Rafa Benitez has reportedly told his players that he is sick of them playing the blame game and it is time for one and all to stand up and be counted.

Liverpool have not played good and attractive football for a very long time, which has led to a number of poor and disappointing results.

This has led to many people pointing the finger of blame as the players and fans have gone in search of answers. As far as the manager is concerned, enough is enough and he wants everyone to stand up and be counted until the end of the season.

He said: “I don’t think it is right to suggest there is any lack of trust between the players. You can look at last season as an example of that when these same players were doing well, playing with confidence and winning games and there was not a problem.”

“But against Wigan the keeper (Jose Reina ) was blaming the defenders for something that was wrong and the defenders were blaming the keeper. It happens in games but I don’t like it. If you are showing your disappointment with that sort of body language it is sending out the wrong message.”

“It is not positive and I don’t want to see this sort of reaction. I accept that each player is different but it is important to show leadership qualities and the right approach to your team-mates. I have told them I want an improvement and that if an error is made the person responsible must be kept on board.”

It has not helped the club that many key players have been injured for important games and key stages of the season. It is no wonder Liverpool have been losing points if they have not been able to name their best side ever week.

One such player, Glen Johnson, hopes to return in Europe. He said: “We know they are going to have some players with pace in certain areas. They’re well-organised and will work hard, and we know they are playing very well at home. I’ve been out for a while but I feel really good, although I’m just getting my match fitness back.”

Benitez does have a very good point. When a team is not playing well, they do rely upon team spirit to try and get them through each game. This case is no different and Liverpool must stick together if they are to have any chance of clinging onto fourth spot.

There are many areas the side can improve upon but history has shown that lower quality teams can succeed if they have a good team spirit and believe in each other. All Benitez is asking for is a little togetherness at a crucial stage.

Once Liverpool get a first choice team back on the field and once the players put their squabbles to one side, they are capable of repeating the performances of beating the likes of Manchester United on their own ground last year.

Things do not appear to be getting any better for Liverpool with a defeat at the hands of Wigan and a brand new controversy for Steven Gerrard.

The Liverpool captain appeared to make an insulting gesture towards referee, Andre Marriner, during the match last night after he was booked for sliding into a challenge a little too late.

Marriner talked to the player and booked him before Gerrard appeared to make a v sign at the referee while he was backing away from the incident.

It is just the thing that Rafa Benitez said recently that he was looking to avoid as he tries to gear up his side for a difficult run in to the current Premier League campaign. Liverpool’s frailties were once again exposed.

Benitez said: “I don’t know, I was too far away. We have to be really disappointed. After a defeat always you cannot be happy, but after a defeat in this way … the first half we didn’t do anything. We gave the ball away, we didn’t win any first or second ball and that is difficult to explain.”

“I think it was a question of attitude in the first half. Sometimes we played too quickly, we were in too much of a hurry. It was a poor half. In the second half there was a much better attitude, but it was not enough.”

“We had some chances but we didn’t play well. If you approach the game in this kind of way you cannot win this kind of game — or maybe any game. Everyone is very low. There are too many things we cannot understand.”

You would have to say that based on this result, Liverpool will not be playing Champions League football next season.

The point is that when big teams play well but do not score too many goals, they always manage to find a way to win the game. This often leads to a number of valuable points by the time the end of the season arrives.

Liverpool simply cannot afford any more mistakes and they will have to rely on the teams above them to make their own. The only problem is that these teams very rarely make such mistakes.

No doubt the club will let the Gerrard row wash over like water off of a duck’s back but the point is that they just do not seem to be going anywhere quickly. The club need to start winning and stay out of the headlines for all of the wrong reasons.

Wigan will be pleased that they managed to battle through a game they would have been expected to lose. Roberto Martinez has been coming under a lot of pressure himself and this will result will go a long way to acting as a pressure release valve.

Wigan need a few more points to maintain their security in the Premier League and they’ll be happy they have bagged another three and stayed out of the limelight.

Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez, is demanding focus ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League run in.

The manager has been under a lot of pressure and scrutiny in recent weeks because the fans have been saying the club doesn’t seem to be going any where under his management.

Liverpool have not been playing attractive football for a very long time and Benitez is demanding the focus, which is the only thing that has kept them in with a shout of securing a Champions League place for next year.

He said: “Manchester City, Tottenham and Aston Villa will be very dangerous so we cannot make many mistakes. We know last year was really good in terms of points in the league (86) and now we are in a different and more difficult situation because the expectations were very high.”

“It is really difficult because we have three or four teams really close. We have to keep this momentum and prove, show everyone else, we are good enough. I prefer to be positive and we will play well and continue to win.”

“We had problems on the right side (against Blackburn) with Mascherano playing full-back, which was a difficult decision. All the teams have good and bad moments, but they still have to carry on and go forward. If you analyse some games we have had too many injuries with big names unable to play.”

It is very difficult to see Liverpool hanging onto the fourth place position, which they have made their own for so very long. There are too many sides around them in better form who are capable of causing a huge upset and breaking into the top four.

Liverpool also do not look like a side who are in full sync with each other. There are too many injuries appearing in too many areas of the side, which will cost the team when the points are totted up at the end of the year.

The situation for them is quite a complex one to sort out. The ownership problems that once plagued the club do not seem to be a problem any more but the weakness of the over all squad definitely is.

There is still too much reliance on too few players at the club and it will take everyone pulling together to make the situation look much brighter for the club.

The problem is that Liverpool are playing the sort of football that a lot of lower league teams are well known for. When you use this style against a team that knows it inside out, it becomes very hard to win games and rack up points.

Benitez talks of focus and this means focus in every aspect of football. Liverpool will have to produce moments of pure quality, which have been lacking if they want to be the side that hangs onto that final Champions League position. It is a race that is certain to go right down to the final day of the season.

Liverpool face a potentially tricky situation when they take on Unirea Urziceni in a much criticised Europa League.

Many have said that the Europa League is an even worse competition than the UEFA Cup format it has replaced. Many clubs who have dropped out of the Champions League face the problem of motivating their high calibre players for irregular Thursday night games against unknown teams.

For Liverpool the form of European competition is being seen as a way of being able to transform their recent misfortunes. The Merseyside club have not played good football for a very long time and this could well end up being a morale booster as opposed to having the opposite effect.

Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez, said: “Today the training session was good — it had intensity and everyone was focused. Tomorrow before the game we will see how the atmosphere is, but it depends on us, if we can play well and get everyone behind us. You have to adapt.”

“The problem, and it is a good problem, is that we were always involved in the Champions League since I was here, but now we will try to do well in the Europa League.”

“Clearly I have confidence we will finish in the top four and be in the Champions League again. We have to do our best in every competition. We want to be successful and be in the top four. To play three, maybe four [extra] fixtures when you don’t have time with international football — when will you play, how can you play these games, and what does it mean for the team that finishes fourth?”

“Maybe we can do the same with the teams at the bottom of the table. If you finish fourth maybe you could play the team who finished third from bottom. Then during the whole season we can play 50 games and we don’t have to rest, so that will be fantastic.”

“We are playing too much now. They were talking about a 39th game being played in Asia. If we now play the play-offs, we’ll be playing until the end of the century.”

Benitez quickly needs to get the team playing successful and attacking football. Liverpool have reminded many of the way a Bolton side played a few years ago. Terrible football but winning none the less.

A lot of Liverpool fans always used the team to enjoy and forget about the ownership problems that have plagued the club. Now it has become clear that it will take a catastrophic slump in the club’s fortunes for Benitez to be sacked, he has to get the team playing well again.

Liverpool should be under no illusions that their Europa League tie will be a tough one because there are some very good teams still left in the competition. If they go to sleep for one moment then Unirea will step in and add to the mounting problems.

Liverpool fans are widely known for their loyalty and support for whoever operates the Anfield hot seat. It’s a characteristic which influenced an added a season or two onto Gerard Houllier’s reign before he was ushered out The Shankly Gates in the summer of 2004.

A series of cup successes and a runners-up spot in the Premier League in 2002 – still the only time the reds have finished ahead of Manchester United in the Premier League – appeared to gift the Frenchman extra leeway for his final two flailing seasons in charge.

After finishing second to Arsenal that year with some of the best football us ‘pool fans had seen since the 80s, bookmakers took a substantial amount of money on Liverpool ending their title drought the following season, only to see them spectacularly fall back down to earth with a fifth place finish come May 2003.

Sound familiar? Of course it does. Fast-forward the best part of half a decade and Rafa Benitez, Houllier’s successor, finds himself in a similar predicament. Sunday’s 2-0 win in the Merseyside derby cannot offer even the most optimistic of Liverpool fans any hope of turning around this already wretched season.

With five defeats in the opening fourteen league games, the damage has already been done, and the less said about the early  exit the better. After Wayne Rooney’s poor-man’s hat-trick at Fratton Park, and Didier Drogba’s emphatic brace at the Emirates, the two best teams in the country continue to win at an alarmingly easy rate, while Benitez’s side lie some 13 points off the pace at the end of November with 10 points fewer than they had this time last season.

For all the support the Spaniard has from the Anfield faithful, myself included, his stubbornness is becoming increasingly frustrating. Despite two mediocre wins this week the side continue to struggle for any real fluency, so after spending a reported £20million on the clearly talented Alberto Aquilani, Benitez’s decision to repeatedly leave the Italian on the bench is even more baffling than his native language’s apparent need for inserting upside-down question marks on every written query.

My main concern now, however, is that I can see his reign going the way his French predecessor’s did. With Tottenham being rampant so far this season, and Aston Villa proving sturdy enough to grind out results, the prospect of finishing fifth a season after being runners-up is very, very genuine. The Londoners and the Villains have already notched up wins against Liverpool this season and I haven’t even mentioned Man City yet. All three offer the right credentials to finish ahead of Steven Gerrard and co., and so far the pressure has yet to get to them.

Benitez won’t be sacked – it’s too costly for the club after he signed a new five year deal in March of this year, a contract offer which could now leave the club owners with egg on their face. At the same time, it’s difficult to see the Spaniard quitting, for his stubbornness when under pressure can, at times, be even more pathetic than 34-year-old Gary Neville’s woeful attempts at growing facial hair. Come to think of it… maybe not quite that feeble.
What I will say is this – Liverpool should be monitoring Guus Hiddink’s situation with Russia. After failure to qualify for the World Cup, the Dutchman’s contract runs out next summer and, should my judgements in the previous paragraph prove incorrect (I have a history of Pele-esque predictions, most recently Reading for promotion), he would prove the outstanding candidate to replace Benitez.

Houllier was only granted one more season after missing out on Champions League football to Newcastle and Chelsea in 2003. And as Jamie Carragher’s best days sadly look to be behind him, coupled with Gerrard turning 30 at the end of this term’s failure-in-the-making, I wouldn’t be surprised if next year is Benitez’s last crack at the big one.

In Rafa we trust? I’m not so sure anymore.

Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez, has said he is satisfied regardless of Liverpool’s win in their opening Champions League match against Debrecen. Liverpool won the match 1-0 but failed to cash in on the ample chances that they had through out the entire match.

On another night captain, Steven Gerrard, could have scored a hat trick but the manager says that as far as he is concerned, it is three points and a win is a win. Liverpool fans were audibly annoyed by the display, as the side struggled at times to make the most of their advantage.

Dirk Kuyt got the only goal of the game and even that was off a rebound after Fernando Torres had sent a tame shot in at the keeper. For Liverpool to stand a chance of competing against the bigger sides in the Champions League this season then they will have to drastically improve and improve quickly.

Benitez said: “This was always a dangerous game because before people were talking about us maybe scoring eight goals or something like this. But we knew that in Europe it is not easy, especially at this level.. They have won their league four times in the last five seasons because they have some quality so it was important just to get three points.”

“Today it was important just to win and now we can approach the next game with more confidence. We are winning games in a row now so hopefully confidence in the dressing room will be higher. You have to take your chances and then this type of game would be easy..”

“You have to give credit to them. They were well organised and they were working very hard, pressing every single ball. But they also made some mistakes in defence and we didn’t score – that was the difference for me. We had to be careful, especially at the end. We were expected to score a lot of goals and we had the chances but couldn’t score.”

Liverpool and the rest of the English sides all won their matches but were all unconvincing. It seems that Real Madrid were the only team to absolutely romp to a win as they scored five times in their opening match against FC Zurich.

Attention will now switch back to the Premier League but it looks like it will be an interesting campaign in Europe this year for Benitez’s men, one that they could just as easily do well in as fail in.

Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez, has had a dig at the amount of money floating around in the modern game. Benitez believes that football has become tainted by its orientation to finances and says that players such as Gareth Barry should be ashamed of themselves for moving to a club because of cash.

Benitez had been linked with Barry for a very long time but he ultimately chose to go to Manchester City who were offering him a wage deal that Liverpool could not even get close to. Furthermore in a season where players are moving between clubs for world record amounts of cash, Benitez has praised the likes of Glen Johnson, who Liverpool themselves had to pay over the odds for.

Benitez said: “He [Johnson] was always thinking about Liverpool so for us to sign a player who wants to come, an England international with experience of being at a big club, is really good, because of his desire to be successful here. In this market, money is not the main thing because everyone at this level earns big money. If it’s just for money sometimes you make mistakes, like Barry.”

“I won’t say too much but that was clearly for the money, 100 per cent. It is not a bad thing to miss out on him. The most important thing is the passion of the player.”

Benitez does have a clear point in the respect that you would rather have a player at your club who seems genuinely grateful to be there as opposed to someone who is just there to go through the motions and then pick up his wage packet at the end of the day.

There are a lot of players in football who are just mercenaries and will go to the club that offers them the most money but this is now an accepted part of the game. Benitez is quite within his rights to come out and have a dig at Barry and the amount of cash floating around in football but it is something that Liverpool themselves have adopted, they did spend £30 million on Fernando Torres not too long ago.

What Benitez is probably more worried about is the ability of the biggest clubs in Europe to monopolise. The danger of this is that if only a few clubs can afford to buy the very best players in the world then the gap between them and everyone else will one day get so big that it cannot be overcome.

This is the real danger that Benitez probably has in mind but doesn’t want to talk about openly in the media. When a manager comes out and knocks certain players who are only in the game for cash, it is not really new news and we have all heard this sort of story before.

The point is that when you read between the lines of many transfers and players switching between clubs you begin to realise the massive dangers that you would otherwise have not paid any attention to. It is also important to consider that Liverpool are very much a club in transition. Benitez is trying to create something that will take his side closer to title winning form and give them a chance of lifting the European Cup they won not too long ago.

Therefore whenever something happens along the line that dents the larger vision of a manager or club it is quite natural for that person to come out and have a sly dig at the person responsible. If Barry had gone to Liverpool then it is unlikely that Benitez would be talking about another target that Liverpool have missed out on, maybe David Villa, who looks set to remain in Spain for bigger wages.

It is a well used cliché in life but there is no smoke without fire and it is an unfortunate set of circumstances when a lot of players choose to join clubs they may not necessarily want to go to because it means they can retire as soon as their playing careers are over.

The point is that now a lot of clubs and managers have to be very careful with the people they are trying to buy. In a world where football is dominated so much by money it means that a lot of players in sides may not be giving their all for that particular club.

Therefore if you can buy a player that actually wants to be at your club, although he may be of less quality, he could turn out to be more valuable than a better player elsewhere on better money. A determined player who loves his club can often raise his levels of performance enough to be able to cope with a much better opposition side or player.

This means that sometimes when you are buying a player it is more valuable to look at the things that you may not normally look at. This is the underlying thing that Benitez is talking about because he clearly knows that there are particular players that Liverpool would want to sign but they are players that would not give their all for the club.

It is actually quite refreshing to see a manager who would rather buy someone who is not as good just because he wants to put the Liverpool shirt on every week and tap the sign each time as he walks out at Anfield. There are players like this out there but because money is bigger in football than it has ever been a lot of players are becoming tainted to epic proportions.

Football is a game where you have to play the system sometimes and Liverpool will have to in future months. The point is that Benitez will only part with his cash if it is for the right player, a player that wants to play for Liverpool and a player that is not buying into a lucrative Liverpool contract. He will quite happily spend a lot of money but the point is that he will not throw it away in trying to create something special if players are there for all of the wrong reasons.