Rafa Benitez has rejected the idea he is “hard” on players and said his management of Richarlison shows that. The Everton boss has gathered a reputation for being a taskmaster and while the Spanish coach concedes he is very demanding of the squad – in a bid to improve them – he says his reputation as being especially tough on players is unfair. Benitez says Richarlison has a “different character” to the rest of those in the Blues’ squad and that his challenge is to “manage” a player who can wear his heart on his sleeve – especially when being substituted.
Rafa Benitez said: “Richarlison is very competitive. He’s a winner, but he’s a different character to the other players. He wanted to be on the pitch and he wanted to score goals. I can see he’s disappointed but he was very good when I was telling him how hard he was working, how hard it was for him to play against two aggressive centre-backs, and he did well. He didn’t score but he made his contribution. He’ll be ready for the next game and hungry to score goals and help the team. I will say again – he has a different character and we have to try to manage him. I had a conversation with him in the past about what I was expecting from him and hopefully he can do it. At the moment I can see only goals coming from him.”
Benitez has challenged the perception he is hard on his players and offered an insight into the flavour of conversations he had with Richarlison this week.
Rafa Benitez said: “I think that perception is wrong. We can talk about Demarai Gray or Townsend or even Michael Keane. I talk with my players every day about anything. The priority is football but I talk with them all the time. With Richarlison I was talking the other day about Ronaldo, the Brazilian player, Socrates, Garrincha, even his dogs. You try to be sure you understand your players and in this case we talked about Brazilian players, ones he maybe doesn’t know as well as ones he does know. I think that’s normal for any manager to talk to his players like that. The perception is because I am pushing and I want to improve them and sometimes you are not satisfied because you want to see them play a bit better. It has to be like that. As a manager you have to bring the best from your players and that is the way for me.”
On the chat about Brazil’s former No9 Ronald,
Rafa Benitez added: “Ronaldo, the Brazilian, because he was in Real Madrid and I know him really well, we played against them. He was so good as a player, he was amazing and he [Richarlison] knows he was a fantastic player. We were talking about Socrates and Garrincha because he was very good at dribbling. I liked Brazilian football as a kid and when I was getting older you are watching players. Pele was if not the greatest, then one of the greatest players. For a Brazilian player, if you talk about Brazilian players he will be really pleased We talked in Spanish that he can understand because the Spanish and Portuguese have some similarities and some words. He’s fine. I tried to be sure that he understands that I appreciate him. And then I am trying to help. That’s it.”
