THIS IS ANFIELD. CHEL$KI GO FLY KITE

Sometime back last year I wrote about the cloud being casted over Rafa Benitez's future as Liverpool manager after the 3-0 win over the Magpies and the Reds' impressive performance that day.

5 months on that cloud still looms large and a storm engulfs it and many others as we approach a third European Cup semi final in four years.

It is only when you take a look at the first of them semi finals (and indeed the final) and compare the team which Benitez worked wonders with in 2005 to the team and squad he has assembled today. The two are definitely worlds apart.

Instead of Fernando Torres up front with 30 goals to his name for this season you have Milan Baros with a mere 13 goals. For Javier Mascherano we got our very own hunchback of Notre Dame, Igor Biscan (who replaced the suspended Xabi Alonso for the return leg), in defence you have our very own Gimme-an-Heart-attack Djimi Traore rather than Martin Skrtel.

In fact, the only players likely to start on Tuesday night who were part of the team which defeated Chelsea 1-0 courtesy of Luis Garcia's early goal are Carragher, Hyypia and Gerrard. It shows the overhaul Benitez has performed and provides another insight into why his work should not be undone by a change of manager this summer.

But The strenghts of Benitez does not only lie in the starting 11 but its in the quality of our Subs which shows the difference, Tomorrow night RB will be able to call on Peter Crouch to add a new problem for the Chelsea defence, while before it was the erratic Djibril Cisse, with Smicer, Nunez and Kewell as other possible replacements. 3 years on Benitez can call on the likes of Yossi Benayoun to potentially change a game or create a new problem, a player with 2 hat-tricks to his name this season.

Take the comparison between young midfielder John Welsh, now struggling to get a game with Hull and recently loaned out to Chester, versus Lucas Leiva - the former Brazilian under 20 captain and Brazilian footballer of the year. With all respect to Welsh, it shows the difference between then and now.

Whatever happens on Tuesday night, the success of the last three years cannot be underestimated.

In Rafa We Trust

2005 team: Dudek, Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Traore, Garcia, Hamann, Biscan, Riise, Gerrard, Baros.
Subs: Carson, Smicer, Warnock, Welsh, Cisse, Nunez, Kewell.

2008 team (Probable): Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Hyypia, Aurelio, Mascherano, Alonso, Kuyt, Gerrard, Babel, Torres.
Subs: Itandje, Finnan, Riise, Crouch, Lucas, Voronin, Benayoun.