Portsmouth 2 Liverpool 0:IT IS the season for talking turkey and Rafael Benitez can gobble-gobble like a Norfolk Bronze. The Liverpool manager spoke sarcastic nonsense afterwards about how the "perfect" referee was to blame for his side's deserved defeat by the Premier League's bottom side. Many more displays like this and the Spaniard's chances of survival much beyond Christmas will look as bright as a plump turkey's.
There are suggestions that after awarding him a new five-year contract in March the debt-ridden club cannot afford to sack Benitez. A more salient question might be whether Liverpool can afford to keep him. Days after insisting his side were guaranteed to finish in the top four, Benitez watched them produce their worst performance of an already-wretched season. Out of the Champions League early, Liverpool do not look like they will get back into it any time soon. In terms of points they are closer to the relegation zone than to the summit.
There was another curious team selection here, with the player on whom Benitez spent half his summer budget, the €25 million midfielder Alberto Aquilani, again unavailable after suffering a calf injury in training, and the much-maligned Italian defender Alberto Dossena brought in for his first start of the season. He was stationed in an advanced left-wing role as Yossi Benayoun was consigned to the bench.
The Israeli is one of the most creative players in a squad that lacks invention, yet he has played 90 minutes in just six of Liverpool’s 26 games this season. Dossena exerted no influence on proceedings but Benitez persisted with him into the second half, before finally introducing Benayoun in the 53rd minute.
Tactically Benitez was outwitted by Avram Grant who, during his short time at Chelsea, won two and drew two games against the Spaniard. Portsmouth’s five-man midfield stifled Steven Gerrard, and Fernando Torres was largely subdued by Tal Ben Haim and Younes Kaboul. With Benayoun on the bench the only other conceivable source of danger could have come from Glen Johnson, but Grant brought Nadir Belhadj back after a three-match absence to check the attack-minded full-back.
“Glen Johnson is one of the best full-backs at going forward and creating things but I knew that Belhadj is very quick and very good at getting behind to score and give assists,” explained Grant.
From nine matches against teams in the top half of the table this season, Liverpool have taken only five points. Now they struggle even to pick a way through low-ranking defences.
Johnson was uncomfortable on the back foot. So were his fellow defenders. With Martin Skrtel out of form and Sotirios Kyrgiakos seemingly out of his depth in the Premier League, Daniel Agger and Jamie Carragher represent Liverpool’s best central-defensive pairing. Here they were chaotic. Dithering by Agger had gifted Portsmouth two clear chances even before the 82nd minute, when he allowed Kevin Prince-Boateng to supply the cross that lead to the clinching goal. Carragher’s declining mobility was regularly exposed by Frederic Piquionne.
If a sizeable, though dwindling, number of Liverpool supporters retain faith in Benitez, it is probably because his most celebrated victories during his 5½ years at Anfield have come when all seemed lost. From the Champions League final in 2005 to last season’s 4-1 mauling of Manchester United that briefly reignited the title race, the rage of Benitez’s men have postponed the dying of the light. Ominously, their fightbacks are taking a less glorious turn. Javier Mascherano’s reaction to the torpor around him was to get himself sent off for a splenetic foul on Ben Haim, and he has been suspended for four games.
Guardian Service
