THERE’S a myth that fringe players don’t improve at Rafael Benitez’s Liverpool. That if a squad man went to Manchester United or Arsenal they will get better before being sold for at least as much as they were bought for.

But at Liverpool they’ll either be ignored or the confidence will be rotated out of them and they’re shipped off in a cut-price deal to Portsmouth.

Well, one fringe man is going a long way to battle against that notion… Yossi Benayoun.

Brilliant against Arsenal, he carried on where he left off against an admittedly shocking Newcastle.

Of course it doesn’t hurt that he’s started four of the last five games, but the little Israeli certainly seems to have grasped form from almost nowhere.

He’s gone from a player that no one would really care about if he left, to one of the main men in recent weeks.

Against Newcastle he got the first in the 3-0 victory – albeit off his knee – but it was his all-round threat which was really impressive.

Switching positions with another impressive performer in Dirk Kuyt, the Newcastle defence just couldn’t cope with the pair.

In truth the Newcastle defence probably couldn’t cope with the Chuckle Brothers at the moment, but that’s not to do down Benayoun’s contribution.

When he first joined Liverpool he looked every inch a player bought for a modest fee to try and plug a few gaps.