The lack of natural strikers also forced Benitez to pick two holding midfielders for most games.

Contrast that to the approach of the team who have replaced Liverpool in the top four, Spurs. At Manchester City last week, they went into the game with Modric and Huddlestone as their central midfield two in a 4-4-2.

It was a positive outlook to go out and win a game that was so rarely seen at Anfield.

No wonder so many attacks lost momentum. No wonder Liverpool finished the season with fewer away goals than Wolves.

And look at the top three in this year’s Premier League.

Manchester United, the only side to finish above Liverpool last season, lost Ronaldo and Tevez and never effectively replaced them.

Chelsea took full advantage – but even they and indeed Arsenal never went mad in the transfer market. And 22 defeats between those top three teams shows how much the standard dipped.

Any improvement and I honestly believe we would have won the title, but we really missed a trick in trying to build on last year’s momentum.

And now look at the way the club is. Can you honestly see it going from seventh up to second?

You’d need another four or five players of genuine top quality to do that and there’s no Champions League football, or indeed money, to attract them.

And that’s the most frightening thing about Liverpool’s slump – you get the feeling that it’s not just some unfortunate one-off.