When you think of Liverpool's legendary 2005 Champions League final comeback, you probably picture Steven Gerrard's inspired header, Xabi Alonso's penalty rebound, or Jerzy Dudek's heroic saves. But behind that historic night in Istanbul was a manager whose training methods left his players scratching their heads.

In an upcoming Netflix documentary about that unforgettable final, former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher opened up about Rafa Benitez's unconventional approach to preparation. "His training methods were a bit weird," Carragher recalled with a chuckle. "There's no ball and there'd just be cones all around the pitch. Rafa would say, 'right the ball's at cone A, the ball's at cone D, the ball's at cone F' and then we'd all have to run to where we should be."

For players used to traditional drills with actual footballs, this cone-based choreography must have felt more like a geometry lesson than Premier League training. But Benitez, ever the tactician, defended his methods. "I like to analyse things," he explained. "Just one centimetre higher or lower - that is the difference between success sometimes and defeat."

And that meticulous attention to detail proved crucial when the final went to penalties. Goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek revealed that Benitez had prepared extensive notes on AC Milan's penalty takers. "We had a code. The goal was divided into six squares. He shared this information: 'Andriy Shevchenko likes one and four.'"

When Shevchenko stepped up for what would be the deciding penalty, Dudek knew exactly where to dive. He saved it, securing Liverpool's fifth European Cup and cementing the club's place in football folklore. Sometimes, it turns out, a little weirdness goes a long way.