Rafael Benitez has 11 days to steady the ship at Anfield before their next game. Is the injury crisis his biggest area of concern?
Yes, it will be. In his programme notes last night Benitez said that this was the worst injury crisis he had ever faced as manager and it is easy to see why.
Alberto Aquilani has had a long-term injury and there have been ongoing problems with Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard. There have been problems for Daniel Agger, Albert Riera and Fabio Aurelio while Glen Johnson has been in and out of the team with his setbacks.
Throughout the squad there have been niggling problems that have undermined everything the manager wanted to do with his side. Against Fulham, Liverpool had ten players missing. The injury problems don’t seem to be going away. Just as one player comes back another limps out. Riera returned last night but could be out again with a hamstring injury. Yossi Benayoun, who has been Liverpool’s most consistent player this season, has also damaged a hamstring.
The club now have to work out whether this is just bad luck or whether there is something else at work. If it had been bone injuries then you can put it down to bad luck but when you have that many muscle injuries you begin to wonder whether there is an underlying problem with the way the club are treating players.
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What is the latest on Torres’s injury problems?
Torres has been told that he does need a period of rest if he is to recover. He has begun a three-week period of recuperation, which would make him a doubt for the game against Manchester City on November 21. After last night’s game Benitez refused to rule him out, suggesting Torres will be back when the Spaniard decides he is ready.
It is now a case of Torres listening to his body and waiting to see how he responds to treatment over the next few days. He could certainly could be out for three weeks but everything is being done to try and bring his return forward.
Will this period of rest ensure he avoids the need for an operation?
The problem with groin operations is that they cause scar tissue, which can lead to long-term problems. It is not about time because the recovery period after surgery could be shorter than this period of rest. Some surgeons can have players back in 12 days after such a procedure. The club are just being sensible and avoiding the quickest possible fix.
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The return of Gerrard will have been welcomed?
You can’t overstate the importance of his appearance against Birmingham City last night. He came on just before half-time, hit the post, scored a penalty and created two other really good chances. He is the one Liverpool player, above all others, who makes things happen. It will now be about building his fitness up and working on a programme to make sure he is fully fit when their league campaign starts again on Saturday week.
Can the problems at Anfield be traced back to one problem or is it a series of things?
There are so many small things accumulating at the moment. At the start of the season a number of players were off form, then a bit of back luck went against them and then were a series of injuries. If you went through the team last night, player for player they did pretty well. If you look at the stats, they had around 78 per cent of possession, they had more chances. They didn’t make Joe Hart, the Birmingham goalkeeper, work as hard as they should have done, but they did more than enough to win.
If you look at the Fulham game, they gave a poor performance and got the defeat they deserved. But against Lyons and Birmingham there didn’t do much wrong. The situation has been made to look slightly worse than it is, but Liverpool’s form has been patchy. They need to get back to a more balanced way of playing, with defence and attack in harmony.
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The last week has been the kind a side have to go through to overcome a poor run of form. You are very unlikely just to come back and set the world alight, but slowly and surely things are starting to come together. The football they are playing of late is a lot more effective and the whole side looks more solid. They have only had one win in their past eight but if they keep playing the way they did against Lyons it won’t be long before they get back to winning ways.
Will Benitez look at his tactical approach? He has been criticised for being too negative by fielding two holding midfielders in Lucas and Javier Mascherano. Is that fair?
The two central midfielders played particularly well last night and Benitez is trying to give the team a solid platform. If he was playing two holding midfielders and two defensive-minded full backs then the criticism might be fair. But when you have Glen Johnson, Emiliano Insua and even Agger bringing the ball out, you need those players to give the side a bit more of a defensive platform.
The real problem is that there are a couple of players struggling for form. Dirk Kuyt is the obvious one, he is really out of sorts this season and last night there were four or five occasions when movements broke down when the ball went to him. His touch hasn’t been good and his final ball has been really poor. The tactics are only as good as the players who utilise them.
Benitez refused to rule Liverpool out of the title race last night, but realistically what is left to play for?
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I am loathe to say the title race is over for Liverpool. When they were beaten by Middlesbrough last season they fell nine points behind and I wrote that their title race was over. A 11-point gap to Chelsea sounds too much to pull back but there is something about this team that makes it hard to rule them out of anything.
If Liverpool get all their injured players back and if they do hit a good run of form then maybe they will go from strength to strength. Chelsea have still to go to Old Trafford and Anfield and they still have to cope with the loss of four key players to the African Cup of Nations. You certainly wouldn’t back Liverpool, I am not going to do that, but there is a long way to go in the season. There are a lot of players at Anfield who have to answers questions about themselves. The manager has questions to answer and if they answer them all in the right way then maybe they could get themselves back into it.
The immediate aim has to be to get into that top four. Liverpool exist to win trophies and as soon as that changes the club will cease to be what it is. Missing out on the top four would be sporting and financial disaster.