BENITEZ THE MAN BEHIND LIVERPOOL
HERES A BBC REPORT OF THE MAN WHO WILL HOPEFULLY LEAD LIVERPOOL TO THE PREMIERSHIP TITLE.
WORK ETHIC
"Rafa always believes in the strength of the team, that if you work hard you can be better than the richest teams in the world.
"He demonstrated that with Valencia, before he had arrived they had not won the Spanish league for over 30 years.
"Yet under him Valencia won two titles even though Real Madrid and Barcelona probably had the better players.
"He wants to give a personality to Liverpool. At Valencia, sometimes you thought the team moved in such harmony that they were being controlled by him on the touchline."
BUYING PLAYERS
"Perhaps Rafa is not so good at buying players.
"I was speaking with Rafa's agent before Liverpool played Real Betis in Spain back in September.
"He told me that Rafa is the best coach, but sometimes he is so intent on watching the game, that he doesn't watch the players.
"The agent said that his eyes were better at spotting players than Rafa's eyes.
"Rafa knows the Spanish market well and that is why he has mainly signed Spanish players.
"But he knows that the team needs English players - it is important for the club's personality. He likes to discover young players, who have a good level he can improve."
REAL MADRID
"I cannot imagine Rafa working with all the stars at Real Madrid, where Ronaldo goes to Brazil for a month to recover for a month from injury, or David Beckham travels to London for a publicity event.
"Rafa doesn't like this. He wants to control all the questions about the footballers. It would be a crash with Real Madrid."
WINNING THE PREMIERSHIP
"He believes he has to work harder than when he arrived at Valencia.
"He has been surprised by the large number of games you have to play in England. It's impossible to rest and recover players. Every game you have to play 100%.
"He likes to rotate his team and change the players. He was famous at Valencia for this. He liked to experiment with players. Every Sunday when Valencia played nobody knew who would be in the team.
"He knows it is going to be more difficult for Liverpool to win the Premiership than the Champions League. That's the prize he wants to be win, but it will be difficult because of Chelsea."
COACHING SPAIN
"Rafa would like to coach the Spanish national team in the future.
"But this is when he is older and more experienced. I can't see it happening in the next 10 years - he loves working every day with players.
"I can imagine him as Spain's coach, but he would clash with the club coaches because he would want to have lots of time with the players."
LIVERPOOL
"From the first day as Liverpool manager he has always spoken in English. He always want to improve and to demonstrate he can do anything. Most Spanish people would have used a translator for that first year.
"He likes England and the city of Liverpool. At Melwood he has everything and most importantly freedom.
"He thinks of it as a laboratory where he can do everything and anything. Training the players, buying and selling and organising the Academy.
"He is so crazy about football - he thinks about it 24 hours a day.
"He likes living in a country with a long tradition of the game, and to be with a great club like Liverpool.
"He has said he wants to be five years in Liverpool. He is happy, his wife is happy and his daughters are happy."