IT’S the time of year when people are only too quick to remind you of your predictions from the start of the season – especially if they’re way off.

And they certainly were in the case of Liverpool.

I predicted that after the previous year’s push for the title that they would come up short.

But I don’t think any of us imagined just how much by.

Dropping five places to seventh with no silverware to show for it proves that Rafael Benitez’s big gamble last summer didn’t pay off.

After finishing with 86 points – which would have been good enough to win the title this year – he was only a couple of players off giving that team the extra push to lift them from runners-up to champions.

But the doubts crept in when Arbeloa and Alonso left, with Johnson and Aquilani coming in the other direction.

Decent players, but one hell of a risk on the manager’s part in not boosting his strikeforce.

I think you have to accept that Fernando Torres, with the pace at which he plays the game and his physical make-up, will always miss some games.

So to spend all that money on a right-back and a midfielder – and an unfit one at that – was a gamble that backfired badly.

Going with David Ngog and Andriy Voronin as your main forward back-up, the writing was on the wall from the off. They’re simply not good enough up there.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if Steven Gerrard had been able to provide the ‘second striker’ support that he and Torres have thrived on so much in the past.

But that was in the days when Xabi Alonso was in the middle, and the ball was coming forward instantly.

If it’s going sideways all the time, Gerrard isn’t going to get it in the areas he wants so he has to go back and look for possession.