Liverpool are not having a good year and tonight they were knocked out of the Champions League. It’s the first time since Benitez arrived in 2004 that the team has failed to make the knock out stages.
Liverpool were in a position where they needed other teams results to start going their way. They had to win and Fiorentina needed to drop points to Lyon. Liverpool beat Debrecen 1-0 in Budapest, however the Italian club beat Lyon by the same score.
The board has given him a vote of confidence and like the players, publicly state are fully behind the manager.
Saturday they play away at Everton in the first of the Liverpool derbys this year, while it’s not a must win game, they are 13 points behind the leaders and 6 points away from a place in the Champions League next year.
They need to start winning, clearly the Premier League is beyond them once again. I find it staggering that it’s been almost 20 years since the mighty reds last won the title. They were the team to beat in the 70’s and 80’s and at their height under Bob Paisley were possibly the best club side Europe has ever seen.
Real Madrid with Puskas or Liverpool with Dalglesh, two teams that were technically superior to anyone else. It would have been something to see.
As with every other failure in European Football there are significant financial implications. Making it into the first round of the knock out phase was worth maybe $4 Million, going al the way to the final was worth an estimated $70-80 to Barcelona last year. Again the sums money being thrown around is just staggering.