Policies and players prove baffling

Rafael Benitez sounded like a man in deep shock, and it was hard not to turn away as he kept repeating the most meaningless explanation for defeat ever invented: what can you do, he said, when you go four goals down before half-time?

But it is to his credit he did not duck the obligation to appear before the television cameras on Tuesday night, in the immediate aftermath of Liverpool's worst result at Anfield in living memory.

Only once since he arrived at the club have his players flirted with a humiliation of similar proportions. In May 2005 they went three goals down to AC Milan in the first 45 minutes in Istanbul, and never in the 50-year history of the European Cup final had a team looked so outclassed. But from the depths of the club's history Steven Gerrard and his team-mates summoned a spirit that enabled them to break their opponents' will.

Benitez took a winner's medal, although the victory on the night had little to do with him. But if he could not claim much credit for that success, the manager was certainly responsible for this week's disaster. Over the course of 90 astonishing minutes, the principal flaws of his stewardship emerged with terrifying clarity.

First came his insistence, true to his policy of rotation, on making nine changes to the team who had lost to the same opponents three days earlier, retaining only Gerrard and the number two goalkeeper, Jerzy Dudek, who had given an uncertain performance on Saturday. Even though that first defeat by Arsenal had removed them from one of the two domestic knockout competitions, Benitez evidently did not take the other tournament seriously enough to contest it with the best available players.

Out of the FA Cup, out of contention again in the Premiership and facing the prospect of facing Barcelona in the Champions League, Liverpool have been made to pay an extra price for their manager's priorities.

When Arsene Wenger sent out a team packed with teenaged reserves on Tuesday, it was part of a long-term strategy with a twofold purpose. Wenger is using the League Cup to satisfy the desire of his talented youngsters for first-team action, and to temper their talents in the flame of real competition. Not everyone applauds Wenger's reluctance to put his trust in young English players. The success of his approach, however, ensures a prosperous future for the club. He saw a problem, and he fixed it with a radical solution requiring considerable faith.

All one hears from Liverpool are complaints about products of the Melwood academy, and vague suggestions it is all the fault of Gerard Houllier, who left the club two and half years ago.

The second major accusation levelled against Benitez arises from his habit of bringing to the club players who lack the sort of quality that would restore Liverpool's eminence. Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia may have matched the contributions of Didier Hamann and Vladimir Smicer to the Houllier era, and the injury to Mohamed Sissoko came at an unfortunate time, but if Peter Crouch has a place in Liverpool's history then it is surely only as a modern equivalent of the hapless Tony Hateley, while Jermaine Pennant, Mark Gonzalez, Fabio Aurelio and Craig Bellamy belong one rung down the Premiership ladder.

And then, on Tuesday night, came a display by Gabriel Paletta that made one wonder on what evidence Benitez based his decision to spend £2 million to bring the 20-year-old centre back from the Argentinian club Banfield.

Benitez spends a lot of time explaining he does not enjoy the resources available to Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho, but the same could be said of Wenger. The successor to Shankly and Paisley shows few signs of being able to make the best use of what he has, and Tuesday night may come to be seen as the defeat that finally undermined his regime.

You could only feel sorry for Danny Guthrie, a 19-year-old academy graduate on the right of Liverpool's midfield. Toiling amid the rubble, he showed flashes of deftness and invention. Had he been wearing an Arsenal shirt, we might have been hailing the arrival of a world-beater.