Liverpool ‘nearing perfection’

LIVERPOOL – Rafael Benitez claims Liverpool will fly out to the World Club Championship in Japan in near perfect shape after consolidating their position as the English Premiership’s form team.

The Reds earned their seventh successive league victory against Middlesbrough on Saturday and also equalled a club record ten successive clean sheets in the 2-0 win. That impressive run has taken the European champions up into second place, 12 points behind Premiership leaders Chelsea ahead of their enforced eight-day break from domestic battles.But while the manager accepts that his side’s current progress has surpassed even his own expectations, he fought shy of declaring Liverpool to be genuine challengers to Chelsea’s crown.”You can see by the number of games we have won and the clean sheets we have had that it is an almost perfect situation,” Benitez said.”But for me the most important thing is for us to have the team solid, to continue to keep on doing the same things and then maybe in two months we can see if we have the possibility of challenging.”It is good to see the team near the top of the table but we are going to Japan where we will play four games in eight days and a lot can change in that time.”Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren, however, believes Benitez is underplaying his hand.”I said they were title challengers at the start of the season and I still believe that,” he said.”When you win the European Cup you develop a special kind of confidence and Liverpool have that air about them now.”The victory over Middlesbrough was marked by two goals for Fernando Morientes, the former Real Madrid striker who has struggled for goals since his 6 million pounds (10.8 million dollars) transfer from the Bernabeu last January.In fact, the Spaniard had managed just one league goal this season prior to Boro’s visit to Anfield and with Peter Crouch also breaking his goal-scoring drought seven days earlier, Benitez was confident his new look strike-force was now finally bedding in.The trip to Japan has been described by some as an unnecessary burden on an already over-crowded fixture list but Benitez insisted Liverpool were going there with the aim of winning more silverware.- Nampa-AFPThat impressive run has taken the European champions up into second place, 12 points behind Premiership leaders Chelsea ahead of their enforced eight-day break from domestic battles. But while the manager accepts that his side’s current progress has surpassed even his own expectations, he fought shy of declaring Liverpool to be genuine challengers to Chelsea’s crown. “You can see by the number of games we have won and the clean sheets we have had that it is an almost perfect situation,” Benitez said. “But for me the most important thing is for us to have the team solid, to continue to keep on doing the same things and then maybe in two months we can see if we have the possibility of challenging. “It is good to see the team near the top of the table but we are going to Japan where we will play four games in eight days and a lot can change in that time.” Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren, however, believes Benitez is underplaying his hand. “I said they were title challengers at the start of the season and I still believe that,” he said. “When you win the European Cup you develop a special kind of confidence and Liverpool have that air about them now.” The victory over Middlesbrough was marked by two goals for Fernando Morientes, the former Real Madrid striker who has struggled for goals since his 6 million pounds (10.8 million dollars) transfer from the Bernabeu last January. In fact, the Spaniard had managed just one league goal this season prior to Boro’s visit to Anfield and with Peter Crouch also breaking his goal-scoring drought seven days earlier, Benitez was confident his new look strike-force was now finally bedding in. The trip to Japan has been described by some as an unnecessary burden on an already over-crowded fixture list but Benitez insisted Liverpool were going there with the aim of winning more silverware.- Nampa-AFP