Jermaine Pennant joined Real Zaragoza on a free transfer last summer and now earns the equivalent of £80,000 a week.
Jermaine Pennant has accused Rafael Benítez of "restricting" his players and failing to get the best out of the Liverpool squad. The winger, who left the club to join Real Zaragoza in the summer, believes the Spaniard's managerial style and cautious tactics have resulted in some high-profile players finding their best form elsewhere.
"I don't see how a player can play at an average team and be great and go to Liverpool and be not as great. It should be a lot easier," Pennant said. "Liverpool have had some great strikers come and go – Robbie Keane is scoring goals at Tottenham, Peter Crouch is scoring now. It didn't happen at Liverpool: it must be about how the manager relates to players, how the tactics are and how he restricts players. The coach plays a big part when you arrive at a new team. If he restricts you, it's going to make you play differently."
Liverpool prepare to face Manchester United this weekend on the back of four consecutive defeats – their worst run in 22 years – knowing that a fifth would leave them 10 points behind their greatest rivals. In the absence of the injured Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres Liverpool have created fewer chances and Pennant, who played for the club for three seasons after Benítez paid Birmingham £6.7m for his services, believes that the Spaniard's tactical demands hamper his squad.
"I have no qualms or bad feelings about Rafa and I still love the club but there are times when you feel restricted at Liverpool," added Pennant, who was freed by Liverpool last summer. "He's a great manager and there are times when he is a genius but sometimes his approach can take the best out of you. Liverpool are a great side but they need to let loose and express themselves a bit. Look at Barcelona – you don't see them restricted, you see them breaking all sorts of shackles and they win things. Maybe if Liverpool went that way a bit they would be even better."
Pennant was just one of a number of players whose signing should have provided Liverpool with the width and creativity they lacked but he departed having failed to progress and feeling that the coach did not believe in him. Others have followed suit while there has been little progress made by the former Brazilian footballer of the year Lucas or Ryan Babel, touted as the most exciting young player in the Netherlands before his move to Anfield. Pennant believes it is not coincidence.
"When I was there, sometimes I would like to get the ball and not even beat the man, just put it straight in. And he would be shouting: 'Go to the byline.' He'd say it before the game and, if I had put a ball in early, as I was jogging back he'd be there gesturing for me to get to the byline. You think, 'Give it a rest. Can I just play like this? Can't I just express myself?' He's a great manager but his approach can take the best out of you."
Benítez is enduring his most troublesome spell at Anfield since joining in the summer of 2004. The home defeat against Lyon in the Champions League on Tuesday leaves Liverpool facing an uphill task to avoid elimination from the tournament and poor form domestically has seen them lose four Premier League matches this season – double the number they lost throughout the whole of the last campaign.
It is hardly ideal preparation for the fixture against United on Sunday, but the club's US owners have responded by offering their backing. "We have just entered into a long-term agreement with Rafa," George Gillett said this week. "Our family is extraordinarily pleased with him, we think he is absolutely as good as there is in the business and I am sure the [co-owning] Hicks [family] feel the same way. We just extended his contract [last March]." Thousands of fans are expected to march in protest at Gillett and Hicks before Sunday's match.
