Graphic: Liverpool v Besiktas

Big picture, small details. Bottom line, big numbers. There is an Atlantic Ocean of difference between the priorities of a meticulous Spanish football manager and a pair of American tycoons whose prime concern is finding the money to fund the construction of a new stadium, but, whatever their contrasting motives, Rafael BenÍtez will not need George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks to tell him that Liverpool’s Champions League fortunes could badly do with a kick-start against Besiktas at Anfield this evening.

BenÍtez, as is his way, talked yesterday afternoon of the big picture - “It would be a big mistake to think about it only in terms of money,” he said. “Football is more important” – and of the wafer-thin line that separates success and failure in this most unpredictable of sports. He talked eloquently and offered a welcome sense of perspective in playing down some of the hysterical crisis talk that has built up around Liverpool in recent weeks. But, in trivialising the financial aspect of the club’s predicament in group A, he could be accused of neglecting the biggest picture of all.

To put it bluntly, this is what Sir Alex Ferguson would term “squeaky-bum time”. While the big decisions for BenÍtez remain those concerning his attacking personnel against Besiktas – and they could include a place on the bench for Fernando Torres just eight days after he was ruled out for three weeks with a groin injury – the match is taking place against a back-drop of growing financial uncertainty.

Since the club was bought by Gillett and Hicks just nine months ago, the construction cost of the proposed new stadium in Stanley Park has risen from £230 million to more than £400 million, prompting the Americans to contemplate a £698 million refinancing plan that would take the club £500 million into debt.

With plans for the revised stadium design due to be submitted to Liverpool City Council today, BenÍtez could hardly fail to be aware of the figures, but he feels that the pressure they bring on the football side of the club has been overstated.

“When you talk about a £400 million stadium and the amount you get for reaching the final [as opposed to merely the group stage], then an extra £10 million is not a big difference,” he said. “How many teams have been in the Champions League final twice in three seasons? And what does that mean in terms of money? Of course, the owners want the money, but is there a big difference between £400 million and £410 million?”

Not when analysed in such crude terms, perhaps, but even a £10 million shortfall would be bad news for Liverpool at a time when Gillett and Hicks are faced with a £21.5 million annual interest bill on the £298 million Royal Bank of Scotland loan with which they bought the club last February.

Nine months on, the proposed refinancing deal is likely to mean higher interest payments – and, if the anticipated Champions League revenue did not materialise, the expectation within Anfield is that the shortfall would have to be met by selling players at a time when BenÍtez, still short of at least two top-class performers, would like to be investing in new talent.

This, admittedly, is all rather alarmist and BenÍtez would expect his team to put off such doom-mongering, for a few weeks at least, by beating Besiktas this evening, which would give them some momentum before their final group games, at home to FC Porto and away to Marseilles. Progression to the knockout stages remains a reasonable target, but to get through even a straightforward-looking group will now take a Herculean effort, similar to that which proved the catalyst for their European Cup triumph three seasons ago.

“It has been a strange campaign so far,” Steven Gerrard, the captain, said. “In the past we’ve saved some of our best games for this competition, but this season we’ve just not got going. We face three massive games, cup finals in fact. We know we need the kind of nights we’ve had against Juventus, Chelsea and Olympiacos. Our backs were against the wall then and unfortunately that’s where we are again. But we know we can do it again. We need to go for the jugular.”

BenÍtez, typically, requested a rather more measured approach, saying that “top-class players and top-class managers keep their passion but also have a cool mind”.

A high tempo would nevertheless be welcome as his team set about avenging their 2-1 defeat in Turkey a fortnight ago. An early goal would help to ease some of the anxiety that has built up around Anfield in recent weeks, but, if goals are not forthcoming, Torres may be summoned from the bench. It is barely a week since the Spain forward aggravated a groin problem by rushing back from injury too soon, but desperate times call for desperate measures, sometimes even for a manager as methodical as BenÍtez.