Rafael Benitez has defended his decision to leave Robbie Keane on the bench for the entirety of Liverpool's draw with Hull yesterday. The league leaders conceded the initiative to their title rivals with a third consecutive home draw.

With the match poised at 2-2 yesterday, and Liverpool in desperate need of goal, Benitez chose to introduce wingers Nabil El Zhar and Ryan Babel before Lucas was selected as the final substitute with four minutes remaining.

"We wanted wingers with pace and ability. Babel and (Nabil) El Zhar were both very good," a defiant Benitez said afterwards.

"We wanted to get to the line and pulled the ball back, we do not want to play long balls, we are not that sort of team."

The Reds have now drawn successive Premier League games to Hull, Fulham and West Ham, and were held by Stoke back in September.

But yesterday could have been worse for Benitez's men. Hull were ahead through Paul McShane and a Jamie Carragher own goal before Steven Gerrard decided he had seen enough.

Again observers are left wondering just what Liverpool would do without their captain. He rescues them time after time.

But to get Benitez to offer him real praise is like pulling teeth. Of Gerrard's single-handed rescue mission, Benitez said: "Today it was Gerrard who scored the goals, in the last game it was (David) Ngog, (Ryan) Babel and (Albert) Riera. The previous game it was (Yossi) Benayoun, we have players who can also score goals.

"The captain is a player with quality, and when he plays offensively he has to score goals."

But Benitez did suggest that he needs more than Gerrard to take responsibility.

He added: "Gerrard is always a threat playing in that attacking midfield role, but we need more people to score goals. We need to see more, especially the players up front, to score more goals."