Benitez criticised by club director

Liverpool closed ranks around manager Rafael Benitez today after an astonishing attack by an unnamed director.

Benitez discovered savage words attacking his regime in the morning media, and chose to make a dignified, calm response ahead of the tough home clash with Aston Villa.

Liverpool have made no attempt to rubbish the media report, and believe they know which of their seven-man board is involved.

And it is believed that the club were tipped off at the beginning of the week that this particular attack was being prepared, which suggests that Benitez, too, has known for several days what was coming.

His management skills, transfer policy and rotation system were criticised in the article, which has angered club chairman David Moores and chief executive Rick Parry.

Benitez said: 'I know that I have the support of the chairman, chief executive and the board.

'I have seen the words written, and people have to write, and talk about football. I was surprised, but I would prefer to talk about football. I prefer to think about Aston Villa and how to beat them.

'I was taught by John Toshack at Real Madrid when to say `no comment'.'

He added: 'I have too much respect for this club, the fans and board, to want to discuss these things further in public.'

Parry launched a strong defence of his manager and said: 'We understand the expectations at Liverpool but we are clearly moving in the right direction under Rafael Benitez.

'We unquestionably have a better squad than we did last year so it is not about making judgements at this stage. There are no trophies handed out at the end of October, with the exception of the Community Shield which we have already won. You can only judge our performance over the course of a full season.

'We all knew there was a sizeable job to do when Rafa was appointed and that is why we have never laid down any timescales or imposed unrealistic pressures. What is important is continuous year on year improvement.

'The wins in Istanbul and Cardiff were great achievements that we celebrated together. Some of the early results in the league have not gone as well as we would have wanted, which is why we have a collective responsibility to pull together and work even harder to improve things on the pitch.'

A search has now started to discover the identity of the `mole' whose position is now clearly untenable. Of the seven man board, clearly Moores and Parry can be ruled out as well as the two virtual `sleeping partners' from Granada, who are the club's second largest shareholders.

He pointed out the league positions, victory in the Champions League, FA Cup, European Super Cup and Community Shield, while also pointing out the difference in transfer spending he has compared to Chelsea and Manchester United.

Benitez said: 'The answer to this is to win on Saturday against Villa. The chairman has not spoken to me about this, but I know I have his support.'