Rafael Benítez has accepted today's Anfield visit of Manchester City represents "make-or-break" for Liverpool's domestic ambitions but not David Ngog's reputation for gamesmanship. The Liverpool manager called his striker "a very honest player" yesterday, despite admitting he earned that contentious penalty against Birmingham City with a dive, and claimed it would be unfair for the 20-year-old to be forever branded a cheat.
Before Thierry Henry's double handball against the Republic of Ireland, Ngog was the French forward at the centre of controversy for his leap over Lee Carsley's challenge that rescued Liverpool a point against Birmingham.
In the absence of the injured Fernando Torres the former Paris St-Germain player is expected to lead the line against Mark Hughes's team and Benítez believes any lingering stain on Ngog's character is unwarranted. "I haven't seen Ngog having any problems in any training session, in any game, diving," the Liverpool manager said. "He is a very honest player, a young player with quality and a good mentality. I could name 20 players who have these problems but not Ngog.
"I think it will be a massive mistake [if he is labelled a diver now]. There are bad tackles every week which are more dangerous for the integrity of the players than this situation. It is a situation you can see in a lot of games."
Henry's intervention in the World Cup play-off has taken the spotlight off Ngog but also intensified the debate on cheating, although Benítez denies there is any similarity between the two. He said: "There is a massive difference between being the target of a tackle that makes you jump and you fall over and touching the ball with your hand. It is totally different."
Benítez concedes that Ngog dived but claims that the referee, Peter Walton, was nevertheless correct to award the penalty. "Ngog knows it was a bad situation," the Liverpool manager said. "But he was running and trying to score and he could see a player going to the ground, he needed to jump. To try that tackle is a foul with the rules. After we can see the replays and talk about video technology but at that moment everyone thought it was a penalty. After watching the replay I could see a player going to ground, trying to tackle one of our players and our player jumping, diving, but at the time it was a penalty."
Liverpool are seventh, one place and one point behind today's opponents who, thanks to their lavish funding, rival Benítez's team in the pursuit of Champions League qualification. "This is a big game, an important game," Benítez said. "All Liverpool games are important but this could be described as a make-or-break game for our season."
