Rafa Benitez in no rush

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By liverpool's new Head of Communications, Jen Chang:

WEST KIRBY, England -- Seated in a restaurant on a quiet afternoon, Rafa Benitez laughs as he tells the story of how he first stumbled into coaching. No, not the injury problems that forced him into early retirement as a player at the age of 26 and subsequent entry into Real Madrid's coaching staff -- but how he got involved with coaching one of the boys' teams at his daughter's school in Liverpool.

This particular boys' team had been losing a majority of their games and the school had asked Benitez if he'd be willing to help out. Benitez had originally demurred due to other time commitments, but one day had shown up to watch one of the games. He made a couple of tactical suggestions ( for instance one of the larger kids had been used in the center of midfield, while Benitez advised he should be deployed on the wing to place the player into more space) and armed with the new strategy the team immediately proceeded to win. A smile crosses his face as he remembers the postgame celebration, where some of the parents told him that he was "pretty good at this sort of thing" and should keep managing the team.

It's not just coaching youth teams that occupies Benitez's time. These days the former Valencia and Liverpool manager and most recently Inter, keeps busy working with his website, which in addition to highlighting his tactical observations, helps to promote the charitable works undertaken by his wife's foundation (which among other things, gives financial support to the Hillsborough Family Support Group). The rest of his time is spent watching games -- lots of them -- both in preparation for his role as a pundit for Eurosport but mostly for his own interest. "When you are not training or not coaching, you have to do a lot of things," said Benitez. "Some people just go on holidays and enjoy watching TV, but I like to analyze games, I like to know how teams play, the tactics, the players if they are good enough or not for the future if I [look] to sign players."

It's at this point that Benitez shows me what he and his staff have developed: a new coahing app for the iPad called Globall Coach. It's a tool for coaches (both professional and amateur) that can be used as a visual teaching aid to facilitate learning. "The [initial] idea of a program was to show the fans the tactics of Istanbul 2005 when we won the Champions League [at Liverpool]," said Benitez. "The movement we were doing with Kaka between the lines and after, a line of three defenders. We started working with the IT people and thought 'why don't we create a program that we can use.'"

The app itself is incredibly versatile, it can even be programmed to assess the tactics of a specific game that one has watched. Benitez himself uses it after matches to examine a team's movement and analyze the shape of the game. We talk about tactics for a while as Benitez scrolls through various matches that have caught his interest as of late. He's particularly intrigued by what Borussia Dortmund does, "When I was a young coach, I liked AC Milan," said Benitez, "now I think Borussia Dortmund is doing a really good job. They play with four defenders high, they press high, they go with their fullbacks forward all the time, with wingers inside. If they have to play direct football they go to support quickly and if they give a goal away they press with 2-3 players on the ball. They're very good with their movements." Obviously the current Barcelona and Real Madrid squads also stand out, but Benitez is keen to emphasize that what helps make both teams special is their willingness to press when they lose the ball and the intensity of that pressing.

It's a fascinating conversation as Benitez notes the differences throughout various teams, leagues and compares both their schemes and the numbers. "The main thing for me is passes per game, passing accuracy and in particular final third passing accuracy." It's here that he points out that MLS is far below the other leagues (only a 58.7percent final third passing accuracy compared to 64-65 percent in England, Italy and Spain and with a higher propensity for longer passes, 15.8 percent compared to figures in the 13-14 percent range for top European leagues).

LA vs. Real Salt Lake animations created by Globall Coach.

As the tactical discussion continues, it's only natural to ask if we've reached the pinnacle of tactical evolution in the modern game. Just how much more advanced can the thinking develop? After all, many of the staples such as pressing, a high defensive line and zonal marking were in fact proposed or instituted by Victor Maslov, famed for his work with Dynamo Kyiv in the Sixties. "It's not the same systems they were using in the past, similar systems but there's now more pace, more intensity," said Benitez. "I remember an article when they talked about the time you had when you received the ball, I don't remember the exact figures but I think it said it was 4 seconds for Garrincha, 3.5 for Cruyff, 2 for Maradona, 1.5 seconds for the lowest etc.

"So it means you have less time and you have to do things quicker, you don't see as many people dribbling and running with the ball because the opposition are on top of you so quickly you have to pass the ball -- nowadays there's more emphasis on collective technique more than individual technique."

The conversation inevitably drifts to what Benitez is looking for in his next management job. He's certainly not been short of offers since leaving Inter, but he's in no hurry and is waiting for what he sees as the ideal project, a team that matches his desire to win trophies and a team that doesn't necessarily have to be in the Premier League. With his daughters happily settled in at school in the Liverpool area, Benitez is accepting of the fact that he might have to move on his own and commute when possible if his next job falls outside England. It's also no secret that Benitez would consider returning to Liverpool if he were ever asked at some point in the future. It's not something he is keen to discuss and he is quick to emphasize his respect for the job that incumbent Kenny Dalglish has done, but there's a sense of unfinished business on Benitez's part, of the inability to complete his project at Anfield.

There continues to be a pervading myth in some quarters that Benitez had vast transfer sums at his disposal during his time at Liverpool. While it's true he spent around £223 million during his six-year tenure, in actuality, according to calculations by Paul Tomkins, author of Pay As You Play, his approximate total net spend was only £62M, a figure that puts Liverpool below the likes of Aston Villa, Sunderland and Tottenham over the same period. The figure drops further to £20.5M (if you include the subsequent sales of all players Benitez bought such as Torres and Mascherano).

"To be fair, everyone has had bad signings," said Benitez. "But if you analyze the current squad of Liverpool -- [Pepe] Reina, [Glen] Johnson, [Daniel] Agger, [Martin] Skrtel, Lucas Leiva, [Dirk] Kuyt, Maxi -- a lot of these players that are doing really well, they were signings that we did. So the people that talk about [Philipp] Degen or [Andriy] Voronin who were free, how you can compare them to the signings of [Fernando] Torres and [Xabi] Alonso? Even with Torres, Alonso, [Javier] Mascherano and the money brought in [with their sales] and still they talk about the other signings, the majority [of which] were not too expensive. "

We debate some of those moves that didn't pan out as planned at Liverpool such as the signing of Dutch forward Ryan Babel in what seems to be Liverpool's never-ending search for a potent winger. "Babel played in a 4-3-3 system at Ajax, " said Benitez. "But he didn't do well as a winger at the end, we were trying to find his best position but it was not going well. Babel was a young player that needed to understand the English game and he didn't." Benitez admits he had searched extensively for wingers while at Anfield, in hopes of replicating his use at Valencia of dangerous widemen Vicente and Rufete. One deal he confirms, which almost came to fruition, was that of Brazilian Dani Alves, then at Sevilla. "Daniel Alves was our first option on the right side," said Benitez. "The problem that we had -- I had to decide to bring Alves as a winger when he was an offensive fullback. It was a difficult decision as we had money at the time for only just one striker or a winger/fullback. We signed a striker, the striker was Kuyt, who to be fair has turned out to be a fantastic contributor to the club."

As for the much criticized sale of midfielder Alonso in the summer of 2009, Benitez explains that his plan had been to bring in both Alberto Aquilani and Stevan Jovetic. "Jovetic was our target but we didn't have the money," said Benitez. "My idea was to play Mascherano, Lucas, [Steven] Gerrard, Aquilani -- two of these four players in the middle and Jovetic between the lines, but we didn't have the money."

In theory, weren't the funds from the sale of Alonso more than enough to cover the purchase of both Aquilani and Jovetic? "You are right. In theory," is Benitez's response.

The other stick which is often used to beat Benitez with is his relationship, or supposed lack of, with players. Too cold, too dour, too calculating say those same critics. It's a gross misrepresentation if ever there was one. In person, for those who know him, Benitez has always been warm and friendly. He explains his philosophy thus. "Normally the manager has to do his job, he cannot be the close friend of the players, it's an old style that does not [necessarily] work now. You have to do your job, you have to improve your players, you have to teach them, you have to coach them properly. At the end they will realize and see the difference. You cannot say there's no relationship -- every day we train, you can see managers that don't train for 3-4 days. I train every day with my players and talk to them every day, trying to improve them. "

As for not getting along with players, Benitez says it's simply not true and reels off a list of players he's still in close contact with, including several stars who some media outlets have falsely claimed to be estranged from him. Benitez might not text his former players as frequently as certain other managers do -- largely out of respect to their current mangers -- but as he shows me, he's clearly viewed fondly by many of his former charges.

By now, Benitez is running late to pick up his daughters from school -- as he's dashing out the door there's only time for one last question, one that has bothered the masses who've been reading the tactical blogs on his website. Why then does he include the goalkeeper when he's mentioning formations, why 1-4-2-3-1 instead of 4-2-3-1?

"I was saying 4-2-3-1, but if you go to coaches' schools they say 'oh you have to play with a keeper,'" smiled Benitez. "I've also had this conversation with some goalkeeper coaches and they all say 'listen, the keeper also plays' so I have to say it to keep all the goalkeepers happy!"

Rafa Benitez receives honour in Madrid

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October 5, 2011 by Jim Boardman | 2 Comments

Former Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez received the Silver Medal of the Royal Order of Sporting Merit at a ceremony in Madrid this morning. The presentation was made by Her Royal Highness Infanta Doña Cristina.

Rafa was given the news last month in a letter from Spain’s Minister for Sport and President of the Sports Council, Albert Soler Sicilia, in which he was told it was “in recognition of the achievements, circumstances and contribution by you in popular sport”. The letter went on to say that “such a deserved distinction is in recognition of his outstanding professional career which has served as a decisive national and international projection of Spanish sport.”

The presentation was made at the Faculty of Sport and Physical Activities of INEF (National Institute for Physical Education) which is where Rafa did his degree in the 1980s and where Benitez was awarded another medal in May 2010, the “Agustin de Betancourt”, the highest award given out by the Polytechnic University of Madrid (of which the Faculty is part).

On hearing of his award Rafa said he was “grateful, honoured and delighted” and “excited because I am going back to my home city and to INEF where I started my career and where I made so many good friends which I still have to this day.”

Rafa with some of his awards and medals - RafaBenitez.com

The honour from his homeland, while clearly received with much pride, seems unlikely to sway him and his family from their immediate plans, which revolve around staying in the UK and in particular in their Wirral home.

Last week saw the launch of the Montse Benítez Foundation, set up by Rafa and his wife Montse with the aim of helping local charities, in particular smaller charities that tend to receive no funding from government.

Rafa left Liverpool FC last summer after six years at the helm that saw him bring Liverpool their fifth European Cup and the FA Cup, as well as finishing runners-up in both the 2009 Premier League and the 2007 Champions League. All of this was achieved in the midst of some of the bitterest in-fighting in Liverpool’s history, his reign ending after the banks had given the club five months to find new owners or face the consequences.

He spent the latter half of last year as manager of Inter Milan, winning the Italian Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. He felt let down by broken promises from the Internazionale hierarchy about strengthening the successful but aging squad and publicly suggested that if they weren’t going to back him in the forthcoming January transfer window they might be better finding another coach. They chose the latter and Rafa and his family returned to England and the home they’d grown so fond of, not to mention the friends they’d made, during his time as Liverpool boss.

Rafa is understood to have received offers and expressions of interest from other clubs since leaving Italy, including Premier League clubs, but won’t be rushed into joining the wrong club. He wants a club that shares his ideas, a club that shares his ambition, a Premier League club, and as much as he wants to get back into management sooner rather than later he feels he can afford to wait until that opportunity arises.

In an exclusive interview with The Anfield Wrap Rafa spoke about his time since his return to England. The family had been homesick in Italy (for England) and with Benítez seemingly set on staying in this country it seems that he might be putting his family first, ahead of his career, something that isn’t often seen in football. “I’m not sure my wife will agree!” he said, putting on an impression of a wife tired of her husband watching the match all the time: “’You’re always watching games!’” It’s a voice familiar to many of us.

He went on: “I explain to her, as a manager you have to see games, you have to watch games, and analyse games, at the same time you try to spend some time with your family. To be fair, when you play two games a week, when you play in Europe, you have to go to (say) Russia and then you come and you have to go and play against Sunderland you don’t have too much time for your family.

Rafa Benitez at the Indigo last week

“At this time I am not managing a team so I can spend some time with the website, with the foundation and with the family. I try as much as possible to go with them, but always they want more and more! You can’t (give them that) but at least you try.”

How long Rafa will stay in England, how long he’ll be content with the work for the foundation and his website and spending time with his family, remains to be seen. But he certainly looks happy and very much in control of his own life.

Rafa also spoke to The Anfield Wrap about his attempts to get control of the Academy, attempts that he feels may have been somewhat misrepresented by the media:

“I think the fans know that when I was fighting some of the press said, ‘Oh, he’s fighting for the power.’

“I was not fighting for the power. I didn’t need more power. I was fighting for the future of the club.”

You can hear the rest of what Rafa Benitez said on the latest episode of The Anfield Wrap podcast, available to download – free – now.

Kenny Has LFC Back At Rafa’s Level

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Kenny Dalglish – the man who, along with Damien Comolli, ‘wasted millions of pounds’ this summer – has put the smile back on our faces.

Aside from those of us who thought it, who’d have thought it?

As one pundit on Sky’s Sunday Supplement put it just a couple of weeks ago, the Reds ‘collapsed’ under Dalglish at the end of last season (losing two games; the world’s smallest ever collapse?), and the club overpaid on a load of average players this summer. And remember, preseason results were sure to have us doomed.

So to have seven points in August – when it took until the end of October last season to reach that mark – is a sign of the club being back on track. And to my mind, that means being back at the level that Rafa Benítez had the club for the majority of his time at the helm.

As ever, some vindictive things were said in the media in relation to Liverpool’s recent history. A fine win against Bolton was used by the ESPN commentator John Champion to criticise Benítez; in reference to a woman in the crowd who was caught yawning near the end of the game, he said “under Rafa, she’d have been asleep 60 minutes ago”.

Benítez was also criticised for failing to get the best out of Lucas, never mind that he bought him as a 20-year-old for just £6m and persisted with him when those too blind to see his quality (i.e. not most of this site’s members) had it in for the lad; not to mention that – funnily enough – young players get better with time and experience (and with the exit of players with bigger reputations, out of whose shadow they can emerge).

Had a player Arsene Wenger bought evolved in the same way, then even had the manager left the club, Wenger would be labelled a genius for finding and helping to develop that talent. Lucas is now some player, and Rafa deserves a large chunk of credit.

By contrast, to the mass media, when it comes to Liverpool’s recent history, Roy Hodgson simply never existed; at least as far as criticism is concerned. He worked miracles at West Brom last season in a short space of time, and fully deserved all the plaudits he got for a remarkable turnaround; but he managed Liverpool for a longer period of time, and yet that gets brushed under the carpet as ‘too little time to make a difference’. Except he did make a difference, for all the wrong reasons.

A more obvious comparison for John Champion to make would have been thelast home game against Bolton, less than nine months ago, to show the dramatic change. On New Year’s Day, at the same late stage in the game, Liverpool were only drawing 1-1 against the Trotters, in front of 10,000 empty seats on one of the traditionally best-attended days in the football calendar. Joe Cole nudged the ball an inch over the line at the death, but it was only papering over the cracks. People weren’t yawning; they simply weren’t attending.

Interestingly, it’s like Hodgson never existed at Liverpool, either. Not one of his six summer 2010 signings has made the starting XI in the Premier League, with most either up for sale, or already sold. Only Raul Meireles – now a squad player – remains part of Kenny’s plans, although he was his only relatively expensive signing. (That said, he did try to get Joe Cole, Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen into his first XI.)

This season’s side – and indeed, the match-day 18 – has been comprised of roughly a 50-50 mix of Benítez and Dalglish purchases. Bought by the former were Reina, Agger, Kuyt, Lucas, Skrtel, Maxi, Shelvey, with Spearing and Kelly given debuts by the Spaniard a few years ago. When fit, Glen Johnson will slot back into the XI.

That said, this is clearly becoming Kenny’s team. In have come Suarez, Carroll, Adams, Downing, Enrique, Doni and Henderson.

All the good results since January, and we’ve yet to see Steven Gerrard beyond a handful of the manager’s games. If he can find his old form, then how he links with the incredible Suarez will be fascinating to watch.

Jamie ‘Literally, Top Top Top Literally’ Redknapp is another whose first post-match words of analysis about Liverpool almost always refer back to Benítez; he “overcomplicated” the game, said a man who gives the impression that a lot of things (including finding trousers that fit) are too complicated for him. (Note: it may be that, as a bald 40-year-old, I’m just jealous of his looks. This is true. Of his intelligence, not so much.)

I fully agree that we need to constantly refer back to the recent past to make comparisons. But surely it’s only right to do so with accuracy and fairness? – after all, we’ll never know how far we’ve come if we cannot work out our starting point.

This notion that Liverpool fans were bored by Benítez continues to irritate me. At times, yes, the team could be below par, just as any team can be, and clearly not every fan bought into his approach. (Those who believed the mass media, mostly.)

However, the idea of negativity at home – as espoused by Champion and Redknapp – is belied by the fact that the Reds hold the record winning margin in the Champions League (8-0), and also put four past Real Madrid and Arsenal at Anfield in the same competition. Do dull, methodical teams really do that?

Of course, this was in the Champions League; Benítez ‘wasn’t very good at the domestic stuff’. (Never mind that he averaged 72 points a season, an improvement of seven points a season on his predecessor.)

At times Rafa’s teams took their foot off the gas in league games when winning, but with tough midweek European games coming thick and fast, the need was to balance resources that were not as deep as those of the richer big clubs. That was never going to be a concern against Bolton this weekend, although, of course, Luis Suarez needed removing for his own good (as part of not overdoing it post-Copa America).

Having researched Liverpool’s home goalscoring record since 1998, it’s interesting to see patterns that totally correlate with my preconceived ideas, and, surprise surprise, seem to go against those of the mass media: that Benítez and Dalglish had/have the team scoring lots of goals at home, and that Houllier and Hodgson (whose approaches were similar to one another) performed far worse in this regard.

The samples are still quite low for Hodgson (10 home league games) and Dalglish (11). But as 10 games is more than half a season’s worth of home matches, it’s not insignificant.

It’s fascinating to see that Hodgson and Houllier have identical records: an average of just 1.7 goals per game at home. (Houllier’s record starts from 1999/00, his first full season in charge.)

Another identical record is that of Benítez from 2006 to 2010 (his last four seasons) and Dalglish since his return: 2.18 goals per game.

Both men took over teams that were averaging 1.7 goals a game and improved the scoring rate by a massive 30%.

If most managers improved their team’s home scoring record by 30%, you’d expect them to be lauded. Dalglish is receiving a lot of praise, and quite rightly so.

Of course, this is just 2006-2010 for Benítez; add his first two seasons (in which the Champions League and FA Cups were won) and the home league goals tally drops; his full six-year average is 2.01 goals per game. (Still a 20% improvement on Houllier’s record.)

(As a quick aside, Benítez lost key goalscorer Michael Owen before his first league game, and inherited Djibril Cissé and Milan Baros, two unpredictable strikers. His first expensive striker signing was Torres in 2007, three years into the job. Houllier made his first expensive striker signing in 2000 – Heskey – and Dalglish made two in his first transfer window. In his defence, Hodgson did not get to buy an expensive striker, but did inherit Fernando Torres, who up until then had a terrific scoring record. In today’s money (TPI©), Heskey, Cissé and Torres cost in between the £22.8m paid for Suarez and the £35m paid for Carroll.)

What’s also interesting is that the home league goalscoring record in all six of Benítez’s seasons is identical to Arsenal’s in their five most recent seasons.

Arsenal are seen by all and sundry as the paragons of attacking football, and although they were not at their pre-2004 best in that time, they continued to gain plaudits for their style.

As both Liverpool and Arsenal had squads of similar value – well below those of Chelsea and Manchester United – then the comparison seems valid. (Of course, when Benítez pitched up, Arsenal were miles ahead of the Reds. Liverpool scored just 31 home games in Houllier’s final season, at 1.63 per game, and just 32 the season before that.)

Right now, Liverpool are back in the goalscoring groove at home. My overriding sense that the Reds were in fact far more tedious under Houllier and Hodgson is borne out by the stats. They were the managers whose style was too cautious.

Apparently it’s easy to forget how good Liverpool’s attacking play was with Torres, Gerrard, Alonso, Benayoun and Kuyt tearing holes in defences. Thankfully, while there are some differences in the style, it’s a joy to once again see footballers at the top of their game dragging centre-backs out of position and passes cutting right into the heart of the opposition back line.

It’s not just the scoring of goals. If Liverpool fans were yawning under Benítez, how did he improve the club’s home points haul so significantly? Unsurprisingly, the ability to score goals correlates quite nicely with the ability to win games, even though in theory you could need just 19 goals to win all 19 home games.

In fairness to Hodgson, he wasn’t that much of a disaster at Anfield; it was away where most of the horrors occurred, with just a single win (again, against Bolton).

But even so, Hodgson’s average of 2.oo was worse than Benítez’s poorest season (2.11), and nowhere near the Spaniard’s best (2.53). It was better than Houllier’s worst (1.79 in his final season), but yet again, the two H-men are virtually identical with their overall average: 2.00 of Hodgson to 1.97 of Houllier. Is this all coincidence?

At the moment, Dalglish is averaging 2.40 points per home game, which is not quite up with Rafa’s best of 2.53, but slightly better than his six-year average of 2.29.

The problem under Benítez was the away form, which was inconsistent. A couple of the seasons were poor, although another couple (2005/06 and 2008/09) were amongst the very best in the club’s history (2008/09 equalled the club record for number of wins, 13 games).

Resurgence

As has been documented, Dalglish has spent quite a lot of money to provide this resurgence, but it’s not been without losing good players, too, to help rebuild. If he’d spent £100m but been able to keep Torres as well (and had him scoring goals at the three-in-five rate the Spaniard briefly delivered under him), then you’d have more right to expect a title challenge.

As it is, Chelsea, Man United and Man City have been spending lots of moneywithout recouping much from sales. They’ve been strengthening without losing anything, although United did prune the squad of some older stars and lose their goalkeeper. I stagger to think what City’s wage bill is right now, but it’s something Liverpool cannot get remotely close to. In time, with the club now being better run, and the FFP rules due to arrive, things might level out a bit.

All Liverpool can do is look to improve, and that’s what the Reds are doing. The new signings are playing their part.

Despite apparently ‘overpaying for his services’, Stewart Downing has looked excellent in every game he’s played. Liverpool ‘needed the winger they lacked under Benítez’, but it’s been his ability to move infield that has caught the eye, rather than anything near the touchline. (Lee Dixon, one of the few pundits I tend to agree with, praised Downing for constantly drifting into areas the full-back hated to travel into. So, rather than supply width, he’s been an out-to-in winger.)

Downing has popped up in central or inside-left and right goalscoring positions on numerous occasions, and forced great saves against Arsenal and Bolton, and hit the bar against Sunderland. But in tandem with the equally impressive Enrique, it seems that one area where the Reds are now better than in recent memory is on the left flank.

(A major journalist, who just happens to have been one of Rafa’s biggest critics, labelled Enrique as slow when Dalglish purchased him. This is also someone who said that Hodgson would turn Liverpool into a great attacking team to banish the boredom seen under Benítez. For the record, Enrique chose football over becoming an Olympic sprinter.)

The good news is that, just as they were for almost all of Rafa’s tenure, the Reds are back in the top four, and look capable of putting up a good fight to stay there.

Liverpool had their faults under Benítez, just as they did under all of their managers (even Shankly). But being boring at home was surely not one of them.

In Rafa’s final three seasons the Reds averaged 2.23 goals a game at Anfield, scoring more than 40 in each campaign and never winning fewer than 42 points, and we’d all settle for that this season.

Rafa Benitez exclusive: Blame, lies and broken promises at Liverpool

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By ROB DRAPER Last updated at 9:02 PM on 15th March 2011

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Rafa Benitez will get up this morning, take in the magnificent views of the Dee estuary from his home on the Wirral and spend time with his wife, Montse, and daughters, Claudia and Agata. Then he will sit down in his living room to watch Liverpool take on Manchester United in the Premier League - and spend the entire match analysing his former team. It is a habit that, for Benitez, is impossible to break.

Having been an intrinsic part of the biggest fixture in English football for six years, his absence from the cast list seems odd but Benitez, who has returned with his family to England after what became an acrimonious six-month stint at Inter Milan, is adjusting to a new life. When he watches Liverpool, however, he reverts to type.

Life's a beach: Benitez shows off his ball skills on the Wirral

'The other day I was watching a Liverpool game with my wife and I was saying, "Now this player will kick the ball long, this one short",' he says, as he nurses a soft drink at his local restaurant. 'With one player, I was right four times in a row. But it was very easy because I know the team so well.'

It is eight months since he left Liverpool following six years at the club that are still the cause of contention. A glorious Champions League victory, another final, an FA Cup win and a UEFA Super Cup and consistent qualification for the Champions League are to his credit; some dubious signings and a backdrop of endless infighting between owners and the executives register on the debit side.

Yet, for now, the Spaniard is content with his life.

With his family back in their English home - eightyear- old Agata barely knows any other - he is enjoying his first extended break from the game in 13 years. Even so, the job is never truly far away. As he talks in the restaurant, he appropriates salt and pepper pots to demonstrate the virtues of zonal marking.

'It's really strange to be relaxed but now I'm watching games in a different way,' he says. 'You are trying to take notes, analyse things, but it is not the same as when you need to be ready for the next game. You can enjoy the football a little bit more. But you know you have to be ready, because we have had some offers from abroad, though for now it is better to be calm and choose the right team.'

There are, of course, constant reminders of his status in English football. On Tuesday night he took in Chelsea's game against Manchester United and witnessed Sir Alex Ferguson's verbal assault of referee Martin Atkinson. For a man almost as famous for what became known as Rafa's rant as for his Champions League heroics, it was a familiar moment.

Critic: Gerrard accused Benitez of being too distant

When Benitez launched his now notorious attack on Ferguson, just over two years ago, his side were top of the table, mounting the club's most credible title challenge for 18 years.

And Benitez's principal fear was that Ferguson was escaping punishment for undermining referees.

'I knew that they [United] had some problems, that we were winning and top of the league and they were under pressure,' says Benitez. 'I just wanted a level playing field until the end of the season. But, now in football, the more you shout the more famous and more important you become and the more people seem to take notice of you.

'I think we have to have respect. The example we give to the children is really important. If you are a referee, it's not easy because everyone wants to win and so there will be cheating. The problem is that the people who are doing the right thing [by respecting referees] have to have some benefit. And to the people who are not doing this, someone has to say: "Enough is enough".'

Pointing out the dominance of Ferguson in English football - and the fear the authorities appear to have of punishing him - can be a dangerous business, inviting further hostility. Benitez dismisses the theory that his attack on United's manager marked a turning point in the race for the league title that season, which in the end saw Liverpool finish second, four points behind United. But he adds wryly: 'Before then, I had a good relationship with him.'

Changing faces: Rafa Benitez on his first day as Liverpool manager and six years later on the touchline

That, of course, was before Benitez became a threat. Yet it was a threat that could not be sustained. Following Liverpoool's second place, hopes were raised higher than at any time since Liverpool's last title win in 1990. But the club endured a debacle of a season, finishing seventh, their lowest position for 11 years. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, Benitez attempts to address the myriad issues that undermined that campaign.

A persistent complaint throughout his reign was his managerial style, which was reputedly cool towards his players. Benitez is genuinely bemused by that claim. Yet the tales have become legend.

Steven Gerrard, having produced a performance in an FA Cup final comparable to Stanley Matthews, joked that he still failed to get a 'well done' from Benitez. Fernando Torres wrote that a day after the birth of his first daughter he received belated congratulations from Benitez, only to realise the praise was for attacking the post at a corner rather than for his new fatherhood.

'I was surprised that they said I was too distant,' says Benitez. 'Every day at Liverpool I spent 15 minutes in the physio room talking to players who were injured. I know what it means to be injured and spend six months training on your own.

'But I [also] say, "You can do better". I push, I push, I push. It's my style and I think that Gerrard, Torres, Reina, these players can always give something more because they are top-class players, mentally, physically and technically. So I try to push them. The approach with other players is different. When they don't have that level you have to say, "OK, fine, well done". But with top players you have to push them.'

High point: Steven Gerrard and Rafa Benitez with the European Cup after beating Milan in 2005

The Torres anecdote upsets Benitez. 'It's not true,' he insists. 'We had been practising a movement, where we attacked the near post. Then against Chelsea, he attacked the near post and we scored. Straight after the game - straight after the game, not a day later - I went to see him and said, "Well done. Attacking the near post!"

'In his book, he says it was a day later, not after the game. I asked Fernando, "Why did you write this?" They changed the time of when I said this but it gets repeated and repeated and people think it's true.'

Of the team he left, the one inherited first by Roy Hodgson and now by Kenny Dalglish, he is bullish.

Although he admits there were mistakes in the transfer market, he says they were due to the risks he had to take because of the financial squeeze on the club. In 2008 Liverpool's interest payments on the club's debt had risen to £36.5million; by the next year they were £41m. The club were making huge losses.

Benitez says: 'We had the confidence we could win the league but you have to wheel and deal. You cannot bring in two or three top-class players if you don't have the money. You have to sell. We sold Xabi Alonso and bought Glen Johnson, Alberto Aquilani and Sotirios Kyrgiakos. We [should have] had money but I couldn't use it because we had to meet the interest payments.

'We had one top-class player who was our target, Fiorentina's Stevan Jovetic. As far as I was concerned, we had the money for him in our budget. But then the owners said: "No, no, we don't have the money". Then he scored against us in the Champions League to help knock us out!

Best of enemies: Sir Alex Ferguson and Benitez

'If you have your budget and you know that is happening, fine. But my budget was always given to me as a net figure [after taxes] for wage negotiation. But in the last year it was gross - a massive difference - but I didn't know. No one told me it had changed.'

Senior players quickly cottoned on to the financial restraints and some became disillusioned. Torres, whose form collapsed because of injury and frustration, was among them. 'I was very clear and honest with him,' says Benitez. 'And to be fair, he was telling me, "If we don't spend money, we cannot compete against the top sides".'

Torres has since spoken of broken promises that drove him to leave Liverpool for Chelsea and Benitez says: 'Obviously the things that the owners were telling me, I'm sure that they were telling to Fernando and Gerrard. If they have this feeling it must be because someone was telling them something.'

Still, he believes the players he had were capable of challenging for the top four. Hodgson's suggestion, when he took over the job, that they were not annoys Benitez. 'You should defend what you have or will have, not attack the former manager,' he says.

'Everything was "Blame Rafa". But now, with Dalglish in charge, and without new players, because Carroll hasn't played and Suarez has hardly played, the same group of players are doing much better [than under Hodgson].

'Two years ago they were finishing second. In football it is a question sometimes of the mentality, understanding the players, the atmosphere, the confidence.'

Throughout the latter part of his reign he had to maintain an often Kafkaesque dialogue with the owners. He says:

'Sometimes you were talking with [co-owner] George Gillett and it was fine; sometimes you were talking with Tom Hicks and it was fine. Sometimes one was saying the opposite of the other. The problem was when they say to you one thing and then it changes.'

His regrets are limited: some signings perhaps, but principally that he did not take full control of the club's youth academy for the final year. It is a mistake that he would like to rectify when he works again.

He is eager for a project where he can demonstrate that he can build a club combining a thriving academy with the transfer market. Given his record - even his mixed six months at Inter gained him the Italian Super Cup and the FIFA World Club Cup - he will not be waiting long.

'My job is to analyse clubs and say, "I know how we can improve this team, we can spend money here or spend money there". Right now I'm preparing projects for different options and different clubs because it could be this one, it could be that one. The main thing will be the transfer targets, as it depends on the potential of the club. But I want to work in England.'

For now, though, there is the diversion of this afternoon's match and a possible debut for a £35m Liverpool signing. Benitez is optimistic for Carroll.

'If he is there, even on the bench, he will be a massive presence because he's a different player,' says Benitez. 'He will have the passion and the fans will all be behind him.'

And the prospect of another famous Liverpool victory? 'Always I say the 11 starters of Liverpool are at the same level as the others,' he says.

'Over nine months, it's not easy if you have injuries and you can suffer more than the other top sides. But for me Liverpool are a top side in terms of their 11 starters.'

He will not be there, of course. His television will have to suffice for now. It will be a while before Benitez takes charge of a game at Anfield again. But perhaps not that long.