Liverpool's public put it bluntly

The argument goes that just as it is rational discussion and not feverish ranting which changes opinions, it is supporters and not players who get managers the sack.

No doubt those who pull the strings inside Anfield will meet shortly to discuss rationally a chilly Tuesday night in Strasbourg when Liverpool's reputation as a major European football force was all but shredded by a depleted side of no great pedigree.

The Liverpool supporters have already had their meeting. It was staged at Strasbourg's deserted airport in the early hours of Wednesday morning and the verdict was both unanimous and swiftly delivered; as the Liverpool players arrived to check in for their flight home, they were subjected to a barrage of insults and abuse. Joe Public had spoken and the message was loud and it was clear.

As Roy Evans, the manager, may discover to his cost, being a nice guy with a pleasant demeanour is not usually sufficient to save your neck in modern football. The sense of unity which prevails at Anfield is such that Liverpool are never said to be in crisis, more suffering the annoyance of temporary hardship.

And yet yesterday as the aftershocks promoted by a 3-0 Uefa Cup mauling washed over Merseyside, there was talk in the corridors of power of a "crucial month ahead" for Evans. His waspish spirit crushed, he cut a desperately sad figure in the aftermath of Tuesday's defeat by a team which may be relegated from the French First Division come season's end.

The first sentence he uttered - fittingly to condemn rather than to defend - contained the key word: disillusioned. It was a word he was to repeat countless times during the course of countless interviews.

The obvious inference was that Evans was holding up his hand to acknowledge publicly that he had lost the plot, that he had given of his best, but was now ready to accept the inevitable. Perhaps.

Yesterday, he announced he would not be standing down and that he wished to continue to oversee the antics of a team which can no longer be trusted. "There is no point in walking away; you must try and solve the problem. Sometimes you must sit back and take stock of things. We are all in this together. It is not just about me, but the staff and the players as well.

"We all most show our true character now. You have spells like this in football when you must stand up and be counted. I take the responsibility because it is my job."

All well and good, but human nature is such that those empowered with finding Evans' successor, immediate or eventual, will already be mentally short-listing possible candidates.

It is actually a process to be renewed rather than begun for last season, once it became apparent that the title could not be won, Liverpool let it be known the hunt was on for a "top-class European coach", a man to broaden horizons, a man to drag a traditional club into a new era.

Nothing happened, presumably because the powers that be - Liverpool's chairman David Moors is particularly close to Evans - hoped, or believed, the present incumbent would do the job.

Evans still believes that if the players he has bought at such enormous expense prove themselves to be essential components rather than mere tools, he can halt the slide.

Others are not so sure any more and, as always, that most accurate barometer of public opinion, the audience, will be closely monitored on Saturday when Derby County arrive at Anfield seeking to compound the problems of a good man fallen to his knees.