We had a serious lack of width on Monday. Rather than play Benayoun (not really a winger and right footed) on the left, surely it would have made more sense playing Riera? Insua struggled to get forward. I feel Riera’s natural ability to play wide would have helped us down the left. I think it would make more sense to have played Benayoun on the right. Benayoun isn’t really a wide player, but with Johnson behind him providing the width, he wouldn’t have to play like a winger. He would have had more freedom to drift inside and create something in the way that we all know he can. The key to this all of course is balance.

Finally, I think it is worth considering pairing Kuyt with Torres. In the Spurs and Villa game particulalry, Torres often found himself outnumbered when in possession and often on the receiving end of some rough treatment. This stands to reason when you consider he was up there on his own. Kuyt could help him by taking some of the physical pressure off Torres. Kuyt is big, strong, good in the air and will run all day. He could do Torres’ donkey work and take the rough treatment. He’s also intelligent enough to take defenders away from spaces that Torres can exploit. His goal record isn’t spectacular, but he gave a good return last season from the right flank. He wouldn’t be up there to be prolific. He’d be up there to help Torres and give us an out ball. He’s a great outlet becuase he’s prepared to run all day.

Talking of which Babel has had more then enough chances to prove himself so we shouldn’t expect miracles from him or Lucas for that matter.On “This is Anfield” Ian St John kept insisting “don’t panic” as it’s only the third game of the season but that is exactly why fans like i are so disheartened because we’ve still to play the real top sides yet have lost twice already!.Fact is that we’re not good enough to win the league because we havn’t strengthened the first team where as the likes of Spurs and Man City have thus in my opinion we’re already fighting for a top four finish.

It’s frustrating….it’s depressing but nothing will change until the Americans are thrown out even if we do sign a half decent player we’d be covering cracks with wallpaper!.All this negativity behind the scenes that the fans are not exposed too reflects on the field of play then manifests into us being defeated by teams that we should walk over.

I’m not Benitez’ biggest fan but I certainly wouldn’t be replacing him with Mourinho. Mourinho is simply the most unlike Liverpool man in world football.

My choice, if Rafa was to leave, would be Martin Jol. I thought he did a great job at Spurs before the director of football started picking his signings and he did well last year in Germany. Shame he’s just taken the Ajax job though.

As for the Villa game it was a joke. Lacked ideas, lacked quality all over the park (especially out wide) and conceded badly. What Rafa has to do now is see these players aren’t working and throw a youngster in. The Masch/Lucas partnership isn’t working so Rafa has to try dropping Gerrard back or putting Spearing in the side. That’s the only way forward.

Now most teams have got to grips with Gerrard playing in the hole we don’t have the creativity elsewhere on the pitch to create much. If Glen Johnson cut inside on his left foot once he must have done it a dozen times. Never once did he try and go down the outside and whip in a cross with his favoured right foot. Last night our lack of width was there for all to see. No wingers on the park means we were relying on the fullbacks to provide width. In fairness to Insua he got shackled out of the game and didn’t provide an attacking threat, but then he is 3rd choice behind Aurelio and Dossena and will get better as he learns his trade. But didn’t we buy Glen Johnson to add this extra dimension? Isn’t that why he cost so much money? He’s got pace and is clearly stronger than Ashley Young, yet the former Pompey man never once seemed willing to take Young on round the outside.

That said, on another night Liverpool could have rattled in 5 or 6 goals. We found Brad Friedel in good if not inspired form and he made some important saves at crucial times. However, there is one thing that bothers me. Why is Gerrard our only player capable of shooting from outside the box? Tiemafter time the ball was teed up for Mascherano or Lucas but still that chose to play ‘safe’ sideways balls.

So to sum up, we played poorly and were void of ideas when the Gerrard-Torres combination failed to materialise. We didn’t do enough from wide areas to trouble Villa and they caused us to play narrow in congested areas of the field. Without a player capable of passing the ball well, particularly long, we struggled to make headway with quick, direct attacks. However, we could quite easily have scored a hatful of goals had we converted our chances. Villa created few chances and failed to score from open play. not much to be pleased about but not the end of the world either

Sorry but a liverpool player was the last to touch it, please dont make excuses like this, it was a corner fair and square.

The free kick was a free kick, the corner was a corner and the penalty was a penalty. I admired Kuyts play much more than Torres, who seemed to fall like a sack of potatoes every time a villa player was within 5m of him.