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IF RAFA BENITEZ is allowed to carry on as Liverpool boss, will the last person to leave Merseyside please turn off the lights.
The face of Javier Mascherano spoke a million words - dejected, distraught, desperate, desolate, dumbstruck.
Seconds earlier Clint Dempsey had scored Fulham's third goal with Liverpool reduced to nine men and staring at the bottom of a bottomless barrel.
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Mascherano's expression summed up Liverpool's horrendous season.
As Monty Python might have said, this Liverpool is an ex-football team.
Benitez has clearly gone as far as he can. With the season in the League a write-off the Reds might as well start from scratch and give someone enough time to bed in for the next one.
To adapt one of Ian Holloway's best-ever gems, if Liverpool's players fell in a barrel of t*ts they'd come out sucking their thumbs.
They were static. No improvisation. No off-the-ball movement. Waiting for the ball to come to them rather than creating the openings by making runs in numbers.
The famous pass-and-move, get-and-give school of Liverpool has been reduced to the hit-and-hope for years - under Gerard Houllier first and then Benitez.
It is now EIGHT losses in 16 games this season.
So 'if you analyse' to use a Benitez catchphrase: Where is the coaching? Where is the direction? Where are the ideas?
Manchester United and Arsenal play cavalier football, Chelsea are as good on the eye. All three clearly know what they're looking for on the pitch.
But not Benitez's losers. No ideas, no direction, no imagination, no pace, no hope.
It is now SEVEN games, SIX losses, FIVE defeats in the league, FOUR trophy-less years, out of Premier League contention just THREE months into the season.
The Final Countdown in the S-painful reign of a man short on ideas but full of pathetic excuses.
Yet two squabbling Yank owners seem unable and powerless to make the one decision which is bleeding obvious. So Liverpool still pay Benitez £5m a year to guide them from disaster to disaster.
With half an hour to spare and the teams level, Benitez took off the only player - Fernando Torres - on the pitch who could win the points Liverpool desperately needed.
Why? To save him for Lyon where Liverpool must win to keep their slim Champions League chances alive.
Rafa's claims Liverpool have a "strong squad" are hollow. Without Torres, Liverpool have no strikers worthy of pulling on the red shirt.
For the 6,000 Liverpool fans in West London and countless millions around the country and the rest of the world, this was the game they wanted to win.
For Benitez the only thing that matters is self-preservation. Europe has always given him an alibi and that's what he's counting on yet again to stay in a job.
So roll on another year of Premier League failure, another year of misery, another year of turgid tosh served up as the 'Liverpool way' a-la-Benitez.
There are £232million reasons why the Yanks must act. That is how much Benitez has frittered away to amass a concoction of run-of-the-mill at best, hopeless at worst, professionals.
Apart from Torres and - possibly Mascherano - there is not one Benitez signing still playing for Liverpool that would get a game for any other top club in England.
What is Andriy Voronin doing at Anfield? He did nothing here. Who is Emiliano Insua? A sorry imitation of a left-back who is hoping to stop attackers by looking at them just like he did for Bobby Zamora's opener.
The simplicity with which one pass wide and a square ball undid Liverpool's defence was staggering.
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Last week's triumph over Manchester United papered over the cracks for a couple of days. They're not really cracks though, it's a Grand Canyon of catastrophe Benitez is presiding over.
Nothing that was on show at Fulham gives Reds fans any glimmer of hope.
Never in living memory have Liverpool been so bad - even in the worst days of Houllier.
Bereft of talent, ideas, vision or character. Gutless, soul-less, caricatures in Red shirts with the famous Liver bird.
After 5½ years of Benitez, Liverpool have been reduced to a sorry excuse of a football side.
Living on past glories and borrowed time - that is what Benitez is doing. He's not steering the Reds into chaos. They're already in the eye of a cyclone.
Which Liverpool player touched the ball the most in the first half? Sotirios Kyrgiakos. Who he? A Greek with a ponytail who kept passing it to Carragher who kept passing it back to him.
So they had 74 per cent first-half possession - most of which was inside their own half. Benitez, though, claimed they "dominated".
Fulham enjoyed watching the two Red centre-halves give each other the ball as they were hardly ever under threat.
Style?
Liverpool's build-up was reduced to long balls in the hope Torres might, just might be able to control it under pressure from two or three white shirts.
The world's best striker did manage to level things up purely on instinct by feeding on a scrappy clearance by Aaron Hughes and firing home.
After the restart it seemed Fulham would win score as they mounted an attack. And they did with supersub Erik Nevland's backheel after Pepe Reina flapped at Paul Konchesky's cross.
Nevland then fed Dempsey to round things off when Liverpool had lost the pedestrian Philipp Degen to a red card for a late challenge on the Yank.
Carragher had also walked after ref Lee Mason failed to spot he got the ball before bundling Zamora into the ground, being the last man.
How soon before Benitez walks is anyone's guess. Even a win in Lyon will no longer mask the rot that has set in under the Spaniard's watch.
Here's a message the American owners will understand as it made Barack Obama president a year ago this week: Liverpool need Change We Can Believe In.
The face of Javier Mascherano spoke a million words - dejected, distraught, desperate, desolate, dumbstruck.
Seconds earlier Clint Dempsey had scored Fulham's third goal with Liverpool reduced to nine men and staring at the bottom of a bottomless barrel.
ltbx2708257
40
0
/sol/
1
Mascherano's expression summed up Liverpool's horrendous season.
As Monty Python might have said, this Liverpool is an ex-football team.
Benitez has clearly gone as far as he can. With the season in the League a write-off the Reds might as well start from scratch and give someone enough time to bed in for the next one.
To adapt one of Ian Holloway's best-ever gems, if Liverpool's players fell in a barrel of t*ts they'd come out sucking their thumbs.
They were static. No improvisation. No off-the-ball movement. Waiting for the ball to come to them rather than creating the openings by making runs in numbers.
The famous pass-and-move, get-and-give school of Liverpool has been reduced to the hit-and-hope for years - under Gerard Houllier first and then Benitez.
It is now EIGHT losses in 16 games this season.
So 'if you analyse' to use a Benitez catchphrase: Where is the coaching? Where is the direction? Where are the ideas?
Manchester United and Arsenal play cavalier football, Chelsea are as good on the eye. All three clearly know what they're looking for on the pitch.
But not Benitez's losers. No ideas, no direction, no imagination, no pace, no hope.
It is now SEVEN games, SIX losses, FIVE defeats in the league, FOUR trophy-less years, out of Premier League contention just THREE months into the season.
The Final Countdown in the S-painful reign of a man short on ideas but full of pathetic excuses.
Yet two squabbling Yank owners seem unable and powerless to make the one decision which is bleeding obvious. So Liverpool still pay Benitez £5m a year to guide them from disaster to disaster.
With half an hour to spare and the teams level, Benitez took off the only player - Fernando Torres - on the pitch who could win the points Liverpool desperately needed.
Why? To save him for Lyon where Liverpool must win to keep their slim Champions League chances alive.
Rafa's claims Liverpool have a "strong squad" are hollow. Without Torres, Liverpool have no strikers worthy of pulling on the red shirt.
For the 6,000 Liverpool fans in West London and countless millions around the country and the rest of the world, this was the game they wanted to win.
For Benitez the only thing that matters is self-preservation. Europe has always given him an alibi and that's what he's counting on yet again to stay in a job.
So roll on another year of Premier League failure, another year of misery, another year of turgid tosh served up as the 'Liverpool way' a-la-Benitez.
There are £232million reasons why the Yanks must act. That is how much Benitez has frittered away to amass a concoction of run-of-the-mill at best, hopeless at worst, professionals.
Apart from Torres and - possibly Mascherano - there is not one Benitez signing still playing for Liverpool that would get a game for any other top club in England.
What is Andriy Voronin doing at Anfield? He did nothing here. Who is Emiliano Insua? A sorry imitation of a left-back who is hoping to stop attackers by looking at them just like he did for Bobby Zamora's opener.
The simplicity with which one pass wide and a square ball undid Liverpool's defence was staggering.
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//Retrieve Blue Lithium & Bull frog Cookie Valuevar blueLithium = "No";blueLithium = get_cookie("BL")==null?"No":get_cookie("BL");var RStag = "";try{RStag = segQS;}catch(e){RStag = "";}document.write('');var ACE_AR = {Site: '751496', Size: '300250', Region: '2'};oz_sensor_filter="domain";
Dim adsVB,poadsVB=0If ScriptEngineMajorVersion >=2 then adsVB=1Function adsAX(aX)on error resume nextIf adsVB=1 thenadsAX=Falseset po=CreateObject(aX)adsAX=IsObject(po)If (err) then adsAX=FalseElseadsAX=FalseEnd IfEnd Function Last week's triumph over Manchester United papered over the cracks for a couple of days. They're not really cracks though, it's a Grand Canyon of catastrophe Benitez is presiding over.
Nothing that was on show at Fulham gives Reds fans any glimmer of hope.
Never in living memory have Liverpool been so bad - even in the worst days of Houllier.
Bereft of talent, ideas, vision or character. Gutless, soul-less, caricatures in Red shirts with the famous Liver bird.
After 5½ years of Benitez, Liverpool have been reduced to a sorry excuse of a football side.
Living on past glories and borrowed time - that is what Benitez is doing. He's not steering the Reds into chaos. They're already in the eye of a cyclone.
Which Liverpool player touched the ball the most in the first half? Sotirios Kyrgiakos. Who he? A Greek with a ponytail who kept passing it to Carragher who kept passing it back to him.
So they had 74 per cent first-half possession - most of which was inside their own half. Benitez, though, claimed they "dominated".
Fulham enjoyed watching the two Red centre-halves give each other the ball as they were hardly ever under threat.
Style?
Liverpool's build-up was reduced to long balls in the hope Torres might, just might be able to control it under pressure from two or three white shirts.
The world's best striker did manage to level things up purely on instinct by feeding on a scrappy clearance by Aaron Hughes and firing home.
After the restart it seemed Fulham would win score as they mounted an attack. And they did with supersub Erik Nevland's backheel after Pepe Reina flapped at Paul Konchesky's cross.
Nevland then fed Dempsey to round things off when Liverpool had lost the pedestrian Philipp Degen to a red card for a late challenge on the Yank.
Carragher had also walked after ref Lee Mason failed to spot he got the ball before bundling Zamora into the ground, being the last man.
How soon before Benitez walks is anyone's guess. Even a win in Lyon will no longer mask the rot that has set in under the Spaniard's watch.
Here's a message the American owners will understand as it made Barack Obama president a year ago this week: Liverpool need Change We Can Believe In.
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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