Ryan Babel Twitter Attack On Benitez: Poor Hoax Or Hopeful Provocation?

Rafael Benitez is under attack from pretty much every angle at the moment. The fans, the media, the uninformed, the easily led, and those who just love to jump on the bandwagon.

Ryan Babel has possibly added his own name to the rapidly increasing list of Benitez baiters.

Sunderland striker Darren Bent appears to have started a trend amongst players in need of an outlet to vent their frustrations; let the world know on your microblogging account.

Today, Ryan Babel has informed his Twitter followers, and now half of the planet, that he has "got some disappointing news, I m not travelling 2 Stoke. The Boss left me out the squad. No explanation".

Just three hours ago the 23 year old international asked "What happend after a first good season? Scoring 10 goals, being young talent of the year, and then second and this season don't play at all"?

One of Babel's followers on Twitter replied with a little bite: "you never played that great against Reading could be the reason. show some passion and get your foot in".

A sentiment echoed by many Liverpool supporters who believe the number 19 just does not show enough heart and workrate when he is given his chances on the field. Ryan Babel possibly provides an answer for his lack of conviction when he replied: "to get injured again? Ur crazy".

Probably not the best thing to share with your club's supporters.

He goes on to say: "Where did it go wrong??? Well obv you have people who support me and don't support me.. That's all good.. I believe in myself, and one day, you will see what I m capable off, will it be at LFC or somewhere else.. I have faith.."

After a transfer bid from high-flying Birmingham City, both Ryan Babel and Rafael Benitez have stated a desire for the Dutchman to stay at Anfield. So if the ommision of Babel from the squad traveling to the Britannia Stadium is true, it looks like Benitez has decided his tactics for the Stoke game dont warrant Babel's inclusion; or the Spaniard simply wants to cut his losses after all.

Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, and Yossi Benayoun are all sidelined with injury, so it seems logical Rafa Benitez will need to play Babel at the weekend.

The must win Stoke encounter is the perfect platform for Ryan Babel to step up and stake a claim in the team. But it looks possible that he has blown all chances of making a run in the side, and the frustrated reaction to apparently being dropped could be to engineer a move away from Anfield.

That is of course if the recent comments on Twitter are actualy from the Liverpool forward himself, and not someone impersonating the Dutchman.

There is definatly the strong possiblity that this is just a hoax. Twitter's new "verified account" experiment will now contact the person in order to confirm identity, but they have not contacted every verified account, which, as Twitter claim themselves, can still leave the door open for fake accounts to slip through.

However, if you go to the Offical Ryan Babel website, there is a question and answer section where Babel replies to supporters.

One question said: "Hi Ryan, I feel sorry about the situation you are facing with rafa and liverpool, you should be playing more minutes every game, quality footballer mate, said it from your first season at anfield.

Hope you stay with us and fight for your place at Liverpool , would be a shame to lose such a talent! quality to watch mate, you and torres upfront would scare defences!! good luck in the future buddy, hopefully with Liverpool."

To which Babel answers: "Hi Chris, thanks for the support.. I need it.. I'm also hopin that I can stay and can be important for the team.. I have faith and confidence in myself but others need to have those as well to give me a chance".

Despite the news sweeping the internet that Babel will not feature against Stoke, there has been no offical squad list from the Liverpool website, with media reports using Babel's Twitter updates as their source.

Whoever Ryan Babel on Twitter really is, this is certainly not the best time to be adding more pressure to the Liverpool manager and the club.