Having watched our 6-1 demolition of Hull on Saturday, I was generally pleased with the result and it goes to show that we are headed in the right direction. Yes, it may only have been Hull but lets not forget that we dropped two points at home against Hull last season.
Truthfully, Hull are looking terrible compared to the way the were playing last season but it still takes a good effort to score 6 goals in the Premiership today regardless of who the opposition is.
We can not look back at this game without talking about Fernando Torres. I can not believe that there were some people questioning Torres’ ability at the beginning of the season saying that he is not that great a striker coz he is not scoring the goals. He has quickly silenced the critics by doing what he does best…scoring. His hatrick on Saturday was world class as all the goals were well taken. Now that he has run into a patch of form I just hope he remains fit coz if he does he will continue to bang in the goals.
For me the talking point I want to look at about the Hull game is the way we set out our stall during the game. Stevie G dropped back into central midfield to partner Lucas and this allowed Riera to play on the left, Yossi on the right and Torres operating upfront with Kuyt.
This was a very attack minded move by Rafa and it is clear he has learnt from his mistakes last season and he has decided to go all out and attack these smaller teams at Anfield. There is no way I can see Rafa going out with a starting lineup like that on Sunday against Chelsea. I expect to see Rafa reverting back to starting with Mascherano and Lucas in the center of the park against Chelsea and Gerrard playing behind Torres.
It may be a shock to most of us that Rafa is deciding to start with Mascherano on the bench at times this season but I am very happy with this tactic, especially when we playing at home. Mascherano does not offer us much going forward so rather have Lucas in there and pulling Gerrard back into the middle.
What are your thoughts with regards to the way Rafa is picking his team these days?
