Liverpool flop Aquilani opens up on Anfield struggles and 'anger' at Benitez
Liverpool flop Alberto Aquilani admits he was "angry" with Rafa Benitez for his lack of minutes before the Spaniard's sacking began his demise at the Reds.
The Italian moved to Anfield in the summer of 2009, effectively serving as a replacement for Xabi Alonso, who left to join Real Madrid. Alonso had been the engine room of the Liverpool midfield and Aquilani had big shoes to fill but ultimately found minutes hard to come by.
He had to adapt to the Premier League and injury also didn't help his cause. Benitez though often turned to other options and Aquilani was dealt a further blow when the Spanish tactician was axed after a poor year - and the Italian never felt like he was fancied by the new manager, Roy Hodgson.
The former Red told the Echo: “It was a good, good team. And a good coach, but sometimes I was angry with the coach because he didn’t play me too much. I finished that season and I was focused. First season I was injured and it was my first season out of Italy, but now I have another season.
“You have to know, when you go to a new team, maybe you need one year more. For me the year was not too bad. It was not too bad because the situation was bad. The reality is the time I lost is too much but when I was there, the feeling with the club, with the players, with the coach was good so okay, next season will be good.
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“But what happened? Rafa was gone and in came Roy Hodgson. In came a new sporting director, Damien Comolli, and obviously they wanted to bring in their players. I was there, I was contracted but I was not their player.”
Aquilani was immediately loaned out to Juventus, where he was a regular. Despite that Liverpool opted to send the Italian out once again the following season, this time to AC Milan before Fiorentina signed him permanently, meaning he'd only played one season on Merseyside.
Alberto Aquilani failed to match expectations at LiverpoolThe £17m move proved to be immensely underwhelming despite Aquilani being highly-rated having come through the ranks at Roma before establishing himself a key player. The now 39-year-old admits he never wanted to leave the Stadio Olympico, but ultimately had to when the club wanted to move him on.
“Liverpool was a big change for me. I was a player born in Rome," he said. "Player for Roma. Supporter of Roma. For me, it was very difficult to leave Roma. I had had a lot of chances to move from Roma I remember when I was younger. Arsenal and Chelsea gave me big offers but there was never any chance I’d leave Roma."
His only season at Liverpool saw them go from second to seventh in what was a massive drop-off. They also fell out of the Champions League in the group stages, dropping them into the Europa League, where they made the semi-finals before losing to Atletico Madrid - but Aquilani thinks his efforts and the season would be viewed differently had they won that competition.
“Imagine if we got to the final of the Europa League, and I’d scored in the semi-final,” he added. “Maybe it would change my life there. Maybe we go to the final and maybe we win and maybe I stay at Liverpool for 10 years. I don’t know."
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