Rafa ready to rotate Reds

RAFAEL BENITEZ will have to be a juggler and a gambler to keep Liverpool’s exhausting season on course for success.

The home draw with 10-man Birmingham was Liverpool’s 40th game of a season which started on July 13, and the Anfield boss admits he will need to take advantage of his large squad as 10 games in 36 days have to be negotiated.

Benitez is facing crunch time as the demands of the toughest season facing any of Europe’s top sides looks to be starting to take its toll. The Reds manager saw Xabi Alonso’s embarrassing late own goal give Birmingham a priceless point, but he refuses to accept his squad are suffering from mental tiredness, but, with a hectic schedule ahead, Benitez admits he must rotate his squad and gamble on the games from which he can rest players.

He made six changes to the side which won in the FA Cup tie at Portsmouth, leaving Jamie Carragher on the bench while resting Mohamed Sissoko and Djibril Cisse from the squad entirely. The big guns will be back for Chelsea on Sunday, but Benitez is fully aware it can even be dangerous to protect key players against the likes of relegation-threatened Birmingham.

“I do not think we are looking particularly tired, although I am trying to rest and change players,” said Benitez. “What was missing was a second goal from all the chances we had, everything else really is just excuses. We are not tired, but we do need to play with more intensity and a higher tempo to establish a style for the game.”

Benitez gave defender Daniel Agger his debut and the youngster struggled occasionally against the aerial threat of Emile Heskey and Chris Sutton. Liverpool missed an injection of pace until they reacted to Birmingham’s equaliser in a frantic closing five minutes. The woodwork was rattled twice, Maik Taylor produced a world-class save from Alonso, and Agger and Fernando Morientes both saw headers blocked on the line.

Birmingham would surely have wilted under such pressure had it been sustained earlier in the match, and Benitez admitted: “We created plenty of chances against 10 men, we needed to finish the game. We wanted to play with a higher tempo, but that is not always easy to do.”

Even Robbie Fowler could not produce the miracle, despite a stunning overhead kick which flew past Taylor late in the game. It found the net but Fowler was ruled offside just as the Kop acclaimed their hero’s return.

Benitez was happy with the 30-year-old.

“When he is fit, really fit, he can give us so much extra around the danger areas,” he said.

Birmingham boss Steve Bruce was full of praise for his team’s defiant display. They played for an hour with 10 men after Damien Johnson’s dismissal. New signing Sutton received his manager’s praise, his header bouncing off Alonso for the equaliser.