Time to pull together says Rafa

Last updated : 24 October 2006 By Al Campbell
The Reds' title challenge is all but over after their latest league defeat left them eleven points behind Man Utd and Chelsea. They are struggling away from home, picking up just one point from a possible fifteen and scoring one goal, a disputed penalty.

Rafa Benitez says everyone at the club must pull together to get the Reds out of this rut and back to winning ways.

"Now is the time for the manager, the captain and all my staff to work together to help all the players," said the Liverpool boss.

"For the last two weeks we've all been doing this, and now we must try even harder.

"I said to the players straight after the game that there's nothing they can do about what happened now, but they have to show everyone they have character. We know they have the quality, but maybe sometimes you need even more than this.

"When you're Liverpool Football Club, you know you have a responsibility to try to win every game and play well. Maybe this is not always possible, but it's what we try to do.

"In the first 25 minutes against Manchester United, we were okay. We had possession in attacking areas, but didn't create clear chances.

"The players worked hard, but it's clear we need to recuperate their confidence now. We can only do this by training and winning games. It's not going to happen in two games, but over a longer period.

"Key players are not at their level. We have a strong spine to our team, but if you analyse things you can see where we need to improve.

"Once we conceded the first goal, we had a lot of problems because we were playing a side with quality and experience."

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