Peter Crouch has recalled how his former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez never so much as gave anyone a ‘well done’, not even club captain and legend Steven Gerrard.
Benitez became well-known for a very direct and demanding management style which wasn’t always popular with players, but got the best out of them, leading Liverpool to Champions League glory against the odds in 2005.
Crouch arrived at the club that summer after a good season with Southampton which saw him make his senior England debut, and recalls how he found working with the Spaniard.
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“I’m always thankful for Rafa Benitez signing me for one of the greatest clubs in the world, you know – I won’t have a bad word to say about him,” Crouch says now. “He was brilliant with me when I went through a barren spell at the start of my Liverpool career. He was happy with me, happy with the work I was doing for the team, even though I wasn’t scoring.”
“There were times with Rafa where I found it hard, but there were elements that were genius,” he says. “It was a balance and sometimes he got the best of players in that regard. He never gave Stevie Gerrard a ‘well done’, ever.
“Bizarrely, when I started scoring and I was a little bit more selfish, it was like… he didn’t want that. I remember coming off after a hat-trick against Arsenal and not really playing for a bit after that. I was like, ‘Just play me, I’m on fire!’ It was always about far more than goals with Rafa.”
Benitez would go on to lead Liverpool to another Champions League final in 2007, before leaving the club in 2010, and he allowed Crouch to depart to Portsmouth in 2008 after three seasons at Anfield.
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