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Rafa Benitez has given his backing to Liverpool
defender Glen Johnson after his performances for England came under
scrutiny this week.
Despite England recording back-to-back victories against
Slovenia and Croatia, with the latter securing their place at the
World Cup next summer, Johnson was criticised by some for a few
momentary defensive lapses.
Both goals England conceded in the 2-1 win over Slovenia and in
the 5-1 hammering of Croatia came down their right-hand side with
the 25-year-old failing to stop the crosses from wide
positions.
Despite Benitez acknowledging his £18million man has room for
improvement, the Spaniard believes his attacking strengths cancel
out his defensive weaknesses.
"I think Glen has been really good from the first day with us
and with England," he told Sky Sports News.
"You can see that offensive mentality, his deliveries, his
crosses were really good so I was surprised with the criticism
about his performance the other day.
"But he is a good player. He can get better but he knows, he is
keen to learn and (Fabio) Capello was supporting him the other day
so we will support him.
"He is so good attacking that sometimes it is more difficult for
the defenders of the other team to stop him than for him to worry
about defence.
"He is a decent defender, clearly he can improve, he is very
good attacking so if you talk about balance he has a very good
balance."