We’re pretty sure that we don’t have to tell Everton fans that Rafa Benitez can sometimes be a little too keen to praise himself.
The Spanish coach has often taken any opportunity to do so or make spectacular claims when things aren’t going particularly well at a club, and it seems that hasn’t changed post Everton.
Benitez is currently struggling at Celta Vigo, who he joined in the summer in his first job after his sacking at Goodison Park, and is now making some impressive claims according to Cadena SER.
They cover the manager today and his latest comments about his side, who sit 18th in La Liga with six points from ten games and just one win to their name.
The pressure has been rising on him since as they go through one of the worst starts to a season in their history and questions are naturally asked of Benitez.
“(The team’s data) is not that of a relegation team,” he insisted.
“The problems we have, have been detected. What you have to do now is find the solutions, which may take more or less time. The data is good, we do not have data on the relegation team.
“We are ahead of Manchester City or Brighton, who were among the top 8 or 9 teams, in terms of shots on goal. That is not normal, we are the only team that is in that situation with so many shots on goal.
“That’s why we need to improve accuracy. Atlético Madrid is the first team in precision, they shoot little but score a lot of goals, and we are shooting a lot and score few goals.”
The question for Benitez and his team is whether they can turn things around and stop the situation from worsening as it did at Everton.
This tactic of ignoring the obvious and making big claims is one that’s rarely worked for Benitez, it certainly didn’t at Goodison Park, and it’s hard to imagine many Celta fans will be happy with their side creating chances and losing.
Indeed, as far as they’re concerned Celta are very much a relegation team at this moment in time and it would be surprising if these comments do anything in Benitez’s favour.
