Because less players equal more space to pass and move

Rafa Benitez will Boost Newcastle United Players

Former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez may turn the Newcastle United players into robots in the attempts to salvage the club’s Premier League status.

Newcastle turned towards the former Liverpool boss after recently parting company with Steve McClaren. The former England manager left the club facing yet another relegation within a decade. Jamie Carragher is one of those names to have played under Benitez for a considerable amount of time. As a manager, the Spaniard spent much of his career at Liverpool. Carragher says that opposition feared playing against Liverpool since they would not give any space to breathe.

This was one of the tactics behind stopping the opposition from playing. Initially, this paid a lot of dividends after the club won the Champions League title under the regime of the Spaniard. Even though they have since won the League Cup, this achievement remains the finest glory for Liverpool since their last league title more than two decades ago. Carragher says that Benitez is a manager who is always demanding players to play in the way he wants. His obsession with practical perfection means that Newcastle players may forget the art of playing beautiful football.
However, Carragher accepted that the latter is not the need of the hour at St James’s Park.

Newcastle are just one place above the bottom of the table.“Teams hated playing against us [at Liverpool]. The games would be horrible for the opposition because we would not give them any space to breathe. After the first year of working with Rafa, we were like robots. By that I mean we knew exactly what he wanted us to do and when to do it. This came about through repetition on the training ground, the drills being done over and over again until he was satisfied,” said Carragher.