As reported by the Chronicle, Rafa Benitez has explained why he changed his formation for Saturday’s game against Birmingham City.
When asked about the formation, Benitez said: “We wanted to manage in a way that was more similar to what we were trying to do and get more from it.
“But in terms of the defence and the midfielders, I was trying to protect some players who were not playing too much to be sure we have numbers there.”
He also defended his decision, adding: “I think it [the formation] was fine,”
“It was fine for 30 minutes, and after we needed a little bit more control but maybe we didn’t have the legs to cope with the pace of the game.
“In possession we could maybe do a little bit better, we gave the ball away too much and so we had to defend a lot.
“I was happy with a lot of things but we can improve the understanding – we can improve some obvious things.”
