Brendan Rodgers has nobody to blame but himself for the state of Liverpool's season.
Despite having spent the princely sum of £212M on 21 players in the 2 and a half years in charge last night's starting line up featured just FOUR of his own signings.
Simon Mignolet
Dejan Lovren
Joe Allen
Rickie Lambert
In our pre-match view they were arguably the weakest four on last night's teamsheet. A shout of Enrique went up so in the spirit of democracy let's call them the four weakest out of five.
Not good is it.
In the reds sorry Champions League campaign arguably our only performance of note was away at the Bernabeu. Probably Real's only decent game in the group.
Manquillo, Moreno, Can, Lallana, Markovic, Borini all started. All Rodgers' signings - the ones he has the issues with.
This season has seen a startling switch for Brendan Rodgers 'football philosophy'. Ball-playing strikers have been replaced by two, for want of a better word, target men. Not that they've played much together. The SAS has had one S sold to Barcelona, another S welded to the injury table. Brendan got rid of the A of his own volition.
No - the reds have switched to a sole striker, despite up until a few weeks ago there being three available. Admittedly none of them are brilliant - but then I didn't buy any of them.
Last night, despite significant investment in playing staff, Liverpool were left to chase a victory with Martin Skrtel utilised up front. Liverpool elected to bulk up the squad over the summer rather than sign two or three proven talents. That was their strategy - following in the footsteps of Spurs a year earlier. And yet we were left with Martin Skrtel up front.
Last night's bench watching the reds at Anfield
When any manager brings in such a significant number of players and then refuses to back them in the big games then it's not just the owners and fans who will have questions. How will the players be expected to retain faith in his judgement?
Manquillo, Moreno, Can, Lallana and even Markovic in their rare involvement in the side have shown flickers of promise. You may recall Emre Can's performance in the Bernabeu followed by his goal against Chelsea - before he was subbed off and disappeared into background.
Much was made last season about Brendan's strength - his ability to throw caution to the wind.
Last night's team selection and tactics looked like that of a man dangling over the precipice, paralysed by fear, who's reluctance to play his own signings is more likely to sow doubt into the owners minds than even the dismal results will.
There is little doubt that of the players we have seen a lot of, on the whole, Brendan Rodgers has been shocking in the transfer market. His only salvation is that maybe the ones we have only seen glimpses of might be enough to keep him in a job.
Liverpool's owners have invested heavily in youngsters, rightly or wrongly, as their transfer strategy - but Brendan in times of crisis turns to the older fading lights who do not represent the future of Liverpool Football Club.
Last night showed just how much of a gulf has emerged between the owners and the club manager. Brendan's boat is taking on water but if he turns around now he might be able to row back to the ship.