Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Mark Lawrenson: It’s Up To Rafael Benitez To Give Liverpool FC Players Their Belief Back

The belief seems to have gone from Liverpool at the moment – and it needs to come back quickly.

In short, the players need to realise how good they are again.

Rafael Benitez won’t find the answers to the current problems by looking for money in the January transfer window or by taking any notice of anything the likes of Jurgen Klinsmann or Graeme Souness say.

They are just pundits paid to give an opinion, it’s what they do.

What football managers do is pick their best team and send them out motivated and up for it.

That’s all Benitez needs to concentrate on now – don’t worry about anything else.

It seemed to have worked to a tee against Arsenal with the way Liverpool started against them on Sunday.

They were at it from the start and I think if the first half had been 10 minutes longer they would have more than one goal up.

But if it only takes one goal to completely knock you off your stride then a second goal is essential, but it also underlines the fact that there are definitely issues with confidence.

At 1-1 a game is still there for winning, but Liverpool seem to lack the conviction to recover from setbacks at the moment.

The Glen Johnson own goal is just the kind of scrappy, nothing goal they could benefit from themselves at the moment, but when those things aren’t going for you, you need to make them happen.

And Liverpool are still good enough to do that without a doubt.

Once the sharpness of Fernando Torres is back, Benitez has his strongest squad to choose from and now is the time to instill into them how good they are as players.

Even Torres and Steven Gerrard will need to be told that – just to give them that extra boost of inspiration and a spring in their step. Those things are important when the mood among the players is a bit down during a dodgy run of results.

It’s not a sign of weakness, it’s called good mean-management and Benitez needs to demonstrate that to his players now to start getting the best out of them again.

Come out against Wigan on Wednesday like they did on Sunday and the tide could finally turn.

One thing Benitez has in his favour – and perhaps one thing that some would argue mean he is lucky to be at Anfield – is that the crowd are understanding and want to back the team.

They know that this current Liverpool side is much better than the results this season indicate and they know the players have it in them to turn it round.

Those results need to be forgotten about now as does any other issue surrounding the club.

Benitez needs to pick his best players, look them in the eye and remind them how great they are.

Hosting Wigan gives them the perfect chance to prove it.

And sometimes it only takes one game and one good result and ‘bang!’ You’ve bounced back.

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