Rafa Benitez demands patience from Liverpool bosses

Oct 26 2007

Rafael Benitez stands in the eye of the Liverpool storm insisting he is not under any pressure and claims he expects patience from the Anfield hierarchy as he builds for the future.

Manager Benitez has been forced to withstand a wave of criticism as Liverpool have slumped to the brink of elimination from the Champions League.

At the same time they have produced indifferent domestic form that has left them with just two wins in their last five Barclays Premier League games.

Liverpool still go into Sunday’s clash with leaders Arsenal at Anfield unbeaten in the league, but Benitez cannot have escaped the murmuring of discontent among the Kop faithful.

But with Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso likely to make their comebacks from injury, Benitez brushes aside claims that he is under pressure from the club’s owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks.

Benitez and Liverpool are still reeling from their Champions League defeat by Besiktas in midweek and their position at the bottom of their group, but the Spaniard said: “We knew we needed to win in Istanbul, so when we lost I expected the reaction to be like this.

“Now we are back in the Premier League, and when you have had a few problems, the motivation of the side to change the situation is strong.

“The only way is to work, and work hard. That is the way to handle this sort of pressure.

“When I have a player who is not doing too well, keeps giving the ball away, I say that the way to change that is to keep wanting the ball to try again. If you do not do that you cannot change anything.

“As a manager you must keep going, doing the right things and you know that will change things for the better.”

And Benitez wants the same patience the Arsenal board have shown to boss Arsene Wenger, as he nurtures new young talent, from his own bosses.

He said: “Arsene Wenger has done very well bringing on his younger players, and it is important that people realise it takes a couple of years to achieve results.

“You can sign young players, good players with talent, but it takes time for them to realise their potential. Wenger has been using these young players for two or three years and now we are seeing them play really well with quality.

“We must wait to see whether they can maintain this through the season, but they do have enough quality to play well for a long time.

“It is what we are trying to do here. We have brought in a lot of young players, 17, 18, 19 years old. We have to wait a while for them to be ready for the first team.

“You can see the reserves now winning games with these players, some of them are really close to first-team level.

“In a few months, a few years, there will be a lot of players coming through from the reserves.”

Liverpool, under Benitez, have brought in more than 20 young players from all over Europe and South America in the last couple of years, as well as promising talent of the like of Ryan Babel, Sebastian Leto and Lucas Leiva.

Benitez sees a parallel with Wenger’s planning at Arsenal, and expects the same understanding from his superiors.

Suggestions that he has been given “an ultimatum” over his long-term future are swept aside by Benitez.

He said: “I find this kind of talk very strange, especially when you look at the big picture.

“The top managers need a lot of time to build a team to win the title, and if every manager who spent money and did not win the title was sacked, there would be a lot of new managers every year.”

And Benitez sees Sunday’s Arsenal game as key to changing the recent perception of his work.

He said: “I believe we are improving in the league. Obviously we need to win to avoid a gap opening up at the top, but last season we were a long way behind Chelsea at this stage, so we are still better off than then.

“Arsenal are playing really well now, they have some very good young players and they are doing well.

“But everyone during the season has a poor spell, and hopefully that will start for them this weekend.”