Liverpool have announced a review into the security of their players’ homes after Steven Gerrard and his family became the Merseyside club’s sixth victims of burglary in the past 18 months, but even more pressing is the need for the club to get their own house in order as Rafael BenÍtez strives to restore harmony off the field as well as on it.

Although perceived in some quarters to have secured his future by steering Liverpool into the Champions League knockout phase with a 4-0 win away to Marseilles on Tuesday evening, BenÍtez knows that his regime will stand or fall by his relationship with Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr, the club’s American owners, as much as results. The stage is set for a critical few days during which BenÍtez faces critical dates not only on the pitch, against Manchester United at Anfield on Sunday, but in the boardroom as he prepares for that eagerly awaited – or possibly dreaded – “peace summit” with Hicks and Gillett.

It is not known when the owners will meet BenÍtez, but they have much to discuss when Hicks joins his co-chairman on Merseyside today. There are crucial decisions to be made with regard to transfer activity – the manager is eager to sign a central defender and to sell players, such as the unsettled Mohamed Sissoko, to finance a permanent £17 million deal for Javier Mascherano – but also about the club’s proposed new stadium in Stanley Park.

Although Hicks’s advisers have negotiated a £500 million refinancing deal with Wachovia and Royal Bank of Scotland, Gillett is understood to be concerned about the plan now that the cost of the stadium project has spiralled to more than £400 million.

Given the uncertainty behind the scenes, it is just as well that BenÍtez and his players are doing their bit to ease the situation. Progression to the knockout phase of the Champions League will guarantee the club at least a further £4 million in prize-money and gate receipts, with the prospect of far more if they can get beyond the last 16, while the nature of their victory in Marseilles should do much to restore confidence in the BenÍtez regime, which was shaken three days earlier by a first Barclays Premier League defeat of the season, away to Reading.

“The manager is just trying to do his job and we are trying to play as well as we can on the pitch,” José Manuel Reina, the goalkeeper, said. “For the past two weeks, we have just been trying to focus on what we have to do out there because that’s the only place we can do our talking – and we did a lot against Marseilles. It was the best performance I have seen since I have been at this club. It was brilliant in terms of being so complete. We were great going forward and narrow and compact in defence, which made it a very easy game.”

The next assignment, against United on Sunday, is unlikely to be so easy. “We know we have to be ready for them, but it could be a beautiful game in front of our own supporters and we expect to win,” Reina said. “Chelsea, Arsenal and United are all in really good form and it is very difficult to finish ahead of them in the long term. But it is a long race and we want to keep up the momentum that we have with us again.”

Where momentum is concerned, Gerrard is in stunning form, having scored in his past seven matches for the club. He was hugely satisfied by his performance on Tuesday, only to discover shortly afterwards that his wife had been threatened when their home in Formby was burgled during the game. It is the sixth such break-in at a Liverpool player’s home in 18 months, with Jerzy Dudek, Daniel Agger, Florent Sinama Pongolle, Peter Crouch and Dirk Kuyt the other victims.