Rafael Benitez pleaded for a sense of "perspective" last night in the wake of criticism attributed to an unnamed club director, though the Liverpool manager admitted he had expected his side to perform more coherently in the Premiership this season after their heady cup successes in his first two years in charge at Anfield.

Liverpool welcome unbeaten Aston Villa to Merseyside this afternoon and are trailing the leaders, Manchester United, by 11 points. That deficit has provoked dissent in the boardroom - the unnamed director claimed that Benitez "couldn't tell you what his best team is" and had "paid too many inflated prices and inflated wages for players who are not doing the job".

In response, the club's chief executive, Rick Parry, supported his manager, who also retains the backing of the club's chairman, David Moores. Benitez was visibly annoyed by the criticism.

"People have short memories," he said. "I don't remember people talking about rotation when we were beating Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen, Chelsea or Milan. And last season, when we won 11 games in a row, people were not talking about (Steven) Gerrard playing on the right side, and rotation."

Liverpool were sufficiently alarmed by the comments to launch an internal inquiry yesterday in order to unearth their source.

"We understand the expectations at Liverpool, but we are clearly moving in the right direction under Rafael Benitez," said Parry. "We unquestionably have a better squad than we did last year so it is not about making judgments at this stage. We all knew there was a sizeable job to do when Rafa was appointed and that is why we have never laid down any timescales or imposed unrealistic pressures. What is important is continuous, year on year improvement."

Guardian Service