If this season hasn’t been frustrating enough as a Liverpool fan then the reasons, or should I say the excuses for it have been even worse and have boiled my blood. The reason the football club has struggled is simply down to the fact that the players have badly performed, while the manager has also been culpable at times.

This season we have heard it all, with blame directed at Hicks and Gillett, Rafa Benitez failure in the transfer market and the fact that Xabi Alonso is no longer in the Liverpool midfield. It is ridiculous to be honest and thankfully Carragher has finally come out and expressed what I for one have been feeling all season, especially about the loss of Alonso. It makes it sound like we were only a one man team last season, when the real problem is that nobody has performed consistently and been able to step up.

"I've heard the arguments about what would have happened had we kept Xabi Alonso this season,"

"He was here for five years and he was great for us, but we didn't win the league during that time, did we?

"There's no way you can say if he was here we'd win the league. There's more to it than that.

"You can't keep looking back like that. I wish Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush were still in the team too so you might as well be arguing we'd win the league if we still had them." (NOTW)

My feelings exactly and I feel there has been too much feeling sorry for ourselves. Carragher is right that one man doesn’t make a team and for all that Alonso brought to the team, we didn’t win the title with him in it, although I accept we were stronger with him. The finger of blame in this instance was the failure of the club to target a replacement sooner, especially in light of the fact that he was always likely to leave this summer. Those who have stepped up have failed to perform and too many times in the big games the key players (JC and Stevie G included) have let us down. That is the long and short of it and only when we stop making excuses for the players and the manager, can we actually hope to move forward once again.

Has the loss of Alonso been as significant as some make out, or has it simply been the easy excuse to make, given our performance this season?

Written By Dan Lowe