They had 70 million to spend only after selling Cavani.
Montse's Other Half
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They had 70 million to spend only after selling Cavani.
Double and European quarters imo.
Rafa taught us that too mate. Let's hope Brendan doesn't, although his big purchases (Borini, Allen) aren't looking too good currently.
Losing your best player - as Manure proved with Ronaldo, Spurs with Bale, Arsenal with Cesc (and hopefully us with Suarez in the summer) - doesn't mean you become less competitive. Especially when you can spend all that money, plus some (and supposedly they had more to spend), immediately. He's got a great owner to work with, might be a place he can manage for a while ...
Scum were champions already, we have no idea how spurs will cope throughout the season, and Arsenal never improved after losing Fabregas.
Napoli have done well so far.
[article=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/champions-league/10341573/Chelsea-did-not-deserve-me-claims-former-interim-manager-Rafa-Benitez.html]Gazing out upon the coastline of Castel Volturno, a golf course on the doorstep and Mount Vesuvius in the background, why should he?
“All through my career I felt I was really fortunate, because I kept very good relationships with my clubs – Tenerife, Estremadura, Valencia, Liverpool,” he explains. “Chelsea, though, brought a special set of circumstances.”
At face value, his spell in SW6 yielded success: the Europa League title, a winning record of 58 per cent across 48 matches, and a buttressing of his managerial reputation.
But in terms of pleasure it was sorely lacking: six months of untold grief in which he could never shed that infernal label 'interim’ and where a minority of Chelsea’s own fans continued to scorn him as a “fat Spanish waiter”.
Benítez is clear in his mind that the opprobrium flowed from his past successes against the club with Liverpool, whom he twice steered to Champions League semi-final victories over Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea.
“I cannot change what we did or what we achieved in our results against them,” he says, during a break in preparations for his return to England on Tuesday, when his new team travel to Arsenal. “All I did was to be professional.”
As for Mourinho’s recent expressions of distaste for Chelsea’s style of play under Benítez, the Spaniard simply swats them aside.
“I was extremely pleased with the way that my Chelsea team were playing and winning at the end,” he says, with the defensiveness of one who believes his work there was cut off in midstream.
But those unpleasant memories have been shelved in a matter of weeks as he embraces his role in charge of Napoli, already ruffling feathers among Italy’s more established powers this season with a spell at the Serie A summit.
“Here you can see from day one that the fans are excited,” says Benítez, adored in the fashion he once was at Liverpool. “In terms of the passion for the game and the way people feel about the club, I think the two places are very similar.”
The traditional blue-collar profile of Napoli’s support base also fits with the mantra he used to uphold on Merseyside — “the people are workers, therefore they are fighters” — while the challenge to the traditional Italian hierarchy also has uncanny echoes of the two La Liga triumphs he accomplished at Valencia in spite of the Barcelona-Real Madrid duopoly.
“We have to take it one step at a time, but I have a lot of confidence in this squad,” claims Benítez, seeking to control the expectations of tifosi booming his name with ear-splitting acclaim at the cavernous Stadio San Paolo.
"Indeed, so effusively has he been embraced that he is said to be appearing in the club’s 'Christmas comedy’ later this year. “Come the end of the season I feel that we can be close.”
The vision for a revived Napoli, rekindling their late Eighties zenith with Diego Maradona, was sold to him over a Chinese dinner at the Dorchester in May with their charismatic film-producer owner, Aurelio de Laurentiis.
“That was a key factor for me in terms of my decision,” he reflects. “He illustrated to me his idea, what he wanted to do. You can see by coming here, watching the players we have, that everything is going in the right direction.”
Chief among these talents is Gonzalo Higuaín, the Argentine striker whom the canny De Laurentiis enticed to southern Italy from Real Madrid, directly from under Arsenal’s noses.
Napoli, just like their European rivals in north London, needed a world-class striker to help accelerate their ambitions and Tuesday’s confrontation promises to give the Emirates crowd a tantalising glimpse of what they are missing.
The Partenopei persuaded Higuaín that after the departure of Edison Cavani for Paris St-Germain, he would be their marquee figure, and the plan worked spectacularly.
“It was crucial,” Benítez says. “We had to convince him that he would be a star here, that he would be a crucial player for the whole team. We know that he is the type of player who can make the difference, if everything around him is set up exactly right. He was the extra ingredient we were looking for.”
Benítez could scarcely be more content with his Napoli squad, comprising as it does Slovakian playmaker Marek Hamsik – of whom he recently suggested Gareth Bale was a mere high-price imitation – and a reassuringly familiar face from his Liverpool days, in goalkeeper Pepe Reina.
Small wonder that the manager has earmarked his compatriot for the captaincy.
“When I found that we could bring Pepe here it was fantastic, because I was reuniting with someone who knows what I want, and who knows the way I work,” he says. “He is a great person, and a very good professional, too.”
It is useful that Benítez has discovered a friend in Reina, for otherwise his existence here could be conspicuously solitary.
Finding himself mobbed on his forays to the centre of Naples, he chooses instead to live in a small apartment beside the training ground gates on the Campania coast. It is a stretch of shoreline that has seen better days – the walls of the neighbouring Grand Hotel Pinetamare are peeling, while the town of Castel Volturno is notorious for its Nigerian mafia.
The distance from his home on the Wirral, where his two daughters Claudia and Agatha are still at school, is a strain, but Benítez regards it as a vast improvement on those fallow post-Inter Milan months where he was reduced to updating his website and the occasional slot of TV punditry.
“Always you like to be close to your family, but I am serious about my work and they know that this is a great opportunity for me,” he says. “So we carry on trying to do our best with things as they are. As soon as I have some time or they have some, we will get together and I hope everything will be fine.”
For now, Benítez’s surrogate family are Napoli and their sky-blue army of disciples, whose febrile cavalcade arrives in full Technicolor in London on Tuesday.
“It is too early to say what we can achieve,” says Benítez, circumspect as ever. “But I have a great feeling about this.”[/article]
“All through my career I felt I was really fortunate, because I kept very good relationships with my clubs – Tenerife, Estremadura, Valencia, Liverpool,” he explains. “Chelsea, though, brought a special set of circumstances.”
At face value, his spell in SW6 yielded success: the Europa League title, a winning record of 58 per cent across 48 matches, and a buttressing of his managerial reputation.
But in terms of pleasure it was sorely lacking: six months of untold grief in which he could never shed that infernal label 'interim’ and where a minority of Chelsea’s own fans continued to scorn him as a “fat Spanish waiter”.
Benítez is clear in his mind that the opprobrium flowed from his past successes against the club with Liverpool, whom he twice steered to Champions League semi-final victories over Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea.
“I cannot change what we did or what we achieved in our results against them,” he says, during a break in preparations for his return to England on Tuesday, when his new team travel to Arsenal. “All I did was to be professional.”
As for Mourinho’s recent expressions of distaste for Chelsea’s style of play under Benítez, the Spaniard simply swats them aside.
“I was extremely pleased with the way that my Chelsea team were playing and winning at the end,” he says, with the defensiveness of one who believes his work there was cut off in midstream.
But those unpleasant memories have been shelved in a matter of weeks as he embraces his role in charge of Napoli, already ruffling feathers among Italy’s more established powers this season with a spell at the Serie A summit.
“Here you can see from day one that the fans are excited,” says Benítez, adored in the fashion he once was at Liverpool. “In terms of the passion for the game and the way people feel about the club, I think the two places are very similar.”
The traditional blue-collar profile of Napoli’s support base also fits with the mantra he used to uphold on Merseyside — “the people are workers, therefore they are fighters” — while the challenge to the traditional Italian hierarchy also has uncanny echoes of the two La Liga triumphs he accomplished at Valencia in spite of the Barcelona-Real Madrid duopoly.
“We have to take it one step at a time, but I have a lot of confidence in this squad,” claims Benítez, seeking to control the expectations of tifosi booming his name with ear-splitting acclaim at the cavernous Stadio San Paolo.
"Indeed, so effusively has he been embraced that he is said to be appearing in the club’s 'Christmas comedy’ later this year. “Come the end of the season I feel that we can be close.”
The vision for a revived Napoli, rekindling their late Eighties zenith with Diego Maradona, was sold to him over a Chinese dinner at the Dorchester in May with their charismatic film-producer owner, Aurelio de Laurentiis.
“That was a key factor for me in terms of my decision,” he reflects. “He illustrated to me his idea, what he wanted to do. You can see by coming here, watching the players we have, that everything is going in the right direction.”
Chief among these talents is Gonzalo Higuaín, the Argentine striker whom the canny De Laurentiis enticed to southern Italy from Real Madrid, directly from under Arsenal’s noses.
Napoli, just like their European rivals in north London, needed a world-class striker to help accelerate their ambitions and Tuesday’s confrontation promises to give the Emirates crowd a tantalising glimpse of what they are missing.
The Partenopei persuaded Higuaín that after the departure of Edison Cavani for Paris St-Germain, he would be their marquee figure, and the plan worked spectacularly.
“It was crucial,” Benítez says. “We had to convince him that he would be a star here, that he would be a crucial player for the whole team. We know that he is the type of player who can make the difference, if everything around him is set up exactly right. He was the extra ingredient we were looking for.”
Benítez could scarcely be more content with his Napoli squad, comprising as it does Slovakian playmaker Marek Hamsik – of whom he recently suggested Gareth Bale was a mere high-price imitation – and a reassuringly familiar face from his Liverpool days, in goalkeeper Pepe Reina.
Small wonder that the manager has earmarked his compatriot for the captaincy.
“When I found that we could bring Pepe here it was fantastic, because I was reuniting with someone who knows what I want, and who knows the way I work,” he says. “He is a great person, and a very good professional, too.”
It is useful that Benítez has discovered a friend in Reina, for otherwise his existence here could be conspicuously solitary.
Finding himself mobbed on his forays to the centre of Naples, he chooses instead to live in a small apartment beside the training ground gates on the Campania coast. It is a stretch of shoreline that has seen better days – the walls of the neighbouring Grand Hotel Pinetamare are peeling, while the town of Castel Volturno is notorious for its Nigerian mafia.
The distance from his home on the Wirral, where his two daughters Claudia and Agatha are still at school, is a strain, but Benítez regards it as a vast improvement on those fallow post-Inter Milan months where he was reduced to updating his website and the occasional slot of TV punditry.
“Always you like to be close to your family, but I am serious about my work and they know that this is a great opportunity for me,” he says. “So we carry on trying to do our best with things as they are. As soon as I have some time or they have some, we will get together and I hope everything will be fine.”
For now, Benítez’s surrogate family are Napoli and their sky-blue army of disciples, whose febrile cavalcade arrives in full Technicolor in London on Tuesday.
“It is too early to say what we can achieve,” says Benítez, circumspect as ever. “But I have a great feeling about this.”[/article]
They were never going to follow him back to Italy. For that reason I was a bit surprised when he took a job outside this country. Hope things work out for them all - you'd imagine such an arrangement could put a real strain on a family/marriage.
From his column in The Independent
[article=http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/the-rafael-benitez-column-ill-leave-the-philosophy-stuff-to-plato-and-do-my-work-on-the-field-at-napoli-with-our-players-8843732.html]Systems, systems, systems! I can tell you that it’s all about systems here in Italy, in a way that it isn’t in other countries.
My Napoli team have played five games so far in Serie A and we have been up against a different system in every game, with some opponents changing their system two or three times during a game. For those of you like numbers, we’ve faced 5-3-1-1, 5-3-2, 3-5-2, 4-3-3, 4-3-1-2, 4-4-2 and 4-1-4-1 and the challenge of counteracting and reacting to the systems is a great challenge for any coach in this country. It is more challenging than England, in that sense. Everyone seems to be talking about analysis and statistics in football, and managers’ philosophies about offensive football. Well, I’m sorry, but the philosophers were Plato and Socrates. The essential part of winning games for a coach is the work done on the field, helping players to deal with the systems thrown at them. Never is it more so than in Italy.
The team we played on Wednesday night - Sassuolo – are a good example. Against Inter Milan at the weekend they played 4-3-3 and lost 7-0 at home. Against us, they changed to 5-3-2 and we drew, instead of keeping our 100 per cent record. We had to change four or five players and rotate the squad with a lot of matches we had, but Sassuolo were a different team. We had 72 per cent of possession and still could not break through to score a second goal.
The people who like to think that systems mean more than making the right decisions in the match talk about a possession style of football as if it means everything. But look at Barcelona against Rayo Vallecano in La Liga a week ago. It was the first time in five years that Barcelona did not see more of the ball than their opponent – 49 per cent to the opponent’s 51 per cent. The result? Barcelona won 4-0.Don’t get me wrong. I’ve always been interested in data and statistics. I had my old Commodore 64 computer to analyse and control the work rate of my players many years ago and have used many computer programmes to generate statistics since. But when I hear managers talking about their philosophies, their projects and using statistics to ‘create’ an offensive style of play, I think you need to be very careful. You don’t only need data but the ability to make the right decision before, during and after games. That’s the value of a manager: not his ability to generate thousands of figures on who’s run, passed or won the second ball.
These are very early days for our Napoli team and though we have been working well and have started well, with our unbeaten record in Serie A and the win against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, we are still learning and developing as a squad. The major challenge is how to coach the players to deal with the different systems they might face – how to play if the oppositions start 5-3-1-1 and how if they line up 4-3-3. With two games a week, training and travelling, there is no time to show them all the systems. It requires a great deal of game intelligence from them, which some players in the Premier League would find it tough to adapt to. It depends on how good you are as a player. The better your game intelligence, the better you will adapt. If you are just strong in the air or quick, it’s not the same.
Our win over Dortmund helped with the players’ confidence and the key to it was being able to react to what they were confronted with. The systems in our Stadio San Paolo were straightforward and familiar to British football fans – their 4-2-3-1 matching up against our 4-2-3-1. But the key was to see the way the Champions League finalists played, with their intensity, pace, high tempo, and to be hard, resilient, deal with it and be strong on the counter attack. Again, philosophies and statistics are nice – I like to play the ball – but I like pragmatism more.
You will perhaps have seen a little more of our players, if you saw the highlights of the match. We have talked about Gonzalo Higuain already in these pages. He needed confidence and it is the same with all of them. Another of the players who is still learning here is Lorenzo Insigne. You will know his name by now, if you saw the Dortmund game, because of his free kick which was the decisive goal. Insigne has travelled in the past few years, perhaps wondering whether there would be a place for him in Naples, this incredibly passionate city where he was born. He has been away from here for three years – on loan at Cavese, Foggia and Pescara, in lower leagues. That is normal: loans like that are the Italian way. Now he is back, a real Naples street kid with all the passion I saw in the Scousers in Liverpool, a city which shares many fine things with my new one. He can still improve and can still get focus and find the calm place in his mind. But he showed in the Champions League that he can understands the game and can grasp what we ask him to do. It is no surprise that every other person in Naples seems to be talking about him.
Our win against AC Milan in San Siro last weekend, which was our first there in Serie A since Diego Maradona’s team beat them in April 1986, helped build the confidence of the team, too. The team is growing but is still a long way from being right. There is a need to adapt to a new mentality, make big decisions in big games at the right time, while we bring young layers through at the right age. We have our plans but in this country, like others, we need to do more than give a good power-point presentations and a fantastic long report to the owner. The reality for the manager is knowing about football and using that to help him make decisions in the game.
I don’t expect the systems to be as straightforward as they might seem in the Champions League, either. It will be a major challenge to be back competing in England playing a great team in Arsenal next week. It will be very difficult against a team with a great manager. In our elite coaches’ meeting at Nyon recently, they were talking about 4-2-3-1 being the most used system but we cannot rely on that always being the case. We drew against Arsenal in pre-season in the Emirates Cup and though our record against them with Liverpool in Europe was good, we must be thorough in the way we approach this. The Dortmund game was only one result. A European night at the Emirates is something to savour. But there is a long road ahead.
It was a challenge for us when AC Milan won a late penalty against us in San Siro because they have Mario Balotelli and every Manchester City fan knows that Balotelli does not miss penalties! Researching where the goalkeeper might dive is something we have always worked on with Pepe. At Liverpool, we divided the goal into six numbered sections and our goalkeeping coach Jose Manuel Ochoterena before, and Xavi Valero now, would study the numbers with Pepe when the moment came. The goalkeepers would also look at patterns on a laptop. We have been doing the same here, using television as well, for analysis. Balotelli paused in front of the ball and struck his kick to Pepe’s right. He saved it well.[/article]
[article=http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/the-rafael-benitez-column-ill-leave-the-philosophy-stuff-to-plato-and-do-my-work-on-the-field-at-napoli-with-our-players-8843732.html]Systems, systems, systems! I can tell you that it’s all about systems here in Italy, in a way that it isn’t in other countries.
My Napoli team have played five games so far in Serie A and we have been up against a different system in every game, with some opponents changing their system two or three times during a game. For those of you like numbers, we’ve faced 5-3-1-1, 5-3-2, 3-5-2, 4-3-3, 4-3-1-2, 4-4-2 and 4-1-4-1 and the challenge of counteracting and reacting to the systems is a great challenge for any coach in this country. It is more challenging than England, in that sense. Everyone seems to be talking about analysis and statistics in football, and managers’ philosophies about offensive football. Well, I’m sorry, but the philosophers were Plato and Socrates. The essential part of winning games for a coach is the work done on the field, helping players to deal with the systems thrown at them. Never is it more so than in Italy.
The team we played on Wednesday night - Sassuolo – are a good example. Against Inter Milan at the weekend they played 4-3-3 and lost 7-0 at home. Against us, they changed to 5-3-2 and we drew, instead of keeping our 100 per cent record. We had to change four or five players and rotate the squad with a lot of matches we had, but Sassuolo were a different team. We had 72 per cent of possession and still could not break through to score a second goal.
The people who like to think that systems mean more than making the right decisions in the match talk about a possession style of football as if it means everything. But look at Barcelona against Rayo Vallecano in La Liga a week ago. It was the first time in five years that Barcelona did not see more of the ball than their opponent – 49 per cent to the opponent’s 51 per cent. The result? Barcelona won 4-0.Don’t get me wrong. I’ve always been interested in data and statistics. I had my old Commodore 64 computer to analyse and control the work rate of my players many years ago and have used many computer programmes to generate statistics since. But when I hear managers talking about their philosophies, their projects and using statistics to ‘create’ an offensive style of play, I think you need to be very careful. You don’t only need data but the ability to make the right decision before, during and after games. That’s the value of a manager: not his ability to generate thousands of figures on who’s run, passed or won the second ball.
These are very early days for our Napoli team and though we have been working well and have started well, with our unbeaten record in Serie A and the win against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, we are still learning and developing as a squad. The major challenge is how to coach the players to deal with the different systems they might face – how to play if the oppositions start 5-3-1-1 and how if they line up 4-3-3. With two games a week, training and travelling, there is no time to show them all the systems. It requires a great deal of game intelligence from them, which some players in the Premier League would find it tough to adapt to. It depends on how good you are as a player. The better your game intelligence, the better you will adapt. If you are just strong in the air or quick, it’s not the same.
Our win over Dortmund helped with the players’ confidence and the key to it was being able to react to what they were confronted with. The systems in our Stadio San Paolo were straightforward and familiar to British football fans – their 4-2-3-1 matching up against our 4-2-3-1. But the key was to see the way the Champions League finalists played, with their intensity, pace, high tempo, and to be hard, resilient, deal with it and be strong on the counter attack. Again, philosophies and statistics are nice – I like to play the ball – but I like pragmatism more.
You will perhaps have seen a little more of our players, if you saw the highlights of the match. We have talked about Gonzalo Higuain already in these pages. He needed confidence and it is the same with all of them. Another of the players who is still learning here is Lorenzo Insigne. You will know his name by now, if you saw the Dortmund game, because of his free kick which was the decisive goal. Insigne has travelled in the past few years, perhaps wondering whether there would be a place for him in Naples, this incredibly passionate city where he was born. He has been away from here for three years – on loan at Cavese, Foggia and Pescara, in lower leagues. That is normal: loans like that are the Italian way. Now he is back, a real Naples street kid with all the passion I saw in the Scousers in Liverpool, a city which shares many fine things with my new one. He can still improve and can still get focus and find the calm place in his mind. But he showed in the Champions League that he can understands the game and can grasp what we ask him to do. It is no surprise that every other person in Naples seems to be talking about him.
Our win against AC Milan in San Siro last weekend, which was our first there in Serie A since Diego Maradona’s team beat them in April 1986, helped build the confidence of the team, too. The team is growing but is still a long way from being right. There is a need to adapt to a new mentality, make big decisions in big games at the right time, while we bring young layers through at the right age. We have our plans but in this country, like others, we need to do more than give a good power-point presentations and a fantastic long report to the owner. The reality for the manager is knowing about football and using that to help him make decisions in the game.
I don’t expect the systems to be as straightforward as they might seem in the Champions League, either. It will be a major challenge to be back competing in England playing a great team in Arsenal next week. It will be very difficult against a team with a great manager. In our elite coaches’ meeting at Nyon recently, they were talking about 4-2-3-1 being the most used system but we cannot rely on that always being the case. We drew against Arsenal in pre-season in the Emirates Cup and though our record against them with Liverpool in Europe was good, we must be thorough in the way we approach this. The Dortmund game was only one result. A European night at the Emirates is something to savour. But there is a long road ahead.
It was a challenge for us when AC Milan won a late penalty against us in San Siro because they have Mario Balotelli and every Manchester City fan knows that Balotelli does not miss penalties! Researching where the goalkeeper might dive is something we have always worked on with Pepe. At Liverpool, we divided the goal into six numbered sections and our goalkeeping coach Jose Manuel Ochoterena before, and Xavi Valero now, would study the numbers with Pepe when the moment came. The goalkeepers would also look at patterns on a laptop. We have been doing the same here, using television as well, for analysis. Balotelli paused in front of the ball and struck his kick to Pepe’s right. He saved it well.[/article]
So 45m net.
I don’t expect the systems to be as straightforward as they might seem in the Champions League, either. It will be a major challenge to be back competing in England playing a great team in Arsenal next week. It will be very difficult against a team with a great manager. In our elite coaches’ meeting at Nyon recently, they were talking about 4-2-3-1 being the most used system but we cannot rely on that always being the case. We drew against Arsenal in pre-season in the Emirates Cup and though <strong> our record </strong> against them with Liverpool in Europe was good, we must be thorough in the way we approach this. The Dortmund game was only one result. A European night at the Emirates is something to savour. But there is a long road ahead.
Latest column entry
[article=http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/the-rafael-benitez-column-we-dont-need-to-respond-to-fergie-we-can-let-liverpool-success-speak-for-itself-8916935.html]What have you made of Sir Alex Ferguson’s comments about you in his recent autobiography?
The problem with answering on those comments about me - or about Steven Gerrard - is that it only adds to the publicity. All I can say is that at the time we were doing our best to defend our team and our club. We got a reaction. We did a good job. We were challenging well. They were good times for the club. We can let the things we did at Liverpool and the success we had make our answer for us. Beyond that, there is nothing more I think I can say
Who are the five stand-out players in the Premier League for you this season?
Well, I have to name a player at my former club. Luis Suarez. Everybody knows how he has a hunger for football and it has been very impressive to see the way that he is showing so soon – immediately - after coming back what a dangerous player he is. You will have to believe me when I say that it is not my connection with for Liverpool which makes me name Daniel Sturridge, too: a different sort of player but one who has confidence that comes with starting games. We have said several times already this season that strikers work off confidence and need to feel that they are an important part of the manager’s plans. These two have created the most dangerous striking partnership in the Premier League so far this season. Another striker who has had less attention but one who I have been impressed when I have seen him is Alvaro Negredo, the Spanish player at Manchester City. He has a very good left foot. I must name Wayne Rooney, of course. It is a few months since we talked about Southampton as the dark horses and I must talk about Adam Lallana, their captain, working together well with Rickie Lambert.
What have you made of Wayne Rooney’s return to form this season and how do you explain it?
He explains it himself! Everyone knows he has this level in his game. He is coming back and showing his level. Let us go back to our point about strikers being complex people sometimes – perhaps needing to prove something. He looks like he is wanting to show things because everybody has been talking, talking about his best being in the past. Robin van Persie has continued scoring, even though he has been struggling with full fitness, and that helps Rooney, too. Rooney is working well around van Persie, using his understanding of the game.
Why is it so difficult for an English team to copy the Barcelona system of play? Surely with good coaching and hard work this could be replicated?
The debate about needing to create a team that works through possession and kills other teams through possession is an interesting one. Everyone seems to think that if you don’t play the ball on the ground, you don’t play nice football. I don’t see it like that. The important thing is to play well and win games: do what you have to do to win games. Look at my Napoli team. We had 74 percent possession against Sassuolo in September and drew. We had 40 per cent possession against Fiorentina on Wednesday night and won 2-1. Possession is only important if you do well with it. Some teams don’t understand that to pass the ball is not the only way. If you give a manager three or four years to develop a winning style, with the right ideas then it doesn’t matter what that style is.
Who is the most important player for England as we head toward next summer’s World Cup finals in Brazil?
Apart from Rooney, who will be outstanding if he can keep at this level, Steven Gerrard has the elite quality that very, very few players possess and it will be especially important because of the way England play. Playing a little bit deeper for England, he will be able dictate the tempo of games. Another of the qualities we can talk about is his ability to play the long balls to perfection, again and again. He can play short and long balls, over and over. That is important for any team but with England, who possess quick players up front, it can be especially useful.
How are you adapting to life in Naples?
It is an incredible place to work and because of the job we have had to do, it has taken time to get to see some of the ‘other’ Napoli, beyond the crazy football city. I visited Pompeii last week when my family came over to visit which was amazing, as any visitor to the ancient City in the shadow of Vesuvius will tell you. Since I last wrote, I have also paid a visit to Reggia di Caserta and the Teatro di San Carlos, next to the central Piazza del Plebiscit here. Another incredible experience at an auditorium where there has been such an incredible history of Italian opera. To any of you unfamiliar with Napoli, I recommend you get organised for a visit.
You are second in Serie A. Have you exceeded your own expectations with Napoli?
I would say the start is ‘not bad.’ We are 75 per cent strong and we can certainly get better. Roma are the surprise of the division, because they have won every game so far, and Juventus, who are up there with us, are very strong. We are growing. The understanding between the players is growing. Every week and every month we are doing things a bit better.
What did I read about the Napoli fans calling you ‘Rafè'
You are right. The Napoli fans began calling me ‘Rafè’ when they were posting in the forums and if they prefer it because it is easier, then that is fine and it is good for me. The support here is incredible. There is an incredible passion among the fans. It has made me feel at home
Who have been the biggest influences on you as a manager?
There have been many and I will tell you about meeting one of them only last Wednesday in Florence, from where I’ve just returned with my Napoli team as I write this. Yesterday morning we visited Coverciano, the Italian federation’s training base which is located in the Tuscan countryside outside Florence, and I had the chance to meet the great Arrigo Sacchi. We talked a lot, about our ideas on football, ways of play, Spanish football and the Italian game. Of course, his ideas have always interested me, since the days he won back-to back European Cups with AC Milan and before. Another manager I have always followed is the Colombian Francisco Maturana – a football coach with great ideas, who I encourage you to make a study of. He is one of the greatest coaches to have come out of South America. Johan Cruyff is another whose developments I follow. Always, you try to take the best from all the great coaches
Who do you think should win the UEFA Coach of the Year award?
It is a strong shortlist* and I am very pleased to be on it. For me, the one who receives the award has to be someone with values and principles which go beyond just winning. For me, that has to be Jupp Heynckes who in his great career has set an example to a lot of people.[/article]
[article=http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/the-rafael-benitez-column-we-dont-need-to-respond-to-fergie-we-can-let-liverpool-success-speak-for-itself-8916935.html]What have you made of Sir Alex Ferguson’s comments about you in his recent autobiography?
The problem with answering on those comments about me - or about Steven Gerrard - is that it only adds to the publicity. All I can say is that at the time we were doing our best to defend our team and our club. We got a reaction. We did a good job. We were challenging well. They were good times for the club. We can let the things we did at Liverpool and the success we had make our answer for us. Beyond that, there is nothing more I think I can say
Who are the five stand-out players in the Premier League for you this season?
Well, I have to name a player at my former club. Luis Suarez. Everybody knows how he has a hunger for football and it has been very impressive to see the way that he is showing so soon – immediately - after coming back what a dangerous player he is. You will have to believe me when I say that it is not my connection with for Liverpool which makes me name Daniel Sturridge, too: a different sort of player but one who has confidence that comes with starting games. We have said several times already this season that strikers work off confidence and need to feel that they are an important part of the manager’s plans. These two have created the most dangerous striking partnership in the Premier League so far this season. Another striker who has had less attention but one who I have been impressed when I have seen him is Alvaro Negredo, the Spanish player at Manchester City. He has a very good left foot. I must name Wayne Rooney, of course. It is a few months since we talked about Southampton as the dark horses and I must talk about Adam Lallana, their captain, working together well with Rickie Lambert.
What have you made of Wayne Rooney’s return to form this season and how do you explain it?
He explains it himself! Everyone knows he has this level in his game. He is coming back and showing his level. Let us go back to our point about strikers being complex people sometimes – perhaps needing to prove something. He looks like he is wanting to show things because everybody has been talking, talking about his best being in the past. Robin van Persie has continued scoring, even though he has been struggling with full fitness, and that helps Rooney, too. Rooney is working well around van Persie, using his understanding of the game.
Why is it so difficult for an English team to copy the Barcelona system of play? Surely with good coaching and hard work this could be replicated?
The debate about needing to create a team that works through possession and kills other teams through possession is an interesting one. Everyone seems to think that if you don’t play the ball on the ground, you don’t play nice football. I don’t see it like that. The important thing is to play well and win games: do what you have to do to win games. Look at my Napoli team. We had 74 percent possession against Sassuolo in September and drew. We had 40 per cent possession against Fiorentina on Wednesday night and won 2-1. Possession is only important if you do well with it. Some teams don’t understand that to pass the ball is not the only way. If you give a manager three or four years to develop a winning style, with the right ideas then it doesn’t matter what that style is.
Who is the most important player for England as we head toward next summer’s World Cup finals in Brazil?
Apart from Rooney, who will be outstanding if he can keep at this level, Steven Gerrard has the elite quality that very, very few players possess and it will be especially important because of the way England play. Playing a little bit deeper for England, he will be able dictate the tempo of games. Another of the qualities we can talk about is his ability to play the long balls to perfection, again and again. He can play short and long balls, over and over. That is important for any team but with England, who possess quick players up front, it can be especially useful.
How are you adapting to life in Naples?
It is an incredible place to work and because of the job we have had to do, it has taken time to get to see some of the ‘other’ Napoli, beyond the crazy football city. I visited Pompeii last week when my family came over to visit which was amazing, as any visitor to the ancient City in the shadow of Vesuvius will tell you. Since I last wrote, I have also paid a visit to Reggia di Caserta and the Teatro di San Carlos, next to the central Piazza del Plebiscit here. Another incredible experience at an auditorium where there has been such an incredible history of Italian opera. To any of you unfamiliar with Napoli, I recommend you get organised for a visit.
You are second in Serie A. Have you exceeded your own expectations with Napoli?
I would say the start is ‘not bad.’ We are 75 per cent strong and we can certainly get better. Roma are the surprise of the division, because they have won every game so far, and Juventus, who are up there with us, are very strong. We are growing. The understanding between the players is growing. Every week and every month we are doing things a bit better.
What did I read about the Napoli fans calling you ‘Rafè'
You are right. The Napoli fans began calling me ‘Rafè’ when they were posting in the forums and if they prefer it because it is easier, then that is fine and it is good for me. The support here is incredible. There is an incredible passion among the fans. It has made me feel at home
Who have been the biggest influences on you as a manager?
There have been many and I will tell you about meeting one of them only last Wednesday in Florence, from where I’ve just returned with my Napoli team as I write this. Yesterday morning we visited Coverciano, the Italian federation’s training base which is located in the Tuscan countryside outside Florence, and I had the chance to meet the great Arrigo Sacchi. We talked a lot, about our ideas on football, ways of play, Spanish football and the Italian game. Of course, his ideas have always interested me, since the days he won back-to back European Cups with AC Milan and before. Another manager I have always followed is the Colombian Francisco Maturana – a football coach with great ideas, who I encourage you to make a study of. He is one of the greatest coaches to have come out of South America. Johan Cruyff is another whose developments I follow. Always, you try to take the best from all the great coaches
Who do you think should win the UEFA Coach of the Year award?
It is a strong shortlist* and I am very pleased to be on it. For me, the one who receives the award has to be someone with values and principles which go beyond just winning. For me, that has to be Jupp Heynckes who in his great career has set an example to a lot of people.[/article]
It does but for short periods of time (a year or so) it can work. I used to work 3 months on and 1 off in Nigeria then go home. My family joined me when it became feasible after a year. Leaving them after the month off was always heart-wrenching though.
He and his family are always one 3 hour flight on a private jet away from seeing each other though.
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