Liverpool - 1 Middlesbrough - 1:English FA Premiership:Liverpool have lost the plot if not their nerve. The management will deny it, as they must.
The team will recover it, as teams do, given vast resources of talent and cash. But, for the moment, they are gibbering, fearful of responsibility.
If six home league games without a win were not enough, last week's 2-0 defeat by Crystal Palace in the FA Cup replay here finished them off.
On Saturday, as six became seven, they were, with exceptions, passing the buck with the ball. And they had much of it.
Therein lies the problem. They have no coherent idea of what to do with it or how to make the most of Michael Owen, who was one of those exceptions.
Another was Dietmar Hamann, driving from midfield. But, with Steven Gerrard suspended by his two feet like a Christmas turkey, they lacked the penetrative pass as well as creative width or imaginative movement that make Arsenal and Manchester United more compelling in possession.
The buck, of course, stops with Gerard Houllier, missing with gastroenteritis on Saturday.
He picked the team, plans the system, says how pleased he is with the level of performance, whatever the result.
Seven times from December 22nd to the end of January, as their season stuttered on, he said he felt they had "turned the corner".
Saturday should have driven him round the bend - the S-bend perhaps - and in the end he may be held responsible for it.
In his absence, his assistant Phil Thompson presented the same face: "Commitment terrific . . . can't question the players . . . lot of positives out there . . . take heart at the performance. I feel for the fans."
So he might. They too, passionate and generous by tradition, have lost it.
At the end, after their own side had vanished but Boro's fans lingered to applaud their team's heroic defence and their first away point in nine games, they booed.
Liverpool may be glad to have no further league game here until Leeds on March 23rd.
"This is Anfield," proclaims the fortress legend above the entrance to the pitch. "So what?" is the new response.
LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Carragher, Henchoz, Hyypia, Riise, Diouf, Murphy, Hamann, Smicer (Diao 60), Heskey (Baros 45), Owen. Subs Not Used: Arphexad, Cheyrou, Traore. Goals: Riise 74.
MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, Cooper, Southgate, Riggott, Stockdale, Geremi, Boateng, Greening, Murphy, Job (Christie 45), Ricketts, Christie (Eustace 87). Subs Not Used: Crossley, Nemeth, Maccarone. Booked: Riggott, Eustace. Goals: Geremi 38.
Referee: S Bennett (Kent).
