Rafa comments on the game
Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 4:52 pmRafael Benitez was left to rue his side's missed chances as his first experience of the Merseyside derby ended in a disappointing defeat.
Lee Carsley's second half strike settled the contest but Benitez believes his players should have made more use of the opportunities which came their way.
Neil Mellor missed a golden chance to break the deadlock with a close range header in the first half while Steven Gerrard went close on a couple of occasions late on.
He said: "In football the team that scores the goals wins games. If you have chances but don't score then you can't win.
"In the first half we had two or three chances and we needed to score. If we'd scored then the second half would have been different.
"I thought we controlled the game in the first half even though it was a very difficult game. Everton are very aggressive and made it hard for us, but I thought we were controlling things.
"Then when they scored we had to change things to try and get an equaliser, but it didn't happen."
On his decision to start with Salif Diao in midfield in preference to Xabi Alonso, Benitez said: "We decided to go with the players who had fresh legs. Didi and Salif hadn't played this week and so we used them today.
"You can ask questions about the team but in my opinion, as I said, we controlled the match in the first half. We just needed to score.
"It's a disappointing end to what had been a good week for us. Now we have to make sure that next week is another good one."
Lee Carsley's second half strike settled the contest but Benitez believes his players should have made more use of the opportunities which came their way.
Neil Mellor missed a golden chance to break the deadlock with a close range header in the first half while Steven Gerrard went close on a couple of occasions late on.
He said: "In football the team that scores the goals wins games. If you have chances but don't score then you can't win.
"In the first half we had two or three chances and we needed to score. If we'd scored then the second half would have been different.
"I thought we controlled the game in the first half even though it was a very difficult game. Everton are very aggressive and made it hard for us, but I thought we were controlling things.
"Then when they scored we had to change things to try and get an equaliser, but it didn't happen."
On his decision to start with Salif Diao in midfield in preference to Xabi Alonso, Benitez said: "We decided to go with the players who had fresh legs. Didi and Salif hadn't played this week and so we used them today.
"You can ask questions about the team but in my opinion, as I said, we controlled the match in the first half. We just needed to score.
"It's a disappointing end to what had been a good week for us. Now we have to make sure that next week is another good one."
