| Rafael Benitez |
After a successful period at Valencia, Rafael Benitez won the Champions League in his first year as manager of Liverpool. In a spectacular final, Liverpool was able to overcome a 3-0 deficit and won on penalties. Benitez is really calm and modest about his success as a coach. “It is all about hard work.” Can it be that simple?
By Frans Hoek and Paul van Veen
It is evident that we are taken seriously by the Liverpool staff. There are five chairs positioned in the area of the hotel where we are being welcomed, three of which are being occupied by Pepe Reina (Liverpool goalkeeper), manager Rafael Benitez and goalkeeping coach Xavi Valero. After a short introduction, Reina is reminded of his rest period and he goes back to his hotel room.
Why are you successful as a coach?
It is simply a matter of hard work. You don’t do it alone. You need to have good staff around you. You need to have the right people in the right places that are able to do what they are good at, and they must be willing to work hard. At Liverpool we have a goalkeeping coach, a physical trainer, two technical trainers, and people watching opponents and scouts who are continually looking for new players to strengthen the team, which leads us to the next issue. In order to be successful, a coach needs a good selection of players, and if you have that, all you can achieve is success.
This is the basis for the success of every coach. I have talked with many coaches and noticed that generally these coaches look at the game in similar ways. The way coaches are, is for the most part, the same and I am no different.
There are, however, a lot of things that can and should be coached, and that may be where the differences arise. One coach will, for example, pay more attention to the technical aspects, and another coach will spend more time on the tactical parts.
What is your ideal way of playing?
People seem to talk about long balls and short passes a lot. If you see most discussions, it seems that you have to choose between one of those two options. But for me, it is a mix of both things. You have to control both ways of playing. Unfortunately, not a lot of coaches seem to do this. The long ball is the fastest way to approach the opponent’s goal, so it is essential that you master this. But you don’t use the long pass only to play from defense to offense. You also use it to switch play from right to left and vice versa. But this playing style is not always the most efficient. Sometime it is more efficient to use short passes to build up an attack.
It is important for your team to be able to work with different ideas and know what to do. They need to know how to approach every game, because situations can differ from game to game. For example, if you need to play counterattack in a certain match, you need to know how to do it. The same holds if we have to press high, the whole team then knows what to do.
You know the Dutch like to play with the ball. We always say we control the game with the ball, but in Spain it does not work like that. Can you explain this?
When I was coaching in Spain, I was playing 4-3-1-2 and 4-4-2 with a sweeper. Now in England, we play 4-4-2 with a line of four at the back and at Valencia it was 4-3-2-1. But I think it is important for the players to know what to do against different opponents and every culture, but also every opponent has a different approach. So they have to be able to play in different systems as well.
How do you practice that?
We teach players how to master a system. But I teach a lot of the systems by asking the players questions. What should we do in this situation? We do this both on the pitch as well as in the classroom. How do you solve it? How do you make them think?
You let them think as well?
Especially, after two or three years training with the youth, you learn that you should develop players.
When you buy other players, do you think about the system of play?
Most of the times, when looking for new players, we look for players who fit into the current system. We search for what would be the best solution for the current system we are playing. But if we would be able to buy players with exceptional qualities that would play better in a different system, it would be no problem to change from 4-4-2 to 4-3-1-2. But most systems look alike, because if your wingers in 4-4-2 play a little bit more upfront, you can call it 4-2-4.
What about scouting?
You have to talk to the scouts and let them know which type of player you are searching for.
What information are you looking for on the opponent?
I have a goalkeeper coach, a second coach and a conditioning coach, and I have two more people in the technical department and some people who are looking at the opponents we are playing soon. First of all, I want to know the system they are playing, how they mark and the movement of the players. Then you want to have information about the important players that are playing on that team. We prepare some clips that we can show to the players. Furthermore, we have the AMISCO system so we get all the details of the players, like the number of touches.
What is the difference between the two cultures, Valencia (Spain) and Liverpool (England)?
English soccer is more physical; it is quicker. Spanish soccer is more technical. Sometimes, you see a change, especially the top sides now, like Arsenal and Chelsea. So in the top sides it is different, but on the average in the league it is more physical.
Is the league as strong as in Spain?
Yes, I think so, but here in England, especially away, you can have a difficult time, also against the lower-ranked teams, because they have a passion in these types of games. In the cup matches, this effect is even stronger.
Do you spend a lot of time on restarts?
We try to practice all aspects of the game. We try to explain to the players what the basic philosophy of our game is. Furthermore, we try to explain when to stay, when to press, etc. When you try to coach the counterattack, for example, where you have to play the ball quickly, you will do exercises in which the players have to pass the ball quickly. It is as simple as that. But nowadays there is a problem in that there are too many things players have to control. Sometimes, when you play two games a week, you don’t have the time to practice all of that. So the preseason is one of the most important periods of the season for a coach.
What do you think is decisive at the top level?
You need to score and have chances to score. The way you achieve this can be done in different ways. You can attack all the time and you can play counterattack. It doesn’t matter. Both ways can be attractive to watch. People sometimes say that you can buy goals, but it is not as easy as it sounds. It is very difficult for a player to change a play by himself. We have a lot of players scoring 5 or 6 goals and that is an advantage, too. Because the opponents are so organized nowadays, it is much more difficult to defend if more people can score than just the striker.
What would you advise young coaches?
You need to have passion, and you just have to work hard. If you have talent and work hard, in the end you will end up with a top side. If you are not good enough, but if you just work hard, you could still reach a nice level. But if you are really good and you don’t work hard or don’t have passion, you of course still have a chance to make it, but you most likely will not reach the top.
Beenhakker is a people manager, with a motto: “Let them feel comfortable.” Van Gaal is more about the game, but not so much about the player. What do you do?
Balance is the key. You have to find the right balance, but I think it also depends on the personality of the coach. For example, with a goalkeeper coach, the relationship with the players is important—you have much more individual contact with the players. Furthermore, you have to realize as a coach you can’t change too many things. A player already has to have the personality to understand how to do certain things to do the job. As a coach you have to understand the personality to understand the players as well.
Do you have a plan for the practice sessions?
We have a plan at the beginning of the season. The plan is quite similar every year, but it can always change based on the team you have and the things you see in the matches. We also have a physical plan. But the most important thing is the tactical plan, because after each game you need to change something. For example, if you are practicing pressing and you see the team has problems with that, you know you need to practice it more. But we try to stick to the plan as much as possible so that as many aspects of the game are covered throughout the year.
Why did you choose this system for Liverpool?
The typical style to play in England is 4-4-2. Sometimes you have to know the tradition, and you have to play that way. After two or three years you can sign players that understand another system, but in the beginning we try to use a system they are familiar with.
Physically in England they are very strong. They way we deal with that is to make sure that every player we sign can cope with this situation. In the first year we ended up fifth and we won the Champions League, but we were very strong at the back. In the second year we signed Crouch and Reina, so we became more physical to be able to play in the English League. If you play against a small team that is very aggressive, you can’t play the ball back, you have to play the long ball and win the second ball. But it is very different if you play Arsenal or if you play Bolton.
Sessions?
We do small games, but we don’t have anything new to offer to coaches. We can’t say that is my exercise, that is not true, we all learn for many years and we all learn from different people.
Your favorite exercise?
We play a lot of possession games, but not just possession, possession with the aim to get the pass delivered. But we also put something extra into it: for example, people have to support over a certain line. Furthermore, we also do this a lot as part of the play. And if you practice counterattack you can have three, but also five or 10 options.
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