Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Ian Rush: Liverpool FC's Ryan Babel Can Learn From Yossi Benayoun

Rafa Benitez asked his players to do their talking on the pitch and Yossi Benayoun responded brilliantly at Anfield on Saturday.

The Israeli was excellent against Burnley and fully deserved his hat-trick.

Ryan Babel could learn a lot from Benayoun.

Rather than moan about not being in the side every week, Benayoun knuckled down and was determined to take his chance.

Benayoun is not an automatic pick at Liverpool but he has given his manager a major selection dilemma for tomorrow night.

In contrast others have made Benitez’s job easy because when they have played they haven’t done enough to earn a regular spot.

As far as I’m concerned Benayoun is an excellent squad player.

He is one of those players who can come off the bench and win you a game.

He’s similar to Vladimir Smicer and I think there are certain teams he’s perfect to play against.

Burnley were ideal opponents for Benayoun and they just couldn’t handle him.

It looked to me as if Burnley had said ‘if we stop Torres and Gerrard we won’t lose the game’.

Torres was really well marshalled and they seemed to be doubling up on him at every opportunity.

Even when he got away from his marker he had someone else closing him down and it was a tough afternoon for Torres.

But he deserves great credit because he put in a lot of hard graft for the team and it was a very unselfish performance.

People might not appreciate just how much space he created for Benayoun.

You need to have a football brain and the Israeli is a very intelligent footballer – some of his movement was excellent.

With Burnley preoccupied with keeping Torres quiet, both Benayoun and Kuyt were able to make the most of the space with some great runs.

I thought it was a very good performance and it was pleasing to win 4-0 without either Torres or Gerrard being on the scoresheet.

It says to teams that even if you stop Gerrard and Torres we’ve still got the ability to hurt you.

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