Liverpool FC Forum

by **JBG** » Fri May 27, 2005 9:34 am

or a fantastic example of British grit

Great times are ahead for Liverpool - as soon as Rafael Benitez gets his head around the Premiership

Gordon Strachan
Friday May 27, 2005
The Guardian

When you look at what Liverpool have done to win the European Cup, their run has been as good as those by the great Anfield sides of old. They have beaten the Italian champions, Juventus, the English champions, Chelsea, and Milan. That's some going and it shows how strong the Premiership is.
I think the league in England is getting back to red hot. I have always been a big fan of Spanish football but when you look at Real Madrid and Valencia, who have missed Rafael Benítez, I think the standard there has dropped this season. And the Italian league has been really disappointing.

If you stick together this season's top five from the big leagues across Europe, the Premiership sides would more than compete. I know Arsenal and Manchester United went out of the Champions League reasonably early, but Liverpool won the thing and Chelsea knocked out Barcelona, who won the Spanish league, and Bayern Munich, the German champions.
It's amazing that Liverpool are champions of Europe when they finished 37 points behind Chelsea, but maybe that shows the depth in the Premiership. So far Liverpool under Benítez have been better suited to Europe than the harum-scarum of the league, but I think over time he will have them back challenging for prizes at home and abroad every season.

One thing that's helped Benítez is being detached from Liverpool. He's not someone who's going to claim that if you cut him open he bleeds red and white. There's none of that nonsense about dying for the shirt. He just wants to do the best he can, and it would be the same for him in any job.

You won't manage a club better because you played for or supported them. In fact not having links with a team or community can help. That way you don't have to deal with the disappointment of letting down friends and people you know. It makes it easier to take the pressure of losing.

Benítez's problem so far has been handling the Premiership, but he will sort that because he's an intelligent man. Liverpool lost to teams like Birmingham and Southampton last season, so it can't be skill that's beating them. He has to change the players' psyche from European to Premiership football.

Liverpool have a lot of new players who are more used to the European game and some others, like Milan Baros, who do better in Europe and internationals. It's not so much tactics as getting his players' heads round it.

It's probably been easier for Liverpool's players to relax in European games because they're used to the situation and the fans are more patient. Fans understand there's more thinking to be done in Europe and you have to be patient.

But the Premiership is not slow, slow, quick - it's quick, quick, quick, and you don't get so much protection. Don't be looking for a wonderful tactical equation that wins you games. It's sometimes about standing toe to toe and battling with people for a long period.

A lot of up-and-coming British coaches will look at Benítez winning the European Cup and wonder how they can get a job that offers them a chance to do that. I think the key is doing well in the Uefa Cup to begin with.

There are a small number of teams in England who can win the Champions League, and their chairmen want someone in charge who's shown they can handle Europe. You can't expect them to put faith in somebody who's been dotting about the middle of the Premiership or doing well in the Championship.

I think that's why Benítez is at Liverpool. The club weren't just thinking about the Premiership, they were thinking about the Champions League, and he has won the Uefa Cup. Jose Mourinho is similar at Chelsea. He didn't get that job by winning the league in Portugal. It was winning the Uefa Cup and then the Champions League that made him stand out.

In January I gave a lecture to coaches who were doing the full Uefa badge about how we can can get British coaches to the level where they can work with a Champions League team. Bryan Robson and Dave Jones were among the people there. I think if you get a chance at a club with European potential, you have to jump at it.

I had a couple of games in the Uefa Cup with Southampton and found them more exciting than all the European games I played in. As a coach I learned something right away.

We played Steaua Bucharest and they went, at the last minute, for a system we don't often come across here. Their players are adaptable enough to do that and it took us half an hour to sort things out. Once we did that we were the better team by miles for the next 90 minutes of the tie but they had scored early and that killed us.

Working in Europe helps any coach. The next step for Benítez is to crack the Premiership.

Liverpool FC Forum

Or a fantastic example of british grit - By gordon strachan (found by andy q)

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