Benitez explains midfielder’s injury situation
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez insists he will not rush Alberto Aquilani into the first team and wants to protect the player.
Several fans have wanted to see Aquilani play a part in the side however, Benitez insists he will not rush the Italian back from injury.
“It’s more simple than people think,” said Benitez. “He has been out for longer than we expected and, because he has been injured during the summer, he couldn’t train properly.
“Now it is much better and it is a case of improving his match fitness. We want to play him and we thought we might have been able to do that with the reserves at Wigan.
“That was called off (last week) but we had some games at Melwood and he played 45 minutes against our reserves last week. We are trying to improve him as quick as we can.
“But when you have a player who is not fit, he is always going to need time to settle in to a game; if the game is tight and he makes mistakes, then you have a problem.
“We want to protect the player but, at the same time, we want to keep winning games; he understands that he needs to be a little bit fitter before he can play.
“It has not been easy (to not play him) but we are giving him more encouragement in training sessions and he is getting much, much better.
“We know he is a top-class player and we want to do the best for him and the team; but the best for the player and the team sometimes means he cannot play.
“Think about this example. We were winning 1-0 (against Debrecen) the other day and me and (assistant manager) Sammy (Lee) were talking about playing him.
“But if we played him for the last 20 minutes, when they were attacking a little bit more and he is not settled, maybe it will be the situation will become worse. It is not easy finding the balance but he is getting better all the time.”
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No other top club would fart about like this, i feel rafa nurses players too much instead of telling them to get on with it.
has the reds season turned a corner. two good wins and players back from injury. things are looking up?
IN RAFA WE TRUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
rafa come on man we all know you. You want lucas to play more football so that we can’t see how is aqulani is come on man we got to win the europa league, Fa cup and mybe is mircle happen the priemier league
fair enough but why didn’t rafa play gerrard in midfield. he’s woeful in that striking role without alonso and torres. we cant afford to play lucas and masch every week yes we did win against manure and everton but look at the number of draws and losses for these 2 seasons starting lucas and masch
i hope alquilani can play more than alonso.
shutup “abdulahi”….we trust rafa in he has every right to rest alberto…
agger you crazy man aqulani is fit in one month and he has play only 27 months no wonder we out of the champions league we trust rafa but the rafa is keep making the same masktike over and over puting lucas in the line up and not puting two player on the two poost when the other team set peice come on man every day is the same
agger you crazy man abdulahi is right aqulani is fit in one month and he has play only 27 months no wonder we out of the champions league we trust rafa but the rafa is keep making the same masktike over and over puting lucas in the line up and not puting two player on the two poost when the other team set peice come on man every day is the same
Well, really we all know that Benitez loves Lucas, so this is the only reason he is not playing Aquilani, in what planet Aquilani can make more mistakes than Lucas does???
Rafa knows more bout the situation thn we do. he is a great manager, im sure he will deal with the situation and give us 100% of aquilani :) In rafa I believe
wtf, im not in malaysia now! :p
In Rafa we Trust!!!