Will we win anything this season?

Once again, Benitez finds himself in the position of relying on Europe to redeem his club’s season. It worked magnificently in 2004/05, and almost did so again last season. But, it is hard to escape the feeling that, if Inter Milan overcome Liverpool in the European Cup, Benitez’s time at Anfield will be up.

His excessive rotation and arrogance towards lower league opposition has already been demonstrated in the FA Cup this season, as Liverpool were first held to a draw at Luton then twice fell behind to Havant & Waterlooville.

Furthermore, recent Premier League results have not exactly justified his dogmatic insistence on persevering with the policy of rotation. With eight points from their last seven league games, Liverpool, after all the talk of a title tilt, face a depressing scenario: slumming it out for fourth spot yet. Increasingly, pundits have referred to the Big Three rather than the Big Four, indicative of the extent of Liverpool’s slump of late.

Benitez, however, has no one to blame but himself: he has long since freed himself of his predecessor’s signings, and is responsible for the presence of Liverpool’s current quartet of strikers at the club. Moreover, in consecutive summers he has spent big on a forward – ‘the final piece in the jigsaw’. That was the idea, anyway. Unlike so many of his signings, however, Benitez’s headline acquisition last summer has justified the huge outlay. Fernando Torres has displayed power, poise and electrifying speed. Since a clinically-taken goal on his home debut against Chelsea, his finishing prowess has never been in doubt. What continues to bemuse and confound is Benitez’s willingness to ‘rest’ his £26.5million asset with such regularity that he has yet to forge a genuine partnership with any other forward.

Benitez has succeeded before with his tightrope-walking antics: infuriating fans and board alike by disregarding domestic competitions in favour of Europe, then gaining stunning vindication through results there. Now, however, the tightrope-walker extraordinaire is a slip away from losing his job.