The unbeaten run has come to an end. But it is difficult to believe that Middlesbrough had anything to do with it. Today both our tactics and performance were a country mile away from what was required to retain our four-point lead at the top of the premiership.
Some days a manager has to hold his hands up and say he got it completely wrong. But of course that isn't Gerard Houllier's style. Blame everybody but yourself is the chief mantra that Mr "team first" must chant to himself during his sleep.
Despite playing the one of the best midfielders in the country on the right, slowly but surely killing the lads confidence, playing a centre forward at left midfield and a midfielder upfront, this isn't his fault. Refusing to look for anything but a sneaky 1-0 win against a highly mediocre side who are getting way above their station, this isn't Gerard Houllier’s fault. Sleep easy Gerard, your conscience is clear.
We are top of the table and unbeaten in 12 league games, so why place shite like Middlesbrough on a pedestal and totally change the way we've been playing for them? A wee bit of common sense is all that is required to figure out that fielding our most effective team, and utilising our normal tactics is enough to beat Middlesbrough. So why couldn't we go there and attack? Sometimes you can be too clever for your own good Gerard.
The formation handed Middlesbrough the advantage, even before kick off. Seeing Murphy up front, operating just behind Owen, must have filled them with confidence. No disrespect to Danny, he actually did pretty well, but Baros, Diouf and Heskey were all available for selection and Houllier's choice to employ such defensive tactics against a mediocre bunch of losers like Boro is really baffling.
He does it every single year. Last year we were lucky, we got battered but still came out with the victory but on the other three occasions we have been beaten and deservedly so. The same applied today.
Middlesbrough took the initiative we had handed to them and started much the better, without really creating chances. Most of the early half chances fell to the visitors, with Heskey and Owen going closest on the few occasions the Reds attempted to venture forward.
The home side had the best chance of the first half as on loan Real Madrid midfielder Geremi headed just wide from Greening's cross. I was amazed to read in the Middlebrough fanzine "Fly me to the moon" something along the lines of 'Jon Greening will show Liverpool that he is the new Steve McManaman'. Delusions are running high in smogtown, the only thing that Greening has in common with Macca is the stupid haircut. Half of the ground thought Geremi's header was in, including myself and it was a massive relief to see the header fly wide.
This was a poor first half performance from Liverpool. We struggled to keep possession and Owen was left horribly isolated upfront, whist – following team orders – the players continued to pump high balls to him. Gerrard was showing no improvement on his recent poor form, and Heskey was playing so deep that at times it was difficult to tell whether it was him or Riise that was at left back.
This continued into the second half as Boro continued to boss the game. For Houllier to say that we were in control of the game was preposterous and pretty embarrassing. Boro' had the ball in the net on 58 minutes as the niggly little Italian Maccarone blasted the ball past Dudek, but was rightly adjudged to be offside.
It took the smalltime Boro fans about a minute to realise this however, which was quite amusing. What it did do however was turn the atmosphere up about 5 notches, especially in the away end. 'Fields of Anfield Road' was as always spine tingly loud. All the 'Smoggies' could respond with was "You are my Boro". Losers.
The longer the game went on, the more confident I was that we were going to spawn a late winner. I turned to Steve about a minute before Boro themselves scored and said "I fancy us to get one here mate" . Damn sods law.
After Dudek had made a great save from Nemeth to keep us on level terms, it is unfortunate that Jerzy will take most of the blame for the defeat today. My immediate reaction as that Bucktoothed choker Southgate, knocked the ball in was there's no way that the referee was going to allow it. His refusal to point to the centre circle cemented this a little, as did the fact that he first appeared to point to the area where Dudek had landed, for a free kick, and then went to speak to the linesman.
I basically think he lost his bottle. On reflection it didn't look like a foul, but 99 times out a 100, when a forward makes any kind of contact with a goalkeeper it's an automatic free kick. There was lots of contact on this occasion. And at grounds across the country free kicks would have been given for far less than that.
I have no gripes about the result today, we deserved everything we got today. Simply because of our chicken shit tactics and lack of ideas going forward. In many ways it reminded me of the defeat at White Hart Lane, which ended our championship challenge last season.
Emile Heskey missed our best chance of the game late on as Murphy's miscued shot fell to the big man, who was unable to stretch enough to slide the ball home at the back post. As usual Hamann along with Murphy were our most consistent performers, but it was more a case of them being the best of a bad bunch today. The game seemed to pass by big Salif Diao and Gerrard will be very disappointed with his display today.
Things improved slightly when Vladi replaced Stevie. I'd really like to see him given a chance on the left wing to start with, I believe it's his best position. Even Paddy Berger, who wasn't even on the bench today, is playing well enough to merit a place in the side.
I feel for the players though, especially Owen and Heskey, who worked tirelessly in positions which do not suit them at all. Heskey is no winger and Michael Owen needs a partner. Perhaps "Mr UEFA Technical Expert" should put two and two together. But for the same reason that Xavier was kept in the team early in the season, I expect to see Emile forced to play as a supplementary left back for some time yet. Houllier is too damn stubborn to admit he's wrong, and today he got it very wrong.
Finally a small mention must go to Middlesbrough. I'm really starting to develop an intense hatred for everything connected with them. Steve Gibson, the fans and the gobshites on the pitch. Look up the word smalltime in the dictionary and you will see a picture of a Middlesbrough fan, no further definition is required.
On four occasions this afternoon were encouraged to 'Do the Boro' which is their equivalent of You'll Never Walk Alone. It is really quite a sight to see them bobbing up and down. Surely somewhere there must be a Boro fan who cringes when forced to do this at every home game. On second thoughts, probably not. Still on the bright side, if we continue to lose one in every 13 league games, it should be enough to win the championship. Let's hope this defeat is the catalyst for another winning streak. There's always a bright side, unless you happen to be Gary Neville.
Team: Jerzy Dudek; Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypia, Djimi Traore, John Arne Riise; Steven Gerrard (Vladimir Smicer), Salif Diao, Didi Haman, Danny Murphy (Milan Baros), Emile Heskey: Michael Owen:
