Benitez hails Yossi impact

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez hailed match winner Yossi Benayoun as the perfect solution to his side’s recent mini-crisis.

The Reds had slipped off top spot in the Premier League following goalless draws at Portsmouth and at home to Birmingham, prompting criticism of Benitez’s rotation policy.

But with their match at Wigan heading for a third 0-0 stalemate, substitute Benayoun produced a moment of quality to give Liverpool a much-needed 1-0 victory.

It was the Israel international’s first league goal for the Reds since his £5m move from West Ham in the summer.

Benayoun had come on as a 56th-minute replacement, and Benitez said: “I brought him here for these kind of games.

“When you are trying to find a solution, you need players of creativity and quality, and Yossi gives us that.

“I am not saying he will start every game on the bench, it’s just that in this instance I wanted to do different things.

“Yossi played the other night (in the Carling Cup against Reading) and I needed fresh legs, so I started with (Jermaine) Pennant.

“We created some chances and you need to take them if you want an open game.

“Because we didn’t we needed to bring on players with different skills and Yossi was good, it was perfect.”

All the talk prior to the game had centred around whether Benitez would start with Fernando Torres, who scored a hat-trick in the 4-2 win at Reading after previously starting on the bench against Pompey and Birmingham.

Benitez opted to pair Torres up front with Dirk Kuyt from the outset at the JJB Stadium, and the Spain international had three chances before the break.

However, he was virtually anonymous after the interval when a fiercely determined Wigan came close to ending their wretched record against the fabled ’big four’.

However, the Latics have now lost all 17 league matches against Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal since they were promoted to the top flight in 2005.

They perhaps should have taken a point from this match as they had what appeared to be a perfectly good goal disallowed in the 50th minute.

Marcus Bent was clearly in an onside position when Josip Skoko floated a ball across to the far post for the striker to score, however, the offside flag had been raised, presumably against Julius Aghahowa, despite the fact he was running back into play.

Boss Chris Hutchings was unable to offer too much of an insight as he said: “One or two people have told me what happened, but I need to look myself before I can make a clear comment.“

Hutchings, though, certainly had a view on the injury-time miss from Aghahowa as he somehow headed wide from six yards when it appeared easy to score.

“I expected everything to end up in the net, so I wasn’t too pleased about that,” added Hutchings.

“I don’t know how it didn’t go in, so in the end while I am pleased with the performance and the lads were great, I am very disappointed with the result.

“I thought the way we defended and how we passed the ball around was pleasing. That’s how we are trying to do things now.

“We can take positives out of the game with the way they changed things in order to hold on to their three points, and all credit to them for doing that.”