Graphic: Bill Edgar's tactical analysis

Fighting on four fronts, juggling the combined and counter demands of the Champions League, the Barclays Premier League, FA Cup and Carling Cup, is nigh on impossible. And in which order of preference? Champions League or Premier League first? Then FA Cup or Carling Cup? Who plays, who rests, who is replaced mid-match?

Such is the wicked conundrum facing Rafael BenÍtez, the Liverpool manager. Damned if he treats every game seriously, damned if he doesn’t. Yet at a rain-sodden Madejski Stadium on Saturday, the unpredictable Spaniard got it horribly wrong.

It had appeared the least taxing fixture of a daunting pre-Christmas programme, which could define Liverpool’s season, and BenÍtez opted for brazen offence. Stick Peter Crouch, Fernando Torres and Andriy Voronin up front, pummel inconsistent little Reading into early submission and then rest his superstars. That was the master plan.

But BenÍtez had not reckoned on a resurgence of the spirit that had earned Reading their top-flight status for the first time last year, not reckoned on his buccaneering selection falling short, not reckoned on Lady Luck deserting his team after five successive emphatic victories and 21 goals amassed.

And when it all went pear-shaped - and a first league defeat of the season beckoned – BenÍtez accepted the inevitable and took a long, hard look at the bigger picture. At 3-1 down, with Reading scenting their first victory against one of the “Big Four” since gatecrashing the elite and, unarguably, the best league result in their 136-year history, he acted.

Off came Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, two of his superstars and those who are to be protected for that bigger picture: the win, or perhaps, bust Champions League match in Marseilles tomorrow evening, the “showdown” with Manchester United at Anfield in the league on Sunday and the Carling Cup quarter-final against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge a week on Wednesday.

Then, on December 22, there is the home match against Portsmouth, who are now level on points with Liverpool.

Torres, Liverpool’s stellar striker, was also replaced, after Reading had gone 2-1 ahead, but perhaps it was more to help to ease an ankle problem than rest his weary legs for other challenges ahead. Still, the exodus of linchpins from defence, midfield and attack hardly impressed the Liverpool fans, many of whom left long before the end.

“When you take decisions, you believe it’s the best thing to protect a key player and replace him with one of quality and pace,” BenÍtez said. “Especially at 3-1, when we were not creating clear chances and they were physically strong, it was correct. No one is happy because we lost 3-1, but they know why I made the decisions to take them off.”

BenÍtez’s explanation has its merits. Yet to as good as concede defeat, to concede three points in any match, is not acceptable in the red corner of Merseyside. Would Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsène Wenger do the same? No.

True, Lady Luck was not on the premises. Gerrard struck the bar, Crouch hit a post and Liverpool should have had a penalty when Ibrahima Sonko clattered Torres in the second half. Yet from the moment BenÍtez unveiled his unbalanced 4-1-2-3 system, which relied on an ugly overuse of the long ball, a lack of belief appeared to spread throughout the team. “We haven’t worked too much on the formation,” Crouch said. “And it didn’t quite go right.”

It was not a lorra lorra laughs, either, for Cilla Black, the close friend of John Madejski, the Reading chairman. Nor Michael Howard, the former Conservative Party leader, nor Willie Walsh, the British Airways chief executive. Madejski’s Liverpool-allied guests squirmed in the directors’ box as he maintained a dignified calm.

“I don’t think Cilla is a happy bunny,” Madejski said. “To be fair to her, she – and probably everyone else in the directors’ box – thought that it would be a walk in the park [for Liverpool].”

Reading, though humbled by Liverpool in four league and cup meetings in the previous 14 months, made hay. Stephen Hunt, a childhood Liverpool fan, tucked in a penalty after Carragher had bundled over Brynjar Gunnarsson marginally in the area. Carragher was fortunate to escape a booking that would have ruled him out of the match against United.

After Gerrard had coolly equalised, with his ninth goal in ten appearances, Reading regained the lead when Kevin Doyle glanced in Nicky Shorey’s free kick. After James Harper had scampered through to round José Manuel Reina, BenÍtez waved his white towel.

For Liverpool-born Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, it was a satisfying outcome. He had got his fluent and aggressive lineup right and it was all the more pleasing – if all the more perplexing for the Liverpool fans – as it was essentially the same side that won the Coca-Cola Championship at a canter two seasons ago. “I was driving to the game thinking, ‘Blimey, live TV, Reading against Liverpool,’” Coppell said. “In my first couple of months here you’d look around and there would be about 12,000 people. In a very short space of time we have come a tremendous distance.”

Coppell got his memento, too. Hunt said: “I went to get Gerrard’s jersey, but the gaffer had already got it. He must have got it [asked for it] before the game. These Scousers stick together, don’t they?”

For BenÍtez’s sake, it is hoped that they do.

How they rated

Reading

4-4-2
M Hahnemann 5
G Murty 5
I Sonko 3
I Ingimarsson 5
N Shorey 4
S Hunt 6
B Gunnarsson 6
J Harper 6
R Convey 7
K Doyle 7
D Kitson 6

Substitutes K Cissé (for Murty, 90min), A Bikey (for Sonko, 80), L Lita (for Convey, 87) Not used S Long, A Federici

Liverpool

4-1-2-3
J M Reina 5
Á Arbeloa 5
J Hobbs 5
J Carragher 4
J A Riise 5
J Mascherano 5
M Sissoko 4
S Gerrard Y 7
A Voronin 4
F Torres 6
P Crouch 5

Substitutes S Hyypia (for Carragher, 81min), R Babel 4 (for Gerrard, 70), H Kewell 5 (for Torres, 61) Not used C Itandje, D Kuyt