Londoners at the Anfield Road end keen to make clear where their sympathies lie in the stand-off between Daniel Levy's board and Martin Jol may even care to look around for any of the discarded placards carried by French fans, which said "Dirigeants Dehors" (Directors Out). In a more positive vein, they should exhort their team to emulate Marseille's tactics . . . attack, attack, attack.

Of course, Jol, whose job, bizarrely, appears to depend on not losing at the very least, will need to pick the right team. Rafa Benitez failed to do so in midweek. In particular, he needs to decide on Liverpool's most effective pairing from his four strikers and . . . since two of them arrived only in the summer . . . allow the chosen partnership time together on the pitch.

Fernando Torres's hat-trick alongside Peter Crouch in a Carling Cup tie may have earned the pair a start on Wednesday, but Marseille proved rather more obdurate opposition than Reading's reserves.

Jol has been equally insistent that a club with European commitments require four proven strikers, but the difference is that he has quickly established a pecking-order . . . Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane as firstchoice, understudied like-for-like by Darren Bent and Jermain Defoe respectively. Additionally, Keane is happy dropping into midfield if Defoe is required in circumstances like trailing 4-1 at home to Aston Villa, when he had an immediate impact in the eventual recovery to 4-4. In contrast, Andriy Voronin looked a fish out of water when stuck out wide against Marseille.

An incidental irony is that three years ago Jol wanted to sign his countryman Dirk Kuyt, then of Feyenoord and a substitute for the ineffective Crouch on Wednesday. "He's had a few problems this season but he's shown in the last few seasons that he's a quality coach, " said Kuyt.

"They've got really good strikers and we have as well."

Whatever the league table suggests, the suspicion is that Tottenham (scorers of only one goal fewer than Liverpool) are employing theirs rather better.