His starting period with Liverpool has seen him travel from Toronto to Tottenham with his team, but always impatiently. Real married life with his new club starts at the Reebok stadium today. “This is the real beginning,” Benitez said.
It is the real beginning because at last Liverpool can take the field with the two signings their manager regards as central to his plans. Josemi, a recruit from Malaga, has made a feisty start at right-back, and Antonio Nunez will play his part once he is back from injury, but it is to Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia that Benitez is looking for something decisive. Both players were introduced to the media last week and revealed a command of English (Alonso in particular) and maturity under cross-examination that spoke of their common intelligence. Cleverness is the quality, above all others, that Benitez hopes they can bring to their new team.
The coach, since his first training session at Melwood, has been preaching to the Liverpool players that they should be more shrewd in their football. He wants them to attack more but to do so cerebrally, based on positional interchange, teamwork and variation of passing. Alonso, son of a famous Spanish international, has football in his genes, and from the moment he made his first-team debut at 19, he bossed matches for Real Sociedad with such natural ease as to suggest that, if pushed, he could take out a sheet of A4 and map you the game’s entire DNA. At the base of midfield, he is expected to be the fulcrum for Liverpool, and through his example imbue savvy — perhaps the only missing ingredient — to Steven Gerrard.
Garcia, Benitez believes, can be the catalyst further up the pitch. A flexible forward who can operate on either wing or as a second striker, he offers a subtlety lacking in Djibril Cisse, Milan Baros and Harry Kewell. “My favourite position is just behind a No 9, but in the last few seasons I’ve been playing right or left and the manager can count on me in any of the three positions,” Garcia said. “When I had conversations with him about coming here, he said I’d be concentrating on either wing. It’s looking like I’ll be playing on the right.”
Goals from midfield are the key for Benitez who, when he sold Michael Owen, was quick to express one of his mantras: that it is better for a team to have five players who can score 10 times in a campaign than rely on one capable of 30. When Benitez won the first of two Spanish titles with Valencia, the goals were so spread around the team that its leading scorer was a central midfielder, Rubens Baraja, with seven.
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Garcia will wear Owen’s old jersey and knows what is expected of him: “I asked for the No 10 shirt because I like putting pressure on myself. I realise this shirt has a special meaning for a lot of people, and the thing for me is to not disappoint anyone. I don’t want to let down the players who have worn the shirt before me.”
At £6m, just £2m less than Owen was sold for, Garcia did not come cheap. A £10.7m price tag also seemed a good deal for Alonso, a former target of Real Madrid and Manchester United, but given that Garcia is 26 and not yet a Spanish international, there was surprise at the size of his fee. Benitez might point out, however, that the player was called up by Spain in the build-up to Euro 2004 before having to pull out because of a knock. When Garcia returned to Barcelona’s starting line-up in the second half of last season, after another injury, it coincided with an upsurge that saw Barça almost make a late run at the La Liga title.
Leaving the Nou Camp was hard, he said. “It was a tough decision. Barca’s the club where I grew up as a player. I went through the ranks there as a young lad. All my friends and family are in the area and I come from a place just outside the city. My wife is expecting a baby in October and all those factors went against moving somewhere else.”
The lure was Benitez, who Garcia played for as a young left-winger at Tenerife. “A lot of people in Spain have asked me what his secret is and I’ll tell you the same as I tell them. From a personal point of view, he was the first manager in my career who gave me the confidence to play. He shows faith in his players and makes you relaxed. He gives you the belief to do stuff on the field and he builds a proper team. He tries to create a set-up where there are no individuals, just 11 people pulling in the same direction.
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“He told me about the plans he has for Liverpool and that made my mind up. He’s trying to build something where we’ll not just be high up the English League, but playing in the Champions League and achieving things regularly on a European level. When I looked at the quality of players I’d be playing with here, I realised the size of the opportunity.
“I’ve signed for five years with Liverpool and intend to stay as long as possible. That should tell you the kind of faith I’ve got in the project here. I know how well Señor Benitez works. I know how big the desire is within the club. Xabi and I are determined to do something historic with this club. We want to create something that’s going to live forever.”
After viewing a video of Liverpool’s draw at Tottenham in their opening League game, Alonso went to Benitez with a list of observations. He is sure to have offered several more, having watched from the stand throughout the defeat against Graz. Still coming to grips with Benitez’s new ideas, the team progressively lost shape and confidence against the limited Austrians and ended up clinging on to a slender aggregate lead. One problem, as it was against Manchester City, was the lack of co-operation between Cisse and Baros. “Me and Djibril are still at the beginning (as a partnership). We’re getting better but have to improve our communication,” Baros admitted.
Garcia laughed when asked if Liverpool’s performance then had caused any doubts: “No. I still think it’s a good decision to come here. You can’t judge anything on one performance. Me and Xabi have seen two games now and we’re dying to play.”
Alonso, he predicted, would illuminate the Premiership: “He can take a game by the scruff of the neck and dictate play. He’s got a great shot and is very strong. He should be a very good partner for Gerrard.”
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Vibrancy, after some dull times, is what fans hope the Benitez era will bring. “In Spain, Liverpool are still considered one of the great teams of Europe,” said Garcia. The future for El Liverpool begins at the Reebok stadium today.