This will be a quick one. You can point at the early missed chances, you can point at Mascherano's red card and you can point at the slices of fortune in Portsmouth's goals: the truth is that Liverpool were extremely poor.

What's more, there was absolutely no belief in them when Liverpool went behind. The minimum you would have expected was for the players to show some fight but that never happened.

Is it time up for Benitez then? I don't know about that but, for someone with a reputation built around his tactical acumen, surely he must be aware that Liverpool can't keep playing the same way.

This system worked with Alonso pulling the strings but with both Lucas and Mascherano in the centre there is no creativity.

He must also show that he can fire up the players. There is no belief and fight in them, which is perhaps the most worrying aspect.

Oh, and he must learn to give up on Andrea Dossena. He's not good enough to be Liverpool's left back and he certainly isn't anywhere near good enough to be starting in left midfield.

One other thing that is certain is that although Liverpool fans are more patient than most, we have been through this before with Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier and in both the faith was misplaced. Benitez must realise that he must turn the situation round quickly if he wants to avoid that patience running out.

As for the players against Portsmouth, there were some absolutely attrocious performances - Glen Johnson and Dirk Kuyt above all - and only the two central defenders bordered decent. It is easy to blame Rafa but the players must take a hard look at themselves and decide whether they really want to be playing for this club. If they do then they would better start showing it because from the stands it looks as if most of them aren't fit to wear the shirt.