Babel sees his future at Anfield

Liverpool winger Ryan Babel is delighted to have earned a run in Rafael Benitez's side and insists his future belongs at Anfield.

Babel scored in the Reds' 4-1 win over Portsmouth on Monday night in what was his fourth start in six consecutive games in Rafa Benitez's side.

After early promise in a Reds shirt following his arrival from Ajax in 2007, the Dutchman has struggled to establish himself at Anfield since last season.

Speculation linking the 23-year-old with a return to his homeland mounts each transfer window, but Babel now has fresh hopes of a bright future at Liverpool.

"I was always happy at Liverpool," Babel told the club's official website.

"Slowly I'm feeling stronger. Hopefully now I can continue to get stronger. With every game you'll start to see the best of me.

"Obviously you're always frustrated when you can't show people what you can do - but that's not just me, that's every player.

"But that's the past and now I want to go forward here at Liverpool," added Babel, who has scored twice since his recent return to Benitez's first team.

The comfortable Anfield win over Pompey was the perfect response to back-to-back 1-0 defeats away from home to Wigan and French side Lille respectively.

Babel believes an early breakthrough against Avram Grant's side was key to their comfort, and he is hoping the Reds can take confidence from their performance into their next two games against Lille and Manchester United.

"These three points are very important but now this passion and the way we played in defence and attack is the basis of how we have to play in the remaining games," added Babel.

"I think we had a point to prove in terms of getting a result. I don't think the performance at Lille was as bad as some people think but here we definitely showed character and passion, and hopefully we can now look forward.

"If you can score an early goal then the confidence raises straight away. Then when a second comes everyone in the team feels confident and can play in a more relaxed way.

"It would definitely be nice to win at Old Trafford like last year but, first of all, hopefully Thursday will be good and then we'll go to Old Trafford full of confidence."

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.