Rafael Benitez has demanded his stunned Liverpool stars "show their character" in a spell of matches that could define their season.

As the Spanish coach surveyed the wreckage of a disastrous home Champions League defeat by Marseille, he knows a season that started with high expectations could soon be in total disarray.

Sunday sees the visit of Spurs in the Premier League, followed by a trip to neighbours Everton and the visit of impressive leaders Arsenal on October 28th.

Sandwiched between the Everton and Gunners matches is their next Champions League trip to Istanbul and a clash with Besiktas.  A tough trip to Blackburn and the Besiktas return are Liverpool's opening games in November.

No wonder Benitez insisted: "We must improve, we must show our character now.

"We know we have to do better. We showed character to get a draw against Porto when we did not play well, and we showed character to win at Wigan last weekend in a hard match. Now we must show character against Tottenham. That is our first priority after the Marseille result."

Benitez's tinkering with his squad again took the brunt of the criticism after the French side turned an impressive display into a well-deserved victory thanks to Mathieu Valbuena's late winner.

Benitez opted for youngster Sebastian Leto on the left, refused to take off an out-of-sorts Mohamed Sissoko, while giving Peter Crouch another opportunity to stake a claim for a regular starting role.

The Anfield chief has now made a staggering 62 changes to his side over 12 matches this term, and has used 34 substitutes.  Compare that with Alex Ferguson's changes this term at Manchester United and the difference is remarkable.

Before the United chief made wholesale alternations for the Carling Cup defeat by Coventry, and then a complete change back to his senior men for the next league match, he had made a total of just 12 changes to his side in eight matches.

But Benitez will not be moved on his rotation policy.  He said: "It is not the changes, it is big players not playing well."

And he defended Leto and Sissoko, saying: "I chose Leto because he had been training well and he had played well in the Carling Cup on the left with Fabio Aurelio.

"I wanted to give him his chance because he had shown he was a player who could beat opponents with pace. But for me it is not right to talk about only one player, the whole team played badly.  It is difficult to explain how a team of talented players like ours could give the ball away so much.

"Marseille played well, they pressed us hard and worked well. But we should have been able to create chances behind teams who attack and press like that. But we did not create any clear chances. We did have the options, but just failed to take advantage and you do not win if you do not create openings."

He added: "I decided not to change Momo Sissoko. I wanted to substitute Leto to try something different and then I wanted to change the strikers, but had to alter my thinking because Aurelio had picked up an injury and had to come off.

"I was more concerned with doing different things up front, but it was a very bad day for everyone. I prefer not to point the finger at any one player. The whole team played badly."

Benitez made no excuses for the dire display, saying: "We did not deserve anything. From the beginning, the team did not play well. We were giving the ball away, losing second balls and not winning possession up front.

"It is very difficult to win a game like that. It was worse than in Porto in our first group match.  Out there, particularly in the second-half, the team was well organised and showed character. This time, maybe with some anxiety because we were playing at home, many things were wrong.

"We were trying to do too much, to do everything and we needed to be calm and do the things that we would usually have done."  PA