Houllier rues injury problems

Houllier's woe has been compounded by recent injuries to three of his most trusted stars in Michael Owen, Steve Finnan and Stephane Henchoz, and the Frenchman concedes that he has not formed a squad strong enough to compete with the Premiership's best when he is without a number of key players.

Houllier said: "To compete with the top three for the title we need to be at full strength. We have been unlucky with injuries to key players such as Michael Owen, Stephane Henchoz, Milan Baros, Jamie Carragher and Dietmar Hamann.

"In an ideal world we could do with more players in the squad because the injury situation has proved it. At the same time we need more than that.

"If you look at the games against the top three we have played at Anfield this season I think we have been unfortunate to lose them 2-1. I'm not making excuses because the facts say we lost and there was something missing from our game. We weren't clinical enough in the three games and we are working on that."