Liverpool boss tries bizarre envelope mind game on players

• zocoss

  10 Sep 12, 22:44

  Benitez admits surprise at being overlooked for vacant Liverpool manager's job in the summer
  

   

  
  

  

  Surprise: Rafa Benitez has admitted his disappointment at being overlooked for the Liverpool manager's post following the dismissal of Kenny Dalglish in the summer

   

   

   

  Rafa Benitez has told of his surprise that he was not approached about the Liverpool job in the summer.

  The Spaniard, who managed the Anfield club between 2004 and 2010, was not considered for the role left vacant when Kenny Dalglish was sacked in May despite knowing the club inside out.

  Launching a new book called ‘Champions League Dreams’, which recalls how Liverpool challenged for European honours during his time there, Benitez, who is currently without a club, said it was ‘strange’ to be overlooked in favour of Brendan Rodgers.
  

  Talking to the Irish Independent, he said: ‘It was strange. We know the club, the players, the Academy and we have even more experience now.

  ‘The fans were positive about the idea and if you read the book you will understand why. So it was strange not to be approached.’

  During his tenure, Liverpool regularly competed in the Champions League and won the competition in 2005, his first season in charge. They also reached the final in 2007 and won the FA Cup in 2006, alongside a succession of top four league finishes.

  ‘Some people were taking these great games for granted,’ he said. ‘We used to play so many important games that it seemed it was normal and it wasn’t.’

  Following a patchy start to the season, as Rodgers tries to introduce a philosophy of attractive, attacking football, some sections of the Liverpool support have suggested owner John W Henry may be as bad as former American chiefs Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

   

  

  Looking for work: Benitez has been without a managerial role for nearly two years after being sacked by Inter Milan

   

   

  Benitez remembers those days only too well: ‘I was working three years under Hicks and Gillett and it was quite difficult, especially the last year.

  ‘Ian Ayre [the club’s Managing Director] said Liverpool was close to administration and still we were performing on the pitch. I don’t know how it us under the new owners so I can’t compare.’

  Benitez hasn’t been in managerial work since an ill-fated spell at Inter Milan in 2010, but he says ‘it’s a question of time’ before he is on the touchline again. He did, however, refuse to comment on how close he came to the Chelsea job after Andre Villas-Boas was dismissed.

  
  
• zocoss

  10 Oct 12, 11:50

  Being Liverpool Watch Brendan Rodgers' bizarre psychology as he tries envelope mind game on players

  Anfield manager's methods set for more scrutiny as new reality show clip is released

   

   

  

  Got it licked: Stevie G looks into the distance as Rodgers unveils mind game

   

   

   

  Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has opened himself up to more scrutiny after being filmed playing a bizarre psychological game on his players.

  The new Anfield boss has been criticised for allowing TV cameras into his club for reality TV series Being Liverpool, which is being screened in the UK by Channel 5.

  And fans will be astonished by the latest episode, which will be shown this Friday.

  In it, Rodgers is seen addressing an eve-of-season team meeting while holding up three envelopes.

  The former Swansea boss tells his squad he has written in them the names of three players who "will let us down this season".

   

  

  What's he on about?: Players look stunned by Brendan Rodgers' 'three envelopes' speech  

   

   

  Captain Steven Gerrard looks stone-faced as Rodgers then tells players "don't be one of those names". Other players appear similarly baffled.

  The clip was filmed the night before Liverpool opened their season with a 3-0 defeat at West Brom.

  Rodgers - embarrassed when the show revealed his home featured a large painting of himself - is known for embracing new forms of man-management.

  This one is a variation on a technique used by Sir Alex Ferguson after Manchester United won their first league title for 26 years in the 1992-93 season.

  Fergie told his squad that he'd put the names of three players that would let them down the following season into an envelope as a means of making his squad deal with success. He admitted in his biography that there actually was no envelope.

  Comment below to let us know the names of the three players you think Rodgers might have named in his envelopes.

  That is, if he's actually written anything in them at all...

  Being Liverpool is exclusively on Channel 5 on Friday at 9pm.         

• Medicated Oil

  14 Oct 12, 10:34

  I dun quite understand why Liverpool can agreed to do a documentary unless all of them are earning big bucks from it.

  It is a 50 50 choice of being a mockery as they exposed their preparation for each game.

  Unless Rodgers have some new tricks up his sleeve to motivate his players, the way I see his way of training is more like training the Lions XII and treating his players like kids with all the crap talk.

   

• I.imba

  14 Oct 12, 13:22

  they need every single possible way to earn as much money as possible for the january transfer window mah

  i dun think the owner is willing to give them too much money, so they have to earn it themselves lor