Liverpool defender, Jamie Carragher, is throwing caution to the wind ahead of a week that could shape the rest of the club’s season. Liverpool lost 1-0 to Sunderland over the weekend thanks to a controversial goal from Darren Bent.

The bad news is that the club’s next two games will be against Lyon, the best side in France, and Manchester United, the best side in England. Rafa Benitez needs to quickly work out what his best side is and what competition Liverpool will be going for this season.

At the moment they are struggling both domestically and in Europe so the heads seem to have dropped ahead of this week’s crucial European tie with the French giants. Benitez has to be praised for his never say die attitude but as far as Carragher is concerned, it is all up hill from here.

He said: “There is a long way to go yet, but if we continue losing games, it will be the end. We have given ourselves a mountain to climb, but Chelsea lost as well. There is a seven-point difference with Manchester United but we can’t think about the title right now.”

“We have to forget about that and concentrate on the next league game, which will give us the chance to claw some points back. We have to restore our confidence and play much better.”

“We are not playing well, the supporters know that. I am sure there will be a lot of stick flying around before the Lyons game.”

It is good to see one of Liverpool’s most loyal and consistent players come out with comments that are so black and white, they define the feeling of nearly everyone at the club. When he speaks, Carragher does not mix with words and comments like this will be common around the club.

The fact is that without Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres running the show at Liverpool, they struggle and struggle very badly. There is too much reliance on those two players and until Benitez is able to find a solution then they will probably keep losing games.

Liverpool fans know better than any others that when United sniff a point of weakness then they will start to circle it like hungry sharks. For Liverpool to have any hope of repeating their victories against United last season they will have to perform mid-week. If they do not then it could well be season over, little after it has just begun.

Former Premier League referee, Jeff Winter, has said that Sir Alex Ferguson over stepped the mark with his comments on Alan Wiley. Ferguson implied that Wiley was unfit and not up to the standard of refereeing during Manchester United’s 2-2 draw with Sunderland.

Winter himself was once part of the referee’s club that had to put up with verbal bashings from the likes of Ferguson on a daily basis and he says that this time the big Scotsman was out of order.

He said: “I think Sir Alex may have overstepped the line this time and he may be about to get his comeuppance. I think referees will be so incensed about this that Sir Alex may find that United no longer get the benefit of the doubt on certain decisions.”

“Every game Alan Wiley takes charge of now where he makes a decision which upsets some fans is going to result in chants of ‘You’re not fit to referee’, he’s going to be known as the ‘unfit ref’. Sir Alex won’t care though. He’s a knight of the realm and he thinks he’s untouchable, bullet proof.”

“But he’s also a bully. He spoke at Sir Bobby Robson’s memorial service a couple of weeks ago and said he’d learnt a lot from Sir Bobby. But he hadn’t, they were totally different, Sir Bobby was a gentleman. He was humble and had respect for people.”

“I’ve trained with the guy and I know just how fit and professional he is. He’s 49 now but he’s still extremely fit. If he wasn’t he wouldn’t be getting a game, simple as that. Referees don’t just have an annual fitness test which is pretty tough but they are continually assessed and re-assessed.”

Winter may have a point in relation to the age of Wiley. Referees in England tend to get a longer lease of life than the rest of those across Europe. The referees in Spain, Germany, Italy and other countries all have to be younger and pass sterner fitness tests in order to qualify. The fact that Wiley is still going at 49 is remarkable and is something that should be admired.

It is unlikely that Ferguson would have made the comments were he happy with the way his side had played at the weekend and the FA will no doubt send him some form of warning sooner rather than later for his outburst.

Liverpool defender, Jamie Carragher, has said that Liverpool should not let their heads drop just yet. The defender says that the week Liverpool have after the international break is likely to be decisive in how the rest of the club’s season pans out.

Carragher is a Liverpool legend and has been a regular first team player over the last few seasons. He is one of those players that defines the club he is at and he has been in many of the situations that Liverpool are in before.

He said: “It’s never nice to lose before an international break, particularly a game as big as this [against Chelsea], but we have got to put it behind us. It would have been good to send the international lads away with a bit of a buzz, but it wasn’t to be and now it’s a case of putting it behind us.”

“When we get back to it, we have got a massive week coming up with those games against Sunderland, United and Lyons. But every week you have as a Liverpool player is massive and we know we’ll have to be at our best to get going again at Sunderland as they are in good form.”

“Games against Chelsea are notoriously tight and a bit of quality or a mistake is always going to be the thing that turns it one way or another. But we have lost the ball in midfield for their first and I felt myself that I should have done a bit better for their second one.”

“I thought we played quite well and did all right for most of the game, yet we have still come away with a 2-0 defeat. It’s the small details that are so important at this level and we know that there are certain areas we have got to improve. There’s a gap at the top and we’ve got to close it.”

The point is that the very factor that keeps Liverpool apart from the big clubs on such a regular basis is consistency. They simply do not have it. If they were able to beat the big teams every single week then the club would have won another championship by now.

Also they are missing one or two players. There is too much pressure on specific areas of the team and this makes them vulnerable. If these areas do not fire then it makes it impossible for the club to win games as they cannot adapt.

Rafa Benitez is trying to stay upbeat about Liverpool’s title chances, despite the 2-0 defeat at the hands of Chelsea yesterday. Goals from Nicholas Anelka and Florent Malouda were enough to put Chelsea right back into the driving seat after Manchester United’s draw with Sunderland.

Liverpool were also soundly beaten in a Champions League match against Fiorentina during the week, a match that Benitez said was one of the worst performances that he had ever seen from his side.

Liverpool will need to buck up their ideas very quickly or it will probably end up being just another dull and boring season that will not play to the ambitions and expectations of the average Reds fan.

Benitez said: “We must stay calm. We will see what happens in March and April. I think you will see all the top sides losing more points against the other teams. It’s good for the Premier League, good for the competition, and it just means we have to try to win more games.”

“I think the performance wasn’t bad. We were against a very good team. The end of the championship is a big distance away. Manchester United’s result [a 2-2 draw at home to Sunderland on Saturday] was a surprise, but we want to stay concentrated on our season, not on the season of other teams.”

Benitez seems to be quickly running out of patience with his side and could wield the axe of rotation all over again ahead of Liverpool’s next game. The problem for them is finding the consistency that will help them move forward and be able to challenge for the title all season long.

The point is that Liverpool do have it in them to compete but what they don’t seem able to do is compete regularly and make good of their best form. Once they find the consistency then they will be amazing.

The other factor is that the club look one or two players short. Fernando Torres does not have a world class partner in attack, too much pressure is put onto Steven Gerrard and the defence needs an extra world class player to hold the side together.

Once all of these things have been found then Liverpool will be fine. January can’t come quick enough at the moment but the message is already clear that the team will not be able to reach the top level of competition this season.

Sir Alex Ferguson is likely to be charged after his rant about the fitness of referees at the weekend. Speaking after the 2-2 draw with Sunderland, Ferguson said that the fitness of referee, Alan Wiley, was appalling.

Ferguson is not shy of making a few comments about referees, especially when his side have just come off the back of a bad performance. Ferguson makes a good point that the fitness of referees in the rest of Europe is a lot higher than those in England but the Football Association will still invite him into the office to explain his comments.

He said: “He didn’t add any time on for the goal we scored. There were only four minutes and two seconds’ injury time. There should have been another 30 seconds, but he was actually walking up the pitch after the goal, needing a rest. He just wasn’t fit enough for a game of that stature.”

“The fitness of both sets of players, the pace of the game, demanded a referee who was fit. He’s not fit. It’s an indictment of our game that we see referees from abroad are fit as butchers’ dogs. We’ve got some good referees in our country who are fit, but he wasn’t. He was taking 30 seconds to book a player as he was taking a rest.”

The FA are unlikely to take the comments with a pinch of salt because they are very good at protecting referees in the Premier League. Ferguson was probably a little annoyed that his side had played badly and could not get another three points on their title hunt this season.

Had they won the game then the obvious thing to say would be that the Scotsman would not have said a thing about the referee. However, when you draw a game you want to win or lose a game you need to draw then it is very easy to start looking for excuses.

The FA have said: “The fitness of select group match officials is continually assessed throughout the season to ensure it is of the highest possible standard.”

The point is that in recent years officials in other high profile European games have been a lot fitter and have been able to get a lot of decisions right. Maybe the situation in England needs to be reviewed but for now the FA seem happy with things the way they are.

The fruits of success are starting to ripen in the North East as Sunderland continue their early season momentum. After a thumping 5-2 win at the weekend against Wolves, the Black Cats manager, Steve Bruce, says he is ready to turn his club into an efficiency machine.

A lot of people were not sure about how Sunderland would perform this season and it seems that they could well end up pushing for a European place. They spent a lot of money during the summer and with this comes a lot of pressure and expectancy to do well.

Bruce said: “[Speaking about the weekend match] That’s something you do at the park because one of your mates wants to score. That’s the mentality we have to change. Benty is the best penalty- taker in the country and there would have been hell to pay if Kenwyne had missed.”

“I don’t watch penalties because I’m superstitious, so here was me thinking Darren had got a hat-trick! It won’t happen again.”

Wolves boss, Mick McCarthy, added: “If we’re talking about the frustrating days I’ve had, I’ll be here a long time, but the swingometer is stuck somewhere between pleasing and frustrating. We should have got something from the game.”

The point that Bruce is trying to make is that he wants his team to be efficient first and win the game before mixing things up and experimenting. Bent could easily have had a hat trick but decided to let someone else take the penalty kick.

All strikers playing in the Premier League should be greedy and as hungry as they possibly can be. If you get the chance to put the ball down and score from 12 yards then you do not often let someone else pick up the ball and have a go.

It does not make much sense and little decisions like this may not be thought about at the time but it is clear that Bruce remembers them and will not let the matter go lightly.

What Sunderland need to do now is focus completely on doing well. If they can keep this form going then there is no reason at all why they can not do very well this season. The point is they need to be consistent, this is how all of the top sides do well and perform well.

If they can’t do this then they will do what happened to Aston Villa last season and slip right off the pace to finish in mid table where the situation does not help anyone at the club.