Quote of the day: Rafa Benitez is an obsessive control freak

Ollie Irish

2nd, July 2009

7 Comments

rafa.jpg Most football managers are control freaks, of course, but I couldn’t help but smile at a recent quote by Fernando Torres on his obsessive manager:
“Rafa concentrates on the professional side of things. He tries to improve every minor detail and movement you carry out during the course of a game, and he also explains the reasons behind his decisions.
“He’s obsessed that you understand what you are doing and why. He’s not happy that you do things just because he tells you that something has to be done.
“He says, ‘Do it like this. Do you understand why you are being told to do so? No? We’ll go through it again then’.”


Rafa hates it when football games have no pattern, but perhaps he needs to accept that he can’t control every single aspect of his team. I think Torres meant to praise his manager’s forensic attention to detail, but Benitez’s methods comes across instead as rather patronising and joyless.
Still, I can’t argue with the results. Liverpool must be the best-drilled team in the Prem, and all thanks to the goateed Spaniard. But I get the feeling he’d rather coach a bunch of robots than real, flawed humans. Fun guy.
[@ This is Anfield]

Posted in Liverpool

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7 Comments

  1. R says:

    Rather have an obsessive spaniard than a fat drunk scotsman that molests children!!!!

  2. Ty says:

    So why don’t you post the whole interview, instead of just picking out one piece and trying to make a name for yourself?
    “I think Torres meant to praise his manager’s forensic attention to detail” No, what you mean is you KNOW Torres is praising Benitez, but that doesn’t fit with how you want to portray this single soundbite in a quite in-depth interview, that you’ve taken out of context to get hits to your ‘column’. You’re as full of shit as that other bastion of truth, the Republik of Wankunia.

  3. Tony says:

    Is this supposed to surprise Liverpool fans? We are well aware of how Rafa runs the show and there is not a manager with as much power across the board as Rafa, He rules with an iron rod and if you step out of line be careful. We are right behind the gaffer no matter what he does as he knows best.

  4. Ollie says:

    Ty, I didn’t actually see the whole interview. And I actually praise Rafa, but as a one-eyed fan you choose to ignore that.
    I think it’s totally fair comment to say that Rafa’s managerial approach sounds joyless and robotic.

  5. CO says:

    Ollie that last comment is sick. Shows how your mind works.

  6. Ty says:

    You didn’t see the whole interview, but that didn’t stop you spouting bollocks, did it?
    Quote of the day: Rafa Benitez is an obsessive control freak
    So Torres didn’t say that, you made it up. So we’ve established that a) you are, in fact, spouting bollocks, b) a liar, and c) so lacking in any form of ‘journalistic’ credibility or ability that you’re the same as any of the number of substandard no-name no-face online ‘pundits’ that dream this shit up to try and get a few hits to your column. You thought of applying for a job with The Sport?
    Secondly, you haven’t praised Benitez in the least. You’ve passed out an off-the-cuff acknowledgement of the Liverpool organisation then dismissed it instantly with a follow-up jibe at the atmosphere under same said man.
    Stop talking shit.

  7. Ollie says:

    @ Ty: “Liverpool must be the best-drilled team in the Prem, and all thanks to the goateed Spaniard.”
    So I haven’t praised Benitez in the least?! Open your other eye, there’s a good boy.
    And I never said that Torres called Rafa a control freak – it’s just my take on it. Jesus wept.

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