LIVERPOOL FC 6 HULL CITY 1

Ok, Hull were pretty poor, but you can only beat what's put in front of you.
And Liverpool did it in style.
Saturday was unquestionably the Fernando Torres show, and when on this form the Spaniard is totally unplayable.
Poor Ibrahim Sonko will be having nightmares for weeks about the way Torres teased him all afternoon.
When the centre forward shifts the ball, so quickly, from right to left, or left to right, not even the world's top defenders can live with him.
His left peg seems just as lethal as his right, and he makes the art of scoring goals looks ridiculously easy.
If his first was slick, his second and third were majestic strikes, almost walking the ball into the net at times.
It just showed what we might have done last season if we had the striker fit for longer periods.
But one player doesn't make a Premiership winning side.

Elsewhere, there were good performances in most positions, as confidence flowed through the Liverpool side.
The tests will come on other days, however, not from this weak Hull team.
Riera is a conundrum for Liverpool. Great some days, anonymous the next. This fell into the first category.
The winger must be encouraged to stick to the principles of good old fashioned wing play, as he's good at it.
And he needs to see a lot of the ball.
Liverpool always look at their best when Riera is getting to the byline and driving his low crosses across the box for people like Torres and Benayoun.
He's got the added back up of a willing and athletic full back like Insua, so it's a weapon the Reds need to employ as much as possible.
For me, if Liverpool are going to win silverware this season, Riera needs to have a big, big season.

Benayoun made a significant impact, laying two nice balls for Torres' second and third goals.
The Israeli is now sealing himself as a fixture in Liverpool's starting 11, and it's nice Yossi is getting the recognition he really deserves.
Barring Agger coming in for a low on confidence Skrtel (very poor header to gift Geovanni a goal), this is close to the Reds' strongest side.
Aquilani will have to come in (we say 'have to', but we're presuming at £18m he'll be a starter), so deciding who to drop to the bench is difficult, as Liverpool seem to have now found a way of attacking that suits them.
One injury or suspension though, and you need all the top quality players you can get, so there will doubtless be a big role to play for the Italian.

Kuyt had another very effective game, mixing up midfield, wide man and striking duties nicely,
As for Lucas, his tackling seems to have gone up another level. Almost amazingly, the Brazilian is pretty much the hard man of the Liverpool side now.
If anyone needs taking out, (and mostly legally these days) in steps The Boss Man Lucas.
He really has come on ten-fold in that department. His positional sense, and ability to put a foot in is proving very handy for us.
So much so that the man whose forte was tackling, Mascherano, has been relegated to the bench.
For the forseeable future I don't see how the Argentinian captain can come into the side over Lucas.
The Brazilian's passing is better, and he gets foward more than his South American couterpart.
Interesting times ahead for Mascherano.

As for our defending, our growing inability to defend set pieces would probably have been exposed by a better side than Hull.
It was a bad error by Skrtel to tamely head sideways straight to Geovanni's left boot.
Aside from that, we couldn't really cope with Van Hesselink when the ball was chucked onto his forehead.
And there were several episodes of panic in our penalty box when we were second best to 50-50 aerial challenges.
It needs addressing, or it will start costing us more points.

Onto the cameo subs role, there was more encouragment from Babel when he came onto the park.
He is likely to still be off in January, but as we already know all the well rehearsed arguments about what he hasn't done in recent years, we might as well give him encouragment when he is on the field.
His goal was really well taken, and pretty much all his own work.
He took the initiative to spin from his marker, ask for the ball, fizz it out wide to Kuyt, and then stay hungry for the tap in.
At least it looks now that he has some sort of passion to produce a performance. There are still frustrations, however, and his missed stooped header was a sitter, and one leap out of goalkeeper Myhill's way, instead of contesting a genuine 50-50 was irritating from a man who still insists, 'Play me in the centre and I'll show you what I've got.'
Centre forwards don't hurdle the ball when they've got a goalscoring opportunity Ryan.
Still, his 30 minutes or so were fairly promising.

As for Voronin, I actually think the Ukranian has pretty decent vision, a nice touch, and pass.
He just needs a goal to get his confidence up, and he spurned a pretty decent chance towards the end today.
But I'll say again, I don't think he's the worst free signing you'll ever see. Could be a useful addition this year, if he starts bagging the old goal here and there.

Goals here, all seven of them.

http://www.caughtoffside.com/2009/09/26/liverpool-6-1-hull-city-premier-league-highlights-video/