I think the 6-0 win against Derby combined with a little Torres magic and media-spin has got everyone in a frenzy.
Now anytime we don't win it's a complete and utter nightmare and Rafa should be sacked.
At the start of the season I would have taken a good challenge. I don't think we are capable of winning the league - and I think that for a few reasons, if anyone cares to read on.
1) Rotation
It's easily something to complain about. Journalists point to it when their alternative of zonal-marking isn't holding up an argument.
I remember the days when you had a set eleven and the bench was as good as you could make it without toys flying out of prams. Chopping and changing may keep players fresh and make them able to be '100% ready for all the games they are called upon, not 90% through the season' but switching this that and the other does nothing for confidence players. It does nothing for continuance, form and understanding.
Further still and it has been touched on recently, there's no holding down your place at Liverpool (if you're not in the back four or a goalkeeper). There's no gentle pressure to give your best because you know another opportunity will arise down the line or that even if you do give your best, you could easily be dropped for the next game.
Add that the likes of Agger, Carragher, Alonso, Finnan, Reina, Gerrard and Torres will be rarely rested - the rotation seems to be in place for only a select view. It doesn't happen throughout the squad so that's even more confusion.
2) Quality
We don't have enough of it. Fernando Torres' signing has been a great one and at £20m, he is already on the way to justifying such a huge tag. He still has plenty to do of course but people are looking and taking notice.
It has been so long that we've signed that type of player (rather than inherited them: see Owen and Gerrard for attacking positions) that we forget just how effective a calculated quality signing can be.
The previous transfer records being Heskey and Cisse were players with big enough flaws in their game - the former lacking any sort of attitude and greed and the latter just had limited ability - but bags of pace which helped save his face in an overall review of his contribution. Diouf, no bargain at £10.5m was a decently talented player with the poorest of poor attitudes.
Houllier's insistence on playing both Diouf and Heskey on the right wing (sometimes the left) watered down their contribution somewhat and eventually led to them being shown the exit door. It is perhaps surprising that Rafa had used Cisse in a familiar way before his switch to Marseille at a £7m loss I believe. Still, two leg breaks later and it could have been worse.
You can understand why Liverpool fans have been surprised by Torres' impact - but in the overall scale of things it shouldn't be that surprising.
This leads me to the likes of Benayoun, Voronin, Crouch, Pennant, and others. You can't help but feel some of these players were or are stop-gaps in Rafa's masterplan. Whilst you can't pepper your team with superstars and get away with it (well, barring Chelsea....at the moment), attacking players with a quality calibre are definitely a necessity in a title winning team.
It is not by coincedence that United have Tevez, Rooney, Giggs, Ronaldo and Scholes, Chelsea have Lampard, Drogba, Joe Cole, Essien and using his AC Milan days as basis for my argument, Shevchenko. All these players are goalscoring matchwinners.
When you look at the Liverpool squad, it's hard to see past just Gerrard and Torres as goalscoring matchwinners. Babel is a possibility for that but he seems to be suffering with confidence at the moment. Alonso and Mascherano are excellent holding midfielders with great distribution (long and short respectively) and Kuyt with Voronin will work all day long but when it comes to the crunch and getting goals or playing a major role in them - I still think we're limited to players we can rely on.
Pennant is a decent winger. He was a decent winger at Leeds on his loan spell and was promising at Arsenal - add in his lack of common sense (red card at Porto which could prove to cost us big) and it's a cocktail of decent and bad. A gamble to even play him or more importantly, keep him on the pitch when we need him. (see Porto again)
Benayoun was good at West Ham and I had watched him several times at Racing Santander. He's good at keeping possession but he can be all too predictable with his twists and turns. I think we've got a like for like replacement for Luis Garcia - a player who will be ineffective in physical games but more than be capable of pulling out some brilliance now and again.
Crouch has everything you would want in a footballer bar grit. He lacks physical body strength (his thigh is the same width as his shin, for example) but regardless of that, he still doesn't put himself about as much as he should. He's too much of a good guy and we saw what happened with Heskey, when he was about as intimidating as a blunt stick with his puppy dog eyes, inability to stay on his feet or even find the net as much as his frame should have instantly warranted.
If we are to have such players in the team, they need to be supported by more Torres', more Gerrards, more top drawer quality. Even the likes of a Voronin or a Crouch could flourish with a better standard of service.
The wings of our team can be non-existent at times and if they are rarely working, blocking off Pennant usually snuffs the threat. Gerrard through the middle with two quality wingers (such as Giggs and Ronaldo) would cause absolute havoc. Players wouldn't know whether to stay wide or block the centre and it's easy to see where gaps become available in opposition and how many threats you can pose, just by utilising players with quality.
At the moment we don't have 'that' level of quality in attacking areas and we have seen examples of that this year (Birmingham, Tottenham, and so on) as well as last year, where the problem has been partially addressed in the summer with the signing of Torres and Babel.
The £11m addition of Babel was one I wasn't overly fussed about. I knew of him and knew Wenger was very keen (which is usually a good sign) but I always saw him as more of a striker, than the winger he has been used as this year and he just doesn't look eager or confident enough to attack. £11m could have been better spent and I think even at this stage of his career, I would be very careful with him because he is young and isn't perhaps as mentally ready as the signing would suggest.
Still, 'The next.....Henry' isn't a bad compliment to take from someone as stubborn as Van Basten.
3) Manager
Controversial one. But a valid reason for our potential problems. Rotation is the way Rafa plays and unlike the 4-5-1 formation we insisted on using and Morientes - I doubt he will change his mentality towards this so easily. Infact, if anything puts him out of a job it will be his stubborness towards it - leading in lack of winning games. It comes back to the lack of goals.
A European Cup, another European Cup Final, FA Cup, Super Cup and Charity Sheid isn't to be sniffed at in his record of Liverpool achievements alone (not mentioning La Liga titles with Valencia and a Uefa Cup) but as I mentioned, his stubborness in his own methods could prove to be both his maker and his claim to fame. I just fear the latter will be pre-2007/2008 season.
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The guy's a ****ing liability, i had a breif lapse towards the end of last season (when he made a couple of great cameos) and actually thought he's back but since then he got injured just prior to the season kicking off then was set to make a return for the reserves (at the same time as Aurelio) and got injured again, he's not started a game for us since the FA Cup final and by the sounds of it isn't close to making a return any time soon.
