Liverpool FC Forum

by **stmichael** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 10:58 am

Thumbs up for Rafa's reds

Liverpool under a calm and focused Benítez have the European cup in their sights once again

Amy Lawrence
Sunday April 24, 2005
The Observer

Midway into his forties and a decade into a notoriously stressful profession, there is not a speck of a grey hair on his thoughtful head. Rafael Benítez appears to be as naturally placid, soft of voice and mellow in gesture as a football manager can possibly be.
'I'll explain something to you,' the Spaniard says. Leaning forward in his chair, welcoming us into his world, he recounts a story from his days in charge of Real Madrid's junior team. It was half-time and he was heading for the dressing room. 'My father, mother and sister were here ,' he says, pointing to a space no more than a metre in front of him. 'They said, "Hey! Hello!" and I walked right through them. I was focused on the game.' He smiles at the memory, chortling about how later, back at home, his father rebuked him. 'I try to control these things, but I couldn't switch off from thinking about the game. We were losing 1-0 at the time.'

Don't be fooled by the serene exterior. Don't assume that, just because he appears diametrically opposite to José Mourinho on the personality spectrum, he is any less obsessional and attentive to detail. He regularly spends 10 hours a day at the Melwood training ground, then goes home to talk to his wife, Montse, about the history of Liverpool Football Club (since arriving on Merseyside last summer they have both crammed voraciously from books and videos). He has been known to shout instructions to his team in his sleep.
Benítez absorbs himself so completely in football, come match day he is conscious of precious little outside the perimeter of the pitch. 'Sometimes people say, "Ah, the stadium is full" but I don't hear it or see it. I don't see anything really.' He hunches forward as if in the dugout and sweeps his arm to indicate a void behind him. Even when he is regaled by the Kop's rewritten version of 'La Bamba' sang in his honour it often needs his assistant Paco Ayesteran to nudge him into raising a hand to his new disciples.

Benítez is only too happy to subordinate himself when it comes to attention. What matters is his players, his club and the technicalities of the match in front of him. He is not one for pontificating, posturing, pumping up his own ego. What does he think when he sees himself on television? 'When I prepare sequences and I see myself,' he begins to blush, 'I cut.'

In the final minutes of the video of Liverpool's impressively professional job in Turin's Stadio Delle Alpi, there is a striking clip of the away supporters at the precise moment they expunge the ache of 20 years distanced from the trophy they were used to holding dear. Emotion visibly spills out of them.

The thrill that Liverpool feel to be back on the brink of a European Cup final is understandable. Naturally, folk around Anfield have been yakking to Benítez about the triumphs of old. The pragmatist in him leaves others to get carried away by this Champions League adventure. 'I am not a dreamer,' he says. 'I prefer to work hard to win and then people around you can dream. My idea is to be calm and think about the game, the small details, to give the players confidence about what they can do. Experience tells you to try to control these little things because in the end maybe a small detail can change the game. History is written afterwards.'

His experience at Valencia, where a memorable chapter was written as Benítez's team hurdled the might of Spain's superclubs to win the league, has taught him to resist the notion of Chelsea's billions giving them an unassailable advantage in the semi-finals. 'All the pressure is on them,' he points out. 'Normally, if you spend a lot of money, you need to win trophies. But I always say the same. If you go to the tailor to buy a jacket, they will show you a better jacket if you have £10,000 than £1,000. Normally, when you spend more money you have something better. But, the whole thing is....' His eyes brighten and his voice quickens as he approaches the crux of the matter. Thankfully football is more complex, more magical, more unpredictable than tailoring. 'In Spain, for example, you have Barcelona and Real Madrid, but Valencia win. Why? Because it is football. Different things can work and influence matches. Here I will try to do the same.'

The jacket analogy brings together two fundamental (if seemingly contradictory) threads of Benítez's philosophy: as well as solid common sense, there is a romantic belief in the eternal possibility of sport.

Benítez, like Mourinho, was not a player of high repute. His evolution as a manager was steady - as recently as 1995 he was still working as a fitness instructor in a health club in his native Madrid. Coaching experience was garnered part-time with Real's youth set-up and he impressed enough for Vicente del Bosque to choose Benítez to be his assistant when he took charge of the first team in 1993-94.

Benítez left to try calling the shots himself. Spells at Valladolid, Osasuna and Extramadura did not hint that he was a particularly exciting managerial talent waiting to explode. He took a sabbatical year, visiting England and Italy to study different approaches, before returning to the sharp end with Tenerife.

He dislikes the idea that the quality of a coach is defined by silverware in the cabinet. 'There are a lot of good managers at small clubs who don't have the material to win trophies. They don't make it into history, but they are good enough. I always said, if you give me the chance at a big club we can win trophies.'

Promotion at Tenerife alerted Valencia and it was in Spain's third-biggest city that Benítez's reputation blossomed. After a 31-year wait, Valencia won La Liga - twice - as well as the Uefa Cup. In producing a slick, strong, authoritative team, he showed a tough side to his character. He endured a sharp relationship with the club's board and ran the team with an iron will. It has not been unknown for his former players to refer to him as 'cold'.

Consider the following portrayal of a successful manager. 'He is methodical - it's important to take care of small details - and he has the mentality of being a winner.' Benítez is talking about Mourinho, but he could just as easily be describing himself.

Even if Liverpool are not to win anything this campaign, Benítez has left a calling card in his debut season in England. The Champions League run has showcased his talents. Outfoxing Juventus in the quarter-finals was a major turning point in convincing the players what they are capable of.

'That was important for two different things,' Benítez explains. 'At home, we played with a very high tempo from the start against one of the best teams in Europe and beat them. Then in the second game, which everyone said was impossible without Steven Gerrard, we managed the game with fantastic tactics. So, we can win playing well with the best players and we can win working hard with ideas. We mixed the heart and the brain in the two games.

'Now we have more confidence in how to approach the games against Chelsea. It's a Champions League game and we don't want to think about it in terms of the Premiership. Our idea is to approach the game with the same mentality as usual. We are playing well, we are not afraid, we can beat anyone.'

There is a feeling in the Liverpool camp that, after three narrow, unlucky defeats by Chelsea this season, it is time for fortune to shine on the Reds. In the aftermath of the Carling Cup final defeat, Gerrard stated that he wanted another chance to put things right against the Londoners.

Only last week, Benítez's assistant echoed the sentiments - and he even envisaged another defeat on Wednesday night at Stamford Bridge. 'Paco told me, we will lose four times against them but win the fifth and be in the final,' Benítez says, grinning.

His close confidants clearly inspire and lift him. He has a long-running game with his wife, which began when they were in Valencia. 'She told me, "If you win the league, get me a watch." So I got her a watch. Then she said, "If you win the Uefa Cup, give me another watch" and now she says, "If you win the Champions League, another watch." She has a lot of confidence.' Not to mention a lot of watches.

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