TORRES TO THE RESCUE

The similarities with the game in Belgium were worrying. First of all, a couple of things about the team selection raised eyebrows.
Xabi, one of our few successes from midweek was on the bench, a promising, but still clearly short 20-year-old centre-mid in his place? Rafa claimed Xabi had a dead leg...I didn't notice much towards the end of Liege myself.
Agger out, and Sami in, although Agger did look unfit in Europe.
The first half was pretty dire. No penetration, an inability to keep the ball, players pannicking under pressure, a chronic lack of width. We could go on.
One thing that concerns is the growing realisation that Dirk Kuyt is Rafa's first option when it comes to right midfield. With Keane signed, the chances of Dirk ever getting a game up front are virtually nil.
Voronin looks like more likely to score than the Dutchman at present.
Benayoun could have the words 'I am weak' tattooed on his forehead, and Arbeloa picked up his obligatory booking which his annoying short tuggings and little nicks usually deserve.
The less said about the first 45 minutes the better.

The switch at half-time (Alonso for Plessis) was an obvious one, and it says a lot for the complete no-show of the first half that the Spaniard easily walked off with the Man of the Match bubbly having spent 50% less time on the pitch.
Things just looked a lot more cohesive with him in the middle. We were suddenly moving the ball quicker, we had possesion of the ball in more dangerous areas and we started to have the bulk of play, even if that was in a fairly unconvincing way.
It's time we stopped bigging up new, young players above their station. Plessis is a long way from being a first team players for us, has anybody else noticed that strange body shape he has when passing the ball?
Very stiff, rigid, and a weird shovelling technique when he addresses the ball. Yes, the lad is young, but he's not that young. He'll be 21 in March.
Twenty's not that young for a Premiership footballer any more. Seventeen is young, when players like Owen and Rooney were setting the world alight. If you're not looking like a real talent at 20, then I'm not sure you're ever going to be a real talent.

Back to Alonso, he was the best player on the park by a mile, and he's convinced me (a serial Alonso basher for the last 18 months!) that we MUST keep him. {still, Barry was great for Villa against Man City wasn't he? ;-)}
There was nothing spectacular from Xabi, that 70 yard shot apart, but everything was done so very effectively and efficiently. The first time volleyed pass to Torres for the goal a case in point.
What can you say about Torres? He was very ordinary up to that point. Yet, one chance, one total thump, and it arrowed into the bottom corner, beating one of the Premiership's best keepers, Gordon.

Robbie Keane? Not a great deal, he even put in a great block to deny Torres a tap-in after a Kuyt thunderbolt(!?), but I think most of us are confident that their partnership will thrive.
For many Reds, the wings is the most troubling at present. Kuyt on the right and Benayoun just isn't working. We are incredibly narrow, so easy to defend against.
So much so that two former Gillingham and Chester centre halfs, Nosworthy and Collins, shut out a £46m pound strikeforce with ease, up until the 83rd minute.
As I watched us struggle on Saturday, something dawned upon me about formation and what Rafa could be trying to do.
Perhaps the reason our manager hasn't been desperate to sign a winger over the summer is because he doesn't actually want one.

Maybe some will disagree, but it seems to me that Rafa would ideally want to play, Carragher, Skrtel, Agger as three centre halfs, Dossena and Degen as wing backs, three centre mids in Gerrard, Mascherano and Alonso (or Barry if that had worked out), with Torres and Keane up front.
That way, he doesn't have to give a starting place to an iffy choice like Pennant, gets width from two full backs, who half the time prefer to play as wide midfielders, hence giving us that width, has variety in a central three with a very attacking player, a very defensive player and a playmaker, two strikers always playing who can't really ever be dropped beacuse of their price tag, and he accommodates three very strong centre halfs, as he'd have to drop one otherwise.
That's my theory anyway. We never made a real effort to get hold of Silva in the summer, and the Milner move seemed more of a token gesture.
Whether Degen is good enough for a starting place, if Dossena is as attacking as we're told he is, if Babel is happy to accept coming on for 35/40 minutes as an impact player, Yossi too, these are all questions that remain to be answered.

And the hole system doesn't work without Mascherano there, he's away at the Olympics, so it's on hold for now.
That's one theory, anyhow, I'm sure there's plenty more.
On the plus side, Sunderland will be a tough place to go this year, Malbranque, Chimbonda and Diouf's Lips look like good signings, so I doubt there'll be a lot of teams taking all the points at the Stadium of Light.
But, even at this early stage, three points was a must. Bring on a rejuvenated Middlesborough.