If like me, you suffer from a paranoid disposition, think the majority of newspapers have it in for Liverpool (emanating from growing up in a time when the Reds dominated), or echo thoughts of conspiracy theorists and wonder whether that whole missing piece of the jigsaw thing wasn’t just another contrived ideology by the media to keep Liverpool’s hands off what was once ‘their’ trophy, then you’ll most probably agree that our most recent tag as ‘bona fide title contenders’ is just the latest ploy to derail an unusually auspicious start to our season.

I know we are not meant to say these things as they do usually come back to haunt us, but when I examine the attributes of this current Liverpool team, I am sure that come the end of the season, if we don’t win it, we will be closer than we’ve been since that killer ‘Fever Pitch’ Michael Thomas moment, and the opposition will have to be nearly faultless to stop us fulfilling our destiny. I just hope I haven’t jinxed us.

Michael Thomas scores 'THAT' goal for Arsenal against Liverpool 1989

You see, Benitez seems to have solved the riddle which has been niggling everyone for almost twenty years, and in the process, he is liberating Liverpool FC from the shackles of such self-defeating pursuits as searching for missing links. Think how predestination kept servile Catholics in their places for hundreds of years and you’re close to discovering the crux of what has been stunting this football club since they last won the title in 1990.

What seems astonishing to me, yet so utterly ingenious at the same time, is how Benitez has allowed such contrived notions to pervade during his tenure, as though to create a smokescreen, allowing him to sedulously chip away at his master-plan. Like say, how a master conjurer uses subterfuge in his act, allowing the person who is supposed to be chopped in-two, to slip away unnoticed.

Now, it is no great secret that it takes two major things to be successful in the Premier League, however, whereas a great wad of cash is painfully obvious, the other is less so, and it’s the amalgamation of both the money and the right contingency which is a modern day requirement for all the serious challengers. Having worked all this out in his heady days at Valencia, where local heroes Canizaires, Albelda, Vicente and Mista were pivotal to his success, it is a formula Benitez is only too familiar with, and there’s evidence to suggest he’s been working towards achieving this synthesis since his arrival on Merseyside. Now the Rafalution looks to be in its final stages.

Albelda - Homegrown talent, one of two reasons for Benitez's success at Valencia

Often accused of relying too heavily on ‘Roy of the Rovers’ Gerrard, Liverpool now look like a team filled with match-winners who are adequately supported by the doggedness of Mascherano, Carragher and the steal of Skertel (prior to his injury). I just hope the latter’s injury does not prove decisive and he’s back on his feet for the business end of the season, as he has become indispensable to this new blend of worthy title contenders.

It’s funny, watching Guy Ritchie’s ‘Rocknrolla’ the other evening, bizarrely offered me an unexpected ray of optimism, when in its best moments, for which there weren’t too many (though I’d give it an entertaining ***’s), this Russian ex-military bloke who bore an uncanny resemblance to our Slovak (same difference) warhorse Skertel, wouldn’t stay down no matter what they threw at him, unremittingly chasing the cockney protagonist. I’m not sure Ritchie intended to insinuate that Eastern Europeans are like machines, or it was playing on my own scandalous prejudices (for which I sincerely apologise), but it evoked such assumptions in me and left me hopeful of Skertel’s speedy recovery.

Skertel - The Indestructible Russian (sorry, I mean Slovak)

Then there’s been the reinvigorating resurgence of the bellicose Kuyt; the growing understanding between the irrepressible Torres and the now monkeyless Robbie Keane (who has the credentials to become yet another Kop icon); and let’s not forget Steven Gerrard, the heartbeat of Rafa’s title hopefuls.

On route to approaching this threshold of building a squad that is there or thereabouts, there have arguably been three key moments for Benitez which have laid the foundations for what seems like imminent success. And I don’t mean his gargantuan achievements in Europe. His biggest achievements to date were: 

• 1) Persuading Steven Gerrard to stay at Liverpool, where he would become the lynchpin and captain of a side, which Rafa would build around him, that would be challenging for the coveted title (Thankfully Gerrard saw this his destiny and displayed venerable ambition in his decision)
• 2) Converting Jamie Carragher to centre back, where he has become one of the most revered defenders in Europe and central to this side’s cause.
• 3) And finally his unanimous public backing during the exasperating Yankee feud which must’ve give Rafa the assurances he was looking for, or he could’ve left us in limbo.

These will prove the most significant and preparatory events in Liverpool’s most serious assault on the title for decades. These three events also confirmed for Benitez, if for no one else, that everything is in place for his master plan to finally come into fruition.

His plan hasn’t been solely to emulate other successful teams in England, whose conjugations of cash injections and an insertion of talented locals coming through the ranks (though there is a lot to be said for the premise that if you have a player who supported his team since boyhood, he will work his absolute balls off to see that they win, even on freezing cold afternoons in the northeast, ahmmm…Arsenal!)led to continued success, but there has been a deliberate and sustained vision by Benitez to create a team of like-minded individuals with one team mentality.

Sammy Lee's return has given Benitez more focus

Of course, the Spaniard hasn’t always got it right and the importance of Sammy Lee’s return cannot be underestimated. Nevertheless, you have to admire Benitez for his ability to correct his own mistakes insuring nothing and no one gets in the way of his vision. Not one for sentiments, he unceremoniously gets rid of unsuitables, drops star players to the bench and changes systems if things aren’t going to plan. This is a sign of a great manager.

I think it all boils down to ambition. Much is made of Benitez the tactician, the strategist, the tinkerer, yet rarely do people commend him on his judicious insight and perspicuous talent scouting. Simon Cowell has nothing on Benitez.

He often seeks out players with an appetite for success and destiny, particularly players who want this for the team, and not for individual recognition, as an Owen or a Kewell might stand accused. Players of fortitude and burning ambitions; of immense character and desire, whom he will infuse into his formula for success of the highest order. This was integral to his achievements at Valencia and this has been key to his successes at Liverpool in Europe and in Cup competition. Now he’s achieving a level of consistency so that these methods can be applied to the league.

Now, many cite Robbie Keane’s signature, who as the song testifies (Robbie Keane - \’Fiesta\’) has always dreamed of playing for Liverpool, and that of Torres, who indubitably adds the gloss, as final pieces to a jigsaw which is nigh on completion, but for me that theory has already transpired and it is last-gasp goal hero Dirk Kuyt who best personifies what this Liverpool team is about. And his goal at City and the reaction it received from his team-mates only demonstrates further how Kuyt’s infectious spirit typifies a new found belief at the club.

Dirk Kuyt's Herculean work-rate personifies new belief at Liverpool

The only thing proving elusive to me, are those stats that tell us how far a player has ran during a game. If we had them, then I’m sure it would be much easier to fathom why this team is successful. I am in no doubt that Liverpool players, Kuyt in particular, figure high up on these tables (please enlighten us if you have access to them!), and the results would prove conclusively, that this team work their bloody socks off for the cause.

It is this importunate and ambitious character, coupled with the vision of Benitez which makes me certain that this team has what it takes. I just hope to God (cri de coeur!) this inclination materialises and Liverpool win the league, and that I haven’t just played straight into the hands of those who despise us. In Rafa we trust…