More misery for Rafa

Is it possible that life could get any more difficult for Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez? Judging by the freak occurrence at the Stadium of Light on Saturday it appears not.

After only five minutes into the game the ball fell to Sunderland's Darren Bent whose tame shot was destined for Pepe Reinas arms until amazingly it took a wicked deflection from a red beach ball and drifted past the keeper into an empty net.

To make matters worse video footage showed the perpetrator of this bizarre incident was a Liverpool fan who had thrown it onto the pitch a few moments earlier - an own goal if you like.

Then, as if the whole situation could not get any worse, the Liverpool manager found out that the goal should have been disallowed. The laws of the game state that the game must be stopped if it is affected by an outside influence, which in this case it most definitely was.

Referee Mike Jones and his assistant knew something was wrong but just failed to make the correct decision leaving their reputations in tatters. Making an error of judgement in the heat of the game is one thing but not understanding the rules of football is inexcusable.

Benitez himself was surprisingly reluctant to blame the incident for his side's 1-0 defeat concentrating more on the chances missed by his own players. In truth though, his side would have been lucky to win even if they had converted two of these chances as Sunderland were by far the better team and missed better opportunities than the Reds anyway.

The week had started off badly for the Spaniard when his two main protagonists were injured on international duty. Then, if life without Torres and Gerrard was not bad enough, his Argentinean international Mascherano did not arrive back in the county in time to play.

With Alonso sold to Real Madrid in the summer this Liverpool team looked very short on quality and Steve Bruce and his team must have fancied their chances of overtaking their more illustrious counter parts in the Premiership table.

Having lost to Fiorentina and Chelsea prior to the international break this was an important game for Liverpool but they now go into this week's grudge match with Manchester United with their Premiership season hanging in the balance.

If the situation is even bleaker following last night's game against Lyon their season could be imploding right in front of them. With the off field situation looking as precarious as ever it is not an understatement to suggest this is turning into a crisis for one of the biggest clubs in the country.

What exactly is going wrong?

It would be easy to blame the lack of current spending power and whilst this certainly has been curtailed in recent months, Benitez has had more than enough cash to build a squad to cope with a few absentees. And, yes, the atmosphere in the boardroom cannot be helping when the two owners still refer to themselves by surname only but plenty of teams still perform in similar circumstances.

The problem appears to be more on the field and, in particular, the zonal marking system that Benitez has adopted.