Let’s keep winning for the manager – Peter Crouch

Nov 30 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

PETER CROUCH believes Liverpool can keep Rafael Benitez in a job by continuing their winning run – as the Anfield manager reiterated his call for early clear-the-air talks with the club’s American owners.

The Anfield outfit remain in the hunt for qualification to the knockout stages of the Champions League with a 4-1 win over Porto on Wednesday night.

The victory eased the pressure on Benitez after his public fall-out with co-chairmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks over future transfer strategy, and came on an evening when Liverpool’s fans demonstrated the strength of their backing for the Spaniard.

Crouch revealed that the players themselves are in the dark over the ongoing situation, but says the best way for them to support Benitez’s plight is to maintain the team’s impressive recent form.

“We haven’t had any kind of meeting with the management,” said the striker. “They have not sat us down and talked through the situation with us. All we know is what we read in the press.

“We are professionals so we have to perform on the pitch whatever is going on upstairs. We are not influenced by what is happening to the manager, we can’t be.

“It’s not for me to say who is right or wrong in this situation. What goes on in the boardroom is not our concern. We will keep trying to get results that will keep the manager safe.

“We are just focused on what happens on the pitch, what happens off it is simply not our concern. We have to continue winning; that’s all we can do.”

Gillett and Hicks are next scheduled to visit Merseyside for the home clash with Manchester United on December 16.

But Benitez, while being careful not to jeopardise the delicate peace that persists in the Anfield corridors of power, has again spoken of his eagerness to meet the Americans before that date.

“I would hope to speak to the owners before the Manchester United game,” said the Spaniard. “I don’t know if that is possible but we will try. But I don’t know for sure.

“Maybe my English is not that good, maybe that was the problem. But it is clear we have to understand the situation and talk to each other.

“We must decide what is best for the future of the club, we can manage that. We will, I am sure, try to do that. I prefer only to say that as a manager you can only think about your squad. So January is nearly here and next summer is close also.

“So you must do your job, and I was trying to do this. Maybe we should talk now and analyse the situation. But I only want to talk, it is easier to talk face to face rather than to send e-mails or talk by phone.”

Liverpool have now won their last four games and can guarantee progress from their Champions League group with victory in Marseille on Tuesday week.

And Crouch believes Benitez’s side have the quality to again go all the way and reach a third Champions League final in four years.

“We have to remember that we are still unbeaten in the league and that over the last three seasons we have shown some fantastic form in Europe,” he said. “Porto are technically a very good side. We beat them 4-1, we beat Besiktas 8-0 we just have to keep on winning.

“We have done two-thirds of the job and we have to finish it off in Marseille. We have enough about us to get to the knockout stages and, if we do, we are perfectly capable of getting to the final.

“It has always been in our own hands because despite what happened at the start of the group we realised that if we win all three remaining games we are through. We are confident at the moment and I am sure we will have a strong second half to the season.”

Crouch stepped off the bench on Wednesday to score his fourth goal of the campaign and his 11th in the Champions League.

And he added: “I really enjoy playing in Europe and if we show the form that we have we will be playing in Europe after Christmas. When I get my chance, it is vital that I take it. I came on for 20 minutes got a goal and we won 4-1, so I can’t complain.”