Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Ryan Babel Eyes Europe Ahead Of West Ham


As Liverpool prepare to face West Ham at Anfield tomorrow, Ryan Babel pledged to make a greater contribution to their tussle with Everton and Aston Villa for the fourth Champions League place after finally coming through 90 minutes in the Premier League in Sunday's 3-1 victory at Bolton.

The 21-year-old former Ajax attacker, who also scored at the Reebok Stadium, had previously completed an entire match only in cup football. "Playing the full minutes in the league was a big hurdle for me to overcome," said Babel, who made Rafael Benitez's starting XI for the fifth game running, his best sequence since signing for £11.5 million last summer.

"But I'm realistic - I knew at the start of the season that I couldn't play a whole game. The manager also knew that, which is why I've been brought into the side slowly. Now I hope to stay in the line-up and build on the Bolton match."

Babel, whose previous league goal was also against Bolton three months earlier, has now scored eight times for Liverpool. While stressing that he was "coping better", he admitted that coming through that important physical and psychological 90-minute barrier had tested him to the limits. "Even now, after 75 minutes against Bolton, I was feeling a bit tired, as though I couldn't defend properly. Maybe I was lucky because they couldn't push forward much, but bigger teams would still be attacking.

"I don't think it's a mental problem. When you compare the level in the Dutch League to the Premier League, there's a massive difference. Everyone that comes from Holland needs time to settle."

Babel had struggled to live up to former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish's prediction that he would "terrify" opponents with his pace and strength. But happily for Benitez, his adjustment to the intensity of the English game is well-timed for the Premier League run-in. "Hopefully my goal can give me the confidence to go on from this," he said.

It helps that I've been playing more matches lately. The more you play the more you grow into the squad and the system. It's helping my game, especially for myself as a player who has needed to play a lot of minutes to settle into the team."

Lucas Neill has called on his West Ham team-mates to find the form that kept them in the Premier League last season - to threaten the other challengers for a place in the Uefa Cup.

West Ham's hopes of Europe were hit last Saturday by a 4-0 home defeat by Chelsea but they have the chance to correct that set-back with a difficult trip to Liverpool.

The West Ham captain believes his side can put the shock of the size of the Chelsea loss behind them. "We're going to hurt like crazy for a couple of days and the best thing we can do is to get back on to the pitch and try and rectify the situation," said Neill.

"Our away form is very good and we've got to put everything into the Anfield game to get a result. We've got to keep believing we can get into Europe."

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