Babel unconcerned with competition at Liverpool

Jul 20 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

AMBITIOUS Ryan Babel believes he can prove an instant hit in the Premier League with Liverpool this season.

Liverpool supporters caught their first glimpse of the Holland international during a 17-minute substitute appearance in the friendly against Werder Bremen in Switzerland on Tuesday.

With Rafael Benitez having bought heavily to improve his squad’s attacking options during the pre-season, Babel is aware he faces strong competition for a place in the starting line-up.

But the 20-year-old believes he can quickly settle into life in English football and begin repaying the £11.5million Liverpool spent last week to bring him from Ajax.

“I’ve said that my favourite position is as a striker and you could see from the game on Tuesday that there is a lot of competition for places up front here at Liverpool,” said the Dutchman.

“But there is always competition at each top club for any position, it was the same at Ajax, and it’s not something that worries me.

“My target for this season is mainly to keep learning, know about England, know about the Premier League and know about the game here.

“The fact that there are other players coming in at the same time will probably help me too.

“I know it’s going to be difficult and it takes time for players to settle in, but I believe I have the quality to do that, pick things up quickly and show what I can do in England.”

Babel, who is expected to be given another run-out when Liverpool take on Auxerre in a friendly this afternoon, reckons the quality in Benitez’s squad is certain to improve his game.

“I’m still only 20 years of age and hopefully can get better, and with the likes of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres here, it’s impossible not to learn from such great players,” he said.

“That’s one of the reasons I chose to come to Liverpool, many of the guys have a lot of experience and I want to pick up on that and improve my game.

“I am settling in well and the boys in the squad have helped me a lot in the few days I’ve been here, especially Dirk.

“I know him from the Dutch national team and that is going to be important for me.”

Of his debut in Grenchen on Tuesday, Babel added: “It was nice to finally pull on the shirt and get some minutes on the pitch. It was a proud moment for me.

“I was tired after the first few minutes because I haven’t had much training in the last month, but we have plenty of time to work on my condition.”

Liverpool will be aiming to continue their encouraging pre-season with a fourth successive victory when they tackle Auxerre at the Stadium Leonard in Freiberg this afternoon (kick-off 2pm).

And Benitez believes the addition of Babel, along with fellow newcomers Fernando Torres, Yossi Benayoun and Andriy Voronin, has already helped raise the level of the Anfield squad.

“I’ve said many times my idea at Liverpool was to build a squad with at least two good players for each position,” said the Liverpool manager.

“What’s important is that the standard of all these players is now very high.

“That’s the key for me. Over the course of eight or nine months of the season we will have injuries and suspensions, but when everyone is fit you will see all the players working very hard to be at their best for every game.

“That means the quality across the whole squad improves.

“Maybe you can see already how hard the players are working.

“It’s too soon to start talking about what players will do this season, but you can see we have players such as Pennant and Benayoun who have the ability to change a game.

“We know they have the ability to do things on the pitch which others cannot and the key is to see them always trying to make a difference on the pitch.

“Already a lot of our players are showing their quality.”

Today’s game signals the end of Liverpool’s stay in Switzerland, with the team travelling to Hong Kong tomorrow for next week’s FA Premier League Asia Trophy tournament.