Aston Villa’s Lucas Digne on former manager Benitez

Lucas Digne

was never successful in wrestling a lot of minutes away from

Jordi Alba

, who is ruling the roost of

defence’s left side. He departed Barcelona for

on a deal worth €20m in 2017.

However, Digne ceased to feature and joined Aston Villa as he did not get enough game time. Talking to

L’Equipe

in comments carried by

Sport

, the French full-back opened up about the end of his time in Liverpool.

“The relationship we had was not good. It was difficult being excluded from the group for a month. It was something I hadn’t experienced before in my career.”

“I kept working at the side, to make sure I was behind my teammates. He never said I couldn’t play. His statements about me wanting to leave? It was a way of protecting himself. I never asked for that. The people that know me at the club know that everything was going well.”

Notwithstanding the cold treatment, he denied having an altercation with Benitez.

“No, and that didn’t annoy me. It never happened. I know where my place is, my feelings and those of the dressing room. The group was unanimous. The rest of the players backed me up and then he was sacked for the bad results.”

“I also think he had a bad philosophy. It didn’t fit at Everton,”

added Digne.

Benitez is not working currently and notwithstanding his illustrious career, he does not have much options at the top level now. His last job was

, where he frustrated players with his methods and Zinedine Zidane replaced him after six months.

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