Dominic Fifield hears how manager Rafael Benitez intends to reignite Liverpool as a major force

Rafael Benitez sought perfection through reflection this week. Infuriated by Liverpool's inconsistencies, his side's form lurching from the supreme to the downright dire, the Spaniard's thoughts returned to the evening when, as a 12-year-old in Madrid, he had been beaten at his favourite board game by a friend.

Stratego, he explained to his audience, pits the players as military commanders deploying their Napoleonic-era units on the battlefield with a view to capturing the opponent's flag. The blurb on the box says it is a "unique game of strategy, memorisation and unit management". Benitez has effectively used it as a model for life.

"I stayed up all night thinking about why I'd lost and how I could prevent it happening again," said the Liverpool manager, manoeuvring the journalists' tape recorders around the table to illustrate how he'd pair his field marshal with a foot soldier and where he would sink his mines. "Once I'd learned the rules and understood the strategies, I didn't lose again. I worked out a way to win no matter who I played."

As a quirk this smacked of Gareth Keenan's geeky top-trump fixation in The Office, but as an insight into the Benitez mindset it was revealing. Football has long since taught the 44-year-old that chance can undermine even the most carefully laid plans, but the meticulous and scientific approach remains, along with the obsessive desire to succeed.

When the 201st meeting between Liverpool and Everton ignites tomorrow, the task for Benitez is to send out a side to emerge victorious from a fixture they simply must win. Merseyside is gripped with thoughts of the Champions League. For Everton, a chance to finish above their city rivals for the first time since they last won the championship, in 1987, has the added incentive of qualification for the elite competition.

Liverpool's thoughts will be not only on Juventus but also on the desperate need to claw back a seven-point deficit to offer a prospective route back into the premier tournament.

Benitez's first season has had the occasional blistering performance - Arsenal, Olympiakos and Bayer Leverkusen - but has been undermined by his side's inability to find consistency. Last week's searing display in Germany was followed by goalless tedium against Blackburn. The contrast turned Benitez the workaholic into Benitez the worrier.

"I go home and mutter into my pillow all night wondering how I can change things," he said. "We've lost games and I've found it unbelievable. I've left thinking, 'We're better than them. How did we lose?' I have been trying to understand why, working 14 hours every day with my staff.

"We have more quality than Everton, but it's not always about quality. Everton work hard for each other as a team - they do what we did at Valencia - whereas we haven't had the right mentality in some games. We've lost concentration at times.

"At Valencia we'd change our game plan to combat a particular opponent. That's something we still need to learn how to do here. We're still far away from achieving what I want us to be but, in football, you can change things by working harder."

Results may not always suggest as much but Benitez has made an impact behind the scenes. His players admit they have never had as much tactical preparation, as many hands-on routines, sit-down sessions and flip-chart lectures.

Yet it is the manager's insistence on creating a united squad with depth in talent, just as at Valencia, that shines through. Players have changed room-mates on away trips to help bond the multi-national set-up. Social events have been encouraged. The squad hit the town last Friday with a free weekend ahead, the signings of Mauricio Pellegrino and Scott Carson prompting an evening out to welcome them.

Liverpool still lack the finesse Benitez wants, suggesting an overhaul to come. "That will have to wait until the summer," he added. "You can do different things then but, for now, if the players try I can't criticise them. We have players with the character to stand up in games like this because we all know this is about more than three points. We need to win to reduce that gap."

His record - from Stratego to La Liga - suggests Benitez has the drive to do just that, though Liverpool's fans will require first-hand evidence tomorrow to quash any suspicion Merseyside is witnessing a tip in the balance of power.