English FA Premiership/ Middlesbrough 0 Liverpool 0: A banner draped over a perimeter fence by visiting fans was emblazoned with the message "Forever we bask in sublimity".
Such Scouse irony may well have been lost on Rafael Benitez but Liverpool's manager insists this was a ridiculous result. While his side's passing was not quite sublime the Merseysiders' dominance was so overwhelming that, as he reflected, "Playing like that, 99 times out of 100 we will win."
With the prospects of securing a top-four finish appearing increasingly uncertain, Benitez's defiance is growing and, publicly at least, he has seemed in denial about the reasons for Liverpool's inability to win away in the Premiership this season and the effective scuttling of the club's title challenge.
Nevertheless, with Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso ruthlessly dictating central midfield, this was a much improved travelling performance and, had Jonathan Woodgate not been in such imperious form for a Middlesbrough team who created only one chance, Liverpool would surely have prevailed.
"This match was different from the others away from home," said Dirk Kuyt who, like Daniel Agger, Craig Bellamy, Alonso, Mark Gonzalez and Peter Crouch, came tantalisingly close to scoring Liverpool's first away league goal from open play this season. "This time we definitely wanted to win and were very close to it. We controlled the game and were really unlucky."
Even Julio Arca was sympathetic. "If you compare it to five years ago, it's getting harder and harder to score goals in the Premiership," argued Boro's Argentinian winger. "Some of the games must be horrible to watch and they're really hard to play in. There are a lot of physical teams and their organisation is getting much better."
Tellingly, centre-halves were the ones who impressed here. While Agger rationed Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Gareth Southgate's lone striker, to that solitary opening - from which he missed a sitter - Woodgate and Emmanuel Pogatetz excelled for Boro.
"Jonathan was immense," enthused Southgate, whose gamble on borrowing the injury-prone defender from Real Madrid appears inspired. "He's one of the first to arrive for training and last to leave; he's still some way from full fitness but, if he can perform like that now, it shows what he's capable of.
Intriguingly, Benitez is sufficiently concerned about Craig Bellamy's indifferent form to have made the Welshman watch a DVD compilation of his career highlights last week but he still looked a shadow of the striker who once routinely petrified even the best defenders.
Perhaps part of the problem is that, for all Liverpool's capacity to monopolise possession, they do not exactly supply their forwards with a barrage of crosses. Moreover, with Jermaine Pennant and Gonzalez largely flattering to deceive on the flanks here, one could understand why Benitez is so often tempted to play Gerrard wide.
Relishing life back in his natural central habitat, Gerrard put George Boateng firmly in his place in between conjuring the visitors' better openings but at times Benitez could definitely have done with him on the wings.
"Liverpool can pass it around all day and have great quality but they seem to be missing something," mused Arca. "They need something extra to get to the top."
Perhaps Benitez requires a high-class winger - a species to which Pennant and Gonzalez do not belong - to light Kuyt's and Bellamy's respective fires?
Meanwhile Southgate's recently abandoned attacking philosophy could do with reignition. If his defensive organisation was beyond reproach, spectators - 31,424 of whom turned out after the club slashed ticket prices - were less enamoured with their side's negative strategy. Arguing that "we needed solidity", Boro's manager remained unapologetic. Much more of this and he really will become the "new Steve McClaren".
- Guardian Service
