Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has bemoaned his side's injury list, believing that without the knocks his squad have suffered to key players they would be in a much stronger position.
Benitez's men lost 2-0 to Middlesbrough on Teesside on Saturday, and saw their Premier League points deficit to leaders Manchester United, who have a game in hand, remain at seven points on a weekend when the Red Devils were picking up yet more silverware, winning the League Cup at Wembley.
The Reds' gaffer felt that his men had particuarly struggled because of a lack of sharpness up front, something that would be remedied quite straigthforwardly for the Spaniard were his fellow-countryman Fernando Torres built a little more robustly.
"The title was difficult before, it is more difficult now," The Guardian reports Benitez as saying.
"What we have to do is take our chances, and that is something that has been the same problem the whole season.
"Maybe if Torres had not been injured so much things would be different, but we cannot change the situation now. Everybody has players who get injured.
"We have had some problems [following the 1–0 Champions League win at Real Madrid], several players have been injured, among other things. The worst thing has been the injuries to Torres. He has been our main striker and scored a lot of goals for us last season. And this season could have been totally different with him."
Benitez acknowledged that his team had made errors against Boro, a side who hadn't won in 14 league outings prior to Saturday's game at the Riverside Stadium, and that his team had discussed the situation.
"We have talked about the mistakes we made [at Middlesbrough] and the future," he continued.
"And the immediate future is playing Sunderland, trying to get three points and then waiting to see what happens with Manchester United.
"But we played with anxiety at Middlesbrough, we gave the ball away too easily with simple passes. These are things we have to improve if we are going to fight for the title. But we must not forget that our league performance is better than last season.
"Still we have to improve. Yes, we have had key players injured and maybe that could have cost us four or five points. In this title race that would be a massive difference. We are in a good position but we could be in a much better position.
"We are now rated in the UEFA rankings as the best team in Europe over the last five years. That underlines how we have done in those seasons. But we must go forward for the rest of the season, and in the future. The squad is good, but there are too many games when things go wrong and that makes a massive difference.
"We had confidence and we were in a very good position for a long time. It has been our best performance for several seasons. But when we need fresh legs when senior players are injured, things are not easy. To improve in attack is not easy, you can improve in defence with hard work but forwards need accuracy and confidence."
On what must have been a difficult day for him, Benitez still managed some polite congratulation when asked about the achievements of the club many see as Liverpool's greatest rivals.
"Manchester United are a good team, they have very good players and they have a good manager," he concluded.
Benitez's men lost 2-0 to Middlesbrough on Teesside on Saturday, and saw their Premier League points deficit to leaders Manchester United, who have a game in hand, remain at seven points on a weekend when the Red Devils were picking up yet more silverware, winning the League Cup at Wembley.
The Reds' gaffer felt that his men had particuarly struggled because of a lack of sharpness up front, something that would be remedied quite straigthforwardly for the Spaniard were his fellow-countryman Fernando Torres built a little more robustly.
"The title was difficult before, it is more difficult now," The Guardian reports Benitez as saying.
"What we have to do is take our chances, and that is something that has been the same problem the whole season.
"Maybe if Torres had not been injured so much things would be different, but we cannot change the situation now. Everybody has players who get injured.
"We have had some problems [following the 1–0 Champions League win at Real Madrid], several players have been injured, among other things. The worst thing has been the injuries to Torres. He has been our main striker and scored a lot of goals for us last season. And this season could have been totally different with him."
Benitez acknowledged that his team had made errors against Boro, a side who hadn't won in 14 league outings prior to Saturday's game at the Riverside Stadium, and that his team had discussed the situation.
"We have talked about the mistakes we made [at Middlesbrough] and the future," he continued.
"And the immediate future is playing Sunderland, trying to get three points and then waiting to see what happens with Manchester United.
"But we played with anxiety at Middlesbrough, we gave the ball away too easily with simple passes. These are things we have to improve if we are going to fight for the title. But we must not forget that our league performance is better than last season.
"Still we have to improve. Yes, we have had key players injured and maybe that could have cost us four or five points. In this title race that would be a massive difference. We are in a good position but we could be in a much better position.
"We are now rated in the UEFA rankings as the best team in Europe over the last five years. That underlines how we have done in those seasons. But we must go forward for the rest of the season, and in the future. The squad is good, but there are too many games when things go wrong and that makes a massive difference.
"We had confidence and we were in a very good position for a long time. It has been our best performance for several seasons. But when we need fresh legs when senior players are injured, things are not easy. To improve in attack is not easy, you can improve in defence with hard work but forwards need accuracy and confidence."
On what must have been a difficult day for him, Benitez still managed some polite congratulation when asked about the achievements of the club many see as Liverpool's greatest rivals.
"Manchester United are a good team, they have very good players and they have a good manager," he concluded.
No comments:
Post a Comment