Liverpool 0 Birmingham City 0:Rafael Benitez was forced once again to defend his selection policy and, not for the first time, the evidence on the pitch convincingly countered the explanation offered by the Liverpool manager. Correctly anticipating that Birmingham City would come to Anfield with only damage limitation in mind, Benitez opted to leave Fernando Torres on the bench, relying instead on the more prosaic talents of Dirk Kuyt and Andriy Voronin to break down the visitors' commendably stubborn blanket defence.
That they failed was as much to do with the frustratingly limited service provided by the home side's midfield and, in particular, the unconvincing Jermaine Pennant, but the immediate impact made by Torres when he was finally introduced after an hour underlined the error of his omission from the starting line-up.
Injecting wit and invention into Liverpool's otherwise ponderous attack, the Spain international looked the difference between a decent team and one that can genuinely aspire to being title contenders - precisely the reason Benitez paid Atletico Madrid more than €29 million for his services, in fact.
As well as Liam Ridgewell and Johan Djourou played, Birmingham's stalwart central defenders would surely have had a more troublesome afternoon had they faced Torres for the full 90 minutes.
"I was a bit surprised they didn't start with Torres but they have other great strikers," said Maik Taylor, the visiting goalkeeper. "We were certainly pleased he wasn't playing . . . Take nothing away from the other lads, because they are great players, but it does give you a lift when you see he is not in the side."
Benitez was unrepentant, insisting Voronin was the striker best suited for this particular opposition and citing Steven Gerrard's lack of freshness after a gruelling international programme and a broken toe as a factor in his side's underachievement.
Nonetheless, the failure to win on the day Arsenal reasserted their early-season superiority and the day before Manchester United and Chelsea attempted to take points off each other severely undermined claims that Liverpool might this year be capable of ending their 18-year wait for the championship.
"Today was a difficult day because they were deep, narrow and compact and it's not easy to find spaces. You must be clever and try to play a different way," said Benitez. "I think that between the lines the best striker we have could be Voronin because he has movement, ability and technique.
"It's easy to talk about it after the game but in the first half I thought we were really good. In the second half we had some chances but we didn't have space and clear options.
"I have said 100 times, you know your own players and you know when they are tired. You need to decide these things beforehand. Gerrard I don't think was 100 per cent fresh. In these games you need to keep the tempo really high and if you play too many games in a row you will have problems.
"England knew Steve's situation. Everyone was saying how important he is to England and if you say anything about his fitness they say: 'Why are you saying this? This is the national team.' But I think it's clear these players can't play for 90 minutes every game."
Apart from an opening for Voronin, arising after a rare error by Djourou, and a late mix-up between Gerrard and Peter Crouch, Liverpool barely troubled Taylor, allowing Steve Bruce to reflect on his change in fortune in the 12 months since his position was threatened as City struggled in the English Championship.
"I've been under pressure for a while now," he said. "Last year was an unbelievable task to get the club back up. There was a lot of unrest and a lot of people wanted me to go but this is one of the good days again.
"I had an opportunity to manage my hometown club (Newcastle United), which I might regret for the rest of my life, but I stayed out of loyalty. So when things were tough the other way I expected the same."
