Rafa happy with the squad for now.

By Redsfan
July 21 2005

Rafael Benitez believes his summer signings have added depth to the squad and will help Liverpool to make a stronger challenge this coming season.

He has now signed six players to strengthen the squad and a few more at Youth level, but admits there may be more arrivals before the big kick off. For now though he is happy with the squad he has assembled.

He said:

"We knew we needed to improve the quality of the squad and that is what we have done. We needed to strengthen different positions and we're happy with the players we have managed to bring in.

"I have been here for a year now with my staff and we all have more experience of English football. I wanted to sign some players with experience of the Premiership and we've done that in Zenden and Crouch.

"We have more quality to work with now and so I am sure we will do better in the league. That's our idea.

"We have more options for different positions in the team and so the competition for places is going to be strong. All the players are working as hard as they can in pre-season and in the friendly games to show me they are worth a place in the side.

"We probably still need to strengthen certain positions in the squad and that is something we are working on at the moment."

Benitez is currently with his players in Switzerland preparing for next Tuesday night's Champions League qualifier in Lithuania against FKB Kaunas.

Before that comes another friendly on Saturday night when the Reds cross the border into Liechtenstein to face Olympiacos.

"That will be another good work-out for us," said the boss. "We are playing a lot of games at the moment and so the players are getting chances to improve their match fitness.

"We've had two good games against TNS and they should stand us in good stead for the start of the season. We're not at our best yet but the more games we play and the more training we do then the better the physical condition of the players will become.

"The game in Lithuania next week is obviously a big one for us. I don't know too much about them at the moment but we have a scout preparing the reports and we're waiting for them.

"We know from our experience in the TNS games that it's not going to be easy though and we'll need to be careful."



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