Benitez, Gerrard make up
Rafael Benitez and Steven Gerrard have made up after the Spanish manager hauled off his captain during Saturday's Merseyside derby, which the Reds won 2-1 with a last minute Dirk Kuyt penalty.
Gerrard looked anything but pleased at being substituted for Brazilian Lucas Leiva with 20 minutes still to play and had told the Liverpool Echo of his frustrations.
But Benitez told the club's website that there is no problem between the pair.
"When you are a manager you need to make decisions, not just think about them," he said.
"You must think how you can win the game. Every player is the same for me when you are trying to win a game.
"We have talked because every player would be disappointed, especially Gerrard because it was a derby. He wanted to score the winning goal, but he is okay.
"After some time he'll understand that it was an idea and I was thinking about the best for the team."
"You know when you change a player he must show that he wants to play, but I think he was okay at the end."
Although bitterly disappointed, Gerrard did acknowledge that the move had helped his side.
"I'm a local lad so the derby is really important to me and I would have liked nothing better than to play the full game and to be on the pitch when we got the winner," said Gerrard.
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