Mark Lawrenson: Draw with Fulham was a freakish one-off

The manager has been excellent so far this season. In fact, he hasn't put a foot wrong and has found a beautiful balance in his team selection that hasn't been there in previous seasons.

He's made Albert Riera his regular left-winger, he has stuck with Dirk Kuyt and got the best out of him, he has instilled a never-say-die attitude and all his players - even during the absence of Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard for large chunks of the campaign - have managed to overcome that with such an encouraging will to win.

And it's paid off handsomely for Benitez as his team has made a start to the season that has set up them for a genuine challenge. And in terms of progress, that is all many supporters really wanted this time round.

But on Saturday he made the wrong call. And this isn't me criticising Benitez at the first opportunity or picking up on every little mistake he makes - it's just my opinion on where things went wrong in that one game. Because the fact is, if Gerrard is not in the team, there's no point playing Lucas and Javier Mascherano in the centre of midfield.

That is painfully obvious and everyone around Anfield seemed to be in universal agreement - they should have been watching Xabi Alonso on the pitch instead of craning their necks to get a glimpse of him springing from the bench to warm up.

Alonso is vital, particularly in the absence of the captain, to the tempo and flow of Liverpool's attacks. And he has the ability to unlock a defence by picking out the perfect pass, or indeed shot.

They are not attributes you immediately associate with Mascherano and Lucas and Liverpool's creativity suffered badly as a result.

Yes, they and their team-mates should have been good enough to beat Fulham at Anfield, but you still have to turn the screw on these teams and having Alonso in the side would have done that.

In short, you have to play your best players in the Premier League regardless. That way you get a couple of goals up and the take them off with 20 minutes left if you have to give them a rest - not bring them on with 20 minutes left when it's too late.

But moving on, I'm sure that was just a rare blip in terms of altering the team and I honestly believe that there's no great damage done.

If normal service is resumed tomorrow that will be the perfect way to shake off the hangover from the weekend.

And with Gerrard and Torres finally set to be fit at the same time for the first time, it will be a full strength squad Rafa will have to choose from with the exception of Martin Skrtel.

But it's a full strength starting line-up that I hope the manager sticks with in the near future.

Mark Lawrenson was speaking to NICK SMITH