez, ¿usted ha ido loco? Been watching way too many football videos izit? Or perhaps you've had one sangria too many this morning?

Steven Gerrard was only on the Ballon D'Or shortlist because of one match in Istanbul, and even Rafa acknowledges this.

"I felt he could have won it this time, [because] he played in the Champions League final in three different positions and was our inspiration."

Peter Crouch as a key factor? Someone sounds very desperate to justify why Crouch is in his first XI.

I tried so hard, but could not get past the fact that the second headline above implies Rafael Benitez is encouraging the biggest softie in Merseyside to skip instead of walk like a man. Of course, calling Harry Kewell the biggest softie in Merseyside will cause many a debate, as there would be many others who will argue that Luis Garcia or Boudewijn Zenden deserve that award instead.

Liverpool play Sunderland at the Stadium of Light later tonight, and need to win by two clear goals to take fourth position in the league table. A 1-0 win will only take the Scousers up to fifth, behind Wigan Athletic on number of goals scored. Before any hardcore Koppites go out and put money on a red win, I'd just like to point out that Sunderland's last home win in the premiership was on 15th December 2002; 2-1 versus Liverpool. Will history repeat itself tonight?

Toodles

[Photo of Rafa Superstar taken from The Gallery @ Guardian Unlimited Football]
[Photo of Harry Kewell taking a dive vs Chelsea taken from The Melbourne Age]