Rafa pleased with squad

Last updated : 27 October 2008 By Al Campbell
Liverpool have now beaten Manchester United at home without Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres and Chelsea away without Torres. Rafa Benitez is pleased with the strength of his squad now and the way they were able to overcome these absences to take six points off their rivals.

"Everybody was talking about how it would be difficult for us to come to Chelsea without Torres. Fernando is a key player for us who can change a game and is always a threat for the defenders," said the Reds boss.

"But, if you work well as a team together you can manage like we showed today. If we have to play one or two more games without Fernando I think we have enough quality in the squad.

"We have confidence and we just have to keep it going. Every year we are trying to improve the squad. We have made mistakes signing players but we have also made some very good ones. When I talk about players I don't just mean quality because they need a very good mentality.

"Players like Agger, Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Carragher, Reina, you can see the mentality they have and it inspires the rest of the players too.

"We have a good squad with good competition. Diego Cavalieri hasn't played much but he is pushing Pepe Reina, Dossena is pushing Fabio Aurelio which is really positive for us so the new players have a very good mentality. Lucas Leiva is working so hard in every training session and everybody has to be on their toes."

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