Rafa Benitez lines up French striker David N’Gog

Jul 23 2008 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

He will be joined at Anfield by Robbie Keane whose switch from Tottenham Hotspur is just waiting to be rubber-stamped having already been agreed last week.

Despite the lack of excitement in the game, Benitez was pleased with his team’s performance which extended their unbeaten run this summer and he believes that the return of his Spanish stars, fresh from their success at the European Championship finals, will increase the level of Liverpool’s performances as they head for Villarreal in a week’s time.

He said: “We made mistakes but we’ve got several players still on holiday so it’s not easy.

“There were young players and also the new players and everyone was trying to do their best, it was positive.

“We’ve got the Spanish players to come back and Fernando Torres will be one of them.

“We’ll see the difference once we’ve got these players and they’ll show the quality that they had last season.

“In this game you could see a lot of good young players and for me they were doing a good job.

“We were well-organised and had an offensive mentality.”