Liverpool defender Glen Johnson believes the side must build on a platform of defensive defiance to improve their chances of a top-four Barclays Premier League finish.

Liverpool managed successive clean sheets for only the second time this season in victories over Debrecen in the Champions League and Everton in the past week.

Debrecen figured in Liverpool's previous back-to-back clean sheets in September, when they also beat Burnley 4-0.

Despite those results, Liverpool are out of the Champions League following some disappointing results, although they have now gone five games undefeated ahead of Saturday's trip to revitalised Blackburn.

The Ewood Park club marched into the Carling Cup semi-finals against Aston Villa with a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over Chelsea on Wednesday.

Rovers boss Sam Allardyce missed that one as he continued his recovery from minor heart surgery, but he will be back in the dugout against Liverpool.

Blackburn have been beaten only once at home this season, and they will be intent on giving Liverpool a tough match.

But England full-back Johnson says: "We have had two clean sheets on the spin now and hopefully we have got a platform to build on when we go to Blackburn.

"We know that we haven't been picking up the results that people associated with this club expect, but there was no better place to start picking up points than at Goodison Park last weekend.

"Now we want to get on a good run. The next game is all that we can worry about but we want to be pushing up the table and hopefully we have made a start."

And boss Rafael Benitez has revealed that Fernando Torres could make his comeback from injury at Blackburn.

In a match that will be skipper Steven Gerrard's 500th game for the club, should he play, Liverpool could have their feared attacking partnership back together for the first time in 10 matches.

Torres is close to returning to full training after treatment for a serious groin injury and will be given every chance of taking on Blackburn.

However, Torres has improved this week - the final period of a three-week recuperation programme - and Benitez will make a late decision before deciding whether to select him for the trip to Ewood Park.

Benitez says: "The feedback we had about Torres is very positive and he was feeling good.

"We will see how he is in the next training sessions, but it seems as though things are going well."