Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez, hopes that his star striker, Fernando Torres, will be treated with care if he is called into action for Spain.

Spain are due to play France in the not too distant future and the Liverpool boss does not want his prize asset to be unnecessarily hurt in a meaningless game. It has been all too apparent just how important Torres is to Liverpool and an injury to him could see their top four push slide.

Torres has continued pledging his allegiance and support to the Liverpool cause but player around very good players at big clubs in the Spanish team could give him a flavour of something he may end up wanting on a more regular occurrence.

Benitez said: “Fernando is our player, working with our physios, but we have a good relationship with Fernando Hierro  [Spain's technical director], Del Bosque and Javier Minano [the fitness coach].”

“When people try to create a mess between Spain and us, remember that Del Bosque was the academy director at Real when I was an academy coach and I was his assistant for the first team. We have a really good relationship.”

“His fitness coach was my fitness coach in the Under 18s and the second team. He is my friend. Hierro was in the first team when I was assistant at Real and we had a very good relationship.”

“If I defend my players, it is because I have to, but we have very good communication with Spain.”

Torres gives Liverpool something that only he can do. The problem is if he does get hurt then they do not have someone with the same impact who can just step into the team and carry on where the Spaniard left off.

Only Steven Gerrard holds a similar sort of influence in the Liverpool team. Both of these players have been hit on and off with small injuries that have hampered them in playing terms and stopped Liverpool playing the football they became known for.

So far Dirk Kuyt has been leading the front line or either playing on the wing and neutrals all over the country will say what poor football the team has played, despite the fact they have managed to grind out a few results.

If Torres goes then Liverpool will not make the top four of the Premier League and will be stuck with a Europa League spot for next season. This means irregular games and more European nights, which will clog up an already busy fixture list.

They need to keep him fit and if that means the boss has to have a sly word with a couple of old friends then that is the only way that Liverpool can look. If he plays for Spain and scores great, if he plays for Spain and gets hurt, disaster.

Stories like this always appear near to international fixtures but in Liverpool’s case the consequences would just be too big to think about.

There was no dropping to the knees in jubilation this time, there was no place in an elite cup final as a reward, nor was there an epic fight-back attempt from the opposition, but on Saturday Avram Grant once again inflicted defeat upon Rafael Benitez.

The Portsmouth boss was at the helm of the Chelsea side which battled to an aggregate 4-3 win over Liverpool in the Champions League semi finals in April 2008 and Grant was the brains behind the Reds’ latest setback in a wretched season as Pompey strolled to a 2-0 win at Fratton Park at the weekend.

Despite not showing the same emotion as he did on that successful night at Stamford Bridge, the win will mean every bit as much as he sets about his task of saving the club from the drop after taking over from Paul Hart late last month.

It was a battle of the Premier League’s two biggest crisis clubs as financial worries and on-field performances have marred both Liverpool’s and Portsmouth’s seasons, with the latter deservedly coming out on top on this occasion.

But it is the former who continue to raise eyebrows throughout the country as there seems no end to Liverpool’s dreadful form, which has seen them lose 7 of their 18 games Premier League games.

Catastrophic, I think, is the best word to describe the job Benitez has done this season and, bearing in mind the club suffered an early Champions League exit this time around, any other manager would have been sacked for their sequence of results by now.

The Spaniard’s lucrative and lengthy contract has so far saved him the embarrassment of getting the chop, that’s if he isn’t embarrassed enough by sinking to the new low of losing to the league’s basement club.

However, Benitez is not the only figure for which to point the finger at after their latest defeat – Javier Mascherano’s first-half red card may have been harsh, but it is the little Argentine’s poor form this season which has gone widely unnoticed.

The Argentina captain’s head was turned in the summer when European Champions Barcelona made their interest known, with reports of a £30million bid in January resurfacing on the back pages as the January transfer window approaches.

Mashcherano’s heart just does not seem in it anymore in a red shirt and he has done little this season to suggest he is worth that price tag, and I for one would bite Pep Guardiola’s hand off if he came in with an offer in that region.

Perhaps his four-match ban (it was his second red card of the season) coupled with a spell on the treatment table as the clumsy challenge, which earned him his marching orders and ligament damage, will prove a blessing in disguise for Benitez, who will now surely give Alberto Aquilani the run in the side he deserves. Time will tell how important Mascherano’s absence really is to Liverpool over the busy Christmas schedule.

Regarding Benitez, if there is one thing we have learned about his managerial credentials this term, it’s that he does not possess the ability to win the Premier League, and even fans as patient as Liverpool ones would now be glad to see the back of his Spanish contingent should he quit amid his failings.

The Spanish Armada set sail with the intention of conquering England in 1588 and Benitez had similar ambitions in English football when he took over at Anfield in the summer of 2004.

Like the Armada, the Liverpool boss and his backroom staff of many compatriots have failed to triumph in the country by landing an elusive Premier League crown, and I for one would now encourage him to mirror that historical event further by accepting defeat, giving up and going home.

As for Grant’s Pompey side, they should not get too carried away by the win over an increasingly bland Liverpool side. After that creditable semi final win over Liverpool while at Chelsea, Grant went on to lose the final and ended up empty handed for the season, and I fear his Pompey side face similar disappointment come the end of the season.

After all, losing to one of the eventual relegation victims is a tradition of the Reds. Middlesborough last season, Reading the season before that – the list goes on and on, as does their tally of defeats this term.

Liverpool were soundly beaten by Champions League qualifiers, Fiorentina, 2-0 during a long night in Italy. Two goals from 19 year old, Stefan Jovetic, were enough to bag the Italian team three points and highlight a number of worrying points for Rafael Benitez to look at.

It was one of the worst performances by a Liverpool team in Europe over the last few years and they never looked as though they would threaten at any point. The result will be used by Benitez critics as justification as to why the Reds will not do at all well in the Champions League this season.

Benitez said: “Never have I seen the team struggle as badly as they did in the first half. It was a poor performance. We had too many problems and too many mistakes, and we had to change everything. In the second half we were much better. In the first half, they were on top of us all the time and we were not doing the things that we had been talking about before the game. We were bad in everything.”

“Fiorentina did a good job. They were pressing all around the pitch and we were too nervous, making mistakes, and if you make mistakes you will pay for them. The mentality was not good enough in the first half.”

“Clearly, this new offside rule is changing everything. The best rule in football is the offside rule, but if you don’t know if a player involved is interfering, it is difficult. This time it will be totally different. Hopefully, we will see a different Liverpool, the one that we saw in the second half tonight.”

Liverpool will need to turn themselves around quickly if they are to get out of their Champions League group. The problems last night were quite clear and this should allow the club to address them very quickly.

The problem for Liverpool seems to finding a good level of consistency that will stand the club in good stead ahead of more important games. At the moment no one is able to tell whether the well oiled machine will turn up or the one that lost to Fiorentina last night.

The club need all of their big players to turn up in every single game they play and if Benitez can get the importance of all these points into his players quickly then it will not be long until this type of performance is turned around.