Our trip to St James’ Park on Saturday night to face Newcastle is our last away game of the league season and it seems fitting that we’ll face off against Rafa Benítez for it.
But now his compatriot, Luis García – who was a vital cog in Benítez’s trophy-winning teams – has chimed in with his own thoughts on our penultimate match of the Premier League season.
García told the Liverpool ECHO: “To be honest Rafa is a Red and I’m sure that he will be checking, following and supporting the team.”
“However, he is struggling this year to get consistent and positive results and even though they got away from the relegation zone they are are still needing to win points.
“And at the end of the day Rafa is a winner and now this game has arrived he will do whatever it takes to try and win the game – unfortunately for us.”
We love that “us” at the end; it’s clear that García is still a true Red too and we’re glad he’s cheering us on to win the league.
Rafa himself is still admired at Anfield – six years at the helm and a famous 2005 Champions League win in Istanbul, the Spaniard will be warmly received by the travelling Reds on Saturday night.
Read more: Rafa Benítez admits Reds’ trip to Newcastle “is a game that I can’t win”
With our game against Rafa’s Magpies, and Manchester City vying for a win against Leicester City, it will be a weekend of former Reds managers converging on each other.
Two old Anfield bosses at centre of title race this week. Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester gifted visitors to Man C, and Rafa Benítez’s Newcastle host Liverpool. Forget conspiracy theories.
— Ian Darke (@IanDarke) May 4, 2019
García also had his say on the title race and where the lines will be drawn come the approaching last day of the season.
Philosopically, he claimed: “The battle between Manchester City and Liverpool has gone exactly as expected.”
“The two teams are winning everything and honestly it’s going to be the one that drops points doesn’t win the trophy.
“It looks like the league will be decided in the final game.
“It is important though to go game by game and you cannot look further forward than the next game in hand because then you might make a few bad mistakes or have a bad moment and you’ll throw away all the work you have done this season.”
Hopefully, come the end of the season, we’ll all be celebrating and drinking Sangria with García.