Rafael Benitez has defended his decision to take off Fernando Torres during Liverpool's draw with Birmingham City, revealing that the striker was suffering from exhaustion.
After playing 65 minutes of the frustrating 1-1 stalemate at St Andrews, the Spain international made way for David Ngog which prompted questions whether Benitez was looking ahead to Thursday's Europa League showdown with Benfica rather than on the task in hand.
However the Kop boss has refuted the claims and confirmed that Torres' withdrawal was simply precautionary, despite the 26-year-old having to receive an ice pack to protect his knee.
He said: "Fernando knew we needed to win and he knew he was tired.
"He was exhausted. He had some ice to protect his knee but he was tired, like some of the other players who played on Thursday.
"You have to manage and I think Ngog did a very good job. We needed fresh legs, that was very clear."
The result leaves Liverpool sixth in the Premier League table, four points behind Manchester CIty in the final Champions League qualification place.
But Benitez is refusing to conceded the fight with City, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur all facing tricky run-ins before the end of the season.
"Yes, it's true it's going to be difficult, but we have to keep going," he insisted.
"There are still a lot of points to play for. We were talking about maybe winning six games in a row but we knew maybe we could have one draw. Now we have to win five.
"We didn't have much margin for error and now we have less margin but that's football, and (how much margin we have) still depends on the other teams.
"We have to believe we can win games and have confidence that they will lose."
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sailesh , mauritius around 2 years, 1 month ago