Rafa Benitez was on Monday Night Football yesterday evening with Jamie Carragher – and spoke in length about his current role in China, his past at Liverpool and Newcastle, and everything in between.
One moment though that made everyone laugh was an interjection from Carra after Rafa momentarily forgot whose company he was in!
Rafa, when comparing his old Liverpool side to this one, claimed Jurgen Klopp has ‘good defenders’ to call upon…
“Very good players in the right positions. They fit what the manager was looking for and they have a good balance, they have good defenders,” he said, cited in the Mirror, before his former centre-back fired back:
“You had good defenders, didn’t you?…”
“I had some of them…” Benitez replied, with a smirk on his face!
In fairness, Benitez had Pepe Reina, a world-class stopper, Carra alongside Sammi Hyypia in defence and more than capable fullbacks like Steve Finnan and John-Arne Riise.
So he had more than ‘some’!
But one of the Spaniard’s quirks is his constant need for new transfers in, which is actually one of the reasons we love Klopp so much…
He trusts his current squad which in turn maximises the players at his disposal.
We bought nobody in the summer and it’s working. In the past two Premier League matches, we made five and then seven changes – winning 5-2 and 3-0 v Everton and Bournemouth.