Rafa Benitez: Liverpool will start improving

Feb 9 2008 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

RAFAEL BENITEZ admits Liverpool will have to greatly improve their form if they are to end their Stamford Bridge drought tomorrow.

The Anfield outfit have won just one of their last 22 games at Chelsea and have failed to even score in seven visits under the Spaniard.

The 3-0 victory against Sunderland last Saturday was Liverpool’s first league triumph since Boxing Day after a run of five games without a win had seen them slump to seventh in the Premier League table.

Benitez’s hope of building on that morale-boosting success have been hampered by the loss of top scorer Fernando Torres with a hamstring injury.

But the Anfield manager is confident his players can raise their game and end Chelsea’s 75-match unbeaten home record.

“I think we can do it,” said Benitez. “We have shown in different games that we are capable of doing it. When you play against a top team, it’s clear you need to play well because it’s very difficult to play badly and win against a top team.

“I also think the players have the confidence they can do it. But we’ll need to play better than we have been lately.

“When you play against the top sides you must play really well if you want to get something from the game.

“Character is always important but against the top teams you need to show everything, character and quality. I think we can do that.”

Liverpool’s win over Sunderland moved them to within a point of fourth-placed Everton with a game in hand.

However, their recent indifferent form has seen them slip 11 points behind

Chelsea in third and Benitez concedes defeat tomorrow would end any aspirations of a top-three finish.

“We are fighting for fourth position and if we beat Chelsea we can think about maybe third position,” he said. “But if we don’t, we’re running out of games and it would be much more difficult.

“We were very close to winning some of the games that we drew, against West Ham we didn’t deserve to lose.

“When you look at the statistics, it’s a bad run of form. But against Sunderland in the second half we scored three goals and kept a clean sheet, and showed that we have quality.

“If we get three points at Chelsea, in terms of confidence it will be good for the team.”

Although Liverpool have yet to record a victory at any of their ‘big four’ rivals during Benitez’s tenure, the Spaniard has dismissed the suggestion his squad lack the confidence to win at the likes of Stamford Bridge.

“We haven’t lacked belief when going there,” he said. “We had one game when we lost and we were really good. The last game in the Carling Cup, until Crouch was sent off, we were again really close.

“But when you play at Chelsea, it isn’t easy. It’s important to be focused on not making mistakes, because you know the small details are always important against a top team, especially away from home.”

Besides Torres – who will also definitely miss the FA Cup fifth round tie at home to Barnsley next week – Liverpool are without injured quartet Andriy Voronin, Daniel Agger, Fabio Aurelio and Alvaro Arbeloa while Xabi Alonso serves a one-match suspension.

Benitez must also decide whether to retain Javier Mascherano in midfield after the Argentine only returned yesterday from international duty in Los Angeles.

With a clutch of defenders absent, the Anfield manager hasn’t ruled out continuing with Martin Skrtel alongside Sami Hyypia at centre-back and Jamie Carragher at right-back.

“I’ll have to see how all the players are because we don’t have that many options,” said Benitez.