Birmingham 1 Liverpool 1

I’m feeling increasingly detached from the majority of Liverpool supporters I come into contact with. I made the mistake of wearing my replica shirt to go to the pub to watch our match versus Birmingham yesterday which seemed to be interpreted as an open invitation for fellow Reds to come over and talk to me about the game. I’ve no problem with that but what I do object to is that most of these ‘fans’ assume they can make simplistic negative and ill-informed comments to me that I will agree with and are then astounded when I don’t agree that “Rafa’s got to go” and “Lucas is shit”, etc., etc.

“Why does he have to make so many changes?” one red-faced fat man demanded. I told him honestly that I don’t know the reasons why Rafa had changed the starting line-up that LOST in Benfica but looking at the changes, seeing Maxi Rodriguez restored was no surprise given he only dropped out of the team for the Benfica game due to being cup-tied; seeing Benayoun come in for Babel can hardly be said to have weakened the team on paper, and given that Krygiakos will surely be needed on Thursday in the home leg against Benfica, it makes sense that he is given his first start in two months. Of the players rested, I thought Babel would have been given the chance to make amends for his red card in Portugal – particularly as he can’t play on Thursday – but equally it was no surprise he was left out after his stupidity let his teammates down so much. Meanwhile one would think people would applaud the decision not to play both Mascherano and Lucas in central midfield but people seemed to fixate on the fact Mascherano was rested rather than Lucas. “Lucas is shit” one guy said to me. “Rafa just loves Lucas” said another. I interpreted it slightly differently. To me, Lucas and Gerrard in central midfield are a more attacking pair than Mascherano and Gerrard and certainly more than Lucas and Mascherano. I also expect Rafa to select Gerrard and Mascherano in midfield against Benfica on Thursday so I can understand resting a player who expends so much energy ahead of such a crucial match. Finally, Agger dropped out. I don’t know if the player had a slight niggle but given his recent injury record, I can completely appreciate caution over the number of games he plays in quick succession. As mentioned, I can see logic in bringing Kyrgiakos back in which meant either Carragher or Agger dropping out. Given that choice, most fans would have dropped Agger rather than our leader on the pitch.

The truth is, I am not privy to the information at Rafa Benitez’s disposal and so can only make educated guesses as to why certain selection decisions were taken but I can at least see some benefits in those decisions which suggests team selection isn’t the no-brainer some people seem to think it is.

Then there was the decision to take Torres off on 65 minutes. At the time, I was as stunned as everyone else by what, on the surface appeared to be a bizarre tactical decision. Conventional wisdom suggests that your chances of winning are optimised by having your best goal-scorer on the pitch so withdrawing him with the game at 1-1 appeared to be a sign that the manager was content not to win.

However, the truth is we only put Birmingham under the sort of sustained pressure we fans were hoping for after Torres’ withdrawal. We looked more likely to score once he had come off than when he was on the pitch. If that doesn’t validate the manager’s brave decision, nothing will. Torres’ replacement, David Ngog, had two absolutely golden chances to win the game. Had he scored one, Rafa would have deserved to be hailed as a genius (although in reality people would have said he “got lucky” and “got away with it”).

Of course, he didn’t take those chances which hands detractors a stick to beat Rafa with. It’s easy to say “Torres would have scored that” but Torres is capable of missing chances too. He missed a couple of really good chances at Old Trafford, a couple in Benfica including a one-on-one, a number of decent chances in the home game against Sunderland and a bucket load in our defeat at Wigan. It’s fair to say that Torres is more likely to score than Ngog but no one can say with any certainty that Torres would have scored. The point is, Torres was on the pitch for 65 minutes and never looked like scoring whereas Ngog had two excellent chances to score.

Isn’t the real issue the fact that Benitez is only able to replace Torres with a 21-year old rookie who cost just £1.5m rather than a player with some if not equal star quality? I watched Carlo Ancelotti replace Nicolas Anelka with Didier Drogba at Old Trafford on Saturday. Later that day, Roberto Mancini was able to select Adebayor, Tevez and Bellamy and leave Santa-Cruz on the bench for City’s game with Burnley. Even Spurs can choose from Defoe, Crouch, Pavlyuchenko and Gudjohnsson up front. We’ve got Torres and Ngog then nothing. That isn’t the manager’s choice. That is the situation enforced on him by owners who have made a net profit in the last three transfer windows at a time when rival clubs are investing heavily.

Steven Gerrard’s reaction to the subbing of Torres doesn’t help matters. When the man wearing the captain’s armband is captured on camera making facial gestures that appear to show complete disbelief and distrust in his manager’s decisions, it is hardly a call for supporters to rally behind that manager. What David Ngog would think if he saw his skipper’s face as he was being introduced to the game? It was hardly a vote of confidence in his fledgling ability.

This was a game we needed to win for our top four ambitions and failure to win it really does leave us drinking in the last-chance saloon but looking at the result in isolation, a draw at St Andrews is not a terrible result. Birmingham were unbeaten in the League at home since September and have held the likes of Chelsea, Man Ure, Arsenal, Everton and Spurs. They are also our bogey team whom we have never beaten in the League under Rafa Benitez and even under Houllier we only won on this ground once. In the circumstances, a draw is a decent result and if we ultimately fail to qualify for the Champions League, it won’t be this result that is blamed.

A mate of mine told me he thought we “need to qualify for the Champions League or we’re going to go under”. I told him that’s pure shite and asked him if he seriously believed Rafa would be given any more money to spend on players if we finished fourth than if we didn’t. Until the ownership of the club changes, Liverpool FC is only going to head in one direction and that is not the fault of the current manager.

Another mate of mine criticised Benitez for selecting his starting XI and substitutions with one eye on the Benfica game. He was saying he just wished Rafa would focus on winning the game at hand and only then turn his attentions to the next match. It sounds fine in theory but surely a manager’s job is to look at the bigger picture rather than each game in isolation and to deliver success or comparative success over the course of a season rather than focussing only on a single game. Does Ferguson never make changes with one eye on forthcoming fixtures? Of course he does.

We discussed the instance a couple of years ago when Rafa withdrew Gerrard and Torres at Reading with one eye on the must-win game in Marseille. We lost 3-1 at Reading but won 4-0 in Marseille to qualify for the Champions League knock-out stages. Many people were up in arms over what was interpreted as throwing in the towel against Reading but ultimately, the manager’s decision paid off. “Why couldn’t he have tried to win the Reading game and the Marseille game?” my mate demanded. Who knows what would have happened had he done that. What we do know is what happened and in hindsight I am content with the action the manager took that day, just as I will be content if we eliminate Benfica at home on Thursday.

Football is a game of opinions and I respect people’s rights to have theirs. What I object to is opinions based on nothing but the crap churned out by the media based on no understanding of what is really happening at Anfield. Who do these muppets who want Rafa sacked think will do a better job? “Bring in Mourinho” they say. As if Mourinho would come to Anfield. That man has made a success of managing clubs with significant transfer kitties. Why would have take a pay cut and try to operate on a shoe-string budget at Anfield? Part of me thinks the Americans should axe Rafa and appoint Tony Mowbray as manager. The club would continue to slide down the table but at least all the fans could agree that their manager was shit.