EVERTON can only boast two derby victories in the past five seasons.

Sep 27 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

However, the significant point to note is that both Everton victories were at Goodison and in both games Rafa made some strange selection decisions which he is more liable to do away from Anfield.

My one and only concern with Rafa is that he has a tendency to over analyse lesser opposition, and by lesser I am referring to the level of quality within their team.

It may sound like I am being a ‘whinging red’ by making such a comment, but there are games where he needs to have more faith in the fact that we simply have better players than the opposition, and this alone will win us the game.

I appreciate it isn’t as black and white as this, but other than games against the rest of the ‘big four’ we should be letting teams worry about our quality and not the other way round.

I am not referring to games such as last week; drawing against Stoke was not an example of this, instead it was the result of a bit of bad luck, coupled with poor finishing and a lack of form in our forward line.

However, I am referring to the derby defeats in 2004 and 2006, and more recently last season’s away game at Reading, when Rafa abandoned the 4-4-2 that had seen us score 21 goals in the five previous games.

Today Rafa should get back to the shape that served us so well in the latter part of last season, Torres up front alone, Gerrard as second striker free to cause destruction with Alonso and Mascherano behind him forming a solid base in midfield.

Then Let Everton worry about dealing with that!