[lfc-news] Thumbs up for Rafa's reds - Observer

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The Observer 24 April 2005
Thumbs up for Rafa's reds
Liverpool under a calm and focused Benítez have the European cup in
their sights once again
By Amy Lawrence

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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