Liverpool FC Forum

[Spanishfan]

This is Benitez being interviewed by Valencia fans on the net. Hope it is interesting to you.

ESTHEROIDE:
When did you start coaching?


RB. At the age of 16 I was already coaching amateur teams at the holiday resort I used to go. Later on at university I was a player manager

Do you see yourself as Valencia coach for many years like they do at Bayern or Man Utd?

I would love to do that, but that is unlikely in Spanish football. I have one year more and then we'll see.


Francisco José Zaragozá:
Sorry to have my doubts about you before seing you working. Who is your favourite coach?

I've studied many coaches live, but the ones I admire most are Sacchi, Maturana and Johan Cruyff. I complement my formation reading a lot, watching many videos, travelling, my own analysis, and talking to small team coaches. All that improves your knowledge.

August Lorente:
How do you deal with players misbehaviour?

We have regulations that deal with these problems( timekeeping, mobile phones, insubordination). Those who don't follow the rules are dealt with internally and we move on.

 
o Jose Vicente Pla:
Have youe ever felt alone at the club?


RB When you ask me that is becuase you belive that has been the case. Here very few give you support when we get bad results, but there is always someone who does. I am honest with you: since I started coming to this forum I noticed that I wasn't as alone as I thought. Thank you.
o J.E.Romero y Adrián:
Valencia Supporters are convinced that at home with a more attacking formation, i.e. diamond midfield and two strikers, we would be better off. What's your opinion?

The important thing is to get to the box, not if you have more or less strikers. Surely we would have more presence upfront but we would lose the balance in midfield because of the characteristics of our midfielders. We have used the diamond frequently at home and only against weak sides we have managed. Against balanced teams we have lost the battle in midfield and sometimes even the game.

o Antonio Badía:
There are two aspects of the team that I don't like. Ones is that the team doesn't go to kill off the opposition from the begining, and secondly that the team doesn't get enough rebounds outside the opposition area, and that in spite of being the team that puts more crosses in the box in the Spanish League. Why is that?

I believe that there is an atmosphera surrounding the club that makes us believe that we are far superior to the rest of the teams and we don't come out fully focused at times. Against strong teams we go out far more concentrated and we don't give so many chances (Real Madrid). We are trying to correct that but we haven't achieved it yet.

It is true that we don't get as many second balls as we should, and you see, with the diamond shaped midfield it would be even worse. When we go really at the opposing team is when we get more of these rebounds, but we still need to work on that.
 
o Luigi:

The wing play is very good, we beat opponents many times and so keeps the other team worried about that danger and so leaves more space in the middle, but I have noticed that there are not alternatives to the winger trying to beat the full back. Wouldn't it be more productive trying to move the ball around short and quickly as an alternative, making the other team go running after the ball, even if that means passing the ball back and losing a bit of directness? I believe this style would creat more spaces for the attackers, especially at home.

You are right. We keep insisting in not trying to get forward so quickly, but the style and abilities of some of our players makes it difficult to achieve it, and also you have the fact that we have won many games using that style. To me it would be ideal to combine both styles, one more direct and the other more intrincated. When we get Baraja and Aimar on the ball the second option is easier to achieve.


o Ayala:

Why do you trust the academy players so little?
All coaches love to use academy players, but we ask for titles and are not patient enough for the youngsters to evolve. If contracts (coaches) were longer and fans were told what the plans were it would be easier to satisfy everyone.


o Pablo Balanzá:
The team looks more focused this year. What has changed? Maybe the players though about your famous sentence last year "we have to put up with each other for two more months" (players and coach)

I believe they have realised of all the mistakes we made in the past. I think the future looks good.


o Jose Manuel Marí:
Is it true that there are cameras on the roof of the stadium to record Valencia games and then the data is passed into a computer to analyse and program training sessions, games, etc?

Yes, we have 7 cameras that record every move on the pitch, what the players do with and without the ball. TThen that data is compared against other games and thus we can evaluate each player and the team as a whole. they are very useful.

o Golum:
I;ve heard you are like using the net and get into the fans forums.
Yes, I use the internet very frequently and I can tell you that I read very interesting comments by the fans. there is always someone who makes you discover something new that you hadn't thought of.

[JBG]

Excellent post, Spanish fan, very informative.

Especially interesting are the points on the 7 cameras and the bit about him reading fans' forums.

[sinema]

Thank you, Spanish fan.  Very informative again.  You are a very welcome addition to this forum.  Keep up the good work.

[115-1073096938]

Good stuff... cheers

[chiggz_likes_owen]

Some good sh*t man...

[anfieldadorer]

Thanks, mate. For me it's not easy to seek for such information, i suppose the original article is in spanish, isn't it?

[begintoend]

Well extracted. I am really happy to know so much.

When was this reported? During which of his 3 seasons?

If any, I'll like to know about his 1st championship winning season.

[JohnBull]

Considering I was an O'Neil supporter the more I've read about Benitez the more I've realised I was wrong - I'd never really looked at the man.

REALLY looking forward to the next few seasons !!

[XSD]

Excellent post, Spanish fan, very informative.

Especially interesting are the points on the 7 cameras and the bit about him reading fans' forums.

Houllier posts on here regularly :P

[dundees pace]

By far the best post I've read here.

How many managers in England can you think of who would admit to learning off the fans?

Great to see our new boss is so open minded and receptive to the fans ideas.

Good stuff!

[Spanishfan]

Well extracted. I am really happy to know so much.

When was this reported? During which of his 3 seasons?

If any, I'll like to know about his 1st championship winning season.

The interview took place this season.

During his first year Valencia was a much more defensive outfit than this year. Cuper was sacked because they didn't manage to qualify for the CH L and they played very boring stuff. So Benitez takes over and keeps the good work on the defensive end (Valencia conceaded very few goals) and in attack they don't get many goals but they manage to win many games 1-0 (boring boring Valencia  ). Their top goalscorer in the Spanish League was Baraja with....8 goals. Mind you, with Carew as centerforward you can't do miracles. In the Spanish Cup they went out very soon (top clubs in Spain don't care about this competition) so they could concentrate for most of the season on the League. In the UEFA CUP they went out to Cuper's Inter Milan in the quarter finals, after some heroics from Toldo. The following year it was the same story but this time in the CH L, in the most one sided game I've ever seen with Valencia having at least 25 shots on goal and went out on the away goals rule.

this was the top of the table in Benitez's first league title

                 Points  Won Drawn Lost Goals  Goals against
1 Valencia     75       21      12     5     51         27   
2 Deportivo    68       20       8    10    65         41
3 Real Madrid  66      19        9    10    69         44
4 Barcelona    64      18       10    10    65         37

And compare with this year's title

                 Points  Won Drawn Lost Goals  Goals against
1 Valencia     77       23      8     7     71        27   
2 Barcelona    72       21      9     8     63       39
3 Deportivo    71       21      9     9     60       34
4 R Madrid     70       21       7    10    72       54

[Dalglish]

Couple of Great posts on Liverpool's new manager there and a rare insight into Benitez's approach. Watched them (Valencia) twice at Anfield and was impressed both times, clearly a strong defensive unit but good going forward as well and decent to watch


Thanks for the input Spanish fan , much appreciated:D

[begintoend]

Cuper was sacked because he could not get Valencia into CL. Meaning Valencia position was in 5-6 place.

With whatever is left, Beni came in and brought instant success! Ok, he was left with strengths in the defence. 

Now what is Beni left with in LFC so that he can improve? Don't tell me its history....

[anfieldadorer]

Very useful, mate...
Do you know something about Paco Hererra?