Yes, if you are still playing the BBC's crazy Sportdaq game based upon sports stars' column inches then you'd be a fool not to have Rafael Benitez.

There's not a great deal of opinion out there on Thursday, but what there is centres on the beleaguered Liverpool manager following that draw with Lyon.

Richard Williams sticks the boot in, writing in The Guardian, believing that the last-gasp rescue acts which have been a trademark of Benitez's tenure at Anfield are now a thing of the past.

The boot was on the other foot against Lyon as Lisandro's late, late leveller has put the 2005 Champions League winners on the brink of a costly exit before Santa has been down the chimney. Apparently, he's heading towards oblivion.

The disaster that Liverpool find themselves facing this morning is not the fault of Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Four matches, four points and a negative goal difference – those figures are the responsibility of Benítez and no one else. The manager may moan about his lack of resources compared to those of his rivals, but when you have been able to bring so many players into a club, among them the world's best centre forward, you cannot expect your complaints to be taken seriously.

We agree here at Soccernet Towers. In Rafa we do not trust.

Fernando Torres again came off before the end, and anyone who has suffered an inguinal hernia, or even the full set of two, like some of us, will have been dismayed by Benítez's decision to allow his young compatriot to play on once the injury had been diagnosed. A hernia is not necessarily painful but it causes discomfort and restricts the range of movement. It also gets worse. Whatever the player's own view, the manager should have sent him straight off for the requisite minor surgery, accepting his short-term absence and demonstrating confidence in his back-up players.

Babel, for instance – a player "whose pace and ability can change a game", according to Benítez last night. Then he added a half-veiled criticism: "We want to see the best of him in some more games". But getting the best out of players is Benítez's job. Babel's muted celebration of his marvellous goal may have been the expression of a naturally reticent temperament, or it may have been a comment on his manager's lack of faith.

Liverpool are not yet quite out of it. But with six defeats, one draw and a single victory in their last eight matches, even the most ardent of Benítez's admirers on the Kop must now be wondering what can be salvaged from a season barely three months old but already marked by failure on all sides.

Over at the Independent, Tony Barrett too is counting the cost of Rafa's Champions League failure.

It is not as if Liverpool could expect to make up the shortfall domestically. Not when their annual income — last year £159 million, £100 million below Manchester United’s — makes them the poor relations of the “big four”, largely because of a stadium that does not produce as much revenue as those of their rivals.

Other clubs, those who are not as financially fragile as Liverpool, would be able to absorb the monetary setback of failing to reach the Champions League first knockout round comfortably.

But this is the Liverpool of Hicks and Gillett, a club so brittle they fracture at regular intervals, and the only certainty is that their immediate future will continue to be plagued by yet more uncertainty.

Failure may not have been an option for Liverpool, but it has become a very real and stark possibility.