Liverpool Draws Against Birmingham: Goodbye for Rafa Benitez?

Liverpool FC drew against Birmingham City, which pushed them another step backward from the fourth place of the EPL this season.

Earlier this season at Anfield, Rafa Benitez's army drew with Birm City 2-2 and today they repeated the history with somewhat different scoreline. Liverpool needed a win today desperately to get to the top four and play in the Champions League next season. However, we always cannot have happy endings.

To the much disgrace of the Reds fans, their team lost to Benfica 2-1 in the first leg of the Europa League and they are hoping that they can pull back a victory this time at their home. But with this set of performance, it is better that Liverpool do not play further in the Europa and take a look back at what went wrong through the entire season.

With just five games left in their hands, Liverpool can bet now on not going or making it to the fourth place this season. While a win is sure on the cards against West Ham, Burnley, and Hull City (though these teams may fight tooth and nail to avoid relegation and give troubles to the Reds), the fixtures against Fulham and Chelsea will not be a sugar coating for Liverpool.

When we take a look at the other contenders of the fourth place, Manchester City appears to be strong along with Spurs at the moment. However, Spurs has tough fixtures coming up with Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester United.

Manchester City, on the other hand, has six games left in hand with two tough fixtures in the list. Aston Villa are also strong favorites with a some easy games in their hands.

Coming back to Anfield and the tragedy, Fernando Torres was completely outperformed by Birm City defenders like Johnson and Ridgewell. While Torres completely looked out of his game, Jerome and McFadden shocked the Anfield defense couple of times.

The only notable players from Liverpool were Glen Johnson and the captain Gerrard. Maxi's shot hit the crossbar and he was not seen active for the rest of the game. Another silly blunder transfer decision from Rafa Benitez.

Daniel Agger sat on bench despite being a good defender and Aquilani (another mistake from Rafa) retained his dull performance on the field for his 10 minutes of play.

Why did Benitez purchase Aquilani? Why can't Babel come back to form like Park of Man United? What is a player like Ngog doing in Liverpool? Questions remain unanswered as Liverpool falters again and again!

The reason to this is one person—Rafa Benitez. He has shown his stubborn nature at times and has remain rigid to his rules with a changing game environment. The price which Liverpool is paying now for this one man decision is perhaps too heavy to bear.

Juventus is keen on signing a new coach for heading their team, and they have narrowed their search on the Spanish coach of the Reds. Benitez has expressed his interest in coaching a club who will be playing the Champions League next season. Now, it is to be seen where Benitez finally lands up at the end of the season.

But it remains clear and not far from the truth that the present results do not taste saccharine for the Liverpool board, and given the conditions and probabilities, Benitez may be coaching his last term at Anfield this time.

Hopefully Liverpool does not end up the Leeds way.