Recently by Saad Mustafa

The abysmal state of affairs that surrounded Liverpool FC over the last few years - in particular the last few months - seemed to ebbing away with the arrival of the Messiah incarnate, John W Henry and his NESV group. The long and tortuous reign of arguably the worst owners in sporting history was finally over, there was light at the end of the tunnel, there was now hope where for so long there was none; at least that is what we were lead to believe. However what Liverpool fans have perhaps forgotten is that Liverpool FC is just that, a football club which at the end of the day exists to play football. It is in this crucial front that we have been found so lacking.

Make whatever excuses you want about the previous owners ruining our club, and there are many where Hicks and Gillet are concerned, however this should not hide the fact that our players and manager have been poor as well. Our football this season has been atrocious, the derby defeat was sadly inevitable and in the end we were lucky not to have conceded more than two. Our tactics were totally wrong and the play was, contrary to what Roy Hodgson says, League One level.

One of the main criticisms that was levelled at our previous manager Rafa Benitez was his propensity to play players out of position and not get the best out of them. He was roundly criticised for that and rightly so. However I am astounded that the press have not done the same for Roy despite the fact that he is playing several players out of position on a regular basis. Meireless was bought to play, in Hodgson's own words 'any of the three central positions' yet he spends most of his time on the right. Joe Cole, who admittedly has been poor, was bought to play the role behind the striker yet he has been pushed to the left despite the fact that he looked quite threatening playing just behind the striker in pre-season. Daniel Agger, who I feel is our best centre-back, has been forced to play cover at left-back far too often this season. One may argue that Hodgson did not have a choice but it is imperative that you're best players play in their best positions for the greatest possible benefit of the team. Pushing Agger out wide serves no purpose whatsoever. We leave ourselves horribly exposed in the centre and thus leak goals. Even today we saw Jamie Carragher playing as right back when the ever impressive Martin Kelly would have been a much better solution, with Jamie tucking in one and playing as a centre half. Despite all his endeavour and heart Jamie was not able to play one decent ball into the box, despite on a number of occasions having ample time to do so. Nor should he be expected to really. His job is to defend, not to create goals. As Rafa's reign showed, a square peg for round holes simply does not work at this level. Roy needs to learn and learn fast.

Wow! Now that was proper derby match. Tough tackles, cuts, bruises two red cards, a winning goal, what didn't it have? It was a thoroughly enjoyable game to watch, I'm just not too sure I would have liked to be on the pitch though, considering how hard some of the tackles were.

But that was good from Liverpool. They never gave up, even when they went down to 10 men. Soto was clumsy against Fellaini but in all fairness Fellaini was quite lucky to not get censured as well considering he went over Soto's ankle. The same with Pienaar, he was lucky not to get a red card for a tackle on Masch. But I have to give some credit to David Moyes here. Finally a manager when interviewed after the game says 'yeah I saw it again and Pienaar was lucky not to get sent off'. It's a far cry from Wenger who somehow didn't see a replay of the horrendous tackle by Gallas a week after the match!

But onto the game and I have to admit I initially felt that Rafa got his starting XI wrong. I would have put both Riera and Aqua in my line-up to give us some width and creativity respectively. However considering how the match went I can see why Aqua might not have been a wise choice. I still would have gone with Riera but again considering how Maxi played I guess it could have gone either way.

Well as I expected, but hoped against, the weekend just compounded our misery further. This defeat hurt more than the other 10 or so in recent weeks simply because we were playing so well in the first half. The movement was excellent, there were plenty of runners off the ball and most importantly we were pressing really high up the pitch and stopped a free flowing team like Arsenal from playing. I don't believe all this noise in the press about Wenger's speech making the difference. What made the difference was that for some reason our intensity levels dropped and they were lucky enough to score two quick goals to zap what little self-belief we had left.

As some regular readers of my blog are aware, in the past I have criticized Rafa for our defeats. However this time I really don't see how he could be blamed (I'm talking about the starting XI and not the squad he has built up over five year reign). He did everything right. He played two attacking fullbacks, played the creative Benayoun and rushed Torres back to partner Gerrard. For the first 20 minutes it seemed like we would steam roll our way out of this mess, but an uncharacteristically poor finish from Torres (totally understandable given how long he has been out for) and a totally predictable blunder from a referee cost us in the end.

This season is just disintegrating so quickly its almost unbelievable. Too many times has Rafa said that our season will turn around without a turnaround actually happening. We got the same rhetoric after another shameful display on Wednesday. 'Arsenal will be a different game' said Benitez, yeah, but I doubt the result will be!

The self belief that this team had just a year ago ha gone, simple. When they are defending they don't look like they believe in their ability to keep a clean sheet. Compare that to a year ago where when we scored a goal, we were 90% sure of wining the game because we knew that for anyone to score against our defense was near impossible. Sadly that is so far from the truth now.

Many pundits have looked at the positives from the game, mainly Aquilani's debut and Torres getting some minutes under his belt. Yeah both are good and encouraging signs for the team, but is this what we are reduced to? Is this all we have to cling onto?

It's funny how quickly things change in football. Three weeks ago we had so many injuries that there was a very severe shortage of competition for places. It almost like if you were fit then you would play! But now it seems we are turning a corner in terms of injuries (Benayoun and Riera being the obvious exceptions). Suddenly with players like Agger, Aurelio, Gerrard and Aquilani we suddenly have competition for certain places and it will be interesting to see how Rafa plays it.

The first decision he will have to make for the weekend will be for the left back position. With Aurelio coming back does this mean a bench role for Insua? It will certainly be harsh on the young lad since he has generally played well and has always given a 100% for the team. Yes his defence and lack of height has cost us sometimes (mistakes are part and parcel of the game) but he has provided us with some memorable moments as well (the strike against Arsenal was a gem). Aurelio though provides Rafa with different options. He certainly has a better delivery on him and he is blessed with a very good positional understanding defensively, something I am sure Insua will learn as he grows.

The second conundrum the Rafa has is with his midfield especially given the injuries to Benayoun and Riera, which limit our width in the team. I think with Aquilani and Gerrard both fit a change in formation is called for. I would love to see us play with two attacking midfielders/supporting strikers in Gerrard and Aquilani just behind the main striker. I don't think they will get in each others way at all as Gerrard will for the most part be in a more advanced position than Aquilani. It will be a sort of Xavi/Iniesta partnership with Aquilani occupying the Xavi role.