Shambolic Reds limp to Lyon in search of salvation

“HE’LL ****ing have to play,” growled John Aldridge, one-time Anfield goal-machine now turned radio pundit, as a final word to colleagues as he exited Craven Cottage.

The “he” referred to Fernando Torres, of course. Or was it Steven Gerrard? As ever, Liverpool’s prospects of success revolve around their only two genuinely world-class players and Champions League lives are on the line now, in Lyon on Wednesday.

Neither are fit and their absence was certainly keenly felt in west London on Saturday as Liverpool’s tortured season endured another excruciating twist.

Gerrard, whose groin injury could yet have to be cured by last-resort surgery, played no part and Torres, who is playing through a similar problem, lasted a fraction over an hour. Any side would be diminished by a lack of Gerrard but the effect of also taking Torres out of the equation was catastrophic: Liverpool collapsed into utter chaos.

First they fell behind to a cheeky goal conjured up, ironically, by two Fulham substitutes. Then Philipp Degen and Jamie Carragher were shown straight red cards and three points that should have been theirs evaporated. Yet again.

It was their fifth Premier League reverse in just 11 fixtures. In 2008-09 they were beaten just twice all season.

Liverpool have already been beaten at Anfield by Lyon yet Rafael Benitez, the manager, is no stranger to Champions League escapology, both in the group stage and in actual finals themselves.

Nobody would put a single cent on them ending their title drought next May but success against the odds in Europe’s premier cup competition? Stranger things have happened, although Glen Johnson, the defender, laid bare the possible effects of defeat in France yesterday, suggesting early elimination would be nothing short of “a disaster”.

Benitez has become used to having to explain away disappointment in recent weeks as the 2-0 victory over Manchester United now appears to be a brief blip of joy rather than the end of a sorry sequence of under-achievement. It will come as no surprise to learn he used injuries as an excuse.

“If I hadn’t played Torres at the beginning we would be talking about why he is not playing,” the Spaniard said.

“It was a difficult decision because he can’t do a proper warm-up so we decided we would take him off at a certain moment. We decided it would be 60 minutes because the last time it was 80 minutes and he needed four days to be fit.

“The problem we have now with injuries is that we cannot play too many games without Gerrard, without Torres, without (Glen) Johnson, without (Albert) Riera, without a lot of players.

“It was clear we needed to do something because always you need to protect the player. We were more or less in control of the game so to keep the player on the pitch might have led to a problem and maybe we would lose him for one month.”

Benitez will appeal against both red cards. Degen’s was for up-ending Clint Dempsey and Carragher’s for impeding Bobby Zamora’s route to goal. Carragher insisted he had played the ball.

“I felt I got a toe to the ball,” the defender said. “The referee was not in the greatest position and it is always a dead give-away when the player you are tackling says at the time that I won the ball.

“Zamora actually turned to me and said that so that says it all. Hopefully the ref can take a look at it again.”

At least he and Degen will be available for duty in the Stade de Gerland.

“These are tough times at the moment and it is hurting a lot,” Carragher said.

“We made up for a few things last week by beating Manchester United and then we have had two defeats since and we have just got to turn it around. There will be a lot of talk about this result again, but it is only on the pitch that we can change things.

“We have got to sort this out with the management and the staff and get back on the training pitch because Lyon is another massive game.

“We can’t afford to be too down-hearted for too long because we have got to get ready for the next game. This is un-Liverpool like but it is not just the fans who are disappointed, it is the players, the staff and the manager. Hopefully we can look back and say that we had tough times but that we came through it and hopefully we can win a bit of silverware.”

Carragher’s repeated use of the word ‘hopefully’ betrayed the sense of uncertainty at Anfield these days and Liverpool supporters are justified in wondering how it is their expensively-assembled side is so hopelessly reliant on two key performers, without whom all hope appears to evaporate.

To focus on Liverpool’s manifold shortcomings would, of course, be a disservice to Fulham, whose manager Roy Hodgson also has a balancing act to perform between European and Premier League commitments.

The Cottagers have a Europa League date in Rome on Thursday and Damien Duff’s achilles problem means he will take no part in that.

“The moment you dilute your chances of winning one competition by trying to win the other one, it makes life much more difficult and also what happens, you get injuries because players don’t get the time to recover,” he said.

Zamora opened the scoring against the run of play midway through the first half and Torres’s fine equaliser counted for naught when Erik Nevland put Fulham back ahead with a cheeky back-heel after fellow replacement Zoltan Gera had set him up, with Dempsey wrapping things up late on against the nine men.

REFEREE: Lee Mason (Staffordshire) 7: Benitez was convinced the official had called both red cards incorrectly but, as Roy Hodgson pointed out, Degen was reckless when he slid in at speed on Dempsey.

MATCH RATING: ***** It would be difficult to pack more incident into 90 minutes, certainly at a place like Craven Cottage where they seem to prefer life to be under-stated if not downright sedate.