Liverpool hero John Aldridge has blasted Newcastle United manager Sam Allardyce for claiming Rafa Benitez is lucky to still be in the job at Anfield.

Aldridge snapped to the Liverpool Echo: "You ask Alex Ferguson how difficult it is to get to two Champions League finals. Should he be sacked?

"Rafa has done a marvellous job at Liverpool and had a massive task to overhaul a very poor squad when he first arrived.

"But there has been a lot of dead wood to clear out, which he has done, as well as winning the FA Cup and the Champions League along the way.

"Of course, Liverpool still have to win the Premier League, but Rafa will have at least another two or three years to try and achieve that.

"Sam should really focus on his own job. He knows the Press will highlight any comments and he shouldn't put himself into that situation.

"But double standards is not something new for Sam. He claimed he was the first manager to introduce the lone striker system into this country, the formation which proved so successful for him at Bolton.

"In fact, I brought that system in at Tranmere and it took us to a League Cup final and two FA Cup quarter-finals, when we beat Bolton on the way.

"Sam couldn't come to terms with the system and he ended up adopting it himself, even to the extent of using Gareth Farrelly to take long throw-ins."