Sunday, January 23, 2011

Rafael Benitez Backs Kenny Dalglish's Appointment As Liverpool Boss

Former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has backed the appointment of Kenny Dalglish as boss for the remainder of the season.

This is Dalglish's second stint as boss, having managed the club between 1985 and 1991. He is also the last Reds manager to have guided the Merseysiders to the league title, something he achieved three times, most recently 20 years ago in 1989-90.

Much has changed since he last managed the club, Manchester United having drawn level with Liverpool's record 18 English top-flight titles, and currently leading the way at the top of the Premier League table, so threatening to surge ahead and become the most successful team in England.

Liverpool, in contrast, failed to qualify for the Champions League last season and Benitez parted ways with the club, while Roy Hodgson - who was appointed as the Spaniard's successor - has been shown the door following a protracted run of poor results.

"It will be much better with Kenny because he knows the club and what the fans want," Benitez told BBC Radio Five Live.

"He can talk with the players and they will feel and understand what it means to be a Liverpool player.

"I think that Kenny has been a very good appointment and, hopefully, it will be successful."

One of the talking points of Benitez's reign at Liverpool has been his transfer dealings and the actual quality of the squad he left when he departed to coach Inter (a job he has since lost) last summer.

Now the former Valencia boss has defended his reign by citing what he believes is a "massive" squad, but admits that there were some mistakes.

"We know that we made some mistakes," said Benitez. "We are not happy with some of the signings.

"But we are really pleased with the majority of them, especially if you analyse the team now. [Pepe] Reina, [Glen] Johnson, [Martin] Skrtel, [Daniel] Agger, [Fabio] Aurelio, Lucas, [Fernando] Torres, Maxi [Rodriguez] and [Dirk] Kuyt. It is a massive team.
"The team is good, the value of the squad is really good and, we were making mistakes, but [also] signing fantastic players.

"We signed [Xabi] Alonso, Luis Garcia, Javier Mascherano and Yossi Benayoun and we had to sell if we wanted to buy new players."

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