In The Mind Of Rafa

[Rashid]

Stole this off another forum - RAWK - also featured on Est1892.

I think this shows Rafa's philosophy on style of play and what he values in his teams. Also a great interview from Rafa's hero Sacchi before the CL final....

Talent makes the difference, but it shouldn’t be incompatible with obligations. With hard work, perseverance and great didactic ability, Rafael Benitez has transformed Valencia into a football team in the most broad sense of the word. We’ve heard that your players are furious about getting knocked out in the Spanish Cup Furious is not the word, but rather focused, confident and well prepared. Every game is different. We are taking the positives of the 3-0 defeat in the Cup game. We created 7 goal scoring chances at the Bernabeu. We controlled the game for long periods and we played well. But they hurt you in the areas you had prepared most That’s true. We had talked about Ronaldo not getting the ball, stopping him controlling the ball and turning. We could have stopped their second goal, but to do everything right during 90 minutes is impossible, no matter how much you prepare the team. At the end of the day, the quality and talent of Real Madrid players made the difference. In football talent makes the difference, and Real Madrid have a lot of talent. They have many options. If you worry about their play in the middle, they attack you in the wide areas with Roberto Carlos, and if you try to press high they have Beckham to play balls behind your defence… When you try to stop their short passing they will change the direction of the attack with a long pass. They know all the secrets of football. That’s the reason your team are doing so well. You don’t have as much talent, but are fighting for the league. Yes, I feel we deserve praise. The team are trying their best and we are getting close to having the best season in the history of Valencia. We have been working hard for many months, but our target is not to win the league title but to challenge, to be in the top four and not feeling down if we don’t win it. Can this Valencia side get better? If we continue working like this we can improve. When you make the same mistakes game after game there is always margin for improvement. Could you be as effective and intense if you had players of the calibre of Real Madrid? I can only talk from my own experience. Firstly I coached two modest teams, Extremadura and Tenerife, and we were promoted to Primera Division. Then I arrived at Valencia and people were questioning if I could be successful. I showed that you can do the same work in a big team. The better the player, the easier to reach your targets. Along with quality and talent it is important that the player is a good professional who wants to work hard and improve. At Extremadura the players had to work harder than at Valencia. You have to adapt to the players but the more talent they have the better the chances of being successful and they will be allowed more freedom on the pitch. Talent is not incompatible with obligations. At Extremadura to get to the goal may cost you 5 kilometres, at Valencia 4.5, and at Real Madrid 4. My example is Milan’s Sacchi. That team had quality, discipline and intensity. Didn’t they? I am not going to argue with you on that That’s why you can ask Real Madrid players similar things, even if not exactly the same. Milan are the team that have impressed me most in the last two decades. The Real Madrid of la “Quinta del Buitre” played very good football, so did the Dream Team of Johan Cruyff. It was very entertaining stuff, but Milan played well and they didn’t allow the opposition to play well, they were ruthless. Now there are good teams like Real Madrid, Juventus, Manchester United, Milan who are the current European Champions, but it is not the same. You speak like if they were the best of the best. I think it is almost impossible to reach that level of strength, focus and organization. I know that in the history of the game there have been great teams like the Real Madrid of the 5 European Cups or the Santos of Pele that probably were better. But of all the teams I have seen Milan were the most compact and competitive. Let’s go back to the present. Losing on Sunday would mean saying goodbye to the league Of course not. If we lose there are still enough games to get back into contention. We’ll be challenging. Real Madrid are in the Champions League and that’s a tough competition Well, we are in the UEFA Cup and it is not as demanding but yet it makes it harder for us. The great virtue of Real Madrid is that even when they are playing badly they win. They have 5 chances and they score 3. Talent makes the difference. We were saying before, weren’t we? What’s your opinion on the current Real Madrid side, having played two consecutive games against them? For a team with so much individual talent, they play well as a team on occasions. I have noticed that their players are well motivated, and when you mix that with talent the performance is better. They have managed to perform well with Zidane out of the team. Those games were he was not present may have helped them perform better collectively, thing for which they were criticized in the past. I know for a fact that it is very difficult to find the balance in a team when you have so many star players. It is true that you should play all your quality players, but sometimes the team is more balanced when one is missing. How can your team hurt Real Madrid? If they don’t have the ball they struggle, but it is not easy to get it back from them, and they have showed that even without seeing much of the ball they still can kill you. We have recent evidence of that. They are a team that I know by heart, but I am more worried about us doing things well. I know it is not easy for other teams to get at us, but we also lose games and to avoid that we should stop making mistakes. Is this Valencia team better than the one that won the league? We have more options, we have better numbers, the players are as committed as they were then and they are more used to the system we play. We have played 8 or 10 games in the league almost perfectly, yet there are still margin for improvement. Sometimes we don’t press well. Other times we don’t play the counterattack well… And Sacchi's interview. You must be proud that two of your pupils are in the final…. I am more than proud. They’ve learnt too much. Last year at Real Madrid when we played Barcelona we had dinner with Laporta and he told me that Rijkaard has learned a lot from me. After our 3-0 defeat I told Laporta that Rijkaard had learnt too much, so have Benitez and Ancelotti. It is normal in the case of Carlo. After all he played for you. But Benitez went to learn your methods in his honeymoon, that’s stranger… He came to see me work at Milanello and when I was with the Italian NT. He is a great coach. He is showing that in a special football like English football. His biggest strength is that he can achieve much with very few top quality players. Gerrard is his most talented player, but he hasn’t got two like him. Liverpool are exemplary in two ways: their spirit and tactical organization. Benitez knows what he is doing. His team lacks talent, but they are a true team, compact, modern and with a great football culture. He’s work has been fantastic. He has said no to Real Madrid again… I know, I have read it. I believe Rafa is ready to coach Real Madrid or any club in the world. He is a master like very few, and when you have an encyclopaedia like him on the bench you have to trust the master. Rafa reminds me of myself when I was young. He is like me in some ways, but he has gone higher than me. He won the league and the UEFA Cup with Valencia. He arrived at Liverpool with a better CV than me when I arrived at Milan from Parma. I don’t share the opinion that Rafa can only coach teams without stars. If the star players don’t work hard they are worth nothing. You can see proof of that at Real Madrid last season. Ancelotti has more to choose from. Milan are something else…Yes, his team have more talent, more technical ability, more ability to keep the ball and boss the games. Their season has been a strange one. A few months ago they were going nowhere and now they are in the European Cup final after playing four extraordinary games against Bayern and Manchester. It is not common at all to start that badly and finish so strongly. The signature of Ronaldo, even if he can’t play in Europe, has helped them a lot. He has brought joy to the dressing room. Now Milan are almost the perfect mixture of what a great team must possess: technique, tactics, strength, stamina, the culture, a clear mind. But they are not yet at the level of your Milan side… I don’t know…The other day I spoke to Costacurta, who played for me 20 years ago and is still playing and told me that this Milan team has not reached the level of the old Milan. But against Manchester, in San Siro, they were very close, if not better. I admire their individual and collective creativity, their culture, their pressure on the ball and their speed. In other words, Milan are clear favourites. Yes, but I must say that they are playing the most difficult rival they could play. They are going to find it harder to beat Liverpool than United. Liverpool know all the secrets of football because their coach knows them all and because that club knows them from long ago. Liverpool can hurt teams playing counterattacking football, with those long passes. Milan should not leave space for them if they are to avoid negative surprises.

I still struggle to see why Rafa places so much emphasis on the opposition.... if he changed this thinking by even 25% I think we would be a different team overnight..

[Hermes]

A 3-0 defeat and "We controlled the game for long periods".

Dejavu, so comical if we hadn't heard it so many times since.

[Dirk]

Rash and Hermes tout the praises of the La Liga winning, UEFA Cup winning, FA Cup Winning, Champions League winning manager of their beloved Liverpool Football Club. You two make me sick.

[Rashid]

I think this interview shows how talented Rafa is, and shows how highly he is regarded by legends of the game.. Iam trying to understand his caution though and I kind of get it because he is always trying to win things with less talented players than his rivals. That said, it is up to him to buy the players he does and make the play to win. Valencia was a totally different job to Liverpool.

This was posted in good faith actually Dave.

[Hermes]

Originally Posted by Dirk Rash and Hermes tout the praises of the La Liga winning, UEFA Cup winning, FA Cup Winning, Champions League winning manager of their beloved Liverpool Football Club. You two make me sick.

His idea that not scoring a goal can be classed as "controlling the game" sums his philosophy up perfectly, he plays first and foremost not to lose. He only ever talks about threatening the opposition by "counter attack".

If that's the way you want to watch football then you just keep on praising him, wake me up when he changes his philosophy or G&H rotate the manager.

[RedKnight]

Poor.

[Dirk]

I think I need to engage the ignore button.

[TK421]

Originally Posted by Dirk You two make me sick.

Is right.

And what's a dejavu?

[wiiksie]

Originally Posted by Dirk I think I need to engage the ignore button.

Surprised its taken you this long Dirk to even consider it, you've shown a lot more patience than most people.

[Carradona]

Hermes and Rashid: The Forum Nobjockeys.

[Rashid]

Why am I being attacked - this is a good article and makes me have more faith in Rafa than I did before...it does show how he thinks I feel...whether we agree or not he his only 48 and very successful...

Grow up please.

[Rashid]

Who changed the title of this thread? I shall be complaining to Dave as some of you seem to think you now own the site in his absence.

Edit: So whoever did it has now changed it back? Ha Ha.

[RedKnight]

Dave isn't absent. He's been around.

Also I never saw the title change. What did it change to?

[Zippy]

I have admittedly lost a bit of faith in Benitez recently because IMO he has made serious mistakes in selection and in his summer signings however that article reminded me of why I think he is such a good manager and how if he learns from his mistakes that we could be the best team in the world. Combining our workrate, organisation and character with greater pace, technique and creativity - on the flanks and up front would IMO make us a very strong side.

[Rashid]

Originally Posted by Zippy I have admittedly lost a bit of faith in Benitez recently because IMO he has made serious mistakes in selection and in his summer signings however that article reminded me of why I think he is such a good manager and how if he learns from his mistakes that we could be the best team in the world. Combining our workrate, organisation and character with greater pace, technique and creativity - on the flanks and up front would IMO make us a very strong side.

Well done, that was the intention. I have been disillusioned by Rafa this past 2 months but that article reminded me of his quality... but also helped me to accept that his caution is because he doesn't have the players to compete toe to toe with our rivals...