Monday, December 03, 2007

Rafa Hails Torres And Claims: We Will Be Close

Liverpool kept up their push for the title after another stunning show by Fernando Torres.

And boss Rafa Benitez is confident his men will stay in the hunt after crushing Bolton at Anfield yesterday to move up to third in the table.

"In the last three years we were too far behind, this year we are closer and we have a better squad," said Benitez. "I have confidence, but we need to see where we are at the end of January. We'll play a lot of games and we have some problems with injuries. If we don't make mistakes we will be close."

He added: "The team is playing well, we weren't fantastic but it's a good win.

"It's also important we don't have just one striker scoring 20 goals a season - we need others with 15."

Sami Hyypia, Torres, Steven Gerrard and substitute Ryan Babel swept aside Bolton but the win was marred when Jamie Carragher was flattened by Liverpool goalkeeper Jose Reina for the second time this season.

Carragher went off with damaged ribs after his team-mate clattered into him as they attempted to clear the ball.

A similar incident at Sunderland put Carragher out for three matches with an identical injury.

Benitez must wait to find out if he has cracked ribs but could see the funny side as he said: "I think Pepe is going to kill Carra or finish his career one day."

Liverpool could afford to laugh at the collision as Nicolas Anelka failed to take advantage of the mix-up and somehow contrived to miss an open goal with Bolton just 1-0 down.

Wanderers boss Gary Megson was unhappy with his side's display. "We didn't play well or compete anywhere near the level we did against Manchester United," he said. "We must do that every time and make that game the standard."

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