Why Rafa Benitez Is the Perfect Manager for Real Madrid

Nineteen years after he first left the club where he cut his playing and managerial teeth, Rafael Benitez is finally set to return to the Santiago Bernabeu and into the Real Madrid hot seat. The presentation will be this week.

A former player with Castilla and then a coach from the age of 26, who worked his way up the ranks via the under 19s, reserves and then as assistant to Vicente del Bosque, Benitez comes home with the blessing of top man at the club, Florentino Perez, after the advice of his No. 2, Jose Angel Sanchez—the man who runs the day to day of the club.

Club vice-president Eduardo Fernandez de Blas appeared to confirm the appointment over the weekend, telling Diario AS (h/t the Press Association, via the Guardian): "I’ll tell you one thing, Carlo Ancelotti is a real phenomenon. We give our thanks to him. Until three days ago, he was, for me, the best coach in the world, just as two years ago it was Jose Mourinho, and as from this week will be Rafa Benitez."

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Twice Perez tried to lure Benitez away when he was at Liverpool, only to be rebuffed on both occasions. Finally it’s third time lucky for the president, who you sense always had Benitez in his sights from the moment he had decided that Carlo Ancelotti had become surplus to requirements.

But has he made the right choice?

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Well, actually, I think he has, because in my opinion Rafa Benitez is the perfect manager for Real Madrid.

First and foremost, he is a man who understands completely what Real Madrid is all about and what managing a club like this entails from the fans, to the players, the board and the media.

Many of the playing squad greeted the news of Ancelotti’s departure with disappointment and by issuing a number of farewell plaudits. As heart-warming and uplifting as that might seem, particularly for the outgoing Carlo, it is not necessarily a good sign.

Players are always sorry to see the back of a manager that has always shown a respect for the hierarchy and the modus vivendi in existence at the club. New managers might well be tempted to get the ball rolling with a dose of double training rather than to permit the squad to continue to luxuriate in the comfort zone they have created for themselves.

Benitez is, almost certainly, one such manager. The fact that he comes to the job with the full backing and unconditional support of the club’s chief honcho will certainly be concentrating the players’ minds. I’m fairly confident that when the time comes for him to take his leave of the club, it will not be with similar messages of bonhomie and "bon voyage" as those enjoyed by the previous incumbent. Rafa is going to make them work as a team, no privileges, balancing the defensive and offensive work—with more work in training. He will not make many friends.

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There are many erroneous perceptions doing the rounds about Benitez, not least the accusation that he is an over-defensive coach.

Explaining his philosophy some time ago in an interview with Marca, Benitez was quick to point out that those that believed that did not understand the difference between organised—which was how he perceived it—and defensive.

Ignoring for a minute the titles he has won—which include two La Ligas (Valencia), a Champions League (Liverpool), two Europa Leagues/UEFA Cups (Chelsea and Valencia), and FA and Italian Cup finals (Liverpool and Napoli)—Benitez claims that the figures all point to the fact that his sides are set up to score goals but are also organised in such a way so as not to concede.

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Trophies, he maintains, are not won by the mere act of scoring but also by that of not conceding. The two are inseparable. Talent, he adds in the interview, is all well and good, but in the end you have to organise it.

Never one to look at reinventing the wheel, he has nonetheless always been a master at using and adapting to what he has available to him, not least at Valencia and then at Liverpool, where his transformation of Steven Gerrard to a prolific goalscoring midfielder playing behind the predatory genius of Fernando Torres was the stuff of legend.

He was also one of the major trailblazers of tactics like squad rotation and zonal marking, methods we accept as totally normal these days but that, at the time, were as controversial as they were innovative.

Many followed his lead yet he never received the credit due to him for being one of the chief pioneers of such an approach. He was also one of the first to use the tactic of twin holding midfielders, which created the balance required in all areas, but this was also what got him unfairly accused of being a defensively minded coach.

In the 2007-08 season his Liverpool side scored a total of 119 goals, more than any other club in England, a figure that would hardly suggest a defensive approach.

There seems little doubt that he will be allowed—as much as anyone is allowed at Madrid—to do it "his way," and he will certainly be given the tools to do the job.

Possibly Wednesday will see him presented to the world’s media, who are generally split on their opinion of Rafa Benitez as a coach.

I am in no doubt. I firmly believe that his attention to detail, the stubborn insistence he maintains to do things his way and a supremely organised approach will, I’m sure, see Real Madrid return as a major player next season both at home and abroad.

Let’s see.