Benitez lets European campaign undermine Liverpool's battle plan

Losing your unbeaten Premier League record at the start of a week when you play the biggest games of your season so far, sandwiched in between a meeting with your employers, is perhaps not the smartest move in Rafa Benitez's career.

But what will be most galling for Liverpool fans, never mind Tom Hicks and George Gillette, is that Benitez meekly surrendered this league game in the name of European football.

The message was that Marseille on Tuesday is more important. When his team went 2-1 down with half an hour to go, off came Benitez's star striker Fernando Torres. After the killer third goal from Reading, who earned this result as much as Liverpool lost it, up went the fourth official's board to end Steven Gerrard's participation with 19 minutes to go. When finally Jamie Carragher was hauled off eight minutes from time, it seemed a long way from a team who once famously battled back from 3-0 down to win the European Cup.

Ironically, it was meant to have been Reading's Steve Coppell who raised the white flag. He said prior to the game that it would be a bonus to take anything from it, but Reading were invited to beat a narrow Liverpool with width, and Gerrard curiously in left midfield. But there were no apologies from Benitez, who found it difficult to say Europe was not the priority.
'We were losing 3-1 and with the quality we have on the bench I was trying to change things with different players with pace and trying to protect key players,' said the Spaniard in an explanation that did not explain that much.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and in many ways Benitez did make decisions that had clearly worked for him in previous games. Three changes in midfield were the same as before their past two Champions League games.

Playing young Jack Hobbs in place of Sami Hyypia and not, as mooted, Carragher, who was just one booking away from missing next Sunday's important game against Manchester United, was not the cause of their downfall. There would also have been plenty of Liverpool supporters who would have been pleased with the decision to go with Torres from the start.

Reading's opener, a hotly-debated 17th-minute penalty, was the beginning of a long evening for Liverpool. Carragher clumsily challenged Kevin Doyle on the right side of the penalty area. Referee Andre Marriner paused before awarding the spot-kick and then - after some furious Liverpool objections and some comical histrionics from Jose Reina - he consulted his assistant before confirming his original decision. Stephen Hunt was unmoved by the furore, calmly slotting the ball low to his left.

But after putting Liverpool's 4-1-2-3 formation to the sword for the next 10 minutes, Reading rather committed hari-kari. Ibrahima Sonko got sucked in by Reina's long punt, allowing Torres a ridiculous amount of time to chest the ball down and lay off a pass for Gerrard to burst through the centre and pass the ball past a stranded Marcus Hahnemann.

On another day Liverpool could have buried Reading. Early in the second half Torres screwed a Gerrard cross just past the left post, Hobbs broke Reading's offside trap, but fluffed his effort and Riise fully tested Hahnemann with a sizzling 30-yard drive. Gerrard also saw a stunning curling shot crash off the bar and a subdued Peter Crouch hit the post.

Yet by that point the game was beyond the visitors as Reading had hit them with two brilliant sucker punches. First, on the hour Reading regained the lead when Doyle got his highlights on to the end of Nicky Shorey's goal-bound free-kick.

Then seven minutes later they floored Liverpool with a touch of class. Doyle and Bobby Convey linked superbly down the left before the American played a terrific pass that saw James Harper escape from the entire Liverpool defence. He rounded Reina before rolling the ball into an empty net to seal a memorable win - one Coppell was keen to defend.

'You can't say we won a game, but it was on a dodgy penalty and we played a crap team and they were looking to Wednesday [sic]. P.S. Reading played as well,' Coppell said.

No, but you can say Benitez got it wrong.

Match Facts
17' Hunt (penalty) 1-0
28' 1-1 Gerrard
59' Gerrard
60' Doyle 2-1
67' Harper 3-1

Reading
Marcus Hahnemann, Ivar Ingimarsson, Graeme Murty (Kalifa Cisse), Nicky Shorey, Ibrahima Sonko (Andre Bikey), Bobby Convey (Leroy Lita), Brynjar Gunnarsson, James Harper, Stephen Hunt, Kevin Doyle, Dave Kitson

Liverpool
Jose Manuel Reina, Alvaro Arbeloa, Jamie Carragher (Sami Hyypia), Jack Hobbs, Steven Gerrard (Ryan Babel), Javier Mascherano, John Arne Riise, Mohamed Sissoko, Peter Crouch, Fernando Torres (Harry Kewell), Andriy Voronin

Referee: Marriner, A

Venue: Madejski Stadium

Attendance: 24,022

Corners:
Reading 7
Liverpool 7

Goal Attempts:
Reading 8
Liverpool 15

On Target:
Reading 5
Liverpool 5

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