READ OUR EXCLUSIVE CHAT WITH RAFA

Rafa Benitez takes five minutes to chat to the club's official website ahead of this lunchtime's visit to Fratton Park.


How happy are you with the start your side has made to the season?

Everything's been okay so far this year. We have more quality in the squad. We are winning and everyone has confidence, so we are happy. But we've learned from previous seasons that we must take one game at a time.

Do you think you've learned from mistakes made last season, and that's why you've made such a good start to this campaign?

For me it's more about the quality of the players. The players we had before had experience but now we have experience and more players with quality who can change games. We've tried to find wingers and strikers with pace – we have those, and also more players with different qualities.

Next up this lunchtime are Portsmouth. How tough a fixture is this?

They are a good team with experienced players who know what to do during any game. They have quality and also work very hard, so they're a very difficult team to play against – especially away because the atmosphere in their stadium is very good.

What do you make of the job Harry Redknapp is doing?

He's a manager with experience who is good at selecting players. The players know what he expects from them. I think the understanding between Harry and his players is very good.

You gained just a point from Pompey last season, and then lost in Hong Kong – are they a bit of a bogey team for you?

As I said before, they know what to do and how to control games. But we used to talk about Birmingham as a bogey team and then we played them in the cup and everything changed. We have confidence and if we play well we can beat anyone.

Is this the type of game you need to win if you are going to be serious title contenders?

It's clear that if you want to stay at the top of the table you must win nearly all of your games. We will try to do that even though we know it will be difficult. The type of games like we have this weekend are really important for the confidence of the team. If we can win here we will still be at the top of the table, everybody will be happy and we will be ready going into the next game.

Jamie Carragher is expected to return – that's a real boost, isn't it?

Yes. I think it's important to have the centre-backs fit, but in this case it's not just the player and his position, it's also the character he has. We want all the players available, but especially players like Carra because he has the kind of mentality which helps other players. I knew he was good before I arrived because my Valencia team had played against Liverpool. I knew all the players but it was clear watching him with his teammates how important he was. He has passion, which adds something to the team in every game and every training session.

Steven Gerrard has also had a few injury worries. What were your feelings seeing him come through 90 minutes for England on Wednesday?

He was okay. I was talking with him, and also the doctors were talking. Everything was under control. Now we will see with our doctor what the situation is and how we can use him.

Were you disappointed he wasn't brought off earlier, as England had a comfortable lead?

You have to have a lot of respect for other managers. I don't want to say too much. I was talking to Steven before and I gave my congratulations to Steve McClaren and also the country because this result was important for them.

Would it be too much to ask of him to play 90 minutes today after the couple of weeks he's had?

We knew things could be like this. You can never be happy to look around the world and see your players playing 90 minutes in every game, but you cannot change the situation. Hopefully he can play against Portsmouth and if he can score a good goal, fantastic.

A lot of your players seemed to play 90 minutes on Wednesday – do you just put that down to bad luck?

No, it's good luck because it means you have very good players. It's something I've said 100 times, but if they played on Tuesday it would be a lot easier. Why not? Or maybe if you have enough players in a country, you could rotate, eh!

And Daniel Agger – is he okay after coming off with just 28 minutes gone for Denmark?

I think it was because he had yellow cards and the manager wanted to have him available for the game against Spain. I talked to him because I was also surprised he came off, but the manager had explained things to him.

When you're selecting your team for this afternoon, how much notice do you take of who has played a full game on Wednesday?

You need to analyse each player because it's not the same playing 90 minutes at home or away as a defender to playing 90 minutes home or away as a striker. It might be that you're a striker but you've only been involved in two or three counter attacks.

Finally, this game could provide another opportunity for Fernando Torres to add to his goals tally. He already has three – have you been surprised by the impact he's made so early on?

I was talking with him before we signed him and I knew about his physical strengths and his mentality, so I'm not surprised. I was expecting something like what has happened, but really it is still too early to judge. We need to wait and see what's happening in one or two months.

He must be feeling confident right now?

Yes. It's important for the strikers to have confidence and score goals. You can see also with Voronin. You must be pleased, but you also have to make sure they keep working hard because it may not always be as easy as they think. They will see difficult central defenders.