Jamie Carragher: Liverpool are showing qualities needed to win title
JAMIE CARRAGHER believes Liverpool are showing the winning mentality needed to become genuine championship contenders.
The Anfield outfit are joint leaders of the Premier League alongside Chelsea, having taken 17 points from a possible 21.
Rafael Benitez's side went into this week's international break on the back of a remarkable 3-2 win at Manchester City.
And Carragher is convinced the manner in which Liverpool fought back from 2-0 down at half-time to secure victory in injury time underlines their hunger to give themselves a chance of ending a title drought that stretches back to 1990.
"We scored the winning goal after Martin Skrtel went off and it was 10 v 10," said the vice-captain. "We had no centre-back, it was just me.
"We could easily have dropped Xabi Alonso back but a few lads said, 'No, we'll keep men forward and go for it.' We're aware, now, you've got to go for wins in this league. Draws kill you.
"People should stop saying we've made a great start, though. I'm thinking, 'We've only played seven games and we're Liverpool. Shouldn't we be up there? Am I missing something?' We're not Hull.
"If we're still up there in March we can talk about it, until then focus on doing our best in every game. Actions speak louder than words."
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Dirk Kuyt netted Liverpool's winner at Eastlands last week, his first league goal since the previous November. And Anfield manager Benitez believes the 'ugly' work done by the Dutchman is just as important to Liverpool as the goals of Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard.
"His teamwork is amazing," said the Spaniard. "When you talk about a team, that's the most important thing.
"Players like Kuyt are key. You can use the quality of people like Fernando Torres or Steven Gerrard, but you always need players working really hard.
"If you have players with offensive mentality, you need players who can do the ugly jobs. You need to work hard in defence. As a striker, Kuyt is doing his defensive work very well and also scoring important goals."
Kuyt was one of 12 Liverpool players in international action over the weekend, joining Ryan Babel in the Holland team that laboured to a 2-0 win over Iceland. Denmark's Daniel Agger and Israel's Yossi Benayoun both netted penalties as their countries secured wins over Malta and Luxembourg respectively.
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