Rafa Benitez's failure to buy Fernando Torres backup could cost him dear

By Mark Lawrenson

Published 23:02 06/11/09

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Another week, another crisis for Rafa Benitez.

Sadly, the biggest mistake of all is really hurting Benitez now and will really hit Liverpool for the next three weeks or so.

It is still unbelievable that Benitez went into the season with no quality back-up for Fernando Torres and now, with his injury lay-off, it is coming back to haunt them.

Benitez can point to players like Andriy Voronin, Ryan Babel or even Dirk Kuyt. Kuyt has become a midfielder in the Liverpool set-up, Babel showed why he is not top class in Lyon with a goal and then a miss and Voronin - just like Sotirios Kyriakos - should be a fourth choice. Not good enough.

I hear this argument that no-one would be understudy to Torres. But does that mean that other top clubs only have one striker. Being the only top class striker at the club has put Torres under strain and that is clearly contributing to his injuries.

Lyon were ordinary and were there to be beaten. Benitez played Yossi Benayoun out of position and missed key players as well as only having a 70 per cent fit Torres.

Still they could have won. That is why there is still no panic at Liverpool upstairs and the fans are largely being realistic about the situation. But you learn more from a crisis than success and let’s hope those lessons have been learnt properly.