BENITEZ: WE MUST KEEP OUR HEADS UP
Paul Eaton 04 October 2005
Rafael Benitez said goodbye to his international players for the best part of two weeks with the message: "Keep your heads up."
ot: firefox killfileQuiller If it's any help I put you in to the category of one of the 'reasonable' posters on the Liverpool NG. In the past few months it seems to have been...
Benitez will be without the majority of his first team squad until next Thursday because of World Cup qualifiers - and he knows that his men will be travelling all over Europe still thinking about the weekend defeat to Chelsea at Anfield.
The Liverpool manager admitted he was disappointed with the result, but the performance of his team in the first half allied with the support of the fans throughout has given him much encouragement for the future.
"I could see at the final whistle a lot of the players' heads were down because they were disappointed, but I said to them they should keep their heads up," said Benitez.
"It's going to be difficult for them going on an international break now, but they should remember the reaction of the supporters after the game. At most grounds, the fans would leave when their side is losing 4-1.
"You do not see this at Liverpool. Our fans stayed to sing 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. That meant a lot to me, the club and players because it showed they knew the score did not reflect the game.
"I'm disappointed for everyone by the result, but we must stay positive. For the first 25 minutes we played well. Until the penalty we were the better of the teams.
"We must remember this is the first league game we've lost this season and we were beaten by a good team. We made mistakes which cost us, but we will learn from them.
"I think it's important that I support the players rather than criticise their mistakes.
"When you look at the teams near the top of the table, I know we can do well when we play these clubs. At this moment, we are probably one win short of where we should be after the games we've played, but this can change."
