Two Liverpools

I've been accused of talking about Ryan too much of late but I see him as an example of how Rafa finds things in players that are invisible to me. The Tottenham game was infuriating. Not only was Babel's game the slower part of lethargic, it took Rafa over an hour before to notice despite him playing ten yards from the bench. The same thought rebounded around my admittedly tiny mind. 'Rafa can see something there. What is it? Is it something he finds beautiful in Ryan's gait? His habit of arriving at a tackle a couple of seconds after the ball has gone? His Heskeyesque doe eyed look of apology?' I've had similar thoughts about Riera from time to time too but nothing quite as marked as the DJ Dutchman. One fictitious article later (which Babel described to an Echo journalist as the worst translation he's ever read), a sprint against Debrecen and he's back. The transformation isn't quite complete but maybe Rafa may have had a point.

The Leeds game had upset written all over it and it was to the squad's credit that they came through it relatively easily. Degen, Spearing and Ngog won't be pushing for a first team start just yet but it was good to see them play well against a team who Sky practically lauded as League One's Real Madrid. Well, they can repeat the offside 'goal' as often as they like but it didn't aid their cause. Jermain Beckford was rumoured to be on the brink of an England call up beforehand and ended the night as the new Clinton Morrison. The lad's got talent but the media still prefer a world of 'genius or nothing' and lack the patience to recognise the slow grind of development. Nevertheless, Dirty Leeds have some good players and I'd like to see them in the Premiership. Doing badly. Bonhomie can only go so far after all.

The parallels with Leeds' downfall and our own are easily drawn. For their 'living the dream' we have our 'spade in the ground in sixty days'. With the club servicing ridiculous debts and whoring itself out to anyone with a positive bank balance it's not looking good and another slice of dignity disappears with every passing week. This time we've got a Saudi prince saving us, last week we were going to give naming rights to whoever wanted to write a cheque for £240m (three Ronaldos). The arrogance belongs somewhere between the plucking the number out of the air and the notion that someone will pay it just for the fans to call the ground 'Anfield' anyway. I've got a 1986 Cup Final programme signed by Kevin MacDonald somewhere. It's yours for £14,000,000. I won't take a penny less.

There are two Liverpools. The one that issues vacuous statements that are as cringeworthy as an unfunny heckler at a comedy club while the second just get on the pitch and does the job. I support one of them and they're coming along nicely. Saturday was an enjoyable romp. Once again we sensed a team were there for the taking and went for the jugular. I would have liked to see how many Nando would have got had he stayed on but Rafa was right to give him a rest, particularly as the referee had announced an open house policy on hacking our lads down. The highlight for those who were there was Torres' march through the centre of the park in the first half. He could have laid it off but he knew he could break a few hearts by showing Hull just exactly who they were dealing with. It reminded me of the story of Arsenal signing Jeff Blockley, a huge centre back, from Coventry in the seventies. On his first day of training Bertie Mee asked him to go one to one with Ray Kennedy and take the ball off him. The squad laughed themselves stupid as Ray led him over the pitch with ease, never giving him a kick. Fernando's performance was that good. He played it like a training session against the youth team. Despite the result not everyone played especially well so hopefully there's more and better to come. The defence improved throughout the game and it will need to as the real test lies ahead. If we can draw at Stamford Fridge (well, it's always bloody freezing when I go there) it will go some way to exorcising the horrors of Villa. Cech's red card may well be rescinded by then as they only have to ask (the League's courage on these matters is as rare as a double Carra stepover) but we'll see. A good performance in Italy would provide the ideal foundation. We can but dream.