Benitez unfazed by Mascherano absence

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez said on Monday that the absence of Argentine midfielder Javier Mascherano against Fiorentina in the Champions League here on Tuesday would not pose a problem.

Mascherano felt his hamstring during shooting practice before this game and doctors ruled him out of the group E clash.

But the Spaniard feels he has plenty of other options to fill in for the combative Argentina international.

“It’s not a problem, we can manage with Stevie (Gerrard) or others. To lose a player like Javier is not good but we will try to find a solution. There are three or four others who can play there,” said Benitez.

One of those could even be versatile forward Dirk Kuyt, who his manager believes could play well anywhere on the pitch, although he is likely to continue on the wing at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.

And Benitez defended the Dutch international against claims last week from former player Jermaine Pennant that the Spaniard only played him on the wing because of the amount of money he spent on him — 10 million pounds.

“Kuyt is a striker who can play as a winger, as a second striker, he can score goals. If I asked him to play at centre-back I think he would do well,” said Benitez.

“Kuyt does his talking on the pitch, his record is there for all to see so I don’t need to say anything (about Pennant’s comments).”

Another player whom Benitez will be counting on during Tuesday’s match is in-form Spain forward Fernando Torres, who bagged a hat-trick in Saturday’s 6-1 demolition of Hull City.

But he stopped short of proclaiming him the best in the world.

“I think Fernando is a very good striker and we can say he is on fire but the Champions League and Premier League are different competitions.

“But he is one of our key players and I hope he will be tomorrow as well.

“Of course he can get better because he works very hard in training, he wants to learn and for sure he will improve.

“He’s a great striker but if you talk about Samuel Eto’o or Zlatan Ibrahimovic, they are all great strikers.

“One can be the best one week and then two weeks later it’s another one.”

Benitez’s team has gone through something of a transformation this season from a unit known for it’s stifling, solid defensive work and 1-0 victories to a swashbuckling attacking side that have scored 22 times in their first seven league matches — their best ever return at the start of a season.

But with that has come defensive mistakes, something the manager believes is only natural.

“We are winning (they have won six matches in a row) and creating a lot of chances. When you are attacking and attacking, sometimes you can make mistakes, we are trying to work on this,” he said.

Slovakia centre-back Martin Skrtel believes it is due to the small things that they’re conceding more goals than normal.

“There’s no defensive problem, we made some mistakes and conceded some goals. We just need to progress on some simple things, on the details and we will get better, we’ll get more clean sheets,” he insisted.