Benitez flags up Pennant qualities

Jul 9 2007 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

RAFAEL BENITEZ has backed Jermaine Pennant to respond positively to his pursuit of new players to strengthen up the flanks.

The Liverpool manager, after sealing the club record capture of Spanish striker Fernando Torres this week, has made no secret of his desire to make creative wide men his next transfer priority.

Benitez will step up his bid to prise Yossi Beniyoun from West Ham for £4million this week, and he has also been linked with a move for Porto’s over-priced winger Ricardo Quaresma.

But Pennant showed his determination to stay in Benitez’s thoughts with an exhilarating display against Wrexham in Saturday’s first pre-season friendly, setting up all Liverpool’s goals in their 3-2 win. Benitez said: “Jermaine is the type of player I like, a winger who goes forward and puts crosses in. He can do this job perfectly but we do need other players in wide areas.

“He played really well in the Champions League final and he has also done really well in pre-season.

“But we don’t need a lot of new players, maybe two new faces.”

On the chase for Benayoun, Benitez added: “We need to wait and see but it depends on West Ham now.

“Maybe we can find other players but we would be happy with him, he’s a good player.

“He is a player I like and we made an offer but West Ham said ‘no’.”

One piece of business with West Ham that is set to be tied up is the finalising of Craig Bellamy’s move to Upton Park. Benitez confirmed on Saturday that the switch, worth £7million plus add-ons, was done but a contractual issue concerning his pay-off from Liverpool has still to be smoothed over.

West Ham, however, expect Bellamy to complete his move today. A club statement said: “West Ham United would like to make it clear that Craig Bellamy has not yet completed a move to Upton Park.

“The deal has been delayed due to a private contractual issue between Craig Bellamy and Liverpool, which must be resolved before any transfer can be completed. The player is due to meet with Liverpool on Monday morn-ing and we expect to comp-lete the transfer soon after.”

Benitez also praised Austrian striker Besian Idrizaj after his hat-trick gave Liverpool their opening pre-season victory at the Racecourse Ground.

Idrizaj hasn’t made the Liverpool first team since Benitez signed him from Linzer ASK two years ago and finished last season on loan at Luton Town.

“He is a player with great talent,” said Benitez. “But he needs to mature in some aspects. We are happy with him and we will see how he progresses. He could be a first team player for the future but that depends on him.

“We have some players who are good enough but need to improve and be stronger for the style of football in England.

“So they can improve, but they need time.”

A number of Liverpool’s young players will go out on loan this season, with winger Paul Anderson starting a season-long move to Swansea today.

Benitez said: “It underlines that we have many young players now and Anderson will benefit from playing regularly at a higher level, it will be good for his experience.”

For next Saturday’s friendly at Crewe, most of the big stars will be on show, minus Torres who will join his new colleagues at their Swiss training camp the following week.

Benitez added: “The international players will probably play at Crewe. Torres will join us in Switzerland.”