Babel Hails Team Effort

Liverpool attacker Ryan Babel has hailed the team effort following the victory over Aston Villa on Monday night.

The Reds cruised to a 3-0 win over Villa at Anfield in the Premier League, as Gerard Houllier suffered a disappointing return to his former club.

Dutch forward Babel, 23, netted the second goal just two minutes after David Ngog had given Liverpool a 14th-minute lead, and Maxi Rodriguez made sure of the points in the second half.

Babel was handed a place in the starting line-up following the late withdrawal of Fernando Torres, who was absent due to the birth of his second child, and he was pleased to take his chance, praising a united effort as the reason for the team's success.

"Fernando's circumstances were clear to the team at that point, so the question was who the boss was going to replace him with," he said.

"He chose me and I was very pleased with that. It was good to play the full 90 minutes and to get involved with the team.

"Of course I was happy to score. Scoring a goal is always wonderful and gives any player confidence.

"But at the same time, it was also very important for the team, so I'm very delighted.

"I think the team spirit was very good. We went onto the pitch as a team and we left the pitch as a team.

"For us, we just have to look at each game that's coming and not look too far into the future.

"It's clear we came from a very difficult situation. We're still trying to improve our game in every match we play."

Liverpool endured a woeful start to the campaign under new boss Roy Hodgson but now seem to have turned a corner and they are up to eighth in the league.

Dirk Kuyt paid tribute to the effort of strikers Babel and Ngog, and was also happy with the work rate of the whole team.

"It's not easy to replace someone like Fernando but I thought David and Ryan did really well for us," he told the Liverpool Echo.

"They both scored a goal but it wasn't just that. They also worked really hard for the team and kept the ball well for us. It was a great performance from both of them.

"I thought it was a great team performance and everyone contributed to us getting the three points.

"We played really well from the beginning of the game and got the goals we wanted. Now we need to build on this."