SINGLE-MINDED, self-assured and confident?

Or bloody-minded, stubborn and unbending? My suspicions that Rafa’s thought processes might have been slightly disturbed by his minor car accident on Thursday were first aroused by his uncharacteristic declaration that we were 80% certain to win the League if we were still top at Christmas.

Such precise calculations brought predictable derision, recalling the pronouncements of the ridiculed ex-FA coaching guru Charles Hughes and his Positions of Maximum Opportunity.

My concerns were heightened by aspects of the team selection, which showed definite evidence of short (and indeed long) term memory loss. No problem, let’s just remind Rafa of a few basic things he’s clearly forgotten.

One: DIrk Kuyt cannot play centre-forward.

A quick viewing of the 2007 Champions League Final will soon confirm this, or indeed any other of the matches in which this has been tried. You converted Dirk into an effective, workhorse winger, you’re just confusing him now. Two: We don’t need two holding midfield players at home against Hull. Especially if one of them looks as if he’s still not sure whether he’s in Beijing, Buenos Aires or Bolton. Leave one out, and we can then play two forwards – simple maths.

Three: We have one £20m+ striker injured; but we do have another one.

Omitting Robbie Keane in Torres’ absence, and after his promising second-half performance in Eindhoven, suggested that he was confusing him with Peter Crouch. Unlikely I know, but hey, concussion is a funny thing.

If we needed any further evidence that Rafa’s thinking was clouded, it was delivered in spades as the afternoon wore on.

This might not have immediately been discernible to the untutored eye, given that his substitutions have shown aberrant behaviour in the past, but seasoned Kopites will have spotted that the replacements effected in the second-half defied any rational explanation. Nevertheless, Rafa attempted one after the match. We needed to bring on the wingers, he explained, so we could get round the back of their defence.

Plausible enough, until you realise that you still need someone to bang the crosses into the net. Even if the manfully striving Kuyt was not to be sacrificed, how about putting on another forward (the aforementioned £20m+ striker) to capitalise on them?

As opposed to another midfield player attempting to pass their way through the middle? You see how the delusional can rationalise their actions, until you start to pick apart their reasoning? Tony Hill from Wire in the Blood would have spotted it.