It's the place where Rafael Benitez and his dedicated backroom team are developing their vision of taking the Reds back to the top of English football.

  Melwood, the Reds' state of the art training complex in West Derby, is home to the club's array of stars as they practise their skills and perfect their tactics under the watchful eye of their Spanish boss.

  Melwood has been Liverpool's training base since the days of Shankly and over recent years the complex has undergone dramatic transformation. The Reds' board of directors funded a multi-million pound renovation to give a world class set of players the world class facilities they require to help take them back to the pinnacle of the English game. To take a virtual tour of Melwood

  Press and meeting room

  This room is where Rafa.holds his press conferences. He'll do the TV press conference here first. Depending on the game, you can have up to 10 TV crews here. After speaking to the TV he'll speak to the radio and then the written press.

  This room is also used by the staff and players when they have team meetings to prepare for games.

  Dressing rooms

  The changing rooms for the players are very, very spacious. All the players have got their own gowns for when they have to go in the pool and they have the swimming shorts as well. Are the lads pampered? Yes, but why not - we're Liverpool Football Club and we want to look after our players.

  Relaxation facilities

  When the new Melwood was built it was felt to be important that the players had everything they wanted to ensure an enjoyable working environment. The club didn't want the players to be eager to get away from the training ground once the work on the pitches was over. We have a Jacuzzi which all the players enjoy using from time to time.

  Rehabilitation pool

  The players will come here after training if necessary. You certainly won't see Peter Kaye doing one of his bombs into this pool! There are no bombs allowed, but now and again for enjoyment we might get the ball out and have a bit of a laugh.

  Treatment room

  We have a top class medical staff who keep the players, as much as possible, on the playing field. The medical lads and technical lads work together as a unit for the good of the club.

  It's very high-tech. There's a scanning machine which is our own so if the lads have an injury after a training session, they can come in here and the Doc can scan them straight away. He can determine how long the players are going to be out of action. It's state of the art and it cost quite a lot of money. It's also mobile so it can travel to away games.

  Synthetic surface pitches

  This has been a fantastic addition to the footballing side of things at Melwood. It's called our indoor/outdoor area for obvious reasons, but the quality of this Astroturf is fantastic.

  People will remember the Astroturf at Luton Town when the ball was bouncing everywhere. What we have now is called field turf, which is just like grass and in between are all these little balls of rubber which give it a bounce like normal grass.

  Training pitches

  The ground staff at Melwood have worked extremely hard and over the years the pitches have got better and better. The board of directors must be congratulated for giving us this building, but they've helped us to have the best training pitches in the country and if you've got the best players then you need the best training pitches to play on.

  It's cut and watered every day so the lads get great enjoyment out of being able to pass the ball as well as they can. It's all floodlit because we don't just train here of a morning time. In the winter it gets dark early so the lights will be used then.

  Gymnasium

  The gym is very large and is five times bigger than the one we had at the old Melwood. More players are using it either before or after training nowadays, they'll do a little bit of work on the bikes, runners and the weights and they'll be in here again after training.

  We also have a hypoxic chamber. It's used mainly for the rehabilitation because in there it's like training at altitude and it helps the players to make a quicker recovery. They can be working in there on one of the machines for 20 minutes and, because the air is a lot thinner, it can feel as though they've been working in there for about 40 minutes.

  Recreational facilities

  The club are keen for the players to spend as much time as possible together. We've got a lot of foreign players at Melwood and the staff are keen for them and the English players to mix together.

  There's a table tennis table as well along with a pool table so the lads have ways of enjoying themselves once training is over.

  Restaurant area

  Anne and Paula produce the food for the players every day. As you can imagine, pasta is very high on the list and the players will have that almost every day. There will also be soup and vegetables on offer as well as plenty of yoghurt and fruit.
We also have our lounge area and a large screen television, which the lads enjoy as you can imagine.

  Sky Sports News is on most of the time in here as well as a little bit of rap music.

  Signing area

  In the signing area we have shirts and balls and because we're Liverpool Football Club, people want things signed all the time. The PR department will come in here regularly.

  Coaches and tactics room

  This is where all the staff will meet and talk about tactics with the manager.