That we were poor against Tottenham is undeniable, but a trip to White Hart Lane is always a tricky fixture and that they were the only team remaining in the league who beat us last season, is worth remembering.
And even though we lost there are positives not least that it's a good fixture to get out of the way early on, and better that any weaknesses are shown before the transfer window closes on August 31st and hopefully rectified.
One area that needs to be resolved, and which was obvious even before the first ball was kicked, was the lack of depth to our bench. Three of the six outfield players had next to no Premiership experience and two others have been hawked around to any interested parties all summer. The weakness of our bench was further highlighted by Spurs who were able to call upon substitutes Crouch and Pavlyuchenko whilst we were forced to settle for Andriy Voronin when chasing the game.
Last season Torres missed 11 of the first 20 Premier League games and bear in mind that at that time Robbie Keane was still a Liverpool player. If the same happened this season would you be confident of Voronin, Babel or Ngog being an adequate replacement for Torres? Though Voronin is not as bad as some make out - and you could hardly blame him for what happened on Sunday - he is not someone who fills the fans with confidence, nor seemingly Benitez who has been trying to offload him at every opportunity. Ngog is hugely inexperienced and though, I believe, he will become a good striker in the future, he remains nowhere near the level needed for a team with title aspirations. Kuyt is the best player to fill the potential void but moving him would then leave us short of a right winger.
As for Ryan Babel he again showed why he is such a continuing source of frustration. He has all the ability in the world; pace, power and a terrific shot, yet never seems to produce the level of performance deserving of such attributes. Compare this to Kuyt who isn't as fast and perhaps as technically talented as Babel but through his hard work and endeavor makes himself and the team chances, and in the process wins warm applause from the fans. Babel was anonymous once more against Tottenham, and when he did get on the ball showed the same inexperience and poor decision making as he did when he first arrived. It's no exaggeration that in Benayoun's first five minutes he did more than Babel managed in 60 minutes and yet, it's surprising that someone as ruthless as Benitez continues to give Babel so many opportunities when he produces so seldom.
But whilst Lucas played well and Aquilani may assume the void in midfield, Alonso's absence was still evident in both defence and attack. Alonso regularly dropped deep to receive the ball from defender and with his superb vision and passing, could kick start an attack with a 30 or 40 yard pass. It was Alonso who so often in the past provided a link between the defence and attack which on Sunday was so starkly absent. Alonso however was not a box to box player and having to drop back to take the ball was not always helpful, notably at home against teams who put 10 men behind the ball. In those games in the future we can expect Aquilani to play further upfield and create more attacking options.
Unfortunately though neither Lucas nor Mascherano can offer the pinpoint passing of Alonso and whilst they sometimes came short to collect the ball in our own half Carragher pressed by the Tottenham strikers, regularly ended up humping the ball long for it to be simply picked off by King and Bassong. Carragher has been an outstanding servant to Liverpool but his lack of quality distribution is not helping the cause, nor his lack of comfort in bringing the ball out of defence.
A defensive partnership of Agger and Skrtel would largely alleviate the problem as they are both good enough on the ball to provide that link between the defence and Aquilani or Lucas in the midfield, but bearing in mind that they haven't been partnered together in the past, for them to suddenly play every game together is unlikely. The onus then will fall to Mascherano to drop off and become that link into the midfield whilst Aquilani is still sidelined when hopefully he will fill the mantle left by Alonso.
On a more positive note Reina proved once again why he is the number one keeper in the Premiership, whilst Benayoun continued his form from the latter half of last season. Johnson's attacking abilities also indicated just why Benitez was so keen to acquire his services and that he and Insua can be the key to unlocking lower half of the table defences at Anfield. So, all is not lost; remember United made a fairly miserable start to last season gaining only 5 points from a possible 12 and had us all assuming they were a spent force. Don't despair; it'll get better, hopefully starting on Wednesday against the visiting Stoke.