Benitez out to land a winger
Aug 22 2005
By David Prentice, Liverpool Echo
RAFA BENITEZ has admitted he is hunting a pre-transfer deadline signing.
But the Reds' boss says his priority is a right-winger, not a striker.
Frustrated in a bid to bring Chilean international Mark Gonzalez to Anfield, Benitez said after Saturday's patchy 1-0 win over Sunderland: "We need a right winger and we are looking for one."
The Reds struggled to turn their superiority into goals against newly promoted Sunderland, and Benitez watched
£14m striker Djibril Cisse miss a golden opportunity - despite being used wide on the right flank for much of the afternoon.
"I am sure Djibril Cisse doesn't like playing on the right wing but we need different things for the team and we have no right-winger, " said Benitez.
"We can use Djib as a right winger, but it's not his position. Luis Garcia can play there, too, but we need another player. We need to think about other possibilities."
The Reds won 1-0 thanks to a goal from midfielder Xabi Alonso, and Benitez added: "I am satisifed with the result at the end. I think we started well and created a lot of opportunities, and scored a good goal, but we needed a second.
"We tried, but couldn't score and that put pressure on us sometimes.
"We didn't play fluently but after an international week it's important to win and now we have three more points.
"We created a lot of opportunities and sometimes you will score three or four goals and other times you are unlucky. I think we can score goals because we have good strikers.
"Three points is the most important thing. I was a little disappointed not to score more goals, but at the end we have four points now and can think about the Champions League and possibly the Super Cup."
Benitez was sympathetic towards Cisse.
"Djib had chances, one very clear, but sometimes strikers can score off their bottom, other times they need a lot of chances," he explained..
"We created a couple of chances today and didn't score them. But we must continue creating more chances and next time maybe it will be different."
He also defended Fernando Morientes.
"He is working really hard as a second striker and it is not easy for him," he added. "He is helping out defensively which means it is not easy for him to be in the right positions in front of goal.
"Sometimes if you don't cross often it's difficult for him, as well."
