Pulis’ words provide little comfort to Liverpool fans

To say it’s been difficult being a Liverpool fan this week would be an understatement. Now with only a Europa League cup run to hope for and a long hard struggle in the league to achieve fourth position, it’s been very difficult to feel optimistic about anything. The FA Cup third round replay defeat to Reading has also seen the tide turn against Rafa Benitez among fans. I am still just on the side of the Spanish manager, but only just, as I can’t see how any other manager would be able to turn around Liverpool’s prospects with the current squad available. Remember these are Rafa’s players, and although many of them I believe are not up to the required standard to achieve what is expected them, the person who will get the best out of them is Benitez. Such a view on the manager I am aware is becoming less popular by the day and on one particular forum I was on, a poll indicated that opinion was only 60/40 in favour of the manager.

I wasn’t at all surprised by the performance against Reading on Wednesday, normally in the past I would be shouting at the TV, venting my anger at such a poor display, but it has become evident that this Liverpool lack any consistency or confidence. As Liverpool prepare for Stoke tomorrow, Potters Boss Tony Pulis has had a few words of comfort for the Liverpool manager:

I was at the game in midweek. There was no Pepe Reina who is the best goalkeeper in the Premier League and no Javier Mascherano who is the best holding midfielder in the world. They were missing Glen Johnson and then Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres went off. You are talking about being without five of your best players. Take five top players out of any club in the world and see how they perform. Rafa has been very unfortunate with injuries this season. He’s been unfortunate that even when those players have been playing they haven’t been at 110 per cent like they were last year.

Certainly not having five of your best players available for most of the match will be detrimental to any side but you have to remember the opposition in this case. Even though it was a FA Cup tie, Liverpool were playing at home against a side 21st in the league below, who hadn’t won in six matches. A “top four” side in the Premier League should be able to cope fine without these losses but it was plain to see that Liverpool had no real confidence or interest, bar for 15-20 minutes at the start of the second half.

The last line in the quote from Pulis above is the crucial thing for me. Those players who have been playing are not playing at “110% like they were last year.” Many of the players don’t look like they are even playing at 50% and the manager must take responsibility for this. Carragher, Insua, Kuyt, Babel etc are just not delivering the required results and with games away to Stoke and home to Tottenham next, the omens are not looking good.

Pressure is building on the manager every day and if we continue failing to perform we may fall further away in our bid for a fourth place finish, then the board will be forced to act. To go back to an earlier point though, with no money to spend and only half of the January transfer window remaining, even if a new manager was appointed now, he would have no chance to put his own marker on the team. He would have to use Rafa’s players and in my mind, no matter what you think of them, they are the only players that we’ve got and the best person to get the best out of them is Rafa Benitez at the moment for he knows them best. Remember the same group were 4 points away from the title last season and if Benitez can get that 110% out of them once again, he might just save face. If he has lost the dressing room and can’t, then I dread to think what will happen this season.