Liverpool boss set to keep faith with Pennant

Pennant was dismissed in Tuesday's Champions League 1-1 draw with Porto after two yellow cards for poor tackles, although throughout the match he maintained a continuous verbal battle with the referee.

Scroll down for more

However, the former Birmingham player is expected to play against his former club at Anfield tomorrow, a match which Daniel Agger and Xabi Alonso will miss after both broke metatarsals in the last week,

The manager admits he has spoken privately to Pennant about his display in Portugal.

"What happened to him in midweek suggests he is trying too hard to prove to me he can be a hard-working member of the team," said the Spaniard.

"But now it would be good for him to analyse what happened and try to keep things like that under control. It is a big risk for him and a big risk for the club.

"I have spoken to him, and with the rest of the team. It is an experience that we must all learn from as a group.

"He was trying to show he is good enough, that he is working hard. Maybe he was talking too much to the referee. If you are experienced you know you must learn from mistakes and he will do that.

"I still have confidence in him, he is training well and you cannot criticise him for how he plays and how he works in every training session.

"You cannot kill a player because he made a mistake. Other players get yellow and red cards but you must look at why and make sure it does not happen again.

"I have talked with him and taken the positives. He can play against Birmingham, he is in the squad.

"And against his former club he will try also to show that he is good enough for this level, especially after this week. He must show he has control and then everything will be very positive."

Benitez has added reserve team captain Jack Hobbs to his squad after the injury to central defender Agger, but the former Lincoln player is more likely to make his senior debut at Reading in the Carling Cup on Tuesday.

"Jack Hobbs will be training with us now and we can look at Alvaro Arbeloa as a possible centre-back too because he has done that at Deportivo La Coruna," explained Benitez.

Liverpool are still unbeaten this season but successive away draws at Portsmouth and Porto have dented confidence around Anfield.

"I am not too worried about the form. We played two games and scored 10 goals in the week before draws at Portsmouth and Porto," added the manager.

"I can see the determination of the players. They have been working very well and we even had to calm down some of the tackling in training.

"I have analysed both of those two games and there were some good, positive things. The passing, work-rate and team play was fine.

"A good win now will lift our confidence in front of our own supporters. We have respect for Birmingham because they have given us problems in the past but I feel we are in good form now."