Tuesday 14 July 2009

Johnson to make Reds debut in tomorrow’s Swiss friendly

Rafa Benitez has been speaking ahead of the pre season friendly with St Gallen tomorrow evening. Reported in the Independent, the Spanish manager believes new signing Glen Johnson offers value for money in this summers ‘crazy’ transfer window:

"Yes, the money people are asking is crazy. I hear, for example, that people at Seville are asking for 41m Euros for Daniel Alves. That is a lot."

"The market is crazy, but you must pay good money for good players.”

"The money for Johnson is OK. He is English, an international with quality and he is worth the money. He is a very good attacking player. If you try to buy a winger it can be £50m to £60m at current prices, but Johnson as an offensive full-back can give us more options.”

"He can be good for us, especially when we are at home and teams are defending against us. Going forward he will give us something different, something special. He is a good addition for us."

Johnson is expected to make his Liverpool debut tomorrow evening, but Benitez who has 24 players to choose from at the Swiss training camp says: "We will try to use all the players. Our idea is to use one team in the first half and change it at half-time.”

"We have the video of their recent game against Basel and they were well organised - the manager knows what to do. The main thing for us is to get the match fitness, the result is not too important even though we want to win every single game - but it will be interesting.”

"The important thing is to see how the team is on the pitch and see the understanding between the players."

Youngsters Martin Kelly, Mikel San Jose, Daniel Pacheco, Peter Gulacsi, Daniel Ayala and Krisztian Nemeth have joined the squad’s training camp and will be given the chance to impress.

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