Craig Bellamy has been cleared of assaulting two women while visiting a nightclub in Cardiff.
Bellamy’s solicitor said: “He has always said the allegations were false and that’s been proved correct.
“His defence was that he didn’t do anything wrong, he didn’t lay a finger on anybody and for his troubles he was slapped in the face and this has been believed by the court.
“He understands that given his profession he will get a degree of hassle.”
Rafa Benitez has admitted his frustration following the 0-0 draw with Portsmouth at Anfield.
“I think we tried from the beginning until the end to win the game,” said Benitez.
“It’s clear that we have problems there (in midfield) but today maybe it wasn’t as big a problem, today our problem was in the wide areas and with the strikers because we could not score.
“In the first half they played deep and in the second they were even deeper.
“When you work as hard as today and you cannot score you must be disappointed, but you cannot be too hard on the players because they worked hard to get it out wide and tried hard but it was difficult.
“They sat back, at the end they were wasting time and it was frustrating.”
He added: “It was clear with two more points we would have been third but now we have to think about the next game at Wigan.
“It’s clear now that we have to have a strong mentality. The players are trying hard to do their best and we must see if we can keep the players we have at the top level.”
Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp is hoping his team stand up at be counted at Anfield today.
He said: “We are hard hit by injuries but we knew that would happen at some stage of the season.
“We must go to Anfield with a positive attitude or we will be in trouble.”
I personally think we are finding our feet again and will run out comfortable winners in this one. 2-0 Reds.
Liverpool and AC Milan target Marco Amelia has confirmed that he will not look to leave the Serie A club until June.
Amelia said: “I’m glad that my name is being linked to one of the most important clubs in the world, but now I think only about the present and about Livorno, and I believe that until June I won’t leave here.
“I would like to underline that these market rumours are not distracting me at all from the current commitments and even though they gratify me a lot, I remain concentrated on Livorno and its league.”
Skipper Steven Gerrard has admitted that he has been disappointed with his form this season and is looking to improve more in the coming matches.
Gerrard said: “If a man of his (Rafa) experience says I can improve, I take it as a compliment.
“I haven’t been happy with my form this season but can feel it coming back of late.
“I set myself high standards and try and be the best every time I play.
“No matter how old or experienced you are, you never stop learning.”
He added: “Our away form can’t get any worse but we’re looking forward to testing it at Wigan.”
Jamie Carragher has heaped praise Daniel Agger for his performances this season.
“Daniel Agger has come in and done superbly,” said Carragher.
“It is a tough position because it’s a bit like a goalkeeper in that if you make a mistake it is probably going to go into the back of the net, so the way he has been playing has been superb.
“Ever since he has come in he has looked like a typical Liverpool centre-back, going back to the days of Mark Lawrenson and Alan Hansen, and he is very good on the ball.
“Hopefully it won’t just be about playing like them, and he can win the trophies they won as well.”
Jamie Carragher thinks we are starting to put it together in the Premiership after a very, very, very slow start.
“We hope we’re getting back to the form of last season, but there’s nothing worse than talking about it and not doing it,” said Carragher.
“We can judge that at the end of the season, but what we did last season will be difficult to achieve again.
“If we can get close to 25 clean sheets for the season, then that will be good. It is similar to strikers, they want a goal every other game and we should be looking for a clean sheet every two games.
“We are not going to get carried way. Everyone knows we have not had the greatest of starts in The Premiership, but we have been doing very well at home and we have another home game on Wednesday.
“The teams around us are quite close, so if we can get a good result on Wednesday and some of the teams around us drop points then that can put us closer to the top four.
“We did have difficult fixtures at the start of the season, but we are Liverpool and we should be a difficult fixture for the opposition.
“We are not hiding the fact that we are disappointed with those results but we have got to look forward now and the only positive is that a lot of those tough games are now out of the way.”
We all expected the lads to be challenging this season but let’s give them some credit. We are firing in Europe, still in the Carling Cup and have a home record that is second to none. We are only one win out of the top four so and there are plenty of matches still to be played including visits from Arsenal, Chelsea and the SCUM United.
Striker Craig Bellamy is set to miss the mid-week Premiership fixture against Portsmouth due to court commitments.
Rafa said: “Craig had been away most of the week - it was not easy for him (against Manchester City),”
“He arrived back in Liverpool only late on Friday. It had taken him several hours, so he did not have too much sleep.
“This made it almost impossible to use him.
“I will wait to see how he is during the week with the trial. But he will be in Cardiff for two more days, for sure - so maybe involving him against Portsmouth on Wednesday will be difficult.”
Boss Rafa was is pleased with the recent improvement shown by keeper Pepe Reina after his slow start to the season.
“I think Pepe is playing better,” said Benitez.
“It was clear that he needed a little bit of luck and a bit of confidence and he has been working hard. We know Pepe is a very good goalkeeper and we must give him confidence.”
Rafa Benitez was happy with the 1-0 win over Manchester City but was already looking to build more squad belief against Portsmouth.
“The next game is Portsmouth at home so we will try to do the same and after that we have a game against Wigan away and I am sure if we can win against Portsmouth the team will gain more confidence and we will start winning.
“Our idea is to keep going and winning and in a few weeks look at our position in the table.”
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