Rafael Benitez has given Liverpool homesickness, in that they are sick of being at home. While the Merseysiders march on relentlessly in Europe, their Premiership season is in danger of falling apart while the leaves are still green on the trees. An anodyne defeat at Fulham on Saturday - Liverpool's sixth in their last 18 Premiership games - has left them adrift with the flotsam and jetsam, bobbing along in mid-table while the leading pack fade over the horizon.

Already Chelsea are out of sight. More worryingly, so are Charlton and Wigan.

The memories of that extraordinary night in Istanbul five months ago, when Liverpool were crowned European champions, are still vivid enough to make criticism of Benitez seem churlish, even sacrilegious.

Never has a manager grabbed immortality faster than this unassuming Spaniard. His legend was written during those magical evenings against Olympiakos, Juventus, Chelsea and AC Milan, when Liverpool overturned Europe's established order to seize the most glorious prize of all. But the myth is in danger of being muddied by his domestic record.

This is not a new failing. Gerrard Houllier knew about Liverpool's penchant for incongruity only too well.

He provided Anfield with some memorable European experiences - the 2001 Uefa Cup win, jaw-dropping victories over AS Roma, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, et al - but ultimately paid the price for failing to deliver the league title.

However, the nature of Liverpool's problem has changed. Houllier's team was exposed as having a soft underbelly. Benitez's side is secure but shot-shy.

The Reds have been searching for a consistent goalscorer ever since Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen departed, and none of Anfield's current crop of strikers seems remotely capable of scoring the 25 goals that could propel Liverpool into the top four. Djibril Cisse is an exciting but exasperating talent. Florent Sinama Pongolle is raw and unproven.

Peter Crouch is a willing worker but three months at Anfield have yet to yield a goal.

Then there is Fernando Morientes. The Spanish striker seemed ideally suited to the rough and tumble of the Premiership before his £6.3-million transfer from Real Madrid. He was strong in the air, composed on the ground and cool under pressure.

But the man who scored for fun in Madrid and Monaco has not found Merseyside to his taste. He has scored just three top-flight goals since January, and his confidence has drained dry. Nine days ago, in Liverpool's home game against Blackburn Rovers, his performance - all miscued headers and sliced shots - bordered on tragicomedy.

Even Gary Lineker, the BBC football anchorman who usually spits sugar rather than bile, has felt able to poke fun.

Benitez, presumably, does not see the funny side. The manager can claim, with a measure of justification, that he cannot be held accountable for Morientes's transformation from thoroughbred to donkey. But Benitez's tactical intransigence has not helped either his errant striker or his team-mates. Like many of their top-flight peers, Liverpool have adopted 4-5-1 as their modus operandi this season, but they have had neither the width nor the wit to make it successful.

Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso are gifted ball-players, without question, but they occupy the centre ground. Out wide, Liverpool's options are disconcertingly limited. As a result, Benitez's strikers - and in particular the luckless Crouch - have been isolated, their knock-ons and lay-offs falling harmlessly into empty space.

It might as well be 4-5-none.

Liverpool's supporters would probably sleep easier if they saw their manager working feverishly to correct these failings but Benitez seems to have perfected the art of identifying his side's flaws while refusing to explain his plans to remedy them.

His response to the debacle at Craven Cottage - how appropriate that name sounds, in the context of Liverpool's cowardly performance in that two-nil defeat - was typical.

"We need to improve our performances to win games," he said. Well, yes, but how do you do that?

"That means scoring goals. Today we created many chances but we did not score. We have to score."

Arched eyebrows all round.

Maybe Benitez has underestimated the importance of domestic success to Liverpool's frustrated supporters.

The club's Champions League triumph was a moment to savour, especially as it was so gloriously unexpected, but it is the Premiership which matters more to the Kop.

Over 15 years have now slipped past since the league trophy was last brought to Anfield, and that is too long for a club of Liverpool's stature. Already the grumbling has begun. Liverpool were jeered from the field in west London. Radio phone-ins - those spectacularly unreliable gauges of public opinion - are beginning to clog with fans urging Benitez to adopt a more positive approach.

"Attack, attack, attack" has become the soundtrack to his season. Benitez's track record at both Valencia and Liverpool has shown that he is a winner, but he now needs to prove he is a listener.