Unirea Urziceni v Liverpool: Rafael Benitez confident side have firepower to succeed

25 February 2010 13:14
Sunday's 0-0 draw at Manchester City meant the Spaniard has presided over just one defeat, a narrow loss at Arsenal, since the humiliating FA Cup defeat at home to Reading, a spell of eight games in which Liverpool have conceded just two goals.[LNB]As highlighted by the first leg of their Europa League last 32 tie with Unirea Urziceni, their opponents again in Bucharest tonight, though, where Liverpool have grown increasingly impermeable at one end, they have become worrying parsimonious at the other.[LNB]In those eight games, Liverpool have scored just seven times, while Benitez's side have not scored three goals or more in one match since the 6-1 demolition of Hull in September. Despite those damning statistics, though, Benitez remains confident that his side possess the firepower to ensure an otherwise depressing campaign ends on a high.[LNB]'You always want to score more but if you want to improve when you are conceding too many goals, the first thing is to be stronger in defence,' said the Liverpool manager. 'Now the team has more confidence in defence and then we have to go one step forward, to use people with a more offensive mentality, and everything will change.[LNB]'It was against Stoke that we had Daniel Agger, Yossi Benayoun, Fabio Aurelio, Glen Johnson and Fernando Torres all missing, all of them offensive players with quality, but now they are coming back, with Glen back in training this week, so we will improve in attack just because of the players [available].[LNB]'At City, we were trying to create chances, even if people said we did not create too much. We had Ryan Babel, a striker, Dirk Kuyt, a striker, Maxi Rodriguez can score goals and Steven Gerrard. We had four players going forward to create and when we put Yossi Benayoun on he was a threat, but we did not pass the ball too well and we were not precise enough.[LNB]'But again, we know that because we have Kuyt, Babel, Gerrard and Torres all available we now have more offensive players, so it can be better.'[LNB]

Source: Telegraph