Welcome to the Rafalution
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
The Sun has published excerpts from an interview with Rafael Benitez’s former number two, Paco Herrera. He describes some of the enormous changes Rafa made to what he describes as an “antiquated” Liverpool when he took charge.
You hear a lot about how wonderful Arsenal’s training ground and scouting network are, but it sounds like Liverpool can easily rival them. The Liverpool “Rafalution” includes:
- A 70-strong scouting network, with information on over 14,000 individuals (I bet he just uses Football Manager)
- Transformation of the training ground, even building a hotel at Melwood for the players to stay at before a European match
- Revolution of the players’ diets
- Building a film room and hiring staff who can source any game from the world’s top 12 leagues
Acccording to Herrera:
“Everything started when we arrived there. I signed on as assistant manager but three months later my role changed because we all realised that there were serious problems in the technical department. Liverpool was very antiquated in that sense. So Rafa asked me to change my role and occupy myself with this issue. He wanted me to become the chief scout and start organising, along with himself, the technical department.”
Fascinating stuff.
