Where Do Liverpool Go from Here?

As a Liverpool fan I am very dissapointed, I think it's fair enough to conceed that our chances of winning the title are now very slim.

Were I a Chelsea or Man U fan, I would currently be writing an article entitled, "Why the referee not giving us a blatant penalty for handball against Dunne cost us the title", or slagging off the players and managers of the opposition team, however seeing as I am a level headed person and like Rafa "I deal with the facts", I won't be doing that. :P

When looking at the bigger picture, this season has been a vast improvement on pretty much any of the last 18. I think that if we had been told we would be in our current position, at the begining of the season most Liverpool fans would have been okay with it.

At least we didn't fade out before January this time, and we've maintained a much stronger challenge than Chelsea or Arsenal.

The problem is why we're in this position, and where we go from here.

Firstly the "why":

When you compare Liverpool's home record this season to Man U's, the difference is clear. Liverpool have now drawn six and won seven at Anfield, while United have drawn just one and won 12 at Old Trafford. For a team looking to contend for the title, this is simply not good enough.

Yet again this season, Liverpool have risen magnificently to the big occassions, beating Man U without Gerrard or Torres and doing the double over Chelsea, while they've slumped to draws with lower-mid table opposition such as Stoke and Fulham, who we should be putting 3 or 4 past, especially at home.

It's hard not to find yourself thinking what if. What if Robbie Keane had just buried that chance against Stoke, or that Gerrard free kick had been just a couple of inches lower against West Ham and what about that 2-1 loss to Tottenham away?
All those chances that went begging after Kuyt put us ahead, including hitting the wood-work three times...Those points would be making all the difference now.

Then, more importantly, the "where":

Of course, we are still very much in the Champions League, a tournament we boast the best record in Britain in. Our opponents Real Madrid have failed to get past the last 16 over the last four years, a very poor record indeed when compared to ours over the same period (one win, one runner-up, one semi-final, and one last 16).

Yes Madrid are on a brilliant run in La Liga at the moment, but so were Juventus and Chelsea in their respective leagues in 2005, and that didn't stop us.

Looking ahead to next season, the main barrier between us reaching the standard of United is the same problem analysts and pundits have been identifying for the last couple of years, the depth of our squad.

In players like Possebon, Rafael and Anderson, Manchester have genuinely talented young players coming through the ranks, who's youth and energy, when integrated with the experience and leadership of the previous generation of Giggs, Scholes, and Neville can be easily deployed to allow for Ronaldo, Berbatov, Carrick, and co. to be rested.

When you look at Liverpool's options, we have Lucas, top scorer in the Brazilian league and Brazil U21 captain before we purchased him, but who could maybe do with a loan spell in a foreign league with a lower tempo in order to gain experience.

We have David N'Gog, a proven goal scorer at every level of the French youth team and we have players like Jay Spearing and Steven Derby, the next generation of local lads, youth FA cup and reserve league winners.

On paper, the Liverpool youngsters look much more dangerous, however in practice, Man U are the only premiership team, including Arsenal, who have a set of young players currently capable of making the transition to the first team.

Next there are players like Yossi Benayoun, Andrea Dossenna, and Philip Degen who are simply not good enough to replace the first choices, Albert Riera, Fabio Aurelio, and Alvaro Arbeloa.

So we have young players not ready to make the step up, second choices not good enough to do the job and then the final category. This category contains players like Daniel Agger and Ryan Babbel, who although they have proven they are more than capable, are the victims of Rafa finally dropping his rotation policy.

Agger was not even included on the bench today, and it is highly likely that he will be leaving at the end of the season.

When you step back and look at all of these factors, the one thing they have in common is they all lead back to the manager.

I am a huge fan of Rafael Benitez, but while he has not had nearly as much time as his United couterpart so it would be unfair to compare them, he is too prone to infuriating substitutions, maddening starting elevens and ridiculous tactics (one that has particularly annoyed me this season is his insistence that we take every corner short, then pass it back to the taker, who consequently gets caught offside and a perfectly good chance is squandered).

He also seems incredibley impatient with players like Peter Crouch, Jermaine Pennant and, of course, Robbie Keane, who are too often not given enough of a chance before being sold, while going out and wasting money on a very long list of players, summed up by the purchase of Andrea Dossenna, £7 million for THAT?! we should have just kept Riise.

My point, which I know I've taken a while to get to, is that while we are making progress, it seems to be so painstakingly slow, I would go as far as saying that the only beneficial addition to our squad we made last summer was Riera.

Next summer no doubt we will improve again, hopefully Ronaldo will take his posing, diving, ferrari crashing (and match winning wonder goals) to Real Madrid, I don't see Chelsea threatening next year, their squad is aging, they'll be managerless come the summer, and Roman's Rubles have dried up in the credit crunch, so hopefully we can close the gap again.

The truth of the matter is that it took Ferguson seven years to bring the title to Old Trafford, four years in, chants of "Fergie out" could be heard around the stadium, but the club stuck with him, and he eventually delivered.

Rafa may have won more in his initial years than Ferguson, and as United did, I say that we stand by him, but unfortuantely at this rate, there is no reason why we won't have to wait just as long for the Rafalution to bring the Premiership to Liverpool.