Benitez Happy with Result Against a Top Side

It may have been a disappointing single point that Liverpool left St. James’ Park with this weekend, but Rafa Benitez doesn’t think things (or Liverpool) are as bad as we’re all making it out to be.

“In the end, I am really happy with the result against a top side that has been creating chances against everyone,” Benitez said in the post-match conference. “To get a point at home is not the best, but against a good team like Liverpool you have to be happy.”

“They had the possession, and we had to play counter attack,” Benitez added. “We played against a very good team. They were asking me before whether we knew about their quality. Yes, we knew! We knew that Coutinho would shoot from outside, we knew about Mané, Salah, Firmino, Sturridge, and Solanke. They are very dangerous, so to stop all of them at the same time, it was almost impossible.”

Rafa’s post-game report is a bit more generous to the Reds than Klopp’s, who mostly fumed through his post-match interview.

There was plenty to fume about during the match, with Liverpool missing several chances and making incredibly costly defensive mistakes once again. However, Klopp (like Rafa) insists that the last few games are nothing more than a small blip that can and will be overcome.

“We need to work on our things, and I really think that we are not far away from [being] a real challenger [for the title],” Klopp said. “If we do what we are good in, then we’ll score more goals and we’ll win games.”