Grand master taking a ringside seat for history

May 21 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

OF the many snapshots taken from Rafael Benitez’s reign as Liverpool manager, it is fast becoming perhaps the most iconic.

Three weeks ago, as the Champions League semi-final against Chelsea approached its denouement, a raucous Anfield reverberated with expectation and nervous tension during a penalty shoot-out the Spaniard’s wife Montse, sitting in the directors’ box, couldn’t even bring herself to watch.

Benitez, by contrast, cut a Zen- like figure on the sidelines, sitting cross-legged and barely demonstrating a flicker of emotion other than to curiously check the time on his watch before Dirk Kuyt stepped up to convert the decisive spot kick.

That calm, composed demeanour typifies the Spaniard’s approach to the game.

Certainly, there’s little chance of Benitez racing down the touchline before sliding to his knees in celebration at a victory, or flinging a tray of teacups across the dressing room in anger at defeat.

Lacking the obvious magnetism of a Mourinho, the feistiness of a Ferguson and the vocabulary of a Wenger, the Liverpool manager has therefore bewildered those observers who have grown frustrated in their attempts to bottle the Benitez essence.

Yet a rare insight into the drive behind his success reveals a trait the Spaniard shares with all three of his main Premiership rivals.

“I am always thinking about how to win,” says Benitez. “Always. When I was younger, I was a bad loser. I wanted to win in every game.

“Sometimes you can’t and you must analyse why and you try to improve. But I think it’s something that my parents gave to me.

“I want to win when I am playing chess or playing cards or anything. It is always the same. If you want to do something, you must try to be the best.”