Will the summer of 2009 prove to be the beginning of the end for Rafa Benitez at Liverpool? Martin Lipton's Big Lunchtime Read

By Martin Lipton in Laptop with Martin Lipton

Published 11:47 25/11/09

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And so, it came to pass.

As predicted, Liverpool's efforts in Budapest were rendered meaningless by events in Florence and so the Anfield club, 13 points behind Chelsea in the Premier League, are already effectively out of three competitions before the end of November.

That is simply not good enough for Liverpool, no matter what legitimate excuses can be found.

Managing director Christian Purslow's post-match interview has been depicted as a ringing endorsement of Rafa Benitez and certainly there is no question of the Spaniard being sacked as a direct consequence of what happened last night.

Indeed, all the soundings from Merseyside suggest that Benitez will be given until the end of the season to prove he should be allowed to see out the next chapter in his project.

But Benitez will have noted Purslow's equivocation when asked to confirm the Spaniard would stay in the job come what may.

"Rafa's just signed a new contract, about four months ago," said Purslow. "To discuss where we will be in another six months is inappropriate at this stage."

At this stage. Time specific. For now. In other words, come back and  talk to me in May and we'll see where we are.

That is where Benitez now finds himself and he can have no complaints.

When the history of the Benitez era is told, many will point to the summer of 2009 as the tipping point, the moment where, having got so close to the summit, he slipped back down the mountain.

Benitez clearly is unsure that Alberto Aquilani is even close to being up to the physical demands of playing while the paucity of attacking options in the continued absence of Fernando Torres was re-emphasised when Yossi Benayoun replaced David Ngog against Debrecen, laving Liverpool without an out and out striker on the pitch.

Ridiculous, in any circumstances and there can be no questioning the fact that Liverpool's Champions League campaign has been nothing short of a debacle.

Two 1-0 wins against the weakest side in the entire competition (although Rangers might run Debrecen close), two defeats and a draw in Lyons.

You don't deserve to go through with a record like that and even if Liverpool's probable 10-point finish may have been enough to get them through in other groups, they comprised four teams, not three and a stick-on six pointer.

For that, Benitez must take responsibility.

Just as he must for the defeats against Spurs, Villa, Sunderland and Fulham and the points dropped against Birmingham at Anfield.

Look at the record for the season: P20 W9 D3 L8

What does that spell out - pushing for honours or mid-table mediocrity? You do the math, as they say in Texas.

There comes a time when you have to take stock, to rethink, to stand up for what you believe in but accept you may have made mistakes.

If Benitez is the manager all Liverpool fans hope he is, then this must be that time, when he shows what he is about, demonstrating real leadership.

There is unlikely to be much relief coming in the way of transfer funds in January, putting the onus further on Benitez alone to prove he can unify a dressing room in serious danger of fragmentation.

His criticisms of "senior players" in the aftermath of the Villa defeat were staggeringly inept, given that those were the very players he needed on-side to start digging the way out of the hole.

So far, Anfield has stayed solid, one or two sotto voce moans notwithstanding.

But a crowd of 30,000 or less for the first Europa League home game might make eyes start to open and in the meantime the battle for fourth spot will now really heat up.

Liverpool are lucky that Manchester City have hit their own slump, with six straight draws, when even three or four of them being victories - and that included games with Wigan, Fulham, Birmingham and Burnley - might have left them tailed off already.

It means they are just five points adrift of Spurs in fourth, a gap that can be closed in the space of a fortnight.

Yet at the moment Liverpool do not look like a side that can go on a run of five or six wins on the spin, especially without Torres.

Benitez appears to have been handed six months to save himself. He has to start doing it now.

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