rafa refuse de s'engager dans un jeu de répliques avec josé morinho.
josé morinho ne mâche pas ses mots contre rafa en vue du match de dimanche.
Rafa not into mind games
By Peter ORourke - Created on 11 Aug 2006
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez is refusing to get involved in a war of words with Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.
Mourinho has stoked the fires ahead of Sunday's Community Shield by claiming Liverpool will not be serious contenders for the Premiership title.
There is no love lost between Benitez and Mourinho following a number of high-profile clashes between the pair.
However, Benitez insists he is not worried about Chelsea and is only concentrating on his own team.
"I won't waste my time with games, our fans are more concerned about the team on the pitch than anything Jose or me say beforehand," vowed Benitez.
"Chelsea have strengthened again, spent more money than anyone else again, but it has been like that for the last three summers.
"That is normal now every summer, but we will send out a team who will compete with them, man for man."It does not matter how much money they spend. They have good players and nothing has changed for us, we know we must do our best to win.
"It is too soon to take anything from the game, whoever wins. There is not really even the chance to see what clues there are about each other.
"It will be a different game in 15 days' time or one month, then it would be different."
Benitez is adamant his side will be treating the game with Chelsea seriously as they continue their preparations for the new season.
"It is always important to win matches, but at this stage of the pre-season it is more important for both sides to improve themselves and be fitter with so many people coming back to training late because of the World Cup," added Benitez.
"We need to continue progressing and to work hard. Now we have an opportunity to win another trophy but in this case it is not our priority for the season.
"After the Champions League game we know we must improve, but all the players are training very hard to get us to the right level.
"We are going the right way, but there are so many new players. It is too soon for everyone, they have to learn to play together.
"We feel we have a better squad than last season, and it is always important to beat the top sides, but this is not a normal pre-season, the internationals are well behind the rest and they are not fit.
"If you play against Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea, you always want to win.
"But in this case it is more important for us to get our own preparation right and not to worry about who we are playing.
"This is an important game, yes, but it does not say that if you win you can win again the future. It will not mean that much.
"It is good to see us playing Chelsea so much, this will be our 11th since myself and Jose came to England, it means we are always challenging for the big trophies, in semi-finals and finals and around the top of the league."
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