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Liverpool, and indeed their supporters, haven’t stayed in cloud nine for long, have they? After the hysteria of last week’s derby victory against Manchester United, this week’s defeat brought them back to the harsh reality of how inconsistent they’ve been this season.

In spite of being such an ardent Manchester United fan, I could not help but feel sorry for Rafa Benitez as I saw the seat beads dropping from his face and his eyebrows as he was giving his post match interview. The tension is back on the faces of the supporters, and this defeat, in many ways, signifies my belief that Liverpool are essentially a two man club. Without a fully fit Gerrard and Torres, they are just another club, intimidating none, and as we have seen, losing to many.

One interesting point to make here, is that Rafa Benitez is no longer just the coach. His role now is more like the Director of Football. This means more work in the confined space of his office desk, and consequently less time with the players in the training ground. I wonder if Benitez is struggling to juggle the two parts of his job, considering that he is relatively new into this multi-tasking job.

Whatever it is, it is imperative that the Reds improve on the pitch soon, because the Kop supporters, among the most loyal in the world, are starting to lose patience. You could see it in the booing at Benitez’s substitutions. Andriy Voronin has become a laughing stock anyways. At clubs like Liverpool, a sustained period of bad form is just not acceptable, and yet, that is just what the supporters have had to endure, watching their team lose game after game.

Even after last week’s victory, I had this apprehension that they would muck it up this week against Fulham. Oh, how right I was!!! Alan Hansen hit the nail on the head when he said last week that their victory over United would come to nothing if they could not carry the momentum forward for the weeks to come. On that count, they have failed at the first hurdle.

Even their finances are in disarray. Am I right in hearing that they need to sell a player to fund the contract extension of Pepe Reina? How sad, for Reina, while being reliable, has not exactly set the league on fire with his sot-stopping abilities. Sure, he has been good, but there are at least half a dozen keepers better in the league alone, let alone Europe Van der Sar, Cech, Friedel, Given, Green, etc. are all better shot-stoppers than him.

The Liverpool hierarchy has some serious soul-searching to do, because the empire is falling, and how!!! And if results don’t improve fast enough, we could be seeing the back of Rafael Benitez sooner than many had bargained for…

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