Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Rafa: We Need A Winning Mentality

In his end of season review with the club’s website, Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez reiterated his desire to forge a winning mentality in his team. He also also noted the necessity to spend big in order to keep pace with the rest of the "big four."

For the first time under the reign of Rafa Benitez, Liverpool did not contest a cup final. After succumbing to Barnsley in the FA Cup quarter final and to Chelsea in the Champions League semi final, the Merseysiders were consigned to a season without an end-of-season decider. Rafa Benitez is intent on bringing the right mentality to the club; firstly, with the players already in his squad and secondly, on the players he attracts in the summer.

He said: “It's always the same: during the season you must do your job with the players you have and afterwards, in the summer, you need to do your job with the staff. It's really important to sign the right players with the right mentality. – a winning mentality. You want players who are desperate to come here and win trophies.”

Among Liverpool’s weaknesses this season was a tendency to concede from set-pieces, something which frustrates Benitez. He anticipates improvements in this department over the summer as he adjusts the club in preparation for an assault on the Premier League title.

He continued: “We have analysed a lot of things this year. For example, we have conceded a lot of goals from set pieces. We need to understand why because the season before we conceded six, now it's 16, yet we're doing more or less the same things. We can improve in this area.

We also need to keep the team scoring in open play while at the same time improving a little bit in defence. We have been really good in defence for three of four years, but I think we need to improve a little bit if we want to be at the top of the table.”

Benitez lamented the purchasing power of his domestic rivals, more so in the wake of Chelsea’s £16 million capture of Porto’s José Bosingwa. By failing to match the other members of the Premier League’s “big four” in the transfer market, Liverpool run the risk of being left behind.

“It's more difficult because after two years of Chelsea winning the league and spending big money,” said Benitez, “United needed to do the same. They started spending big money, and Arsenal were also spending big money on young players. We are trying to do the same but because they (Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal) are continuing to spend big money, it makes it more difficult to catch up.”

The Premier League, in the opinion of the Spaniard, is the most difficult in which to compete. “Clearly it's more difficult than in Spain because the top sides spend big, big money. We will try to do our best and the key for me is to not talk about the title. They key is to be near the top, to be contenders. If we stay close then I think we are capable of doing it.”

Although the Reds finished fourth, 11 points behind Champions Manchester United, Benitez is confident that his squad can close the gap and compete for the title: “It (the Premier League title) is an option, for sure. We know our weaknesses and our strengths. We know where we need to improve, so we'll try to build a new team looking at these things.”

Despite last season’s travails, Benitez is optimistic that his side’s setbacks will stand them in good stead for next season, with the character of his team forged in the pitfalls of defeat. He said: “You can always learn when you win, but you always learn more when you lose. In a difficult year you can see the character of the players. You can also see the character of all the staff and people around. You can see if they have the winning mentality that we want.”

“We have the spine for next season and now we need to add players in certain positions.’

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