Who Are These Reserves, Rafa?

Rafa Benitez likes to tinker. So much so that he even tinkers with the substitutes on his bench.

Yes. You see it right. On the bench last night for Liverpool were as follows: Dossena, Babel, Plessis, Gulacsi, Spearing, Eccleston, and Ayala.

If you are wondering who on earth these players are, rest assure. You are not alone.

The more pertinent question here would be, which one of them could have made a difference to last night’s horror show at Craven Cottage?

The awful truth: No one.

For all the column inches that have been written about Benitez’s rotation policy on the pitch, the same must be said about his substitute bench as well.

Liverpool may not have a world class striker in the form of David Ngog. But I am sure he is a better option than Nathan Eccleston.

Daniel Sanchez Ayala may share the same last name as a more illustrious defender whom plied his trade for Valencia before, but that doesn’t mean that they share the same talent. I am pretty sure that Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger would have agreed.

And let’s not even start on Plessis, Spearing and Babel. They have had their day in the sun but have failed to justify their cause in the famous red jersey.

Benitez reminds me a lot of my Football Manager experience. When faced with a long list of injuries, I often dip randomly into my reserves just to fill up my quota of seven substitutes.

And I have a hunch that Benitez thinks exactly like me.

The only difference now is that, Benitez actually had better options than those that he had named on his bench last night.

When he withdrew the tiring Torres last night, the sensible option would have been to introduce Ngog.

Babel in turn could have came on for Benayoun, though removing your only creative spark when chasing a game is akin to waving the white flag during a war.

And to fill the void left by the bumbling Carragher, certainly Srktel or Agger would have been more suitable.

I am not too sure if Benitez sees things in this manner.

Maybe he actually believes that his youngsters can mirror their counterparts over at Arsenal.

I hope  after last night’s shambolic  display, Benitez can actually see that this is not the case.