For me has got to be the wingers. When you look at our wingers:
Kuyt - doesn't have the pace and touch to play out wide and is (was) a striker
Babel - hopeless
Reira - Slow and inconsistant
Benayoun - inconsistant and not really a left winger, hardly plays on the right because of Kuyt
When you look at the teams who challenge for the title every year, it';s usually the teams with the best wingers, the creative players on both sides who can stretch teams and possess a determination to do damage and step up to the plate. I dont think we have those players in those positions, we have them central like Torres who gets kicked or marked or Gerrard who is injured often and also closely marked.
Gerrard and Torres are a great double act and a handful for any opposition especially when on form but you have to account for the fact that they rarely get a run due to injuries and even when they do there will be games where the close marking or persistant fouling/cheating takes them out of the game. The success of the pair is regularly highlighted and opposition managers now work all week to stop them
Benitez wants his wingers to work hard, track back and help the full back but I dont think you need to work so hard against the shite like Portsmouth or Wolves, they're incredibly one dimensional sides devoid of quality and when they go a goal down it's game over especially against a confident side.
I really do think this is the achilles heal, going to places like Portsmouth and respecting them too much when we should be putting them to the sword with good play, touch, technique etc. I recall we capitulated similar at Boro, Reading etc. we have often lost points to relegated teams and I dont think you can challenge for the title without taking 6 points out of those fixtures and doing our own thing.
For example, why do we need Masher in those games, to screen against the world class Piqiuonne or Kevin Doyle? we really don't need that. Benitez badly needs to change the approach to these games and he needs to change some of the personnel, especially out wide. ]