Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Liverpool FC Takes Positives From Boro Win

Rafael Benitez chose to concentrate on the positives after Liverpool secured an unlikely win over Middlesbrough.

A deflected Jamie Carragher strike and a trademark screamer from Steven Gerrard inside the final four minutes cancelled out Mido’s 70th-minute opener to leave the Teessiders heartbroken.

Despite the three points, it was another below-par performance as Liverpool continue to find their form in the opening weeks of the season.

And Benitez said: “I am very happy with the result, but I am not happy with the performance of the team. The last three games, we have not played well. But we were playing really well during pre-season.

“If we can bring in new faces then the competition will be better for me and we can improve. The main thing for me is the mentality of the players. We were trying until the end, we were going forward, working really hard with determination and that is important.

“I will try and find a positive message from these kind of games and it is that we won without playing well. Last season we played well in a lot of games but never scored the goals from the chances we had.

“Now we have six points out of six points and when everyone is ready we will play much better and it will be difficult to stop us.”

Of the game, Benitez added: “We had a lot of offensive players on the pitch, but if you had said to me we would draw then maybe I would have said yes because we had conceded late.

“It is always difficult to score two goals in that length of time.

“I want to play well, but if you don't play well and win then the confidence of the team will stay high. It is impossible to play well all the time, so you need to keep going.

“You have to give credit to Middlesbrough. They were pretty good and well organised.

“They had good players in front and could play good football.

“They had players in the wide areas who were good. They worked really hard in defence.”

Robbie Keane, along with Andrea Dossena, made his competitive home debut for his new club on Saturday.

And Benitez said: “I thought he was pretty good. The understanding with Torres was much better. He worked hard with good movements. The key is the rest of the team giving them good passes.”

Benitez singled out the contribution of Nabil El Zhar, who came on as an 82nd-minute substitute and helped turn the game in Liverpool’s favour with a direct performance down the right wing.

“That is the reason why Nabil was a key player for us,” said the Anfield manager.

“I was saying to him ‘stay wide, stay wide’ and he offered the wide areas.

“Dossena was going forward in the first half and Arbeloa in the second half but really our wingers are not players who play on the lines.

“We have to try through our full-backs and keep the other team back.”

Liverpool’s problems out wide highlighted their need to bring in a wide player before the transfer window closes, and Benitez added: “I think it is important to keep the balance. We will try and do our best.”

Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate could barely contain his disappointment at his team’s late capitulation.

“Liverpool were starting to get frustrated and there were long balls that were running out of play,” he said. “I couldn't ask more from the lads and again when they look back they will realise how close they came to getting a result.

“Liverpool have the ability to keep going, resilience, and they have players who can pop up and score important goals as Gerrard and Torres have done in the last two weeks.

“They are what they are. We didn't have any fear but we couldn't get the win we wanted.”

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