Break down the 'bus'

2 home draws in the League and a scrappy 1-0 win over Marseille in the Champions League. Championship material? I certainly hope so.

While it is easy to moan and cry over the 4 points dropped in the League, we should also take the positives from the current situation. Sitting 1 point clear at the top of the League is something I am sure we will all gladly accept at the start of the season. This is afterall Liverpool's best start in a long while. What we said at the end of last season was that we needed to be challenging for the title after December. It is early December now and we are leading the League. That in itself is a remarkable achievement.

The context of this is that whilst we may not have been at our best, the rest of the traditional top 3 teams are doing just as bad, if not worse. Arsenal had lost 5 times thus far whilst Chelsea have been beaten at home twice already. Man U barely scrapped through with a 1-0 win over their city rivals last weekend and are 6 points below us (with a game in hand).

Yes, we need to start churning out title winning performances and getting 3 points for every game but as long as Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal are below us, I dun care even if the team scraps thru 0-0 draws and earn a point. What worries me more is the mentality of the players. They need to remain positive and confident. Winning of course breeds confidence but what's more important is that the team's current position be pointed out to each and every one of those players in the dressing room. They need to understand that they ARE the League leaders. And being League leaders, they need to start playing like one and bulldoze their way through every team that comes to Anfield to "park their bus" in front of their goal. Look at the last 2 games. Both Fulham and West Ham came for a draw. They were just happy with a point and hopefully minimise the damage should we score the first goal. The key for them was to keep a clean sheet in the first half and frustrate Liverpool. In the second half, as we push more men forward, they will hope to hit us on the break and try to steal that wining goal. What that means is that we will need to play with confidence, flair and creativity. We can't simply rely on the wingers to do the same thing game after game! Every coach in England now knows Albert Reira is the threat on the left and Kyut or Benayoun on the right for Liverpool. Shut these fellas out and we will be forced to play down the middle. Put more men behind the ball and stop us from playing our usual football. Soon, we will be forced to pump the long balls in and hope for the best. Given that, I feel that Gerard thrives in situations like that. It was unfortunate he didn't start off the game in a more attacking role this morning. Without Mascherano, Gerard was tasked to sit in front of the back line whilst Alonso sprays the passes to Keane and Kyut. Surely, we missed Torres and Keane seems to be lacking in confidence. We need Gerard to be at his best for these teams to be broken down.

In any case, it's still early days and we are sitting at the top of the League. We need to remain positive and look forward to Blackburn this weekend. Without the League Cup to distract us in the next 2 days, it's time to re-group in order to drive forward. It's not time to panic yet. We just need belief.

3 points for sure on Saturday.