Kuyt is disappointed with result but happy with Aquilani!
The Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt took the captains armband last night for the Carling Cup clash with Arsenal, in the absence of Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard, and was “bitterly disappointed” that the team didn’t get the result they were looking for.
Insua cancelled out Fran Merida’s brilliant opener for Arsenal, and Liverpool were pummeling the Arsenal defence when they broke away for Bendtner to score Arsenal’s second.
Kuyt also believes that newboy Alberto Aquilani had a very good chance of a penalty when Phillipe Senderos handled the ball in the box after the Italian’s scissor kick was goalbound.
“We are really disappointed because we had a few chances to at least force the game to extra time and we worked very hard for it,” said Kuyt.
“In my opinion, I believe we should have had a penalty. I thought he (Senderos) put his hands out to stop the ball and not protect his face.
“But it was just one of those things. We put a lot of effort into it, we tried to win the game and we had the belief that we could win it.
“They scored two great goals but we didn’t give up. We created enough chances to at least equalise but that was the problem.”
“I’m proud to be the captain of a Liverpool team,” said Kuyt. “The only problem was that we didn’t win and that‘s a big disappointment.
“Everyone knows that Stevie and Carra are our two captains but with them not being here, it was really nice to be captain.”
He then went on to welcome Aquilani to the team: “We have known Albert for a while and I’m very happy for him that he has made his debut,”
“Hopefully we will see a lot more from him now. He’s a nice lad on and off the pitch and it’s good for him and us that he has finally played.”
It’s a shame that his first chance at captain ended in defeat, but at least the youngsters tried hard and had an honourable defeat.
