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Posts Tagged ‘really-positive’

• Kuyt follows Gerrard and Carragher in backing manager
• ‘He is a legend, not only for the fans but also for the players’

Dirk Kuyt has followed his Liverpool team-mates Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher in publicly backing Kenny Dalglish for the permanent manager’s job at Anfield.

The club are up to sixth in the Premier League after a run of four successive victories under Dalglish, who succeeded Roy Hodgson in January. The Scot is on a temporary deal which lasts until the end of the season but Gerrard and Carragher have already indicated they would like Dalglish to stay on.

Asked if he agreed with those calls for the 59-year-old to be appointed on a full-time basis, Kuyt said: “I think you only have to look at the results and the mood of the players, and I have to agree with that. He is a legend, not only for the supporters, but also for the players. He has helped me a lot.”

Kuyt told Sky Sports: “We are really happy with Kenny so far. It has been really positive for us from the first day he came and he gave us a lot of belief. He said we were all quality players and that he was there to help us. It has worked out very well with him and [the new first-team coach] Steve Clarke and everything looks much better.”

The side took particular satisfaction from their latest win, Sunday’s 1-0 triumph at Chelsea, for whom the former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres was making his debut. Kuyt admitted the loss of Torres was a blow but he was pleased to get one over on the Spaniard at the weekend and is keeping focused on the future.

“It is very disappointing for all the players if one of the best players leaves the club, especially when it is Liverpool, which is a big club,” Kuyt said. “He has gone to Chelsea, but that is football and you have to move on. The response from us was very good and we were very happy to beat him. Now we just have to wish him all the best and hopefully we will do better.”

Following his £50m move last week Torres appeared to claim Chelsea were on another level to Liverpool, something Kuyt hopes the Merseysiders will prove to be incorrect. “He explained that it was difficult for him to say things right in a second language, as he comes from Spain,” Kuyt said.

“For me, what he explained was that he wants to win trophies now and he thinks he has a bigger chance with Chelsea. We can only say we hope he is wrong.”

LiverpoolKenny Dalglishguardian.co.uk

• Rafael Benítez praises his side for beating Unirea Urziceni
• Defender believed to have broken foot from late tackle

Rafael Benítez paid tribute to his Liverpool team’s “character” after they came from behind to beat Unirea Urziceni 3-1 in Bucharest, to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory in the last 32 of the Europa League.

“It was a difficult game because of the pitch. We needed to be calm and do the job properly,” said Benítez, whose night was somewhat soured by the suspected broken foot suffered by the centre-back Martin Skrtel. “To play better we needed to score our goal as they were dangerous at set pieces.”

That goal was a rare strike from Javier Mascherano and Ryan Babel’s neat close-range effort gave the Premier League side a 2-1 lead at half-time after Bruno Fernandes had headed the home side ahead early on, from a corner. Steven Gerrard made it 3-1 in the second-half with his 33rd European goal.

“I think once we scored a goal everything was easier,” added Benítez. “The second and third goals made things even better. Still we had some problems but the main thing was to score; we did it and we had more control of the game.”

Skrtel suffered his potentially long-term injury after a second-half clash with the substitute Antonio Semedo.

“At this moment we don’t know how serious it is but it could be a broken foot,” said Benítez. “That would be bad news but we will have to wait and see what happens. It was a bad tackle.”

Gerrard’s goal took him past Alan Shearer [with 30 goals for Newcastle and two for Blackburn] as Britain’s leading scorer in Europe.

Benítez felt it was an honour well deserved: “It is really positive for him and the club – it also means we are playing a lot of games in Europe, so hopefully we can play a lot more and he can score more goals.

“It is very good news for the club. This is a historic club with a lot of records, so to have a new record is massive for him and very important to the club.

The Unirea coach, Roni Levy, admitted even when his side opened the scoring he did not believe there would be an upset. “I knew it was an early goal and we had a long time until the end of the game,” he said. “The equaliser came very early, so I did not have much time to think about what our goal meant.

“What was important was that we were organised and looked like a serious team – irrespective of the result.”

LiverpoolUnirea UrziceniUefa Europa Leagueguardian.co.uk