Rafa Benitez seeks solution to Liverpool's set-piece problems

Jan 28 2008

CONCERNED Rafa Benitez is “seeking solutions” to the set piece misery which is suddenly troubling his Liverpool team.

In three of the Reds’ last four home games they have conceded goals to corners or free-kicks clipped into their box - and Havant and Waterlooville were the latest team to benefit on Saturday.

It is an issue he is keen to rectify.

“We need to watch set pieces carefully because we were not conceding from them before, but we are now,” he said.

“We have some problems and we need to improve. We have some ideas on why it is happening but we need to work in training sessions and try to be as good as before.”

Saturday’s eighth minute corner kick gave the Blue Square South side a shock lead, and Benitez explained that the early goal was responsible for a nervous first half display from his team.

“In football, and especially in this competition, the FA Cup, anything can happen,” he explained.

“We were talking and thinking about scoring an early goal - and we conceded an early goal - so we became a little bit nervous and they had more hope.

“Lucas scored a fantastic goal, then we conceded another bad goal, and that saw more nervousness and anxiety.

“But in the second half when we started playing really well with the wingers wide, switching play, we were much better.

“I was disappointed in the first half because we were not defending well, but you must give credit to them because they were working really hard until they conceded the third or fourth goal.

“You cannot control the way players think. It doesn’t matter if he has played 100 games. Each player is different.

“But I am trying to find the positives and in the second half we showed our quality and character.”

The Reds boss added that despite the rocky first half, he wasn’t worried at half-time.

“We were talking about solutions,” he smiled. “Sometimes you look for solutions, sometimes you shout.

“I wasn’t worried at half-time because we were controlling, but we needed to play better and create chances.

“In the first half we were losing a lot of second balls, because for them every challenge they made was the last challenge of the game for them.

“We were thinking okay, we know we are better than them, but in football you must show that you are better on the pitch.”

Benitez also refused to publicly blame full debutant Martin Skrtel for the shaky defending which undermined Liverpool’s efforts.

“He was a little bit nervous, but his use of the ball was good and his tackling was okay.

“He will need to improve his understanding with the other players, that is the main thing.”

Benitez also rejected accusations he had gone into the cup tie with Peter Crouch as a lone striker.

“Pennant was playing really, really high and wide, Babel was a striker in the first half, and Yossi was a winger so we had four offensive players, then Lucas was also playing forward,” he added.