Benitez: Revival proves crisis talk was wrong
Nov 7 2005
By David Prior Daily Post Staff
RAFAEL BENITEZ believes Liverpool's recent form has poured scorn on the crisis talk that surrounded the club after their Carling Cup exit.
The Anfield side chalked up their third win in a week at Villa Park on Saturday, a late penalty from Steven Gerrard - on his 300th appearance for the club - and Xabi Alonso's strike giving them a 2-0 win to move up to 12th in the table.
And Benitez believes the critics were over-hasty in their attempts to write off his side after their defeat at Crystal Palace and Premiership failure at Fulham.
He said: "People have been talking about crisis but you can see that the team is stronger than last season.
"We can score goals, we can control the game, we can create chances and we've had clean sheet. As a manager, I only need to correct some mistakes.
"As I always say, after a Sunday there is a Monday. In football, you must be calm, you must analyse the situation with calmness and afterwards say 'okay, I need to do this and this'.
"We could say that this week has been really important but I hope to see a lot more wins over the season."
The introduction of Peter Crouch, Harry Kewell and Boudewijn Zenden proved crucial in determining the course of the match, with Crouch winning the penalty and then playing a role in Alonso's second.
ot: the old days, top webisteAt 13:35:40 on 09-11-2005, Jay delighted uk.sport.football.clubs.liverpool by announcing: And, by implication, the Hindus do not respect the fact that the cow is NOT a...
And Benitez added: "I think it was Harry, Zenden and Crouch who changed the game.
"Crouch gives to us many things - he can keep the ball in the air, he can give the players around him more space. He can give to us something that the other players can't. It's important to have more than one option.
"He has confidence. You can only score if you continue trying and trying. If you give up, then you won't. But the most important thing is the team winning the game."
The win provided Liverpool's first away win in the league since April, and was also only their third three-point haul in 20 fixtures following a midweek Champions League game.
"It's another statistic that we can change and it will be important for our confidence for the future," the Spaniard said. "We want to play a lot of Champions League games this year and we need to win after them."
