Missing Gerrard and Torres gives us the chance to prove our worth

Sunderland away is never going to be an easy fixture. Since their return to the Premier League the Black Cats have improved season on season and have now truly established themselves as a top flight team. So. our visit this weekend is naturally going to be a nervous experience, having our two main men, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard, out won’t help either.

This does, however, give us the chance to prove our worth, to yet again show our doubters that we’re not a two man team. Manchester United last season at Anfield shocked many pundits, a team without our Spanish ace or iconic captain went on to beat title favourites and current champions from down the East Lancs’ road. It showed just how good we were and that there’s lots more quality in our first team squad than Gerrard and Torres. This was a season in which the two players played only 14 games together and we had our best league campaign in two decades. I’d hardly call that relying on two players.

The pundits won’t let it go though. The likes of Andy Gray and Paul Merson will happily tell the open-eared public that we are too reliant on are two main forward going players. In a hypocritical way in their next breath they’ll also happily tell you that we’re going to miss Xabi Alonso, and that he was integral to last seasons success. So how can we prove them wrong?

Simple, beat Sunderland convincingly without our two talismans. It’s time to see players like Yossi Benayoun and Dirk Kuyt step up and provide the goals whilst Steven and Fernando are missing. Players like Mascherano and Jamie Carragher need to show the watching pundits that they are world-class players and that it’s frankly insulting to them to call Liverpool a two-man team.

Let’s take it to Sunderland and prove we’re not a two-man team yet again.

M. Owen