I DON’T think LIverpool are as bad as they looked at Sunderland on Saturday – but I don’t think they are anywhere near as good as they were last season either.

The confirmation of this for me came when I saw the team for the Stadium of Light. The system of three centre-backs struck me as a strange decision by Rafael Benitez.

The Liverpool manager might have felt he had little choice given the players he was missing.

He also might have felt that the form Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones have been in meant they needed extra attention.

But either way, it points to a regression.

Because I don’t think he would have gone with that tactic if either Steven Gerrard or Fernando Torres had been fit. But having to make up the numbers by putting an extra defender in there shows the lack of attacking options Benitez has at his disposal.

It shows that the squad is just not strong enough to launch the kind of title challenge they did last season.

And it also shows that relying on Torres and Gerrard too heavily puts you on a hiding to nothing anyway.