Liverpool flop Andrea Dossena admitted he regrets what he did after signing for the club.
In July 2008, Liverpool paid £7million for the Italian left-back to replace the outgoing John Arne Riise, but he never lived up to expectations at Anfield. After impressing at Udinese in Serie A and becoming an Italy international, his time in England all but saw his career fall apart.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, Dossena said: “In Italy we have a culture of work that is much more based on quantity, while you (in England) are very good at having an optimal quantity/quality ratio. In my opinion we lack this in order to adapt to your football because when we no longer work, as the quantity contains, the quality decreases accordingly.
“At least this was my problem in my case. I came from a culture of a lot of weekly work and in Liverpool we played every three days and we never trained. I would have had to train in my personal time so that at the time of my employment, I could have been at my 100%.
“I spoke to Benitez, I wasn’t physically well. It wasn’t his fault but I understood that I had to work on my own. But being inexperienced I didn’t do it. My fault!
Dossena admitted he regrets how his time at Liverpool went, but revealed he grew from the experience. He continued: “I certainly regret not being able to give my best due to my inexperience. No regrets about joining the club though, because in any case, Liverpool helped me grow both as a man, a footballer at the time, and as a coach today.”
The full-back returned to England to play for Sunderland and Leyton Orient in short spells. He’s now manager of Serie C side Pro Vercelli who are in the promotion hunt this season.
