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Arbeloa Interview – Interesting insight into Rafa’s Tactical Ethos/Set up

Kobayashi Maru

By Kobayashi Maru,
in FF - Football Forum

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Kobayashi Maru Community Regular

Kobayashi Maru

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Interesting Interview with Alvaro Arbeloa in the latest edition of World Soccer by Sid Lowe. Have reproduced the Q & A relating to Liverpool and the last one to rotation. Should be noted he is not criticizing the manager, just comparing from his experiences. However, it provides clarity to the debate on how the team are and have been setup under Rafa and what many have alluded to in regards to how mechanical we are and the influence Rafa has had on that and the man-management debate.

 

 

You began your career at Real Madrid. Moving to the Bernabeu from Liverpool last summer must have been like a homecoming for you…?

 

Yes, but it’s a different Madrid and a different me. When I left without a buy-back option, thinking the door would remain shut. I’m glad to have been wrong. I took a decision that I thought was right at the time and I still think so. It’s hard to make the first team. The pressure is intense; there wasn’t the stability that a fantastic generation of youth teamers perhaps needed. And, as for me, I wasn’t ready. This summer, I was. Things have fallen into place: the return of the president [Florentino Perez], my situation at Liverpool, my development. I’ve been lucky.

 

 

How important were Liverpool and Rafa Benitez in your development?

 

Hugely important. It was a wonderful opportunity and a great experience. Rafa is very, very, very demanding. He pushes you extremely hard. To work with him you have to have patience and understanding; you need to accept what he’s like. There’s no doubt that if you can work with him, he improves you. He’s correcting you every single second, always wanting more. That was good for me. So was going to the Premier League because it’s so much more physical. It made new demands, developing sides of my game that I hadn’t developed in Spain.

 

 

What stood out most about English Football?

 

The fans, the folklore, the atmosphere, the feeling, the intensity. There’s a respect, a kind of deference, towards tradition and indentity. In Spain, the team has to carry the fans; in England it’s the other way round. Madrid’s fans demand the best, Liverpool’s fans help you produce it.

 

 

What are the biggest differences between Manuel Pellegrini and Rafa Benitez?

 

Pellegrini gives the players more freedom, he’s not so intense and has more of a soft approach. The style is different. We play two-touch, there’s more willingness to take risks; Rafa doesn’t want you to take any risks ever. Rafa’s happy to score the first and sit back; Pellegrini is the opposite. He’s more focused on possession. They’re different concepts, and both perfectly acceptable.

 

 

But should Liverpool and Rafa let go a bit? Do they need to be freer, more creative?

 

Rafa was a bit more attacking last season. Liverpool follow Rafa’s instructions very closely. What Rafa wants, the team does. Rafa works hard during the week and a lot of the time the team plays on memory. That’s very good in certain situations, but there are momentsthat you need to think or yourself and do something unexpected. If the opposition works you out, you need you need another option. Sometimes, within [benitez’s] framework, doing something unpredictable is hard. Every player knows what he wants. The 1-2-3 you work on in the week is the 1-2-3 you produce in the matches. AT times that can be a bit robotic.

 

 

Was it a relief to leave Liverpool?

 

I was sad to go, but as soon as I saw I had this opportunity there was no way I could turn it down – the chance to come home and to be part of an incredible project.

 

 

Are you suggesting team rotation is therefore necessary for psychological factors rather than physical reasons?

 

Yes, for sure. If you have a player who hasn’t played for five or six games, there’s the risk that he will switch off. He’ll not give his all, he won’t train as hard. It’s not just about making sure all the players are physically right but that they come to training thinking they have a chance of playing, that they compete – and, as a consequence of that, oblige their team-mates to compete too. You make sure people are happy and working. TO do that they have to know that there’s a place to fight for. Players want to play, especially in a World Cup year.

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Hermes Grand Master

Hermes

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Whats wrong with that? Worked for Arsenal didn't it?!

 

Which Arsenal? The one under George Graham that pipped us to the league by virtue of scoring more goals.

 

The only time we have attacked consistently under Rafa was two months last season when "the shackles were off".

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BolshieBastard Community Regular

BolshieBastard

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Which part of Benitez wanting to win games are you suggesting would prevent him from winning the Prem?

 

Im sure he will provide his own answer but this stands out for me

 

" If the opposition works you out, you need you need another option. Sometimes, within [benitez’s] framework, doing something unpredictable is hard. Every player knows what he wants. The 1-2-3 you work on in the week is the 1-2-3 you produce in the matches. AT times that can be a bit robotic."

Edited by BolshieBastard
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Brownie Grand Master

Brownie

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Good point, should have said. Loved that more attacking mechanical shit we were churning out at the end of the season which came about because liverpool follow Rafa’s instructions very closely. What Rafa wants, the team does.

 

Clear that he has to go after this season then!

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Guest the boy

Guest the boy

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There’s no doubt that if you can work with him, he improves you.

 

Rafa is very, very, very demanding

 

He’s correcting you every single second, always wanting more. That was good for me.

 

The style is different...They’re different concepts, and both perfectly acceptable.

 

 

Plainly, Arbeloa may be added to the list of those who consider Benitez an incompetent, greedy, corrupt Fat Spanish Waiter.

 

I presume that Benitez' attacking nature during the final third of last season coincided with almost a full flush of players to chose from. This may be lost upon the 'we need a manager who just tells them to go out and play! that's what shankly did!' crowd, but playing two-touch attacking football with Degen marauding down the wing with Voronin, Eccleston, N'Gog or Dossena in support, as has happened enough times this season, isn't realistic.

 

 

What I can sympathise with here is that Benitez' style of play may only be suited to having top players in every position. Give him the Madrid side, and the talent it holds, and his team would be a footballing battering ram. For various reasons, some through Benitez' own fault and others not, we don't have nearly the same amount of quality. In the absence of Torres, we've had a flailing Gerrard, and a Benayoun who has blown hot and cold throughout, besides his golden spell last season. Whether, if we cannot bring in investment, Benitez would continue to be the right man to work under an extremely limited budget, I don't know. But certainly, regardless of who came in, we would not be challenging consistently for any domestic or European titles on such a budget.

 

Which is why the team needs an overhaul. Every interview from every player, besides Pennant, who I presume is currently languishing in his bed after a heady Zaragoza night, points to Benitez being a superb footballing man. But he needs to make changes, certainly.

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