Guus Hiddink replacing Rafa Benitez

Can any lifelong Liverpool fan ever recall a low such as this? I don’t remember things being as bad since the loss of the title to Arsenal in 1989.

Watching Liverpool AT HOME against Reading in the FA Cup 3rd round replay was an agonising, and frankly sad spectacle to watch. A bunch of overpaid, useless lumps tarnshing the name of the great football club….formerly THE greatest football club. But no more.

Rafa’s staunchest supporters will surely be having their patience tested now. How much longer can we allow the likes of Lucas to sit at the heart of the team, the ever-increasingly-cart-horse-like Carragher at the centre of defence (to even see the slowest player on the team attempting to forage down the wing was some sight), and then the fantastic Torres’ inadequate understudy Ngog leading the line following his masters withdrawal half an hour into the game through injury.

Fair enough, losing both Torres and Gerrard to injury during the match was a huge blow, but in fact, Liverpool started playing BETTER in the second half in their absence. So what went wrong?

Unfair really to lay the blame at the feet of Aquilani, whose insistence on Hollywood passes didn’t help matters. But for a player that has only started not even a handful of games, he can be forgiven. When you’re filling the boots   of Xabi Alonso, there’s a lot to live up to. But what of Rafa?

We are witnessing the demise of a man who has clearly lost   his dressing room. But how can this happen so quickly, given Liverpool were on a flyer last season, finsishing second to Man Utd in the league, and unluckily losing out to Chelsea in the Champions League.

There is no heart, no fight, no incision, no inventiveness, and an over insistence on a tight unit with no pace on the wings. Kuyt will always put in 110% graft, but come on, he’s no winger is he?

I can see no light at the end of the tunnel, and the only reason Rafa is still at the club is due to the threat of the club having to forfeit some £20m if they sack Rafa. Yet, in hindsight, this money could have been off-set by successful cup campaigns and the gate receipts received as a result.

What odds on Torres and Gerrard not being at Anfield next   season? The only way they will be convinced to stay would be the promise of two, maybe three world class squad additions in the summer. I firmly believe that. Just look what a difference that has made to the likes of Man City.

But where the money will come from is another story. These are grim times at Liverpool FC…never before have they walked so alone.