Bhoys will come good, says Reds' Benitez

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has jumped to the defence of Celtic by claiming that people are overreacting to their disappointing North American tour.

The Glasgow side’s ChampionsWorld Series went from bad to worse last night after their 4-2 defeat to Chelsea was followed by a 5-1 mauling at the hands of the Reds.

Celtic have come under fire for their performances, and in particularly their defending, while their failure to bring in new players has become a big concern for supporters.

But Benitez, who knows Martin O’Neill from their clashes with Valencia in Europe in recent seasons, believes that the Scottish double-winners will come good.

He said: “It was the first or second matches for all the teams and all the teams are improving and trying different things.

“Celtic now have good players and in my opinion like us they will need time.

“We are in the pre-season and there’s plenty of time to come good. The players are tired and it’s normal that you have mistakes.”

Liverpool looked impressive in East Hartford, especially striker Djibril Cisse who opened up his goal account with a stunning double.

But Benitez has warned his players that they could be shown the Anfield exit door if they cannot adjust to different styles of play throughout the season.

Gerard Houllier was criticised for his negative formations but the Spanish coach has revealed that he wants to play different styles for different matches.

He said: “I had an idea but after you know the players better you change things.

“I think they understand a little by little the things that I want and perhaps I need to change something.

“I played in Valencia 4-2-3-1 because I had Aimar but here we have four top forwards so we can play 4-4-2 and I hope to change positions.

“The most important thing is not to have just one possibility but two or three possibilities with systems and positions of players."

Benitez expects to have his best team in his mind and his players ready for their Champions League qualifier early next month.

He explained: “We have good ideas now and I hope it will be enough for the first match in the Champions League but after we will be improving.”

Benitez was satisfied with his side’s performance against Celtic but the perfectionist still saw flaws in the defence.

He has strengthened that position by signing versatile defender Josemi in a move from Malaga but he hopes his players can improve for the game against Porto.

Benitez concluded: “We played well sometimes and on other occasions we need to keep more of the ball and sometimes to do a better job in defence.

“We were doing things more individually in the second half and the team need to move together in defence.

“But we have been training 10 or 15 days and no more so to score five goals is very good for the first match here. Against a hard team of this level it is a good score.”