MARK LAWRENSON: Play match-winners from the start, Rafa

Oct 9 2007

I HATE having to say this when talking about how Liverpool can overcome their current wobble. But I wish Rafael Benitez would sometimes follow the example of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United – and just play his match- winners.

Because, shock horror, match- winners win you matches.

And Liverpool have them too. Fernando Torres definitely. Ryan Babel looks like one when he comes on. Yossi Benayoun proved to be one at Wigan last week Andriy Voronin could have been one on Sunday before the defence went missing

All those players did eventually feature against Spurs, but it beats me why they can’t all be on the pitch at the same time from the off.

If you have all of those players out there, one of them is bound to produce something at some point.

United haven’t played well in the early part of this season but throughout that spell they kept winning games.

Like 1-0 in Lisbon, Ronaldo. 1-0 at Birmingham, Ronaldo again. 1-0 against Roma, Rooney.

Then on Saturday, what does Ferguson do? He sends out a team with Giggs, Scholes, Rooney, Ronaldo AND Tevez.

That’s an example of a manager not over-complicating things, just trusting his big players to come up with the moments that win you games and, in the long run, titles.

I would love to see Benitez send out that kind of a line-up, especially as the biggest match- winner of them all, Steven Gerrard, isn’t in his best form at the moment.

When that happens, you need to give yourself the best chance possible of finding those flashes of inspiration and you can only do that by playing as many of the players who are capable of doing it as possible.

It’s not even as if Benitez needs to be cautious and pick a team that has to compensate for a dodgy defence.

Yes, the goals given away against Tottenham were awful but, let’s face it, that sort of thing doesn’t happen very often, does it?

The back four is generally very solid and way good enough to cope when Liverpool commit to attack.

The culture of modern football means things tend to get over- analysed. But if you’ve got players that can win you games, for heaven’s sake play them.

I go back to Babel on this one. I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen from him because when he comes on he looks strong, powerful and hell bent on making something happen.

But how is he supposed to do that if he doesn’t get a run of starts and gets used to playing in that team? Isn’t that the point of forking out that money for him in the first place?

Anyone who has played football will tell you how important it is for team-mates it develop partnerships and understandings. It means you know exactly what each other are going to do and makes it far easier for players, especially new ones, to settle in.

Change things all the time and you don’t have that base to work from.

So I think the answer lies in Benitez getting his match-winners together, picking a side around them and saying, ‘right, you’re the team for a month now. Let’s see how you go.’

He should keep that line-up unchanged, within reason.

With vital Champions League group games plus a Merseyside derby and visit of Arsenal to contend with, that might be a gamble.

But did anyone ever win titles by not taking a few of those every now and then?

Still a good week for Everton >>>