Rafa Benitez is under increasing pressure after his Liverpool side lost 2-1 to Lyon in the Champions League last night. Liverpool were quite clearly below par and mirrored some bad recent performances that have also seen them lose to Fiorentina in the same Champions League group.

Liverpool did go ahead through a Yossi Benayoun strike but goals from Maxime Gonalons and César Delgado were enough to make it a happy night for the French team as Liverpool are now staring right down the barrel of a gun. Liverpool’s problems were made worse by the fact that captain, Steven Gerrard, limped off with an injury.

Gerrard is the tool the many people have said was missing from the side and his premature arrival back into the team did not appear to work and he has only made his injury worse. Needless to say Benitez was not exactly happy.

He said: “Everything that can go wrong is going wrong at the moment. I think we have to win our last three games now. We were 1-0 up and had two or three chances which could have changed everything, but we just had too many problems. I’m really disappointed because we still had enough chances to win it, which could have made everything different.”

“With Glen and Stevie, we will have to check how they are. It was the same problem with Stevie. He felt something and I knew it was better to change him then, but starting with him wasn’t a risk because the doctor said he was OK. He trained for the last two days and was OK — sometimes it’s just bad luck.”

“My job is to prepare them for the next game, and that starts as soon as I finish tonight. Personally, my staff and the players will be the ones who lift me — everyone who wants to see Liverpool winning again, in fact.”

Liverpool fans seems to be losing their patience with the man that won them a fifth European Cup in the club’s history, but the point is that time is running out. Liverpool have also slipped right off the pace in the Premier League and if things do not start to improve quickly then it could be the end as far as Liverpool’s season is concerned.

Benitz needs wins and he needs them fast. In this day and age, losing is heavier than any thing else and if Liverpool keep up their bad form then people will start to want the Spaniards head.