Regime Change at Anfield?: Liverpool Crash in Carling Cup

Last night saw Liverpool fall to their third successive domestic defeat, as the club crashed out of the Carling Cup without spirit or fight.

With a 10-point gap opening between the Reds and league-leading Arsenal, are Rafael Benitez's days numbered at Anfield?

Liverpool fans will argue that it was "only" the Carling Cup, and that they have more important things to focus on. But the problem was as much the manner of the defeat as the defeat itself.

With 10 men, it would be expected that Liverpool would've gone all out for the win. As against Manchester United on Sunday, though, the club seemed bereft of ideas in attack—and Chelsea made sealing the deal look exceptionally easy.

Without Steven Gerrard, the Reds are an entirely different team. An in-form Fernando Torres and a rapidly-improving Harry Kewell can't pick up the slack by themselves.

"Super-sub" Ryan Babel has failed to impress in a starting role, Andriy Voronin has proven unreliable in front of the goal, and Momo Sissoko has looked poor amid rumours of attitude problems and an unhappiness with Rafa's rotation system.

It's that system which seems to be at the heart of Liverpool's problems. No one doubts the ability of Torres, Peter Crouch, or Dirk Kuyt—but all three to need to see action in a run of consecutive games if they're to find their form.

Why Benitez can't see this is beyond me.

More worrying is Rafa's insistence that everything is fine—and that these blips are all part of his plan.

Echoes of Steve McClaren, anyone?

Benitez's blaming the Chelsea defeat on the man-disadvantage seems to be an easy way of avoiding the real issues staring him in the face. The manager felt that Liverpool played well against the Blues. How many Liverpool fans felt the same way?

McLaren kept denying and insisting until it was too late. Hopefully the current state of affair at Anfield serves as a wake-up call to Benitez before it's too late for him too.

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