Why the bench is no longer sub standard at Liverpool

When Liverpool were pushing for an unlikely victory having been two goals down at half time, the Spaniard asked Robbie Keane, Yossi Benayoun and Andrea Dossena to go on and improve things. And they did.

That left Ryan Babel, who scored the recent winner against Manchester United, Lucas Leiva, who scored the recent winner against Crewe, Daniel Agger, who also scored against the Railwaymen, and sub keeper Diego Cavalieri kicking their heels on the bench.

Numerically, last Sunday's bench was stronger than the one Benitez was forced to rely on four years ago as a result of rule changes but more significantly it was also so much more impressive in terms of quality and ability and it is this which proves beyond any reasonable doubt that Liverpool's squad has improved immeasurably since the former Valencia man took charge in 2004.

Year in, year out, there has been a steady progression in the depth of the Liverpool squad to such an extent that in Sunday's dramatic victory over City, Benitez's bench was worth a whopping £55m.

In finance terms alone, that highlights the level of investment that has been made in a bid to give Liverpool a squad fit to challenge for the title and not just one that has a strong first eleven and precious little else.

But it also proves that, by and large, Benitez has bought well when it comes to creating genuine strength in depth.

Look at the substitutes that Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger had at their disposal on the corresponding weekend and it would be surprising if anyone - probably including the United and Arsenal managers themselves - would believe their respective benches were better than Liverpool's.

Against Blackburn Rovers, United had Ji-Sung Park, Johnny Evans, Rafael De Silva, Nani, John O'Shea, Ben Amos and Carlos Tevez. While Arsenal had Nicklas Bendtner, Samir Nasri, Carlos Vela, Lukasz Fabianski, Mikael Silvestre, Johan Djourou and Emmanuel Eboue to call on away at Sunderland.

Even Chelsea - despite the millions upon millions that has been splashed out on their playing staff since Roman Abramovich came - did not have a bench to match Liverpool's with Wayne Bridge, Hilario, Juliano Belletti, Franco di Santo, Salomon Kalou, Paulo Ferraira and Michael Mancienne being on Felipe Scolari's list of possible replacements.

In his favour, Benitez had an almost full squad to pick from for the City game with only Philipp Degen out injured before Martin Skrtel suffered his own misfortune, while Scolari, Ferguson and Wenger all had a couple of players out of action.

But despite this advantage, the progress that Benitez has made in terms of squad development is there for all to see and the only question which remains is, ' Has he done enough to turn Liverpool into genuine title challengers?'

Coming from two goals behind to win 3-2 suggests not only do the Reds now have the squad to compete, they also have the spirit.

Time will tell if this apparent superiority on the bench is enough to give them an advantage on the pitch.

But, if nothing else, at least Benitez no longer has to rely on the likes of Biscan and SalifDiao to rescue his team when the going gets tough.