He has been out for a few weeks with that baneful injury known as the hamstring. He missed the best team performances of the season due to it. In comes the international week. He goes publicly he wants to play even though he is far from total fitness. Imagine if the lad in question happened to be Steven Gerrard. Personally, I’d have shaken me head more than a couple of times and probably something would have dribbled off my mouth. The international showcase over the local bread and butter. Snubbing the tried and tested hand that feeds you regularly for a shiny silver plate brought to you via a manicured and shiny hand of a groomed waiter. Yossi Benayoun’s case was rather different though. He is not as high profile and the average man in the street that holds no Liverpool connections will probably struggle to spot him if he were to pass him by. The Israeli captain risked an injury aggravation to the Israel cause, defying Rafael Benitez in the process. At a time when his country has been in the spotlight that served mostly to cast a dark shadow, he stood up to be counted. This case has probably been more as one of knowing where your roots really lay rather than jumping on some gravy train. Presumably on Thursday he got back to Melwood. I assume Rafa didn’t go overboard to order flowers to greet him back. Yesterday he found him a place on the bench. And for most of the second half he warmed out on the very fringes of the pitch, outside from where the action is. Fourteen minutes from time, he went in for the workhorse that is Dirk Kuyt, with Liverpool pretty much able to unlock the Fulham defense but yet to pull the door in to declare their intentions and ramshackle the house called the Premiership.

In his first fourteen minutes, he helped the cause and got agonizingly close. That was nothing new though. Without him, Liverpool managed to crook the timber of the goalpost four consecutive times. Getting close was never the issue yesterday. With two minutes over the 90th though, he finally did what was missing. A ball fell into his feet, Konchesky tried to close him down but he was quicker and had the audacity to put the ball beyond Shwarzer and into the net. His quick feet and eye for goal did it for Liverpool.

Ensuing was total bedlam, all signed by him. A midfielder, a winger, call him whatever you’d like, has been put on when a deadlock was very much on the cards. With the lack of availability of striking personnel, Benayoun had to do. But the lad is not doing what he is asked of. He is going beyond the call of duty. He slides his lanky figure and the ball through defenders selling dummies. Personally he sold me the belief Liverpool’s name is on it. The fact he’s not high-profile and not seen marketable by most makes it feel even sweeter and genuine.