Pennant speaks out about his time at Liverpool.

[Unrighteous]

Jermaine Pennant claims Rafael Benitez attempted to turn him into a "robot" during his days at Liverpool.

 

The winger spent three years working under the Spaniard at Anfield before making a switch to Spanish outfit Real Zaragoza this summer.

 

Pennnant struggled to secure regular first-team football while on Merseyside, with Benitez renowned for his rotation policy.

 

The 26-year-old admits he grew tired of being prevented from playing his natural game, claiming he was unable to perform to the best of his ability due to the incessant demands placed upon him by his manager.

 

"When I was on the touchline all I could hear was Benitez giving me directions," Pennant told the News of the World.

 

"At times I'd think 'why don't you just put the batteries in and turn me into a robot'.

 

"Sometimes I just wanted to play my natural game, but there were so many instructions: how to go forward, how to defend.

 

"He has been through so many players, so many strikers, so many midfielders that he takes the best attributes out of them."

 

Pennant has also revealed he endured a distant relationship with Benitez, meaning that he was never able to fully understand why he was overlooked on so many occasions.

 

He added: "I didn't understand it. There are players at Liverpool and you think 'how is he getting a game?', but Rafa has faith in them. He thinks some of the players are the best thing since sliced bread.

 

"Rafa didn't have confidence in me. I'd play one week, then I'd be out of the team and think 'hold on a minute - last week I scored one and made two. How does that work?'

 

"He can be cold, but that's his style. He has a special relationship with Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher - but that's because they are Liverpool. There were times when he took offence with me because he could see how frustrated I was.

 

"I don't know the reasons, but he's won the European Cup and you can't argue with that. It kills half of Liverpool that they haven't won the league for so long. Something can't be right and they need to start looking into it quickly."

 

Pennant is delighted to have broken his Anfield shackles after completing his move to Spain, and claims he has set his sights on forcing his way into the England fold this term.

 

He added: "The ambition is to get into the World Cup squad. I've never been named in a squad, but I've never given up hope. (Fabio) Capello has twice been a manager out here and if he comes to Spain he's only coming to watch one player.

 

"Ian Wright got into the England team when he was 26 or 27 and I know it can be done.

 

"My assets are pace, going past players and crossing. I don't think anyone in that squad crosses the ball as well as me." --- O RLY?

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

Jermaine in not doing what is expected of him, and yet blaming everyone but himself shocker

 

Who the fuck does he think he is and what does that say to his other teammates?

 

"My manager has asked me to do this, but I know better"

 

Arrogant, alcy prick

[StevieH]

I also read Pennant claim in another article that Wenger was a better man-manager than Benitez, and yet he said exactly the opposite when he first signed for Liverpool.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

 

"Sometimes I just wanted to play my natural game, but there were so many instructions: how to go forward, how to defend.

 

Welcome to top level football, Jermaine. If you were Messi and he was destroying you're natural talent, I'd be more inclined to agree. But you're not. So I don't.

 

"I didn't understand it.

 

Not the first time you've said that, I'd wager.

[Moo]

Haha, he talks about [no] pace and the mythical crossing ability.

Pennant deluding himself as normal.

[WhiskeyJar]

He was not good enough to play for Liverpool and now has a whole bunch of excuses as to why he didnt get any games under Rafa.

 

Rafa likes his players to go by his gameplan, you can stay and fight for your position as so many other players have done or you can fuck off.

 

This article is a bit old but it emphasizes my point of how Rafa rewards hard work:

 

Sky Sports | Football News | Premier League | Liverpool | Gerrard hails Benitez's methods

 

Gerrard hails Benitez's methods

Reds skipper reveals struggles with boss before 'penny dropped'

 

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard believes Rafa Benitez operates on a 'different level' to other managers after revealing how he has adapted to his boss' methods.

 

Former Valencia chief Benitez arrived at Anfield in 2004 and has since guided the Reds to UEFA Champions League glory and an FA Cup win, while also transforming a struggling side into genuine Premier League title contenders.

 

England international Gerrard has been an inspirational on-field influence throughout the Spaniard's five-year tenure and has risen to a status as one of the best players in the world.

 

But the Liverpool skipper confesses that he found it difficult to adapt to Benitez's meticulous methods before realising that his manager's dedication is what is required for success.

 

"Even after five years with Rafa, I still feel I want to please him, that I want to impress him in every game I play," Gerrard told the Daily Mail.

 

Lucky

"The great managers are like that. There are a handful operating on a different level and I am lucky enough to play for two of them, Benitez and (England boss) Fabio Capello.

 

"It is when you see what they put in, some of the little things they spot, that you realise how hard they work. Rafa will make a point, and you'll be thinking, 'has this guy not got a life?' because it seems so minor, but it is what sets him apart.

 

"I can have a good game - tell you what, I'll be big-headed, say I've had a fantastic game - we've won 2-1 in the last minute and I've scored both.

 

"I come back into the dressing-room and I'm buzzing, bouncing off the walls, thinking, 'I feel good today', that is when Rafa comes up and starts talking about a throw-in when they changed the play and I pressed far too late. He'll say, 'if you want, we'll go out there and I'll show you'.

 

"Or you'll have a run of 10 games when you're in form and flying and he'll pop you a DVD of your recent play and it's broken up into sections good and bad. And you're thinking, 'hang on, bad? I didn't do anything wrong'. But you'll watch it and you're out of position in one match, or you pressed late or you let a man go at a set-piece. You wonder when the guy sleeps.

 

 

Danger

"At first when he did things like that, I'd be asking, 'has he not watched my last 150 games for Liverpool?' There is a danger that you think he has it in for you because he pulls you so much.

 

"When he arrived, he would keep saying to me, 'left foot, left foot' or I'd shoot and he would say, 'hit the target' and I'm thinking, 'look, mate, I'm trying to hit the target'.

 

"I would say to people, 'I'm 26 - if he doesn't think my left foot's working now, it's never going to work' but then a few weeks later I scored with my left and he came up with a little smile and said, 'lucky goal today, left foot and it hit the target' and then the penny dropped.

 

"Finally, I realised it was the way he helped push you on and as a player, you either recognised it or fought it and, with these guys, if you fight it there is only one winner."

 

Pennant lost.

[Hooch]

He weren't good enough, and quite obviously doesn't have the mentality either.

[Delmar]

I liked this:

 

""Rafa didn't have confidence in me. I'd play one week, then I'd be out of the team and think 'hold on a minute - last week I scored one and made two. How does that work?"

 

He scored 3 goals for LFC. I predict a year in Spain, contract cancelled (mutual agreement) back to Birmingham...

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

He weren't good enough, and quite obviously doesn't have the mentality either.

 

Funny that he wants to sit and complain about Rafa being cold and calculated, but he is desperate to work for Capello. The guy is a mentalist.

[Unrighteous]

I'd take Pennant over El Zhar, mind, but only if they were on the same wages.

[Carradona]

Lance I would take you over El Zhar.

 

I jest, of course. ;)

[Anubis]

 

Pennant. You. Will. Report. For. Upgrading.

[Hooch]

Do you now what pisses me off about young players?

Their obsession with the national teams.

"oo I hope I make the squad" "oo I wouldn't if the boss will be watching" blah blah blah. Fuck England/Holland/whatever, concentrate on your club and your own development, and once they're right, the national team will follow.

 

Honestly, if I could give advice to any young English player, it would be to Ignore England and all things concerned with them.

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

If Torres was a robot/cyborg he'd be

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

Do you now what pisses me off about young players?

Their obsession with the national teams.

"oo I hope I make the squad" "oo I wouldn't if the boss will be watching" blah blah blah. Fuck England/Holland/whatever, concentrate on your club and your own development, and once they're right, the national team will follow.

 

Honestly, if I could give advice to any young English player, it would be to Ignore England and all things concerned with them.

 

Alot of the young English lads obsess over England as it invariably leads to a massive pay hike or a new contract.

[RedKnight]

If Torres was a robot/cyborg he'd be

 

Don't want to pick holes there, but Iron Man is neither robot or cyborg. He's a dude wearing a suit that happens to me made of metal.

[Anubis]

Don't want to pick holes there, but Iron Man is neither robot or cyborg. He's a dude wearing a suit that happens to me made of metal.

 

Ha ha. I was going to pull Andy on that, then thought 'no that's too anal........'

[DT]

"Rafa didn't have confidence in me. I'd play one week, then I'd be out of the team and think 'hold on a minute - last week I scored one and made two. How does that work?'

 

How often did that happen?

[hamstrung]

Don't want to pick holes there, but Iron Man is neither robot or cyborg. He's a dude wearing a suit that happens to me made of metal.

 

Can't let that level of nerdery go unrewarded.

[Hooch]

Alot of the young English lads obsess over England as it invariably leads to a massive pay hike or a new contract.

 

No suprise there.

Have you got to be an over-ambitious, greedy twat to succeed in the game these days? It seems that way.

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

Don't want to pick holes there, but Iron Man is neither robot or cyborg. He's a dude wearing a suit that happens to me made of metal.

 

Iron, right?

[Johnni]

Unless his natural talent was on the level of Messi or Kaka then any manager would say no you can't do whatever you want on the pitch (bascially what he wanted to do when he said he wanted to play his natural game) as you have to play as a team and have responsibilities both going forward and defensivly.

I bet Bruce at Birmingham City just said to him 'stand on the touchline and cross when you get the ball son, and oh which blonde are you shagging this week'

[Kevin D]

"Rafa didn't have confidence in me. I'd play one week, then I'd be out of the team and think 'hold on a minute - last week I scored one and made two. How does that work?'

 

How often did that happen?

 

I thought he was joking. I wrote it in my diary, " Pennant made a very funny joke,today". I planned to laugh at it later tonight.

[RedKnight]

Iron, right?

 

Yeah but he's still a man, he steps in the suit and he can step out. A cyborg is someone who is part man, part machine (what does it mean? what does it mean?) and a robot is completely metal. Iron Man is neither, he's not joined with the machinery.

[Steve Holt]

Right we've settled the fact that Torres can't be Ironman cos its just a guy in a suit. But which Cyborg/Robot would Torres be?