Valdano slams Benitez style of football May 9 2007
by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post
FORMER Real Madrid striker Jorge Valdano yesterday embarked on a bitter rant against Rafael Benitez – claiming his Liverpool team epitomised the ills of modern football.
The Argentine World Cup winner fiercely criticised the style of play encouraged by Benitez and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho after watching last week’s Champions League semi-final between the Premiership games.
The outburst comes only weeks after Benitez revealed he had turned down a third approach in 18 months to manage at Real Madrid, where Valdano played, coached and was most recently sporting director until 2005.
Valdano also insinuated Liverpool’s supporters were incapable of acknowledging good football.
“Football is made up of subjective feeling, of suggestion – and, in that, Anfield is unbeatable,” said the 51-year-old. “Put a s--- hanging from a stick in the middle of this passionate, crazy stadium and there are people who will tell you it’s a work of art. It’s not: it’s a s--- hanging from a stick.
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“Chelsea and Liverpool are the clearest, most exaggerated example of the way football is going: very intense, very collective, very tactical, very physical, and very direct.
“But, a short pass? No. A feint? No. A change of pace? No. A one-two? A nutmeg? A backheel? Don’t be ridiculous. None of that. The extreme control and seriousness with which both teams played the semi-final neutralised any creative licence.”
Despite his father being a former Portugal keeper, Mourinho never played professionally while Benitez failed to make an appearance in the Primera Division. And Valdano claims the cynical football he believes the pair produce stems from that failure.
“The lives of Mourinho and Benitez have crossed in a world that is ever more scrutinised and exposed by the media, which is why they look at each other with such distrust,” he added.
“But they have two things in common: a previously denied, hitherto unsatisfied hunger for glory, and a desire to have everything under control.
“Both of those things stem from one key factor: neither Mourinho nor Benitez made it as a player. That has made them channel all their vanity into coaching.
“Those who did not have the talent to make it as players do not believe in the talent of players, they do not believe in the ability to improvise in order to win football matches. In short, Benitez and Mourinho are exactly the kind of coaches that Benitez and Mourinho would have needed to have made it as players.”
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