RAFA: LET'S PROVE WE'RE TITLE CONTENDERS

Rafael Benitez believes Liverpool will announce themselves as genuine title challengers this season if they pick up three points at Portsmouth this afternoon.


The Reds start the weekend at the top of the league table but Benitez knows a tough test awaits his side on the south coast, especially as he's been without the majority of his players for the last two weeks.

While victory at Fratton Park will consolidate the Reds' position in first place, Benitez insists it will also serve as a notice to the rest of the country that his team are to be taken seriously in this year's race.

"Portsmouth are a difficult team to play against," he said. "They have a manager and players with experience, they know how to control games, they have quality and always have confidence playing at home where their supporters are very good for them.

"This type of game, after an international break and being unable to train properly, if we can beat them then people might be able to talk about Liverpool as a title contender, and maybe I would agree with them.

"If we cannot win, we just need to keep working and try and be ready for the next game. If we win then it will be a boost for everyone here.

"We were talking during pre-season about the quality of the squad, and in the last few games playing without Gerrard and Carragher we still showed character and quality. That's the best thing about us this year.

"We can use different players and can win, and we can lose key players and continue winning."

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.

TOO EARLY TO BE DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

It's tremendous to see us at the top of the Barclays Premier League table, but it is far too early to be drawing any conclusions.


We have endured a few seasons when people have dismissed our title aspirations in September.

In the same way that it was ridiculous to write us off in that situation, it is equally ludicrous to try and paint a meaningful picture based on our present position.

It's far too early, highlighted by the way Manchester United have moved back up the table after a couple of wins. All you can say is that we would much prefer to be in our present situation with the opportunity to drive forward in the weeks ahead.

Some fans have been suggesting that this is our strongest squad since the Eighties and I would not argue with that, but it is impossible to compare the teams and the eras.

We won six Championships in that decade, two European Cups, two FA Cups and four League Cups. We've won one European Cup, one UEFA Cup, one FA Cup, one League Cup and two European Super Cups in the current decade.

Yes, the Eighties was a glittering era for our club and we dominated the top flight, but the game has changed so much. It makes any meaningful comparisons almost impossible.

What I will say is that we have more strength in depth than I can ever remember. There is no doubt about that.

Rafa has been strengthening year by year and the squad is the strongest it has ever been in my time here.

It's great that everyone is buzzing and that the expectations are high. Only time will tell if we are strong enough to bring the title back to Anfield, but it remains our number one aim.

As you try to assess it, all you can say is that we have never had so many players staking a first team claim. That is not falling into the trap of saying our starting XI is better than it has ever been.

It's just a simple observation about the depth of the squad and the competition for places. We have that strength now which is something we have possibly lacked and it will help us on all fronts.

I've mentioned the Premier League. It's obvious that the Champions League is also a very different competition with so many more rounds and games to play. To have any chance you need 22/23 top class first team contenders and we are close to that.

We will never return to the days when 14 or 15 players would be enough to win the league title as was the case in the Eighties when heroes like Hansen, Dalglish, Rush and Souness were leading the charge.

Again, it reinforces my point about being unable to make a meaningful comparison between the decades. We will never forget the stars of the Sixties, Seventies and the Eighties. They are part of the fabric of our great club.

Massive foundations were built under Bill Shankly in the Sixties with the likes of Ron Yeats, Ian St. John and Roger Hunt. Bob Paisley's teams with the Kevin Keegans, Tommy Smiths, Ray Clemences and the rest expanded our European Cup dreams in the Seventies. After Joe Fagan's short but glorious spell in charge, Kenny Dalglish inspired the Eighties and people will never forget the quality behind it all.

But the Premier League, with all its investment, is a whole new ball game and the Champions League has moved on.

It's why I'm delighted that our fans are so excited about the current team. We have brought in players of genuine quality like Fernando Torres and now we have to ensure we fulfil our dreams. There are no guarantees, but we have given ourselves a tremendous launch pad.

The concept of opening up the Champions League to domestic Cup winners across Europe is fundamentally flawed. My personal view is neither here nor there. The Premier League's stance was made perfectly clear to UEFA recently when Michel Platini unveiled UEFA's plan to give one of England's Champions League slots to the winners of the FA Cup.

It doesn't make sense to hand a place to a club based on a knockout competition, almost a one-off, when other clubs have shown quality over a full league season to get in the top four. We'll see what happens this week when all the European clubs meet, but we have stated our position and it's not just a case of the big clubs using their muscle.

Whether people like it or not and whatever the purist view, the big clubs in the Champions League drive more commercial income and this could suit many of the smaller clubs because of the eventual share.

While I disagree with Platini's Champions League plans, I definitely welcome his comments about last season's Athens final and his statement of intent for the future.

UEFA are ready to select a larger ground for the final with a minimum capacity and they are also reviewing the allocation to the competing finalists.

It's sad that something like Athens had to happen to change the situation, but at least some good has come out of the fiasco. It appears that UEFA have learned the lessons at last and credit to Platini for doing something about it.

RAFA HOPING GERRARD CAN FACE POMPEY

Rafael Benitez is hopeful that captain Steven Gerrard will be fit to face Portsmouth despite him playing the full 90 minutes for England against Russia on Wednesday night.

The Reds captain hasn't pulled on the Liverpool shirt since the 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Anfield on August 19th, but he came through the two England matches without any further reaction to his broken toe.

"I might not be really happy to see my players going all around the world, playing 90 minutes in every game, but because you cannot change the situation you need to see how the player is afterwards and hopefully Stevie can play against Portsmouth," commented Benitez.

"I was disappointed he played the full 90 minutes but we must have a lot of respect for managers and in this case I don' t want to say too much. I said congratulations to Stevie and congratulations to Steve McClaren and the country, but we knew it could be like this.

"We knew he was going with the national team and we needed to accept the situation. We need to analyse every player, because it is not the same for each one.

"It's not the same for a centre-back to play 90 minutes as it is for, say, a striker. It's also different if the player is playing for a team using an attacking game or a counter-attacking game.

"The physical demands are different and we analyse each one, talk with the doctor and talk with the fitness coach, Paco De Miguel, and make a decision.

"It's good for us to have so many players away because it means we have very good players, but it's bad because you would like to see them play some games, but not every game."