Roy Hodgson hailed Liverpool’s “gritty” defence and hopes victory against Bolton Wanderers can prove a springboard for his team’s season.
A Maxi Rodriguez strike four minutes from time earned a 1-0 win at the Reebok Stadium and moved Hodgson’s side out of the relegation zone into 12th place.
It was only Liverpool’s third clean sheet in the Premier League this season but followed an impressive shut-out at Napoli 10 days earlier in the Europa League.
And Hodgson said: “We hope it’s a springboard. We have had three very good results now, including the Napoli one.
“We have defended so much better in the three games. I know that we will score goals but at the moment we aren’t. I suppose I could be criticized for making bold statements such as that but I do believe we will score goals with Torres, Gerrard, Kuyt, Rodriguez and Meireles, along with Soto (Kyrgiakos) coming up from the back.
“One of things that concerned me was that we were leaking goals, and it wasn’t good that we had to score two or three to get a result.
“We have had two good cleans sheets against Bolton and Napoli away from home.
“It was a very gritty performance, especially from the back four. It’s never easy to play against Bolton, they have a very well-honed style of play based on getting it into the box from all areas with two front men strong in the air.
“You have to be well organized and have players who can deal with the situation.”
Liverpool wasted a number of promising attacks until Fernando Torres found Rodriguez inside the area with a clever backheel and the Argentine netted only his second goal for the club.
“We had such a lot of the ball and a lot of situations where I thought we had a good opportunity to put ourselves in to a good goalscoring opportunity, but it never quite came off,” said Hodgson. “Luckily, one more came up and we made the most of it.
“If we’d had a better start to the season we would have had that little bit more composure to make use of those situations.
“When you don’t do that, you worry one of the long balls or long throws is going to bounce kindly for the opposition and you lose.”
Hodgson also hailed the contribution of David Ngog, who gave Liverpool’s attack another dimension after replacing the injured Joe Cole during the second half.
“He is getting better and better,” said the manager. “He works hard at his game and in training he is trying to do some of the things we are asking.
“He did contribute late on, especially as Fernando was tiring at that time. He is a young player and one we think has got potential but when you are at a big club like Liverpool, people aren’t too forgiving when you don’t show that straight away.”
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