Supersub on Rafa's Supersubs Distribution: world Keywords: world

In a weekend of high drama, Saturday's performance on live television was the highlight of the FA Cup 3rd round. A clbuttic head to head between the rich and powerful visiting the poor relations with little to gain but everything to lose. It was just what our most traditional competition needed.

This latest dramatic effort of clawing a victory from the jaws of defeat will be remembered as one of the most sensational of FA Cup ties and reinforced the Reds reputation as the current 'comeback kings'.

It is no coincidence that reputation has been earned under the Rafael Benitez influence. Prior to his arrival the Reds had a disastrous record of gaining a win once they'd lost the first goal. In his first home league game against Man City after going behind to a Nicolas Anelka goal, the Reds came back to win 2-1 - the first time they had come from behind to win at Anfield for five years. Last season's 4-2 victory at Craven Cottage marked the first time the Reds had managed to come back after trailing at half time away from home for 13 years.

Those two victories injected a new belief in the new Liverpool team and, while that wasn't always apparent throughout Rafa's first season, it came through another couple of times to give us the other two most memorable nights of last season, namely against Olympiacos and of course AC Milan.

Liverpool were once the team renowned for not knowing they were beaten till the final whistle. Under the doctrine of Bill Shankly the Reds teams were built on character and commitment. The current Liverpool side under Benitez are slowly adding similar traits to their profile.

Having now developed a strong team spirit - another vital ingredient of any great team's make up - Rafa will be more than pleased they have pulled off these sensational victories, but on the otherhand he'll be no doubt furious. The circumstances which have had the Reds fighting for their lives on more than one occasion have one thing in common - abstract first half performances. On Saturday, Liverpool were virtually unrecognisable from the side that has put such an impressive run of wins together in recent weeks.

But I suppose we should give Luton some credit, their first half performance was excellent and despite going a goal behind they kept to their game plan of harbutting the Reds high up the field and on a tight pitch knocked Liverpool out of their stride. Once they tired - and I would suggest first mentally and then physically - with the introduction of a substitute Rafa changed the tie.

Previous Anfield managers have had their varying ways of using the substitutions available to them. In the Bob Paisley days before I emerged the number 12's were used sparingly - that probably influenced by just one sub being allowed. With me however, Bob suddenly had someone who could adapt to coming on late and changing the direction of the game. Though when I appeared we used to joke it would always be for either one of who was wearing shirt numbers 9 or 10 much to Terry Mc Dermott and David Johnson's disgust.

These days with three substitutions available providing more options, it's interesting to note how Rafael Benitez uses subs. More often than not if he is chasing a game he's happy to throw on an extra forward in the hope of directly influencing the game like he did on Saturday and spreading the width of the game. But it isn't always as obvious - against AC Milan he brought on a defensive midfielder at 3-0 down but it allowed others to directly influence the outcome.

It was in the mid 90's when the opportunity to use three subs in a league game was introduced and Roy Evans was then in charge at Anfield. Roy was often reluctant to use his options. In 1996-7 he used just a third of substitutions available to him and the subs provided 4 goals. Benitez uses substitutions far more and I wonder if it will prove to be more beneficial. In 60 games last season he had 180 changes available and he made 174 for a 10 goal return. This term, of 108 subs available to him, he's already used 102 and received 14 goals in return.

One reason for the increase in goal returns might be the fact the Reds are stronger and certainly playing better with more confidence on a more consistent basis, in turn bringing more goals. Added to that, with the need to have bigger playing squads and using more players on a match day helps to keep more of the squad happy - though from experience 20 minutes here and there is no long term answer to keeping an ambitious footballer happy.

Some people are sceptical of statistics. You can make figures look however you want them to but they are widely discussed in football these days. These figures indicate Rafa is the most conscientious of managers and leaves nothing to chance and his use of substitutions is another way of him making sure he gets the maximum out of the Anfield playing staff every time they take the field.

Looking forward to the weekend we playhost to Tottenham in a meeting of probably the two most entertaining sides currently in the Premiership. Under Martin Jol they have invested a lot in young British talent and are currently snapping on our heels.

While they are progressing with that policy they don't look the same without the experience of Edgar Davids and leadership of Ledley King at the back. At Leicester last weekend they went out of the Cup without that pair, Spurs the victims of another dramatic weekend comeback losing a two goal lead to the Foxes.

It goes to show how important certain individuals are to a team. Take two of the main men out of any of the top teams and you get totally unconvincing performances. Rafa was reluctant to go into our Cup tie without Stevie Gerrard, Chelsea and Man Utd both gave their biggest names weekend rests and almost paid the penalty.

There was a time a home win over Spurs was a formality but these days we can't afford to treat them lightly. The Londoners are an improving club but we should be capable of extending our winning momentum. Last season we shared a four goal thriller at Anfield and witnessed one of the goals of the season - that 40 yarder from Erik Edman.

Speaking to Martin Jol a few of months ago he told me he signed a new left back Lee Young Pyo because he offered more going forward, unlike Edman who he said got a nose bleed if he ventured over the half way line!

Here's hoping we don't see any of the same this time.

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Now you have finished reading what supersub has to say, pop along to

And read up on the stats of our subs this year, on the same theme was this conversation which I will repeat for you:

Read today that players coming off the bench have scored 14 goals this season and that that's a new club record. Must be in all competitions as it included the FA cup.

Should indicate a good squad and a manager who can and will make the right changes.

Or we're not starting with the best first eleven...

The stat is true that it's a club record and yes does include all competitions-games Don't know how much you read in to it all though.

Of the 14 so far this season - Gerrard has 3 (all europe quals) Cisse has 5 of his 12 goals this way etc

Is Cisse or say Pongolle a new Davie Fairclough? Then again a sub is there to change a game exactly as Flo did at the weekend cos you can only put 11 on the field at any one time. Flo was sent on to change the game and did so perhaps good management.

I've updated the scoring subs stats now on Liverweb

Shows all goals

shows breakdown by season

interestingly with spurs coming up at the w-e they are one of the more popular sids for our subs to score against.

There's also a couple of other various ways to see the goals from the scoring subs menu item

Andy Liverweb