RAFAEL BENITEZ has urged his Liverpool players to keep their feet on the ground after they banished their Manchester United hoodoo.
Liverpool secured their first Premier League win over United under the Spaniard’s stewardship with a 2-1 home triumph on Saturday.
Their championship challenge floundered last season because of a poor record against their “top four” rivals, the Anfield outfit taking only four points from a possible 18 in games against United, Chelsea and Arsenal.
But Benitez believes his team have now shown they have the belief to launch a genuine title challenge – provided they can replicate the performance that ensured Liverpool ’s first home win over United since November 2001.
“We knew we needed to improve against the top teams and it was important for the points, and the confidence too,” said the Anfield manager.
“I think these games are more or less six-pointers and give confidence for playing the top sides. It makes people realise we can beat anyone.
“If you can't beat United, or if you lose to them, everyone will be saying you cannot be contenders. Now people will be saying that maybe we can.
“Now my job will be to say to the players 'hey, calm down, keep going,' and the key to that is to work as hard as we did on Saturday.
“As a manager you have to keep calm if the fans are talking of doing this or that.
“But we have shown we can beat United with all the players they have signed this summer. So we have confidence, even though we know it is still early.
“Last season we started really well, and this year we have done the same without playing to our level. If we can keep improving it will be good for our results.”
Liverpool’s first league win over their bitter North West rivals since April 2004 was achieved despite top scorer Fernando Torres and skipper Steven Gerrard being absent from the starting line-up, although Gerrard appeared as a substitute midway through the second half.
“I think that gives great confidence to the other players,” said Benitez, who handed an instant debut to new signing Albert Riera.
“Sometimes it's important to show your quality without the big names.
“After the game I was really pleased because two or three who were not playing were really happy. .”
Benitez praised the manner in which Liverpool responded to Carlos Tevez’s third-minute opener, Wes Brown’s 26th-minute own goal restoring parity before substitute Ryan Babel netted the winner 13 minutes from time to become the first Liverpool player score against United in the Premier League since Danny Murphy more than four years earlier.
“We weren't expecting to concede so early and we had to keep working very hard,” said Benitez.
“The team had lots of confidence. If you concede, you never know, but maybe because it was so early it gave us the time we needed to turn it around.
“The best thing for me was seeing how the players worked. Their mentality was great and as soon as we scored the first I knew we could win.
“We were on top in the second half. In the first they had better balance and we needed to adjust things a bit. They changed a couple of things, so did we, and that was the difference.”
