Benítez sees room for improvement in main strike pairing
The Guardian
Rafael Benítez has asked Djibril Cissé and Milan Baros to room together on away trips to try to foster an understanding thus far missing from Liverpool's first-choice strike partnership this season.
Benítez used a similar technique to help the Real Madrid youth teams bond while he was at the Bernabéu and has already encouraged the Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard to arrange social functions for the squad to improve team spirit.
But his priority is the front pairing. They go into this evening's match against Charlton with only five Premiership goals between them this season. "I've had Milan and Djibril room together and sometimes sit down together and talk with each other about what they are doing and how they are playing," said Benítez. "I think they are friends off the pitch as well.
"You can't change the mentality of all the players and force them to be friends but you need to cultivate team spirit somehow. I spoke with Steven Gerrard and he arranged get-togethers for the squad, like trips go-karting."
Benítez's amateur psychology did much to unite the Valencia squad during his successful three-year spell at the Mestalla, helping break Real Madrid's stranglehold on La Liga and leaving a permanent legacy - an Argentinian barbecue, or parilla, at the club's training complex. "At Valencia I used to let my Argentinian players leave training earlier than the other players so they could prepare meat for the team on a parilla ," he said.