Dearth of match-winners is undermining Liverpool's title challenge
LIVERPOOL were well within their rights to go nuts about beating Manchester United last week.
But in the end it hasn't really made any difference. Because, despite the way the league table looks at the moment, I know whose position I would rather be in.
Look at it this way. If Sir Alex Ferguson decides to play Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo as his top three and they aren't doing the business, what does he do? Probably bring on Berbatov and Nani. But whichever combination he chooses he is guaranteed one thing - match-winners.
You can bore yourself stupid talking about what Liverpool are missing to make them serious title challengers, but I still think that is the main thing.
They don't have enough of them. I sat there in Marseille last week watching Steven Gerrard single-handedly get Liverpool back in the game and change things round in a matter of minutes.
Which was great. But he can't be expected to keep doing that week after week.
And what if Fernando Torres is not on his game? Well Stoke City on Saturday was the day when we found out.
A 0-0 draw at home is not what bothers me most about the weekend.
After all, two weeks ago, if Liverpool had been offered four points out of six from the visits of Manchester United and Stoke I think they would have taken it there and then.
But I really hope the Stoke result doesn't trigger off the same thing that wrecked everything last season - a run of draws.
Days like Saturday are when you need players who can make things happen out of nothing, who can lift themselves when things get frustrating.
But I still believe Torres and Gerrard look like the only players capable of doing that for Rafael Benitez just now.
Certain players - Kuyt, Babel, Riera, Keane - should have looked at Stoke and said, 'right , this lot are here for the taking and it's down to me to take responsibility'.
It's not asking too much. Those players have flair, the ability to create and score and they all played their part in making sure the influence of Gerrard and Torres wasn't needed against United.
Yet a week later, despite all the efforts on goal, Thomas Sorensen wasn't even over-exerted.
Championship-winning squads don't just lift themselves for the games against bitter rivals, they do it every week to make sure inferior opposition is ruthlessly obliterated out of sight.
And even if you can't do that, you've surely got to hope that one of those players can produce just that one moment - that's all it would have taken against Stoke because they wouldn't have scored at Anfield if they were still playing now.
So for me, once again, the main worry is that lack of match-winners.
And a lack of winning matches looks set to undermine Liverpool's title challenge once again.
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