By J Wade
January 19 2005

RAFAEL BENITEZ maintained there was only a "fine line" between Liverpool and the top three despite Saturday's defeat leaving his side an alarming 19 points behind leaders Chelsea. Wayne Rooney's first-half goal at Anfield means Liverpool are now seven points behind Everton, who currently hold the final Champions League qualifying place in fourth place.

The Goodison club's draw at the Riverside yesterday also saw Middlesbrough close the gap on fifth-placed Benitez's men to just one point.

But Benitez said there was still very little between Liverpool and the Premiership's leading trio, insisting: "If you see the games against Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea, you can see we are not far behind. The question has to be about more consistency over the course of the season.

"The line is very fine - sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. When you play the big teams, if you make a mistake, you pay. We had time to score but they (United) are a team who are very organised and it was difficult. We tried to change in the second half but it was difficult."

The Spaniard defended his decision to throw new arrivals Fernando Morientes and Mauricio Pellegrino straight into the starting line-up for such a pressured encounter.

Benitez had judged that the duo's experience would serve the side well against United, even though both players have only been in the country for a matter of days.

He added: "With Pellegrino and Morientes we tried to use players with experience for this game. We have Hamann, Gerrard, Carragher - who have played a lot of games.

"We had to use experienced players for these types of games, when you play against another team with such experienced and good players.

"I am sure that if we had scored before, we would perhaps have won the game, because we were playing well.

"We conceded the goal at the worst moment. We were controlling the game and playing with a high tempo but after the goal we lost our concentration and were never able to control the midfield."

Benitez praised the performance of Morientes, despite the £6.3million signing failing to score on a debut for the first time having managed the feat for Albacete, Real Zaragoza, Real Madrid, Monaco and Spain.

"It was difficult in his first game but he never stopped trying," he said. "He needs to get fit. He said he was very tired when he came off but he knows now how he must play in the Premiership and will get better."