WHATEVER title odds Rafael Benitez was ready to quote for his side last week one thing remains a sure bet.

If Liverpool’s home form doesn’t rapidly improve, the Anfield outfit won’t be anywhere near the summit of the Premier League come May.

If it was hard to comprehend that this abject Liverpool side found themselves on top of the table on Saturday night, it was more difficult still to believe Benitez’s explanation of his puzzling tactics in the 2-2 draw – a third consecutive home stalemate – with Hull City.

This was the kind of game the Anfield manager will have had in mind when he paid £20million for Robbie Keane in the summer.

Yet the Irishman was not in his thinking on Saturday, as Benitez went with one up front – well, when Dirk Kuyt was actually up there rather than tracking back.

Named among the substitutes for the second league game in a row, Keane may have felt his humiliation was complete. It wasn’t.

With Liverpool chasing a winner after Steven Gerrard had pulled his side back onto level terms following a chaotic 10 minutes when the Tigers had stunned their hosts by taking a 2-0 advantage through Paul McShane and a Jamie Carragher own goal, he suffered further indignation.

Benitez, having already sent on Ryan Babel and Nabil El Zhar to provide trickery and width to his flanks, prepared to make his final throw of the dice. Surely Keane would be given the opportunity to restore some pride by inspiring Liverpool to a first home league victory since the start of November, when his brace began a 3-0 rout of West Bromwich Albion?

No. Instead, it was the disappointing Lucas who was ordered to strip off. The Kop voiced their chagrin and Keane’s face displayed similar emotions. Dejected, he ended his warm-up, shuffled past his manager and again took his place on the bench.

Afterwards, Benitez would claim that he favoured the young Brazilian for his ability to provide a killer pass and felt that by sending on another striker he would have crowded an already packed penalty area.

“We needed to use wingers and an offensive midfielder,” was the stock answer provided by Benitez to every interrogator of his tactics.

It was, he insisted, a tactical decision, not a political one. Keane, though, will have received the message loud and clear.

He will fear that his short Anfield career could end once the transfer window reopens next January, with Spurs manager Harry Redknapp reportedly eager to bring him back to his old club.

Another summer capture who may depart this January is Andrea Dossena, who was at fault for both of Hull’s goals.

The big-boned Italian cost £7m from Udinese but with each appearance he makes it is increasingly likely that Liverpool will have to pay the city council £30 to tow him away rather than claw back some of that outlay.

Benitez, to his credit, is rarely hesitant to admit defeat over blundered signings, but he was quick to back the player, insisting that he had provided an attacking threat down the left.

Perhaps, but the most expensive defender in Anfield history should surely be able to defend.

Unfortunately, he was as much in common with the fine tradition of Italian stoppers as Lucas has with his countrymen Socrates and Falcao.

More worrying still is what Anfield chief scout Eduardo Macia saw in the leaden-footed left-back, who was used as a wing-back by his former Serie A club, before recommending him to Benitez.

Time and again his lack of pace and positional awareness were exposed by Bernard Mendy, a full-back playing on the right wing. On one occasion, Dossena, embarrassed by Mendy’s turn of pace on Liverpool’s left reached out to drag his tormentor back by the shirt. Such was his sluggishness, however, he failed to even make contact.

When the first Hull goal arrived, Dossena, inevitably, was culpable. When Liverpool’s defence failed to clear Geovanni’s set piece on 12 minutes, Marlon King was given the opportunity to float the ball back into the penalty box for Paul McShane to tower above the Italian and nod beyond Pepe Reina.

It was the first goal Liverpool had conceded at Anfield in the league since October, but with Benitez’s defence wobbling a second appeared inevitable.

Hull City had already served warning on 17 minutes when Mendy ghosted beyond Dossena, with Liverpool requiring Alvaro Arbeloa’s intervention to clear the Frenchman’s cross, before they doubled their advantage five minutes later.

Again, Mendy gave Dossena a glimpse of his fleet-footed heels before whipping in a cross which a wrong footed Carragher turned into his own net with King waiting to pounce. A furious Reina and Carragher made it clear who they blamed.

The own goal leaves the Bootle-born defender on minus three career goals, although he would surely claim that he has prevented his fair share.

He was more determined than anyone to make amends, but when Liverpool’s reply arrived two minutes later it was from a more familiar source.

A leggy Kuyt struggled badly as a lone striker, as he did against Blackburn Rovers a week previously, with the Dutchman lacking the attributes for the demands of the role.

But after breaking down the right flank, where he has excelled so often this term, the forward delivered a telling cross which Gerrard collected and finished with aplomb from close range.

Benitez has spent much of his reign at Anfield attempting to curb the roaming instincts of his captain but once again Gerrard’s energy and drive masked the failings of his manager’s tactics.

The midfielder by now had taken control of the game, although his passing like many of his midfield colleagues fell below his usual high standards.

Hull goalscorer McShane found one, admittedly illegal, way of stopping the rampant Gerrard with a body check that earned him a yellow card. He was immediately withdrawn, with manager Phil Brown later revealing he was suffering from double vision.

He wasn’t the only Hull defender who must have believed there were two Gerrards roaming the pitch, as the Whiston-born midfielder collected Yossi Benayoun’s lay-off in the penalty area to grab an equaliser and Liverpool’s 600th Premier League goal.

Hull manager Brown later with some justification argued that Kuyt, who nodded down for Benayoun in the build-up to the goal, had impeded Michael Turner.

There is much to admire about Brown’s Hull side but they lost much of their attacking impetus when Mendy dropped back to plug the gap left by McShane’s withdrawal. Dossena was certainly a relieved man.

Gerrard’s goal did much to quell the anxiety inside Anfield but as the game progressed the crowd’s impatience grew.

Xabi Alonso and Albert Riera both went close in the second half and the evergreen Sami Hyypia headed against a post but Wales keeper Boaz Myhill was decreasingly troubled as the clock ticked towards full time.

Benitez made his changes with the introduction of Babel, El Zhar and Lucas, but for the third consecutive home game, the manager’s substitutions failed to make an impact on the game.