Everyone knows how ruthless Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez can be when hit comes to his rotation policy; he has not even spared his best player and captain Steven Gerrard! But he is not one to leave player put on the cold and forget all about him. Instead he encourages him.
Goal.com reports how Rafa is trying to gee up Xabi Alonso, The player hasn’t been able to recapture his form this season ad has lost his place in the starting line-up. So much so that the Spanish international was even dropped against Sunderland at the weekend. But Rafa says that this will only motivate Alonso even more.
Xabi needs to step it up. When you are not 100% fit, you want to play every game because you need to play more games to build up your fitness.But if Gerrard, Mascherano or Lucas are playing well, it means there is competition for places which is good for the team. Xabi knows he needs to work harder if he wants to have a place in the team. Mascherano was back from suspension and he gives us balance in the middle and Gerrard can be more free going forward. Lucas was playing really well the other day so we had three midfielders, and we needed to have wingers or strikers on the bench. That’s why Alonso was not in the squad on Saturday.
Come on Xabi, get going: that’s the message from Rafa. Will it work? You would suppose it to.