Maxi does the trick but Suarez is five-star

Fulham 2 Liverpool 5: WHEN LIVERPOOL play like they did here on the banks of the Thames, the turmoil of the early season can resemble a trick of the mind. Was the club really languishing in 12th place in the Premier League when he took over in January?

There are many differences between then and now, principally, in terms of confidence and a feel-good factor. But, maybe above all, there is Luis Suarez, the winter window capture from Ajax.

It takes something to eclipse the achievement of a hat-trick from a team-mate and nothing ought to be taken away from Maxi Rodriguez, who was in ruthless mood and reached his personal landmark with a beauty from distance. But Suarez managed it.

He was irrepressible, leading Fulham’s defence a merry dance and proving the architect behind this thumping victory, which fired the club’s hopes of finishing above Tottenham Hotspur in the race for Europa League qualification. The transformation under Kenny Dalglish has been remarkable. He has now taken 33 points from a possible 48. Give the man a contract.

This latest test of what Dalglish has called his “positive work in progress” seemed worthy of the billing. Fulham had turned Craven Cottage into something of a fortress and their defence, in particular, had been unyielding.

It took Liverpool a little over a quarter of an hour to make a mockery of that statement. With three lightning strikes, they left Fulham dazed and confused. Mark Hughes, the manager, felt the stars encircle his head.

Dalglish had started with Suarez as his lone front-man and although he did not score in the opening frenzy, he was central to much of what Liverpool did. With his slick touch and movement, not to mention his wonderful awareness, it was difficult to take your eyes off him.

It was the Uruguayan who set up the first for Rodriguez, who is suddenly on a scoring streak to make Ian Rush proud. Played through by Lucas Leiva, Suarez raced away before cutting back a low cross, which squirted off Carlos Salcido and forced Mark Schwarzer into an improvised save with his feet. The ball reached only as far as Rodriguez, who dispatched it low into the far corner.

Rodriguez scored his second of the night, and his sixth in three games, when Lucas’s ball over the top released Glen Johnson, who dug out a fine cross to the far post where the Argentinian’s left-footed volley was true. Fulham’s misery was deepened on 16 minutes when Schwarzer allowed a tame shot from Dirk Kuyt to wriggle underneath him.

Fulham might have reasoned that they had nothing to lose in the second-half and Hughes went for the jugular in the attempt to restore pride, putting on Bobby Zamora up alongside Eidur Gudjohnsen and later Andy Johnson and asking Mousa Dembele to maraud from the right.

There was greater urgency about Fulham and with Liverpool content to protect what they had, Hughes’s team flickered. Clint Dempsey whistled a drive just over the crossbar as Fulham pressed onto the front foot.

A Fulham goal threatened to put a different complexion on what had previously been a mismatch and it arrived just before the hour. Martin Skrtel stood off Zamora and the striker’s lay-off invited Dembele to a curl low shot beyond Pepe Reina.

With Fulham pressing for their second, Rodriguez deflated the mood with his hat-trick goal, a right-footed blast out of nothing, from 25 yards.

Suarez got the goal that he deserved when he danced onto the substitute Jonjo Shelvey’s pass and around Schwarzer. Steve Sidwell’s rocket was the definition of consolation.

FULHAM: Schwarzer, Baird, Hughes, Hangeland, Salcido, Davies (Zamora 46), Murphy, Gudjohnsen (Johnson 67), Sidwell, Dempsey, Dembele (Kakuta 76). Subs not used: Stockdale, Senderos, Etuhu, Greening. Booked: Murphy, Dempsey, Salcido, Sidwell, Baird.

LIVERPOOL: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Flanagan, Maxi (Cole 82), Spearing, Lucas, Meireles (Shelvey 48), Suarez, Kuyt. Subs not used: Gulacsi, Kyrgiakos, Wilson, Poulsen, Robinson. Booked: Reina, Skrtel.

Referee: L Mason (Lancashire).