Rafa Benitez at Real Madrid: the case against his reign

Whatever happens, whichever club appoints Benitez and whoever plays for the team he manages, the Spanish coach looks set to remain an underachiever in his profession. It is a strong opinion, and the reasons behind it are worth setting out.

To begin with, it has to be admitted that Benitez’s effort at Liverpool was remarkable when the Merseysiders won the Champions League. He has won several other major trophies too, but a closer look at his philosophy reveals a weak manager.

A head coach at Real Madrid simply cannot ask his players to rely on counter-attacks against a team like Sporting Gijon. A manager at a club of that stature, with such classy players in the squad, has to beat teams like Sporting Gijon and Malaga convincingly, not settle for 0-0 draws. Going for 3 points and risking nothing is better than collecting just 1 and falling behind Barcelona.

A Real Madrid side also must not let Paris Saint-Germain outplay it at the Santiago Bernabeu. Real may have won 1-0, but Los Blancos deserved to lose by several goals. PSG did not have better players than Real, but they clearly had the better head coach. If Rafa Benitez stayed, the club looked unlikely to win anything that season.

On top of that, Real Madrid faced expulsion from the Copa del Rey because Benitez fielded a suspended player. Such forgetfulness at that level is hard to excuse, and it raised the question of why the club was paying him millions. Cristiano Ronaldo, given the job of picking the line-up, could hardly have done worse than Benitez.

Then there was the match against Barcelona. Even Roma, who lost 6-1 to Barca, played more bravely than Real Madrid. The 4-0 defeat was a pure humiliation. A manager with real pride might well have stepped down after such a result.

How he managed to win so many trophies is difficult to explain; perhaps he has simply been very lucky. Almost anyone with a reasonable understanding of football, the argument goes, would have done better than Rafa Benitez.

This is not the view of a Real Madrid supporter, just of someone who dislikes watching mismanagement. For the good of football, Benitez might be better off stepping away from the dugout.

How the reign ended

The verdict came quickly. Benitez had been appointed on 3 June 2015 on a three-year contract, and Real Madrid terminated it on 4 January 2016. His record in 25 matches was 17 wins, 5 draws and 3 defeats, a win rate of 68 per cent. The 4-0 home defeat by Barcelona in the first Clasico of the season and the disqualification from the Copa del Rey, after an ineligible player was fielded against Cadiz, both came during that short spell.

Zinedine Zidane took over, and the change was followed by immediate success in Europe. On 28 May 2016 Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the Champions League final at San Siro in Milan.

The record in full

The criticism sits alongside a long list of honours. With Valencia, Benitez won La Liga in 2001-02 and 2003-04 and the UEFA Cup in 2003-04. At Liverpool he won the Champions League in 2004-05 and the FA Cup in 2005-06, and at Chelsea the Europa League in 2012-13. He also won the Club World Cup with Inter in 2010 and the Coppa Italia with Napoli in 2014.

After Madrid he took over at Newcastle United on 11 March 2016. The club were relegated that season, but Benitez stayed and won the Championship in 2016-17, remaining until his contract expired in June 2019. Later spells followed at Dalian in China, Everton, where he was dismissed on 16 January 2022 after 22 matches, Celta Vigo and Panathinaikos.