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Rafa Benítez: "Football is one big lie"
10/16/2013
Former Liverpool and Chelsea manager Rafa Benítez opens up in this in-depth interview with 'La Repubblica', subsequently published on his website rafabenitez.com.
"Football is one big lie. There are lots of things you can't say in public. I know when one of my players has had a bad game, but I'll never admit it to the press. I consider it my right and my duty to talk to the player who has underperformed in private and tell him where he went wrong and how to avoid making the same mistakes again. Otherwise, what is a coach for?" Benítez claimed.
"If I meet up with Ancelotti, I know he won't tell me everything that's going on at Real Madrid. And I won't tell him everything about Napoli. We can only afford to be honest about other teams", the Napoli coach continued.
Benítez also spilled the beans on how he engineered Liverpool's famous comeback in the Champions League final against Milan: "Two minutes before the break we were 2-0 down and I was wondering what I could tell the players at half-time. And then suddenly they scored a third. So I told them: 'So far they've been the only team on the pitch, but if we score, it could be a complete turnaround'. We went on to score three times in six minutes. Dudek did great on the penalties. He knew beforehand how four of the five Milan players took them. Neither Ancelotti nor I got a single decision wrong. We did everything we could".
10/16/2013
Former Liverpool and Chelsea manager Rafa Benítez opens up in this in-depth interview with 'La Repubblica', subsequently published on his website rafabenitez.com.
"Football is one big lie. There are lots of things you can't say in public. I know when one of my players has had a bad game, but I'll never admit it to the press. I consider it my right and my duty to talk to the player who has underperformed in private and tell him where he went wrong and how to avoid making the same mistakes again. Otherwise, what is a coach for?" Benítez claimed.
"If I meet up with Ancelotti, I know he won't tell me everything that's going on at Real Madrid. And I won't tell him everything about Napoli. We can only afford to be honest about other teams", the Napoli coach continued.
Benítez also spilled the beans on how he engineered Liverpool's famous comeback in the Champions League final against Milan: "Two minutes before the break we were 2-0 down and I was wondering what I could tell the players at half-time. And then suddenly they scored a third. So I told them: 'So far they've been the only team on the pitch, but if we score, it could be a complete turnaround'. We went on to score three times in six minutes. Dudek did great on the penalties. He knew beforehand how four of the five Milan players took them. Neither Ancelotti nor I got a single decision wrong. We did everything we could".
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