Players played out of position, our only decent striker Fernando Torres brought off when the game was there to be won and our only creative player on the field, Yossi Benayoun, withdrawn in favour of Nathan Eccleston.
Philipp Degen's red card was unlucky but Jamie Carragher's was always likely to happen, yet neither of these decisions made the slightest bit of difference. It was Benitez's management to fault, plain and simple. His overcautiousness approach is losing us games and his stubbornness to persist with Andriy Voronin is getting ridiculous.
We now go into Wednesday's game at Lyon needing a win to keep our Champions League hopes alive, as qualification for next season's tournament is starting to look difficult never mind the Premier League title.