Sunday, February 14, 2010

Daniel Pacheco Close To Starting, Says Rafa Benitez


Rafa Benitez has placed Daniel Pacheco on red alert as he revealed the promising young striker is edging closer to a first-team start.

The 19-year-old has been attracting rave reviews for Liverpool reserves this season and there is a buzz of anticipation among supporters about his progress.

Pacheco is held in high regard at Anfield and showed flashes of promise in the two appearances he has made for the first team so far, against Fiorentina and Wolves.

More recently, Pacheco was on the bench in five of the Reds’ last seven fixtures .

“Dani is continuing to train with the first team,” said Benitez, who next game is against Unirea Urziceni at Anfield on Thursday night.

“When we let (Andriy) Voronin go (to Dynamo Moscow), we immediately brought Dani into the group and every day you can see that he is progressing. His training is good.

“Every day you are thinking about when you can play, he has been on the bench a lot and sometimes you are thinking when it might be right to put him on.

“He has game intelligence and we know that he can make a difference. He is still very young but we are pleased with him and he is doing well.”

Benitez signed Pacheco from Barcelona in the summer of 2007 and he has just signed a deal that will keep him at Anfield until 2012.

“It depends on the game but, clearly, if he continues to keep working as he has been doing, he will definitely gets his chance,” added Benitez, who is keeping his fingers crossed that Jamie Carragher will shake off a groin injury sustained in Wednesday’s defeat to Arsenal.

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