A.B. wrote:Article from PremierLeague.com
BENITEZ PUTS OPPOSITION ON RED ALERT
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is relishing the opportunity to play more attacking football now almost all his injured players are back in action.
Benitez fielded his most adventurous side yet as Liverpool beat Newcastle United 3-1 at Anfield, leaving defensive midfielder Dietmar Hamann on the bench and playing with what he described as "six front players with the same mentality".
Liverpool had Luis Garcia back from six games out, and Benitez was able to play two strikers in Milan Baros and Neil Mellor - both of whom scored - with Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso and Harry Kewell attacking from midfield.
The plan worked, as the Reds recovered from an early Patrick Kluivert goal to win with relative comfort.
Benitez, who has struggled to even find a fit striker in recent weeks, now has only Djibril Cisse and Vladimir Smicer out long-term, and looks forward to putting out similarly offensive line-ups in the future.
Liverpool are sixth in the Barclays Premiership and six points behind Manchester United, who currently occupy the fourth Champions League qualification spot.
Benitez said: "We are able to now field six forward-minded players who have the same attacking mentality. To do that you must keep the ball well, and it has given me another option for the future.
"I will not always be able to play like that, but with most of our players now back from injury, it is something I can consider more in the future."
Milan Baros has urged Rafael Benitez to stick with the attacking 4-4-2 formation that proved so effective in Sunday's 3-1 defeat of Newcastle.
The Czech striker capped a man-of-the-match performance with Liverpool's third goal in the convincing win and he's hoping the manager adopts similar tactics in the future.
"My confidence is high and I am scoring goals. I always felt I needed someone beside me up front and today I had this," said Baros, who also set up a goal for strike partner Neil Mellor.
"I enjoy playing a more offensive 4-4-2 formation because it suits my play more - you could see how it went for me. But it is not up to me, it is up to the manager."
XSD wrote:The_Rock wrote:if we can sort out the defence..........we would be world class.
Our attack isn't good enough to unlock all defences. I don't think we could put many goals past Chelsea, or AC Milan, Juve etc
Our attack isn't good enough to unlock all defences. I don't think we could put many goals past Chelsea, or AC Milan, Juve etc
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