BEFORE Tuesday night, the last time Liverpool failed to score a goal in a match provided a kick-start to their season.

Now Rafael Benitez must hope for the same response as he sifts through the wreckage of their Florentine fiasco.

Having scored 24 times in nine previous games this season, Liverpool drew a blank in all senses of the word in Italy.

It was the first occasion Benitez’s men had not troubled the scoresheet since the equally demoralising 2-0 defeat at struggling Middlesbrough seven months ago.

But it’s the defence that continues to cause most concern for the Spaniard, with the leaks of the opening weeks showing little sign of being plugged.

While Benitez believes his team have become more attacking this season, the first-half performance against Fiorentina was certainly offensive.

Stevan Jovetic, Fiorentina’s impressive teenage striker, scored twice and, with greater composure, the rampaging Viola could have been out of sight by the interval.

“It was so unlike Liverpool,” says Fabio Aurelio.

“Especially in the first half when we could not find a way to play against them and they were really good.

“We conceded a lot of space to them in our own half which made it very difficult for us to find our true game.

“In the second half we controlled more of it at last and we created chances that normally we would have taken.

“We just couldn’t find a way to play against them in the first half, and they were finding a lot of space. They were controlling the ball and we couldn’t come up with any way to stop them.”

Liverpool’s metamorphosis from the cautious to the cavalier can be traced back to February’s defeat at the Riverside.

Within a month, four goals were put past both Real Madrid and Manchester United with Chelsea and Arsenal similarly punished before the end of the campaign.

Of course, those latter two games also saw Liverpool concede four on each occasion, underlining how the control of the game that Benitez so clearly cherishes is compromised by the eagerness to attack.

The Italian press have touted Tuesday night’s result as a sign of Serie A’s renaissance, but even Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli admitted his team were aided by Liverpool’s alarmingly lacklustre approach.

The poor mentality that so riled Benitez can be dismissed as a one-off, but the continued indifferent defending cannot. And with a visit to Stamford Bridge on the horizon, there is precious little time to rectify the matter.

“It was a really disappointing night,” admits skipper Steven Gerrard. “We are disappointed with our first-half performance. We just didn’t turn up and were second best all over the pitch. We deserved to go in behind.

“There was a reaction in the second half – without creating many clear-cut chances – but we lost the game in the first half.

“Now we’ve got a massive game at Chelsea on Sunday. We have to get this result out of our system quickly and show a reaction at Stamford Bridge.”