Benitez Slams Everton's 'Negative' Tactics

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has expressed a certain amount of contempt for the tactics deployed in this afternoon's FA Cup fourth round tie at Anfield by his Everton counterpart David Moyes. Rafa believed that the Scotsman set up his team negatively, with the intention of forcing a replay rather than winning outright.

Moyes' men came away with their second Anfield 1-1 draw in six days, with Joleon Lescott's first-half header being canceled out by a fine Steven Gerrard strike after the interval, and Benitez was clearly annoyed when speaking to Sky Sports earlier.

He said: "One team was trying to win and the other team was trying not to lose."

"We dominated the game, controlled everything but it was just one mistake and they have scored.

"They were coming for a draw, we were trying to win. It is hard against a team with ten players behind the ball, but I was pleased with our performance."

Despite his frustration though, the Spaniard felt that his Reds team would use today's draw as a useful learning experience, teaching them how to overcome defensive sides in future, and asserted that he hardly ever sets his teams up in such a negative way.

"We know some teams will do the same thing and defend. We just have to learn to upset them and to attack," he added.

"I am only bothered, though, about what we do. Whether we win or not. I have never played like that here, and never did this while I was at Valencia, maybe at Extremadura a few times.

"But I do not want to walk about this. I have my ideas and you can see it on the pitch."

--Zack Wilson, Goal.com