Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Sometimes I think some of our players aren't bothered whether we get fourth or not. Whenever we have a chance to close the gap, they blow it, yet put these same players into a Champions League game and they're a completely different side.

Rafa must be tearing his hair out, but what he can do? Unfortunately for Benitez, there are several players at the club who will not be here next season for one reason or another, and that's his biggest problem. How to motivate them?

Some will leave due to expiring contracts, some are simply unwanted whilst others just want to move on. There's no need for me to name names, you know who they are.

When it comes to the Champions League, they're well up for it and are performing very well. After all, who wouldn't want to win that trophy?

Put them in a mundane Premiership game, where the only thing at stake are points which will help us to claim fourth spot and a place in next year's top European competition, and it's a different story.

Well if they aren't going to be here why do they care if we get fourth or not?

This performance was as bad as any seen at Anfield this season. As usual, the back four all did ok, but creatively we were awful.

The front six (describing Hamann as part of a front six is stretching things I know) contributed nothing. We had one shot on target, and that was from Pellegrino and was so tame that Friedel had time to scratch his balls, pick his nose and wave to a friend in the crowd before gathering it.

Riise livened things up briefly after replacing the ineffective Smicer at half time, but after a bright fifteen minutes even he then got sucked into the mediocrity that consumed this performance.

It's easy to criticise Benitez, but what more could he have done here? The team he picked should have easily been good enough to rip Blackburn to shreds.

Riise and Hyypia started on the bench, apparently due to the flu, but it was still a strong looking side.

The trouble was we never looked like breaking down a well drilled Rovers side, who offered no attacking threat of their own whatsoever.

Of the attacking players, only Garcia can hold his head up in my opinion. He came in for a bit of stick from the crowd at times, and it's true he did give the ball away a little too much.

However, he was the one player I saw who constantly wanted the ball, who was always moving into space and looking to make an angle for a team-mate to make a pass, and the only one not afraid to try something different.

He's frustrated me a lot this season, but I think he's been playing well of late and at least he tried to make something happen against Blackburn. He didn't succeed, but at least he tried his best.

The thing I noticed against Blackburn, is that when a Liverpool player had the ball, he was lucky if he had one option to pass the ball to. Look at the mancs and Arsenal when they play. The man in possession usually has a choice of two or three options.

The only Liverpool player regularly tryng to give an option to the man with the ball was Luis Garcia. He passes and moves whilst others pass and stand still.

Baros ran around a lot as usual, but this was as poor as he's played at Anfield in a while. Nothing went right for him, and it was hard to argue when he was subbed in the second half.

Some will say that we needed to score and therefore our leading goalscorer should have stayed on. I felt that way myself, but the truth is I can't put up much of an argument for him as was just poor.

He wasn't alone, and any one of the midfield or forwards could have gone off. Morientes wasn't at the races, and he looked very rusty to me. He's not had many games since he arrived here, and it's showing.

The service to him was terrible, but there were a few occasions when he tried layoffs when he probably should have just swung a boot at it and gone for goal himself.

It was hard not to have some sympathy for him though when for the last twenty minutes we just aimed high balls up at him. Just what was he meant to do when there was no-one running off him?

It was clueless stuff, and easy for Blackburn. Hamann was awful, Gerrard little better. Biscan made a slight difference when he came on and at least managed a shot, but it was too little too late.

On the plus side I thought Pellegrino had a decent game, and he looks to have settled down a bit now after a ropey start. He doesn't exactly fill me with confidence though, and isn't exactly a ball playing defender, but he did well enough.

Finnan and Carragher were as steady as ever, but the star man for me was once again Warnock, who's combative style and crisp passing stood out on an otherwise awful night.

We didn't deserve to win this game, as we were poor, but once again we can point to a terrible refereeing decision against us. Carragher was blatantly pushed from behind as he attacked a corner, and it was right in front of the ref who just ignored it.

The amount of key decisions such as this which have gone against us this season is astonishing. They say that they even themselves out, but that's bollocks. They don't at all.

I can think of at least six penalties we should have had this season, not to mention goals against us which shouldn't have stood. It's not sour grapes, as like I said, we were poor on the night and didn't deserve to win.

It is pissing me off though that week in week out we're getting screwed by referees.

That's something we can do nothing about however, and we need to get our own performances right before worrying about officials not doing their jobs properly.

This is the most inconsistent team I've seen in all the years I've been watching the reds. You just don't know what you'll get from one week to the next.

There's just too many players with their minds elsewhere, concentrating on this year's Champions League rather than next years, which doesn't bode well for the derby on Sunday.

Maybe Rafa can hypnotise the players into thinking this is a CL game? If he did that, we'd have no worries.

Liverpool: Dudek, Finnan, Carragher, Pellegrino, Warnock (Biscan); Garcia, Hamman, Gerrard, Smicer (Riise); Baros (Nunez), Morientes:

Agree or disagree? Email me at dave@liverpoolway.co.uk

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