Rafa Benitez faces a make- or-break night in Lyon

Rafa Benitez's season to date at Liverpool has seemed to be a succession of make-or-break matches, but tonight's clash away to Lyon will mark the first major milestone of this season's campaign. Should the Anfield club be beaten at the Stade de Gerland, then they are essentially out of the Champions League for this year, it will be their worst European performance in six seasons and will increase the clamour of fans, pundits and former players for a change in direction at Liverpool.

But the big-hearted Spaniard is approaching the game with the passion that the Champions League has always brought out in him, invoking the club's anthem You'll Never Walk Alone by saying that the team will "walk through [the] storm". Referring yesterday to the near cataclysmic injury situation at Anfield, Benitez said: "If you think about all the top sides from around the world, if you take five first-team players out and another five who would be on the bench, it would be difficult.

"We have had 14 players out in total, because we had a virus as well as all the muscle and groin and calf injuries. Torres is much better after Fulham than he was after Manchester United, and if we manage his injury we hope he will not need an operation. Steven is improving, too," he added, "but it is too early to say how he has reacted [to an injection given to help his adductor strain]."

Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Albert Riera, Fabio Aurelio and Martin Skrtel are confirmed non-participants tonight; Fernando Torres is nursing a strained adductor and playing through the pain in each game he is fielded, while new signing Alberto Aquilani is recovering from a virus, as is reserve goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri, and Danish defender Daniel Agger will have to play with a back problem. Uefa have even recognised the severity of the defensive crisis in particular and have granted temporary dispensation for Daniel Ayala and Stephen Darby to be added to Liverpool's Champions League squad.

Benitez has received a welcome boost in the Liverpool Echo today when Tommy Smith, a defensive hardman from the Bill Shankly era at the club, attacked critics of the manager's transfer policy. "Many a pundit has lambasted Rafa Benitez for the 'massive amounts' of money he's spent over the last few years building a squad which isn't delivering. Yet the Reds boss has, in net terms, spent an average of just £16m per season.

"Whether you're a fan or not, Benitez is not the wild and bungling spendthrift that some poorly informed pundits would have us believe. In fact, the opposite is true," he continues. "No one wanted Xabi Alonso to leave - but when he chose to go after five seasons Liverpool made a £20m profit on him. Peter Crouch was sold for more than he was bought, while Rafa also made a profit on players like Momo Sissoko, Antonio Nunez, and Alvaro Arbeloa. He even got most of the money back for Robbie Keane."

Smith concludes: "Of course he’s entitled to be criticised for some of his decisions and no one is happy right now. But the club and the fans are dead right to stick by the manager. His critics are entitled to their opinion. But they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with perpetuating myths about how much he has blown."