Hyypia - Confidence the key

Hyypia: Confidence the key

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Sami Hyypia believes confidence is the key factor behind Liverpool's superb first half of the Premier League season.

The Reds' emphatic 5-1 success over Newcastle United means that Rafa Benitez's side top the table for the turn of the New Year.

Few gave the Merseysiders a realistic chance of becoming English champions for the first time since 1990, following a string of disappointing title race showings in recent seasons.

Although Liverpool seem to have gone from strength to strength as the season has progressed, Hyypia does not believe the team have changed their style of play.

"We are doing things in training and we are trying to play the same way as we did at the start of the season," explained Hyypia.

Confidence

"But confidence is a big thing and if you are high on confidence then you can play better, because everyone wants the ball more and that was clear to see against Newcastle.

"We had had a good result and performance against Bolton two days earlier and we took our form from that into the Newcastle game.

"Overall it was a very good performance except for conceding a goal right before half-time. But that's football and it was a bit unjustified that they got a goal back when they did, because we could have been six or seven up.

"The important thing was we didn't let it affect us and we responded in the right way by getting another goal at the start of the second half. We are top, so confidence is high and hopefully that will continue."