Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Benitez - We Must Do Better

Rafa Benitez believes that Liverpool need to improve if they are to get anything from this season, starting in the FA Cup third round replay against Luton on Tuesday night.

The Spaniard has seen his side record four consecutive draws in all competitions and are yet to post a victory in 2008.

The disappointing cup draw at Kenilworth Road was followed up by another 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough on Saturday, a result which leaves the Reds 12 points behind leaders Manchester United in the race for the Premier League title.

Benitez is well aware that performances must improve quickly and has challenged his players to show their quality over the next few weeks.

"We know we must improve," he told the club's official website.

"Clearly we talked about this after the game, but the players know when we have played badly.

"The mentality and the attitude must always be 100 per cent commitment, must always be 100 per cent for winning from the first minute. We must think about this.

"All of us need to improve. The players know that some players are playing well and scoring goals, so we need to see the other players doing what they were doing at the beginning of the season when we were scoring goals from everywhere.

"The players and the staff know we must play better and give the fans more. We will try and do that against Luton at Anfield.

"The quality is there. We were playing some fantastic football at the beginning of the season and also in some of the Champions League games. The football is there, but maybe it's a little bit of confidence that we need at the moment.

"When you have chances and you don't score, everybody starts talking about how we got another draw, so the players can maybe lose confidence.

"But it's simple how you can change this: winning, scoring goals and playing well."

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