Daniel Taylor says that even Liverpool's 12th man, the Kop, could not inspire a team devoid of proven goalscorers

A few weeks ago, at Liverpool's agm, the first proposal from the floor was that the club should "retire" the number 12 shirt in honour of the Kop and its reputation as "the team's 12th man". It was a fanciful and, dare one say it, rather cheesy idea that presumably is now somewhere near the bottom of Rick Parry's in-tray. But, sentimentality aside, Liverpool's fans are entitled to be proud of the Anfield acoustics given the racket they kicked up trying to inspire a comeback last night.

Sometimes, however, there is nothing quite so deafening as the sound of silence. When Simao Sabrosa picked up the ball, 36 minutes into a pulsating evening, the decibel levels inside Anfield were lowered by a hush of trepidation. Simao has the ability to turn the volume up and down wherever he plays, and as his shot soared into the top corner it was as if the sound had gone dead.

Most of the time it is a footballers left foot that is described as "educated". Here was a player whose right boot presumably has a Master's degree.

In that moment most of the Liverpool fans probably knew the game was up. They could remind themselves of the comeback against Olympiakos last season and how they scored three second-half goals against Milan in the final.

One fact they could not get away from, however, was the overwhelming flaw in the current team: scoring goals. Rafael Benitez has placed such emphasis on constructing a watertight defence the suspicion has emerged that Liverpool's attack has stagnated as a result.

And as chance after chance went begging, the residents of the Kop must have been overcome by a sense of deja vu. The lack of goals is becoming an old story, and today, when the dust settles on their unsuccessful defence of the European Cup, it will be the focus of their inquest, with legitimate questions asked about whether the current strikers are equipped to trouble Europe's most accomplished defences.

The answer, undeniably, is no. When the Kop serenades Fernando Morientes these days it feels like a chord of sympathy. The former Real Madrid striker took to the field last night knowing another unproductive evening would take him beyond 1,000 minutes without a goal.

Alongside him, Peter Crouch's solitary effort since New Year's Eve meant that Benitez had selected two players with one goal between them in 29 hours of football. Crouch, in fairness, is still contributing heavily to Liverpool's methodical build-up, his confidence bolstered by his goal for England here a week ago, but Morientes's problems crossed the boundary into personal crisis several weeks ago.

The peripheral, hesitant player who shuffled through long spells of this match was barely recognisable compared to the exhilarating centre-forward whose demotion from Madrid's team led to a wave of mutiny from fans at the Bernabeu. Every so often Morientes would supply a deft little touch to remind us of the player he was.

Yet there were other times when he would go Awol just as Liverpool were working up a head of steam. What they desperately needed was a striker who could add an incisive edge to all their attacks.

Sadly for them, Michael Owen was watching on television, Instead, we had the enduring image of Crouch, clean through, failing to get any lift with his shot as he faced the advancing Benfica goalkeeper. The game was scoreless at that point and Benitez will reflect on that moment with the greatest anguish.

Uefa's number-crunchers later handed out a statistics sheet that told us Liverpool had managed 10 shots inside the opening 25 minutes. They pressed to the end, never giving up. But ultimately Liverpool's 12th man was in better form than any of their front players.