Liverpool FC Forum

by **Madmax** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 5:09 am

since these last few wins the mood seems really good here.. Nice change!!! hope it stays like this.. :cool:

by **Owzat** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:14 am

whiskeynose isn't happy at the red card for Rooney, isn't that a crying shame.

whiskeynose wrote:The ball was thrown to where the free-kick was being taken - did it hit the referee? No

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7957298.stm

It was dissent, the ball thrown away - even if it was in the direction of the free-kick, it was done in a way to show his disapproval at the decision to retake it. Ronaldo showed enough dissent during the game that he could have been sent off too, instead of moaning about the booking he should be taking it up with the players for their attitude. I wonder if he'll moan about Friedel's red card......................

by **LFC_fan** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:54 pm

found this article on SSN and thought it was short , sweet and interesting.

================================================
No cracks for Rafa
Geoff considers Liverpool's enigmatic manager

Geoff Shreeves Posted 23rd March 2009 view comments

Shock and awe at Anfield on Sunday and that was before the result too. Before the kick off, in fact.

Rafa Benitez picked the 11 players to start the game that Andy Gray expected him to! When I say Andy expected, I have to add the rider that my colleague is nearly always stumped not just by the Spaniard's selection but also the thinking behind it.

So did Rafa play what he now considers to be his strongest starting eleven? It certainly looked that way and therefore begs the question as to whether he will play it as often as possible in the run in to the title.

The other major surprise is that the Liverpool coach allowed his captain Steven Gerrard to stay on the pitch to try and complete his hat-trick.

Fifty minutes gone and the home side are 4-0 up, game over. Having been hauled off when he'd scored two against Real Madrid the previous week, the Liverpool skipper was understandably looking anxiously towards the touchline, in fear of getting hooked.

He needn't have worried though, Rafa really wanted him to complete his first ever league hat-trick. Not for individual glory mind you, just for goal difference!

Quite simply, Benitez does not do emotion. Goal celebrations, smiles, cheers, pats on backs do not feature in his repertoire. Gerrard has said his two burning ambitions are to win the Premier League for Liverpool and get a "Well done" from Rafa. Shortening price for the first hope, very long odds the second.

Improve is Benitez mantra. He told me he was born to be a coach and even when he was a 13-year-old boy he would give his team mates marks out of 10 and tell them how they could improve.

Added to this, by his own admission, he was a modest footballer so he must have been really popular!

Off camera Rafa is often warm, hospitable and chatty, nothing like the short answering straight batsman he becomes when the red light goes on.

I've asked him many a time why he won't be himself for the media or indeed be more bullish about his team's prospects but he says that's just not for him. Talk too much and you set yourself up for a fall as well as putting unnecessary pressure on your team is his stance.

Rafa's rant? Even that was premeditated, considered and coldly delivered. Quite simply although he's hard boiled, Rafa is a good egg and as we approach Easter he's certainly not cracking up.

In fact he's on the hunt.

by **Reg** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 4:20 pm

Man Utd will stay strong when Ferguson retires - 23.03.09

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez believes Manchester United will remain strong after Sir Alex Ferguson eventually retires.

"I don't think it will be any easier for us when Ferguson goes," said Benitez.

"United is a fantastic club with big money and it will always be difficult to beat them - even without Alex Ferguson."

Benitez also reckons the Champions League quarterfinal draw has handed a major advantage to United.

He added: "Clearly our side of the draw is more difficult, so for me United are clearly favourites in the other half."
++

Equally clear is Rafa winding up Fergie talking in terms of post Whiskybottle.

by **destro** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:04 am

Just heard on Sky that some reporter from The S*n has done some sort of story from information he got from Paco about Raffa and the way he lives,eats and breathes football, he ( Paco ) said Raffa has either 40 or70 scouts and a data base of thousands of footballers from all over the world, including videos and stats. ( no exact figures as I only caught a bit of it )

I obviously don't have a link to the story due to the piece of toilet paper its printed in but based on what they said on Sky about it the bloke is addicted to football, we all know he might not get it right with transfers every time but his attention to detail and the time and effort he spends surrounding himself with such knowledge of possible transfer targets or maybe even weaknesses in up coming opposition players is amazing.

EDIT : got it off the website

Benitez has completely transformed the club who were the sleeping giants of English football when he arrived in 2004.

Resurgent Liverpool moved within a point of Premier League leaders Manchester United at the weekend and suddenly their first title in 19 years does not seem impossible.

Benitez, 48, has just signed a new five-year, 20million contract in a superb fortnight that has seen the Reds put 13 goals past Real Madrid, United and Aston Villa.

So as the Spaniard begins his second five-year cycle at the club we reveal how he:

Has created a 70-strong scouting network and a players’ database with information on 14,000 professionals.

Transformed the training ground and even had a hotel built for the players at Melwood.

Banned fizzy drinks and revolutionised the players’ eating habits.

Built a video room and hired staff who can get any game from the world’s 12 top leagues.

Benitez’s former Anfield No 2 Paco Herrera, now boss of Castellon in Spain, was a vital member of his original quartet of assistants that also included Paco Ayestaran, Jose Manuel Ochotorena and Alex Miller.

Herrera said: Rafa lives football 24 hours a day, that’s the first detail.

He has faith in his coaching staff and we had a great team of people.

In the first two years we played five finals and we won three.

It was an excellent group of people. We met every morning to prepare the work of the week and the work of the day.

We studied the rivals we were going to face. Benitez does not leave any room for improvisation and he himself supervises everything.

It’s true he has a database with information on more than 10,000 players.

Everything started when we arrived there. I signed on as assistant manager but three months later my role changed because we all realised that there were serious problems in the technical department.

"Liverpool was very antiquated in that sense. So Rafa asked me to change my role and occupy myself with this issue. He wanted me to become the chief scout and start organising, along with himself, the technical department.

It was when we started to sign up all the scouts — and from what I remember all the ones who started then are still there.

All of them, or almost all of them, have had a direct professional relationship with Rafa — like Laurent Viaud, who was a player at Extremadura when Rafa was boss and is now a French scout.

We started incorporating people from one country or another. As time went by Rafa proposed to create a personal database, apart from the one at the club which is also very interesting.

So he created a personal one and that’s where every day all the scouts from every country are putting information on all the players they are watching.

I would say it would be closer to 14,000 players than 10,000.

And thorough Benitez did not stop at the scouting network. Everything from dietary habits to training-ground facilities and spying on Liverpool’s opponents changed radically.

A video room was created with a dedicated team of people who can give Benitez DVDs of any game he wants from at least 12 top leagues in the world.

And a hotel was built in the training ground so the manager can keep his players there on the eve of big games, especially in Europe.

Herrera added: Everything was created little by little.

Most of the things were done in the first two years. Like the video room, with staff who deal with this issue 100 per cent.

There are big satellite dishes and contracts with two or three companies that make sure that every month the club get all the videos from every country.

There have been little improvements, even though Melwood was already an excellent training ground.

In the second year we started building a hotel of about 20 rooms.

It was completed before I left, so that the players could concentrate there above all before Champions League games.

The players rest there in the training centre and they don’t go to any hotel.

Ayestaran and Benitez also created small hills in the training ground for the players to do resistance running.

Everything is very detailed and thought through.

The players’ dietary habits also underwent a radical transformation, from the times of meals to what the Kop idols actually eat.

Herrera added: Yes, the dietary habits were changed from the outset when we arrived.

In general terms, in the teams where the management staff were English the diet was not very careful.

"So at the start in the entire training ground, which is very big, in the restaurant, in areas with refrigerators where you can get energy drinks and isotonic drinks — as soon as Rafa arrived he banned everything that he thought might be bad for the players.

From that day the food was meticulously studied because the players eat breakfast there and also lunch.

Now every breakfast or lunch is made with commonsense for the good of an athlete.

Having inherited a distinctly average squad from previous chief Gerard Houllier, Benitez managed to go on and win the Champions League, European Super Cup and the FA Cup in his first two years.

He reached the Champions League final again in 2007 but lost to AC Milan — the side the Reds famously came back from three down at half-time to beat in Istanbul two years before that.

This season Liverpool are mounting a credible title challenge for the first time during the Benitez era — and the first time since the 2001-02 campaign when the Anfield outfit finished second behind Arsenal.

Since Herrera left in the summer of 2006, Benitez’s backroom set-up has also undergone a transformation.

Former players Sammy Lee and Mauricio Pellegrino, plus ex-Valencia and Atletico Madrid fitness coach Paco De Miguel, now hold the key positions.

Herrera added: What most people like at Anfield is to have an idea of play and a set pattern. Win or lose, the team plays with purpose and a pre-determined idea.

What they value is the personality of Rafa. Professionals are respected there and Rafa is hugely respected.

Bill Shankly is a myth for them — he is everything.

But I think that Rafa, in those five years at least, will match what they consider Shankly to be.

by **Sabre** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:27 am

Yep Destro, that database is hardly a secret since Rafa the other day gave a class to 15 Spanish coaches that went to Melwood to learn. They were shown the database and all.

It's interesting the bit about the diet, I hadn't heard anything about it.

by **Ciggy** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:32 am

Sabre wrote:It's interesting the bit about the diet, I hadn't heard anything about it.

Its probably lies seen as it was in the S*n :angry:

by **destro** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:42 am

Sabre wrote:Yep Destro, that database is hardly a secret since Rafa the other day gave a class to 15 Spanish coaches that went to Melwood to learn. They were shown the database and all.

It's interesting the bit about the diet, I hadn't heard anything about it.

No fizzy drinks can only be a good thing, we have all witnessed first hand the affects Fanta can have on people

by **zarababe** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:27 pm

Flight wrote:Rafas rant did what he intended, whether people realise or not. The refs have finally found the balls they've been missing for years to do what they should against the Mancs and Taggart.

Fulham 2 Mancs 0

Rooney and Scholes sent off

Yep the point I was gonna make too - the games up for Fergie and the press are now getting the nerve to question his behaviour et el Mancs 1- 4 Rafa's Reds "we were the better team" :lookaround

avoiding post match interviews with sky now.. team loosing the plot etc etc ..

Rafa's Rant - well the game is up Fergie FACT !

by **zarababe** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:34 pm

Hotel at Melwood ay.. didn't know about that !

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