Rafa not under pressure

Last updated : 16 January 2007 By Al Campbell
Rafa Benitez hs been stung by some of the criticism he received after Liverpool's two domestic cup exits last week but he says the pressure of managing the Reds is nothing compared to back home.

"I think I am young as a manager but I have experience from being in bad situations. I always say that after a Sunday there is a Monday. You can learn from your situations and improve," said the Spaniard.

"When I was at Valencia, people were saying I would be in trouble if we lost a game away at Espanyol even though we had just set a club record of going 13 games in a row without losing. After that we won the league even though we were eight points behind Real Madrid in January and we ended up eight points ahead.

"In the second year, people said that I would be sacked because we didn't have good enough players and yet we still reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The year after people were saying that if we didn't win the league and the UEFA Cup, then I would be sacked. You need to have confidence in your players, your staff and everyone to gain success."