Robbie Fowler has revealed his enormous respect for Rafa Benitez, the man who allowed him a romantic Anfield return in 2006.
The legendary striker had left the club in disappointing circumstances in 2002 after falling out of favour with Gerard Houllier, but was granted another stint in his beloved red by our former Spanish boss – who Liverpool face at the weekend when we travel to Newcastle.
“I’ll always be grateful to Rafa Benitez for giving me the chance to come back home,” Fowler told the official website.
“I wasn’t even playing for (Manchester) City.
“At the time, Liverpool were maybe struggling a little bit for goals. Rafa picked up the phone and asked me if I wanted to come back to Liverpool, it was probably the best phone call I’ve ever had in my life.
“I have fond memories of Rafa Benitez, a great manager.
“I want him to get beat this weekend, I’m a Liverpool fan, I don’t want it to be a 4-3 game – I want Liverpool to win really comfortably.
“Even when he was Liverpool manager and you think of the players he had at his disposal, technically, tactically and going forward I think we were as good as anyone.
“But his (approach) was to not let the other team create chances, stop them from scoring and get blocks, and counter-attack and get a 1-0 win. He was like that at Liverpool and he’ll be exactly the same.
“He’ll want to do well, he’ll want to keep a clean sheet and he’ll try to get us on the counter.”
How Liverpool could do with a forward of Fowler’s ability at the moment..
The Scouser is arguably the most natural finisher we’ve ever had, alongside Ian Rush, scoring 183 goals in total during his two stints in red.
Right now, Liverpool are carving out chances in every game we play, but cannot convert enough of them to win matches.
In fact, in our past six, we’ve had 121 shits on goal, but have scored just six times – earning just one win.
It’s imperative that at the weekend, we turn it round and find form – as we can’t deal with two weeks of bitterness with another irritating international break on the horizon.