Rafael Benitez has hailed the emergence of Emiliano Insua after the left-back played well against Blackburn Rovers.

Insua made his tenth appearance for the Reds in Liverpool's 4-0 thrashing of Rovers and Benitez is encouraging the youngster to stay ready in the final six league matches.

"Insua is improving and the competition for the left back position is very high with Fabio Aurelio and Andrea Dossena," Benitez said. "Insua is doing well and the team is doing well. Hopefully we can see Emiliano fighting for his position until the end of the season with Fabio and Dossena."

A Fernando Torres brace paved the way for Liverpool to seal a much-needed victory last week before late strikes from Daniel Agger and substitute David Ngog added extra gloss to the scoreline.

Benitez was pleased to see the duo score and offered them some words of encouragement.

"I was a little bit disappointed I couldn't use Ngog before because he played really well for France Under-21s against England," Benitez added. "I wanted to give him an opportunity and it was fantastic for him to score."

"Daniel is a centre back who can bring the ball forward and score goals, not just from set pieces as he showed on Saturday," continued the Reds boss. "He had two or three attempts at goal and scored. Daniel is doing well and he is working very hard."

"It has not been easy for him because Carra and Skrtel were playing well too, but he has to compete and he's doing well."