Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher have revealed the bizarre first meeting they had with Rafa Benitez, in which the new manager criticised aspects of the senior footballers.
Gerard Houllier was a popular coach who was known for his warmth towards players, helping youngsters to develop with his man-management skills.
However, by the summer of 2004, Liverpool were playing a poor style of football and had achieved just 60 points in the 2003/04 campaign.
This led to him being replaced at the end of the season by Rafa Benitez, a Spaniard who had won La Liga twice in the previous three years with Valencia, breaking Real Madrid and Barcelona‘s grasp on the division.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - WEDNESDAY JUNE 16 2004: Rafael Benitez is unveiled as Liverpool FC's new manager at Anfield, Liverpool. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - WEDNESDAY JUNE 16 2004: Rafael Benitez is unveiled as Liverpool FC's new manager at Anfield, Liverpool. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
His qualities as a coach were very different to his predecessor. Instead, he gave the impression of a colder figure, especially as he learned to speak English.
“When I joined Liverpool, there was a culture based on emotion,” Benitez said on the new Netflix documentary, Untold UK: Liverpool’s Miracle of Istanbul.
“Football requires more than that. If you’re really emotional, you don’t find the path to success.”
Rafa Benitez’s first meeting with Liverpool players
The first meeting of Benitez with his senior pros indicated to the players that this notion of head over heart would be how he operated.
Rafa Benitez's first meeting with the Liverpool players didn't go so well…
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Gerrard recalled: “We were told he was coming in to introduce himself. He wanted to say hello and break the ice. All of a sudden we’re going into a room.”
With rumours building about the futures of Gerrard and Owen, Carragher said: “I was thinking, ‘I hope this manager has got the words that these two want to hear’.
“I’m expecting this spiel of how great players they are, how he’s almost going to build this team around them, and we got the opposite of that.
“He started moving Stevie about on this [tactics] board: ‘This is a problem, you need to change this. You run around too much.’
“I remember Rafa Benitez‘s words to Michael were ‘You need to learn to turn on the ball quicker.'”
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND: Saturday, May 15, 2004: Liverpool's Michael Owen in action against Newcastle United during the final Premiership game of the season at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND: Saturday, May 15, 2004: Liverpool's Michael Owen in action against Newcastle United during the final Premiership game of the season at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Owen reacted: “Oh my word, I’ve never had someone say anything like that to me before.’
“That’s absolutely what I was probably the best in the world at at the time.
“That’s when we started thinking this is different. Really different, quite negative. He certainly didn’t go any way to convincing me to stay.”
Owen left for Real Madrid that summer, in search of silverware. Meanwhile, Gerrard stayed put, despite his England teammates at Euro 2004 asking him to sign for other clubs.
“He was on me tactically,” said the former captain.
“‘I don’t want this, I don’t want that. You can’t play in this team unless we trust you’.
“It was intense. This was different and I was thinking to myself, ‘I guarantee you’ll need me before I need you’.”
Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and manager Rafael Benitez celebrate with the trophy, Istanbul, 25.05.2005 ( Tony Marshall/EMPICS Sport)
Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and manager Rafael Benitez celebrate with the trophy, Istanbul, 25.05.2005 ( Tony Marshall/EMPICS Sport)
While the meeting didn’t exactly endear the new coach to Gerrard and Carragher, it did signal that he was serious about success.
To this day, Benitez seems unaware of how he came across. Twenty-two years later, he said: “You can see when you talk to someone if they’re happy with the conversation and I think yeah, they were quite happy.”
‘Happy’ mightn’t be the right word to describe their emotions; perhaps ‘intrigued’ would be better.
A year later, despite a poor domestic campaign, Liverpool won the Champions League, a triumph that would effectively keep Gerrard at Liverpool and put the Reds back among the biggest clubs in Europe.
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LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, May 24, 2026: Liverpool's Trey Nyoni during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Brentford FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)