Rafa Benitez’s time as Real Madrid manager was not a success. Now, to be fair to the Spaniard, his record was not terrible. But Los Blancos decided to make a change after he had spent just seven months in the Santiago Bernabeu hot seat. It led to one of the most successful eras in the history of the club though, as Zinedine Zidane replaced him and led them to three Champions League titles.
It was a feel good story to see Benitez return to Real Madrid. He had come through the youth ranks of the club and had even coached them at the Castilla level.
He had found a lot of success in management at Valencia and Liverpool. He had also managed clubs like Chelsea, Inter Milan and Napoli. Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan at Real Madrid.
There were a lot of rumours at the time, about the players being unhappy about Benitez trying to ‘correct’ aspects of their games. Whether that be Luka Modric’s passing or Cristiano Ronaldo’s free kicks. But it looks like a lot of the stories coming out in the media might not have been accurate.
Former Real Madrid manager makes Ronaldo claim
As reported by Football Espana, while speaking on Cadena SER, the Spanish coach said:
"“Once I told Modric that in a three-meter pass you play it with the inside so that the ball gets to your teammate clean, without spin. That is a comment in training, but when you want to make things sound a certain way, you make them sharper.”"
He further went on to add about the Ronaldo situation:
"“The only comment I made to Ronaldo, as I knew him from United, is that we analysed how he took free-kicks. We analysed the trajectory, we see if we can make any adjustments, we saw that we couldn’t and we forgot about it. It’s my only conversation with him. Everything else is a lie. When he takes the free-kicks, when I leave, his statistics are worse. I was surprised that journalists I knew said that without talking to me.”"
Now to be very honest, it is the job of a manager to try and improve his players. So, if he feels that there are certain aspects in which they can get better, then he cannot be questioned for giving suggestions.
Ultimately, things did not work out for Benitez at Real Madrid and his managerial career has been on a bit of slide since then. He currently finds himself without a club, with his last job being a controversial one at Everton, considering his long history with Liverpool.