Benitez puts faith in Kuyt
08 Feb 2008 - 13:47:36
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has backed Dirk Kuyt to fill Fernando Torres' boots in Sunday's crunch Premier League meeting with Chelsea.
The Reds will be without 18-goal top-scorer Torres for the trip to Stamford Bridge after the Spain striker picked up a hamstring problem while on international duty on Wednesday night.
That means Kuyt, who has not found the net since December, is expected to start at the weekend alongside Peter Crouch and Benitez has no qualms about pitching the Netherlands international into the fire against third-placed Chelsea.
Kuyt has come under-fire from sections of the Anfield crowd this season after scoring only three times in the Premier League.
"Everybody was saying that Torres and Crouch did well last week, but I will have to change that plan now with probably Dirk Kuyt involved. It will not be rotation now, but something I will have to do," said Benitez.
"I have no problems with Kuyt. He is a fantastic professional, a worker, so he does an important job for the team. If Torres or (Steven) Gerrard score goals it is because Kuyt is working so hard.
"He's okay. He would like to score more goals and I would like him to score more but I have every confidence in him.
"There maybe is a problem with confidence, but if we create better chances he will score.
"When strikers score they are happy, they score the winner and everybody is happy and they get man of the match awards, and that is because when you are talking about strikers everybody only talks about goals, not the work they do."