We’ll play our way out of slump, says Houllier

LIVERPOOL boss Gerard Houllier insists his side will emerge from their current slump by continuing to play his way.

The Frenchman has ruled out the possibility of any tactical changes as he bids to haul the club out of a dreadful run of form.

Houllier will have to make do without Emile Heskey for the visit of the Dutch side. The England forward injured his ankle in the defeat at The Valley last weekend and has been all but ruled out.

Houllier is otherwise unlikely to make many changes from the squad which travelled to London. Patrick Berger remains on the long-term casualty list after recent surgery.

Since topping the Premiership a month ago, Liverpool have picked up just one point from five league games and managed only uninspiring cup victories over Vitesse Arnhem and Ipswich in the meantime.

Their latest reverse came in a 2-0 defeat at Charlton on Saturday, a loss which saw them slip to fourth in the table.

The side have been subjected to much criticism for their style of play, particularly their lack of width, during this barren run but Houllier has no intention of changing his approach.

He said: “If you ask me whether I am going to change the system of play - no. I am not going to play a 3-5-2 because this is not my philosophy. I had to do that four years ago.

“The main thing is you trust your players, and I trust them. So, we will get out of this period. Manchester United had a difficult period about a month and a half ago, now it is our turn.

“All I know is we will do our best to get out of it very quickly.”

Liverpool are desperate for a victory in the second leg of their UEFA Cup third round tie against Vitesse at Anfield tonight to get their season back on track.

The Reds spurned a catalogue of chances to put the tie beyond their Dutch opponents’ reach at the Gelredome a fortnight ago and returned home from the first leg with only a slender 1-0 lead.

They have already experienced the lows of European competition once this season when they were muscled out of the Champions League by Basle and they will be anxious to finish off Vitesse tonight.

A solitary Michael Owen strike is currently the only difference between the two sides despite Liverpool’s obvious superiority in the first encounter.

Owen, who has scored 18 times in Europe, could match Ian Rush’s club record with two more tonight but Houllier has no intention, of introducing wingers to feed his goal habit.

Houllier added: “We don’t have wingers. There are not many of them. In the World Cup there were two wingers out of 32 teams. One was Irish and the other was Spanish.

“You have to create width, maybe we could say that, but I don’t see many teams playing with wingers.”

Liverpool are clearly still stung by their Champions League exit. Since the 3-3 draw with Basle in Switzerland four weeks ago that put them out, only Vitesse have been beaten over 90 minutes. It even took a penalty shoot-out to see off First Division Ipswich in the Worthington Cup.

If Liverpool can take any positives into the game it is that Vitesse are suffering from an equally poor run.

The club have lost three of their last four league games and are currently 12th in the Dutch Premier Division.

Liverpool of course began the season with high hopes of European glory after reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League last term. Houllier now accepts this can now only come about through the UEFA Cup but he is not treating the competition as a consolation prize.

He said: “It is not a distraction. It is a target. It is part of our season’s desire to do well.

“At Liverpool you want to win any competition you are involved in. We have taken the UEFA Cup competition very seriously and had a good win at Vitesse Arnhem.

“Obviously we are just at half-time in the game and we need to be as focused and determined as we were over there at Anfield tomorrow, and I think we will be.

“We are going through a difficult period, they are going through a difficult period. But the UEFA competition is something different.

“We won it two years ago and we would like to do it this year as well. It was a springboard for us and we’d like to do the same.

“I want to be successful in the UEFA Cup because it brings experience for us. The more European games you play, the better it is for the maturity and the growing of the team.”