The Liverpool/ AC Milan Connection

When Rafael Benitez was appointed Liverpool manager in 2004 he was asked about his favourite teams, in a fashion all to accustomed since Benitez gave an honest answer which did not necessarily fall for the cliché "I supported this club as a boy", he spoke of his love of Real Madrid and that his footballing vocabulary was all based on the workings of the great AC Milan side of Arrigo Sacchi. Benitez said he wanted to mirror the Milan ideology into Liverpool

Since then it has become an interesting debate among Liverpool fans all over the world which has recieved further stimulation due to the fact Liverpool's most triumphant victory of the past decade came against the Milanese side.

Its an interesting comparison. To a degree, there are similarities and there is a reason behind that. Benitez has been a student of the game since he was born, a man who meticulously watched and continues to watch all quarters of football trying to continuously adapt by learning new concepts or strategies or innovations of ideas. AC Milan have been the main representation of football evolution since the Liverpool era, after the Liverpool's era of European Club Football domination in the 80's came Milan's golden era with which they changed the whole set up and standard of football in Europe as a result.

Silvio Berlusconi the owner of Milan and highly successful media mogul has had a brilliant management concept at Milan. One based on high levels professionalism and analysing every area related to performance, he spent a lot on facilities and technical developments. Milanello the training complex of Milan has not only doctors, masseur's but specialists on diet and physical conditioning, psychiatrists working on the mental mindset of players and the infamous Milan lab which studies into forms of physical practices and such to give the best output for players. The signs are evident, there have been a significant number of players who have been at Milan well into there late 30's (Cafu, Maldini, Billy Costacurta, Baresi) who have had the physical capacity to compete at a high level all the way to come the end of the season in there latter years, the recent 3 Champions League Finals have been good examples. Milan know how to extend the longevity of a players career whilst get the best out of them at that time. Another example that can be mentioned is former Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko, who seeked the help of Milan psychiatrists whilst at Chelsea because he did not get that sort of help or facilities readily available at Chelsea and had felt consequently his performances were affected in a negative light as a result.

Now that's the technical level covered and you see Benitez is a big fan of this, at Valencia they ignored or knocked down his requests for new technical equipment and resources, requests they thought were unnecessary but which Benitez knew and understood the benefits of and how to use this to his gain. At Melwood (Liverpool's training complex) he has used all the resources and continues to find new products and ideas in order to get the best out of the team in terms of physical level and consistency through providing the right services and a strong working environment. The similarities with the Milan concept are evident, Benitez always speaks of "professionalism" and tries to incorporate the highest levels of discipline as possible.

Now to the footballing side, well Milan for me also represent the team who had and continue to have the best idea of football. There idea is of covering every aspect of football, both defensive and offensive and adjusting your tactics according to the strengths/ weaknesses of an opponent whilst not having one developed idea or style yourself that makes you easily predictable or vulnerable as a result.

The art of defending through pressing all over, squeezing space and playing an offside trap (based on long periods of work/ training, to create an almost telepathic backline) line in tandem works to help the team play higher up the pitch and force the opposition back whilst not being overtly exposed at the same time, though some teams are horrible at playing this (Marseille for example) The idea of pressing is also linked to physical preparation and being at a high level and rotation at times.

The attacking philosophy starts from the midfield with different styles, the ability to play high intensity/ tempo football or to play controlled measured football based on possession. With importance placed on balance of technical abilities with physical attributes. Gattuso-Pirlo is a good example of this as is Mascherano-Alonso.

Both teams place a lot of emphasis on there wings coming from the fullbacks and the "creative" players always drifting in or coming centrally to open a team up or participate in the build up.

Obviously its not a carbon copy at the football environments are different, but Benitez tries to incoroporate what he feels the best and most relevant qualities of Milan as an institution and a footballing philosophy in his workings. I for one am happy with it, I prefer a team who can play flexible football, be able to play nice attacking football with ball retention whilst being able to adapt and play strong defensively able to expose teams through counter attacking football. Sometimes I think the defensive idea takes a bit more of a front seat which I don't like, but in general we seem to have the right approach.