Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez has defended Lucas Leiva and Javier Mascherano over their performance in midfield for Saturday's stalemate with Fulham.
"We weren't passing the ball well but it wasn't Lucas, or it wasn't Javier Mascherano, it was the team," Benitez told liverpoolfc.tv.
"When we were preparing for the game, I had a clear idea that we could not use four or five players who had played 90 minutes in midweek.
"They all would be tired at the same time, so you try to use players with fresh legs. We had Fernando Torres more or less fresh, Robbie Keane and Lucas.
"That was it. For me that was the difference. We had four or five players without energy and when we played the second half with Mascherano on the pitch and with a higher tempo we were much better than Fulham, and when we brought on Xabi Alonso we had more quality of passing but it was the same situation.
"It wasn't one player who was making the difference, for me it was three or four players."