Benitez: Needed help of big men at Pompey
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Benitez hails Reds' squad strength
Rafael Benitez is positive Liverpool have the squad strength to win the Premier League despite the strugglers of his fringe men at Portsmouth.
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Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso and Dirk Kuyt were all on the bench at Fratton Park and all three were required as substitutes as Benitez's men chased the win they needed to overtake Manchester United at the top.
Alonso had a hand in Fabio Aurelio's goal to cancel out David Nugent's opener for the hosts, then Kuyt equalised again after Hermann Hreidarsson had put Pompey back in front.
Torres then struck in stoppage time with a header from Yossi Benayoun's cross.
With Steven Gerrard also out Benitez's second string looked set to miss out on top place, but the Spaniard said: "The strength of the squad is good, you can see from the players that played. Hopefully we can be there.
"I think we have enough quality. We knew it would be very difficult to stay top for a long time but we are still there and we want to be contenders to the end."
Benitez explained how his three substitutes needed to rest.
"Torres, Kuyt and Alonso were really tired," he said.
"We had played 10 men and extra time against Everton this week so we were talking with the medical staff about our selection.
"It is not a gamble when you know they were tired.
"I had confidence. We showed great desire to win and they showed character and mentality."
Torres will now link up with the Spain squad ahead of the friendly against Spain on Wednesday.
"He will go to Spain," Benitez confirmed.
"We were in contact with (Spain boss) Vicente Del Bosque, they know the situation and they will decide."
Pompey have not won a league game since November but Adams said: "At the moment everyone tells me they want me to do the job so I'll get on with it."
Adams was disappointed with individual errors for Liverpool's goals but was encouraged by his side's performance.
Adams said: "It's hard to take when you come out of that game with nothing. We made mistakes but on the positive side there were a lot of good performances.
"Nugent worked his socks off and (Angelos) Basinas had a decent debut.
"We've got a third of the season to go and I was very encouraged by that performance.
"They thought they deserved something from the game and threw their hands up and said sorry for the mistakes. I have faith in those players that they won't do it again."
GERRARD19 : "...WOW I celebrated that Portsmouth goal like they were my team and I beleive they have enough quality to survive with the players they have. I only watched the last ten minutes so dont know how well they played throughout ..." view full comment
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Your Comments
glorygloryMU (Manchester United fan)
"RF dare to hails his squad strength by winning yet again courtesy of last minute goal...I think RF are the ONLY manager to choose Ngog over Keane and subsequently sold him back to spurs..hhaha...anyway, this will only benefits the other tam..RF, u wont be so lucky next time..GGMU..."
Boeing787 (Liverpool fan)
"The only solution, Liverpool's form will picked up be more consistent in a regular basis is to sack Benitez. Even if Benitez by hook or by crook managed to win the EPL by fluke, I still want him out ! Rafa Benitez: Even if you win every trohpies and get the glory days back to Anfield, I still want you OUT ! It's not about the trophies, it's about how you are handling football matter and your behaviour is like a 10 years old child crying out loud for ridiculous reasons. "
vsingh (Liverpool fan)
"We were very lucky for picking up all three points. The team selection was very bad and proved that our youngters are not improving at all.
How can Rafa hail his squad on Saturday?
Babel: Very poor. Will he remain in the squad next season.
Ngog: Lack of creativity. Not improving
Dossena: Very slow. Did nt fit to the squad
Mascherano: Isolated in Midfield.
Having three points mean that the team are improving?
Liverpool are not playing fluent football. We lack creativity and many individuality in this team.
What are happenning to our so call young talent?
Will LFC creat another Gerrard or Carrager in the near future?
"
kotyes (Manchester City fan)
"so rafa thinks he got the players to win the prem? hahahahah, i think that his the only one who think so. lol. i think leverpool'll lucky to end the season in 4-th palce.cheers,"
liverpool_1986
"YSLBERNARD - are you mad, blind, stupid or all 3. Lucky?? we were the dominant team all game and played them off the park. We had a goal wrongly disallowed and they had one wrongly allowed. We deserved the win "
CPSPOSSE (Liverpool fan)
"Is Rafa throwing the season on purpose because just looking at these squad selections and subsitiutes i would think so and if these players are tired from playing a few games in a row especially how he rotates then they shouldnt be professional footballers. still at least it was a victory, every point counts! YNWA"
akshay (Liverpool fan)
"while selling keane back, we should really have brought an attacking player...one of the likes of robben, bentley, silva, cazorla or kuba would have been the most welcomed... on top of that they could play as a support striker and ease the pressure on gerrard..."
AboveUsOnlySky (Liverpool fan)
"Nugent was offside, Pepe won't want to see the second goal again and Dirk was incorrectly ruled offside.
I was there yesterday and i felt we got what we deserved, also credit where its due to Rafa, good substitutions at the right times.
It was a gamble to give Xabi and Nando a rest and it paid off, lets hope the Hammers turn the pretenders over today
YNWA"
wess81 (Liverpool fan)
"As soon as Rafa changes the team, the pundits, journalists and 'phone-in' fans get their daggers out. It's pathetic!
Rafa was 100% right to meddle with both the team and the formation yesterday. A huge part of our so-called 'problems' is that we are one-dimensional. Not that I'm complaining about these 'problems'. If problems make us top of the table then long may they continue! lol.
Mixing it up yesterday should help kick the players out of their comfort zones and despite the narrow victory, a few errors aside, I actually thought we looked pretty good."
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