We need to score from more areas – Sami Hyypia

Jan 14 2008 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

SAMI HYYPIA underlined the need for a greater attacking threat from Liverpool as they dropped two more points at Middlesbrough on Saturday.

The Finnish centre-back often looked the player most likely to get on the scoresheet, as he got on the end of three corners, twice heading over before goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer got down to deny him an injury-time winner.

In the end it was left to Fernando Torres to grab Liverpool’s first goal at the Riverside in the Premier League since John Arne Riise’s winner six years ago, the Spaniard scoring a spectacular 25-yard drive to make it 1-1.

It took Torres into double figure in his first season in the English top flight but he and Steven Gerrard have now scored 18 of Liverpool’s 35 league goals.

And Hyypia admitted: “We can’t keep relying on Torres and Stevie to score all the goals.

“We need to be firing on all cylinders. We had some chances at corners – I had a good one but missed.

“So you could say we had enough chances to win the game but overall we came here to win and we didn’t do that so we’re disappointed.

“It always comes down Fernando and Stevie so we need to score goals from more areas.”

Liverpool overtook Manchester City, who lost at Everton, in fourth place but only on goal difference while their Merseyside rivals and Aston Villa also now have 39 points.

But Liverpool have won fewer games than the rest of the sides on that total, Saturday being their ninth draw of a campaign in which they have only lost twice.

And every game that passes without three points on the board severely damaged any hopes Liverpool have of clawing back the 12-point deficit on the leaders.

Even though Liverpool recovered well from an awful first half in which George Boateng gave Middlesbrough the lead, Hyypia admits that one point is unsatisfactory at this stage of the season.

“We’re disappointed with the overall result, that we didn’t get more from the game,” he said.

“Even though we don’t have a very good record here, we came knowing we had to win the game and we didn’t.

“We played better second half but I was very confident beforehand that we could win the game. Unfortunately we conceded that goal.”

Hyypia, who Rafael Benitez has insisted is still part of his plans despite the £6million outlay on Martin Skrtel, says the doubts over the manager’s future haven’t affected the players’ focus.

An uneasy truce was called after the public fall-out between Benitez and the American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett but no official indication of the Spaniard’s long-term job security has since been forthcoming.

And 34-year-old Hyypia, who is in his ninth season at Anfield, said: “Our job is to focus on the games. It’s not our business and should not affect us in any way.

“We have to continue concentrating on the games, that’s our job.

“In the football world there are some things that happen very quickly and you can’t do anything about them.

“The players hope that if there are some arguments that they can be sorted out.

“But what do we know? We just read what you guys write and every time we pick up a paper, there seems to be something new.”