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Happier Cisse now chasing 20 goals
FRENCH striker Djibril Cisse has celebrated the turning point of his Liverpool career by targeting 20 goals by the end of the season. Liverpool may be far from dominant in the Premiership but they have looked formidable in Europe. Just as manager Rafael Benitez's former club Valencia were known as "the crushing machine" in Spain, so Liverpool are learning how to wear down opponents and so Cisse is proving the man with the eye for a killer goal.
Cisse has followed weeks of self-doubting and complaining about his role on the periphery of Benitez's team by striking winners in successive 1-0 victories.
Those wins - against Blackburn and Anderlecht - could change the course of Liverpool's erratic season as well as Cisse's career at Anfield.
After scoring a top-class winner against Anderlecht in the Champions League, to nudge Liverpool closer to qualification from Group G to the knockout stages, he said: "Maybe this week is a new starting point for me and my Liverpool career.
"I know that if I get a good run in the side I can score 20 goals for Liverpool this season. I feel a lot happier now. That's normal because you are always happier when you are playing and I also feel more relaxed about the situation.
"I am really happy with the goal against Anderlecht, but the most important thing is to take all three points, to stay in contact with Chelsea at the top of the group.
"It isn't so much a case of relaxing, as playing with less pressure. Now if we win the next game at home to Anderlecht, I am sure we will be there. "I don't really look at the number of goals I have scored, and I have to admit that I would be just as happy if I hadn't scored, but we had still won."
Cisse added: "I know I need to have confidence in myself and I think I have shown that on the pitch, especially in Brussels.
"I am always confident about my ability to score goals - it is something I try to keep in my game all the time. I try to show that on the pitch as well.I know that I am not always going to score a goal, but when I go out there on to the pitch, before the game I am always confident in my ability to do it - I always feel before the game that I am going to score."
Benitez's has always told Cisse he should do his talking on the pitch, and the former Auxerre striker has stepped up to the plate in recent weeks. The 24-year-old's goal tally now stands at nine for Liverpool this season - and incorporating internationals for France he has netted 12 times in 22 games already.
"If I want to play I know I have to perform when I get the chance, not just with goals but with making the right passes too," he added. "If I want to play every week, I know I have to be good and come up with it on the pitch, because we have the likes of Nando (Morientes), Peter (Crouch), loads of attacking alternatives.
"But when I am playing like I have been, I am obviously a lot happier now. I am a lot more relaxed about my game, and playing with a lot more freedom to it. That always comes when you are enjoying your football like I am at the moment."
Cisse's winner in Brussels means Liverpool have won their last six away games in Europe and are unbeaten in their last 10 trips in the Champions League.
That has extended a remarkable run over the past five years which has seen them lose just five of 40 European away games.
One more win in Group G from their final three matches will see them into the last 16 alongside Chelsea, and Cisse knows he has more than contributed to that situation.
But he also accepts there is much still for him to learn under Benitez, who took off his striker with 16 minutes left against Anderlecht, saying Cisse was "tired".
He had also stopped contributing the required runs, and the Anfield coach was quick to act.
Cisse said: "I love to be the central striker, the one leading the attack - I much prefer to bethe main forward, although I know I have to learn to play with people as well.
"I include the national team in that, as well, because it is a 4-4-2 system. But I have no problem playing alongside anyone else - I'm sure I can do that.
"To be honest in this team the goals do not have to come from me. Stevie Gerrard has got a lot this season, Luis Garcia has a lot, and I think Peter Crouch will eventually too, he just needs a bit of time to settle into the team.
"But as a striker you always need good service, and we have Stevie, Luis, Bolo Zenden and John Arne Riise, so you know that you are going to get a lot of chances. There are a lot of good attacking options in this side.
"It is good for the moment, I feel good but the personal stuff is not important. It is better to think positively for the team."
There has certainly been plenty of support for that view from his colleagues, with Xabi Alonso saying"It's very important for us to have strikers who are scoring goals. We struggled to score earlier in the season but we're doing better now.
"Cisse is a good goalscorer and I'm sure he'll have taken a lot of confidence from the last two games. The more goals he scores the better for us."
Team-mate Sami Hyypia believes Cisse can enjoy a rich vein of form, and said: "Djibril had a tough week but that seems to be a feature of the international break now that someone returns and reads that they have said some outrageous things.
"But I'm pleased for him: he's scored two winning goals in a row but if Djibril is in the side for us, I'm sure he'll score goals. You only have to look at his record with Auxerre and France to see he's always scored at a good rate and now that he's high on confidence, I'm sure he can on scoring (as he has been doing in Europe) in the Premiership.
Copyright - Liverpool Daily Post
Cisse has followed weeks of self-doubting and complaining about his role on the periphery of Benitez's team by striking winners in successive 1-0 victories.
Those wins - against Blackburn and Anderlecht - could change the course of Liverpool's erratic season as well as Cisse's career at Anfield.
After scoring a top-class winner against Anderlecht in the Champions League, to nudge Liverpool closer to qualification from Group G to the knockout stages, he said: "Maybe this week is a new starting point for me and my Liverpool career.
"I know that if I get a good run in the side I can score 20 goals for Liverpool this season. I feel a lot happier now. That's normal because you are always happier when you are playing and I also feel more relaxed about the situation.
"I am really happy with the goal against Anderlecht, but the most important thing is to take all three points, to stay in contact with Chelsea at the top of the group.
"It isn't so much a case of relaxing, as playing with less pressure. Now if we win the next game at home to Anderlecht, I am sure we will be there. "I don't really look at the number of goals I have scored, and I have to admit that I would be just as happy if I hadn't scored, but we had still won."
Cisse added: "I know I need to have confidence in myself and I think I have shown that on the pitch, especially in Brussels.
"I am always confident about my ability to score goals - it is something I try to keep in my game all the time. I try to show that on the pitch as well.I know that I am not always going to score a goal, but when I go out there on to the pitch, before the game I am always confident in my ability to do it - I always feel before the game that I am going to score."
Benitez's has always told Cisse he should do his talking on the pitch, and the former Auxerre striker has stepped up to the plate in recent weeks. The 24-year-old's goal tally now stands at nine for Liverpool this season - and incorporating internationals for France he has netted 12 times in 22 games already.
"If I want to play I know I have to perform when I get the chance, not just with goals but with making the right passes too," he added. "If I want to play every week, I know I have to be good and come up with it on the pitch, because we have the likes of Nando (Morientes), Peter (Crouch), loads of attacking alternatives.
"But when I am playing like I have been, I am obviously a lot happier now. I am a lot more relaxed about my game, and playing with a lot more freedom to it. That always comes when you are enjoying your football like I am at the moment."
Cisse's winner in Brussels means Liverpool have won their last six away games in Europe and are unbeaten in their last 10 trips in the Champions League.
That has extended a remarkable run over the past five years which has seen them lose just five of 40 European away games.
One more win in Group G from their final three matches will see them into the last 16 alongside Chelsea, and Cisse knows he has more than contributed to that situation.
But he also accepts there is much still for him to learn under Benitez, who took off his striker with 16 minutes left against Anderlecht, saying Cisse was "tired".
He had also stopped contributing the required runs, and the Anfield coach was quick to act.
Cisse said: "I love to be the central striker, the one leading the attack - I much prefer to bethe main forward, although I know I have to learn to play with people as well.
"I include the national team in that, as well, because it is a 4-4-2 system. But I have no problem playing alongside anyone else - I'm sure I can do that.
"To be honest in this team the goals do not have to come from me. Stevie Gerrard has got a lot this season, Luis Garcia has a lot, and I think Peter Crouch will eventually too, he just needs a bit of time to settle into the team.
"But as a striker you always need good service, and we have Stevie, Luis, Bolo Zenden and John Arne Riise, so you know that you are going to get a lot of chances. There are a lot of good attacking options in this side.
"It is good for the moment, I feel good but the personal stuff is not important. It is better to think positively for the team."
There has certainly been plenty of support for that view from his colleagues, with Xabi Alonso saying"It's very important for us to have strikers who are scoring goals. We struggled to score earlier in the season but we're doing better now.
"Cisse is a good goalscorer and I'm sure he'll have taken a lot of confidence from the last two games. The more goals he scores the better for us."
Team-mate Sami Hyypia believes Cisse can enjoy a rich vein of form, and said: "Djibril had a tough week but that seems to be a feature of the international break now that someone returns and reads that they have said some outrageous things.
"But I'm pleased for him: he's scored two winning goals in a row but if Djibril is in the side for us, I'm sure he'll score goals. You only have to look at his record with Auxerre and France to see he's always scored at a good rate and now that he's high on confidence, I'm sure he can on scoring (as he has been doing in Europe) in the Premiership.
Copyright - Liverpool Daily Post
