RAFA: TIME TO SHOW OUR QUALITY

Paul Hassall 04 October 2007
Rafael Benitez has called upon his players to stand up and be counted following last night's Champions League defeat to Marseille.

The Reds boss was disappointed with his side's performance throughout the Group A contest and now wants to see his team give a positive response in the forthcoming fixtures against Tottenham, Everton and Besiktas.

"We must improve, we must show our character now," said Benitez.

"We know we have to do better. We showed character to get a draw against Porto when we did not play well, and we showed character to win at Wigan last weekend in a hard match.

"Now we must show character against Tottenham. That is our first priority after the Marseille result."

The Spaniard was questioned over his team selection following the Reds' first defeat of the season but refused to blame individual players for a disappointing display.

"It is not the changes, it is big players not playing well," insisted Rafa.

"I chose Leto because he had been training well and he had played well in the Carling Cup on the left with Fabio Aurelio.

"I wanted to give him his chance because he had shown he was a player who could beat opponents with pace.

"But for me it is not right to talk about only one player, the whole team played badly.

"It is difficult to explain how a team of talented players like ours could give the ball away so much.

"Marseille played well, they pressed us hard and worked well. But we should have been able to create chances behind teams who attack and press like that.

"But we did not create any clear chances. We did have the options, but just failed to take advantage and you do not win if you do not create openings."

With just one point from their opening two Group A fixtures the Reds boss admits his side face an uphill task to qualify for the Knockout stages of the Champions League and believes a win on their travels is now a necessity if they are to maintain any hope of reaching a third European final in just four seasons.

"We are now going to have to win an away game, certainly the next away game with Besiktas," continued Benitez.

"We need points quickly. There has been talk of us needing 10 or 12 points to qualify. Forget all this, we must concentrate first on winning the next group match.

"That is the situation, not what may happen later in the group."