I remember Torres saying when he was at Anfield that Rafa made him a lot better player, he told him the movements to make in the final third which got him goals and which areas to go in, and where not to bother, I also remember Torres saying our old goalkeeping coach Xavi Valero being apparently responsible for 7/8 of Torrres's goals per season, Valero used to to study all the goalkeepers and tell them little secrets and anomolies before each game, which side they prefer to dive too etc.I also remember seeing goal on Sunday once with Robbie Keane, and Keane was saying that Rafa used to have some guy who purely studied VT footage of games and he used to tell the players individual anomoloies with that team, Keane didnt like being told what to do by someone who had never played football, but if all he does is study football games small details hes gonna know what hes on about,and one small detail is all it takes in a game, perhaps thats why Keane was a flop at Liverpool For me Rafa was an obsessive and picked up on all the small details,as do all the main coaches in the game these days I tend to think that Kenny is a " Just Go out and Play Manager", I do think hes behind the times,and I dont think he will be obsessing over minute details to ENSURE we win.Kennys approach may have been ok in the 80s , but we have moved on big time since then.We need someone who will not miss anything,cos thats the difference between winning and losingOur poor form in the League this year is not bad luck, its where we deserve to be
The converse is also true - Rafa also stifled play with such nit-picking. Obviously the optimum exists somewhere between the two approaches.
