Ian Herbert looks at five things that the Liverpool boss can do to stay at Anfield.

1 -- Loan signings in the New Year

These are needed badly. No-one could begrudge Sami Hyypia his decision to leave Liverpool for one last pay-day at Bayer Leverkusen this summer but Liverpool have paid for the lack of cover. Sotirios Kyrgiakos, even at £1m, has been an error of judgment and taken with the vulnerability of Martin Skrtel (above, who cost only £500,000 less than United paid for Nemanja Vidic) it all adds up to the worst defence in the Premier League at defending set-pieces.

It's not just about a lack of height throughout the side but a fundamental failure to attack the ball. Without much money, loan signings seem the most probable route to better defensive options.

David Ngog's five goals underline his promise but Liverpool need a second striker too. Alberto Aquilani's 39-second cameo in Budapest was bizarre. When will he be fit? Mahamadou Diarra and Rafael van der Vaart are midfield players Real Madrid may be willing to release.

2 -- Line up equity partners fast

Benitez's activity in the transfer market has had its flaws and he has certainly been given money -- total gross spend: around £250m. But the net spend is around £80m and, having been forced to sell to buy for some time, he is operating on a zero net spend basis.

That puts him at a disadvantage to most of Liverpool's direct rivals and only the club's search for £100m new equity partners will change that. If the confidence that these can be found proves justified, work can begin on the new stadium which will vastly increase match-day revenues and allow Liverpool to occupy the same commercial territory as Manchester United.

Liverpool believe the stadium can deliver them from their current £40m annual profit to something like the £90m profit United enjoy, if not more. To put things in perspective, they have £240m debt against the £700m reported by United's ultimate UK-based parent, Red Football Joint Ventures Ltd, in April.

3 -- Remove malign forces from the dressing-room

Benitez needs players who can stand up and be counted and too many have gone missing.

The timing of Ryan Babel's comments that he did not understand Rafa's training methods was abysmal and it is time to forget the nascent excitement of hiring a player who was one of Europe's great prospects when arriving for £11.5m from Ajax in 2007. If Liverpool recoup half of the money paid out for him, it might give the manager something to play with in January. Andrei Voronin's miserable autumn suggests that he, too, is not worth the wages which could be spent on a useful loan acquisition.

4 -- Deliver in January

There was a mood of disappointment at Manchester City yesterday about Liverpool's departure from the Champions League. The feeling around Eastlands is that Benitez will now plough more effort into the fourth-place position City covet.

But Liverpool want to win the Europa League -- "There will be no problem with motivation. Liverpool deserve more from us and that is why we will do our best to win the Europa League," Javier Mascherano said yesterday -- and the sides fielded may not be as weak as some imagine.

Their chances of having a serious tilt at that trophy will be greater if they can capitalise on what looks like a comparatively straightforward six-week period in between their two league matches against Arsenal, on December 13 and February 9.

Opposition such as Wigan, Portsmouth and Wolves (over Christmas) plus Stoke and Wolves return soon after, provide the chance to re-establish a top-four place. The same period is also straightforward for City, though.

5 -- Deep breath.

Take courage from Alex Ferguson

Ferguson found himself in a worse place than Benitez is now when defeat at Benfica's Estadio da Luz left United bottom of their Champions League group and out of Europe in December 2005.

Roy Keane had been ushered out three weeks earlier and Chelsea flourished under Jose Mourinho. But Ferguson stayed calm. He hired £7m Nemanja Vidic and £5.5m Patrice Evra -- Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo were 20 and Darren Fletcher 21.

Benitez would need to sell to find even £5m in January and his youth ranks don't compare. But he has as many world-class players -- Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Daniel Agger, Pepe Reina, Yossi Benyoun -- as Ferguson did back then. United went on to finished second to Chelsea in the Premier League that season and have taken the title for the last three years, to go with the 2008 European Cup.

ian herbert

- Ian Herbert

Irish Independent