Considering that the we haven't really seen the Gerrard/Torres partnership this season due to injuries to the both of them, it's a little unfair to say that they're hurting our 'long term goals'. Nor should you criticise Benitez for trying to play two of his best players (and two of the best players in the world) in a way that shows off their consummate skill. However you could argue that without Torres, Stevie is a lot less effective dropping off the striker, as the players we've had to play up front this season (N'gog, Kuyt mainly), don't stretch the game in the same way Torres can. N'gog perhaps has shown signs of this, but you can't put him anywhere near the same class as Fernando.
I don't believe it's harming any part of the club whatsoever, and whilst we shouldn't play a formation just to accommodate our two best players, I don't think we are. In general a 4-5-1 (or 4-3-3 if Rafa's feeling adventurous) seems to be a good fit. It was the formation we hit on last season late on, and look at our results there. I think perhaps that's because we had a lot of confidence and were attacking teams at pace, whereas now we're hamstrung by injuries and lacking confidence, so we aren't moving the ball around quickly enough, or attacking directly enough.
It's not the formation or the manager, or the partnership between Torres and Gerrard that's causing issues at present, it's the players performance. I honestly think it's almost entirely down to them to pick themselves up and play some F***ing good football, and whilst you can argue it's the manager's job to keep the players happy, playing them in the right position etc, ultimately it comes down to the players to perform on the pitch, and regardless of what formation we've played, or what combination of El Nino and Stevie we've had playing, pretty much the whole team has underperformed.
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