Benayoun: ‘œIt’s not over yet’

Liverpool winger Yossi Benayoun says there is a lot of hard work to be done to get the Reds’ season on track after two defeats in their opening three games.

The Reds crumbled to defeat at home to Aston Villa on Monday night, their second in just over a week.

But the Israeli international midfielder says the team will pick themselves up from a disappointing start and look to step up a gear.

“Of course we are very disappointed. We didn’t expect to lose but it was just one of those games,” said the Israeli utility man.

“We need to try and improve and quickly, starting on Saturday against Bolton.

“We didn’t play like we can play, we didn’t move the ball like we did against Stoke in the second half. We missed our chances, particularly in the first half, and we conceded two goals from set-pieces.

“The second goal was a major blow. Losing 1-0 half-time you think you can get back into it, but 2-0 right on half-time put everyone down a little bit.

“We played a bit better in the second half, but everything went wrong for us.

“To lose two out of three is unusual for us. We lost only twice through the whole of the last Premier League season, and we have to show that we are still a strong team.

“We need to recover from this and look to work game by game, and work hard to play better.

“At a club like Liverpool, if you lose two or three games then people will ask if we are strong enough to win the league. But there is still a long way to go, everything can change.

“If we go on a long winning run then people will start talking differently about us.”

Liverpool next face Bolton away on Saturday, 29th August. Kick-off is 3pm.