SICKENER

It wasn't a great Derby game in truth. Liverpool played fairly average, building up a head of steam of sorts in the second half.
Everton didn't do a great deal, but managed to hold their own for large parts of the game. Even so, we were the better side, although not a by a big margin.
But playing well or not, what was unfathomable was the typical way in which the Reds sat back after grabbing that all important goal.
Not content with seizing upon the initiative and pressing for a second, we tried to let the game drift to a conclusion, but in a feisty Merseyside derby, with a battling Everton side as opposition, that was never going to be easy.
Particularly as the only way they were likely to score was a free kick. Cue Lucas and Benayoun giving them away like Christmas presents in the last 10 minutes.

For me, there's no disgrace conceding a goal to Everton as Arteta's balls into the box can be undefendable at times, and is there anyone better than Cahill at getting first to a cross in the Premiership?
What's more galling however is our chronic inability to open teams up and create chances.
If we played as would befit a team with a £46m strikeforce and a midfield worth an estimated £60m, we might have been a few goals to the good.
Liverpool are in a bad patch at the moment, There's no question. We could see that lack of confidence at Stoke, we saw it again tonight.
The only way we managed to chalk up ONE goal was thanks to another moment of individual brilliance from the skipper.
Why can't we create a gilt-edged opportunity for a centre forward any more, outstanding performances from Phil Jagielka aside?
Why do we so rarely actually call on their goalkeeper to dirty his gloves? Every week we watch the ball ferried between Alonso, Gerrard, Alonso, Kuyt, back to Aurelio, sideways to Skrtel, tapped forward to Alonso. It's all very well, but where's the end product?
For me, we've been struggling to establish a pattern of play for a good while now, particularly at home.
Take United, you know they'll be getting the ball wide to the pace and trickery of Ronaldo, they'll have Rooney dropping deep, linking with his striking partner, they'll have full backs like Evra and that Spanish kid Da Silva bombing down the flanks for them...
Do our players know how we actually like/need/should shape our play? It doesn't seem so.

The basics seem lacking at times. One thing that surely makes attacking football much harder is a lack of movement, and you had to feel sorry for the ball carrier tonight.
He, whoever it was, looked up to find Red coloured statues most of the time, doing little to escape the attentions of some decent Everton marking.
The Liverpool way was always built on the Pass and Move philosophy. Not the Pass and Stand Still mantra.
Consequently, most of our attacks in the first half began with Reina humping the ball aimlessly into the night sky for Torres to battle for.
I'd be pissed off too if I was him. To the Spaniard's credit he was up for the fight and had some decent moments of his own making.
But he is being singularly failed by the dearth of any half decent service being offered to him.
As for his maligned striking colleague - I've tried to defend his profligacy so far this seaon as I've been convinced he'll come good, and Benitez's tinkering has hardly done his cause any help.
But there was no blame to be laid at the manager's door last night with regards the Irishman as Keane was non-descript.
He was never in the game, always on the edges, a distant figure who didn't seem to know what a Merseyside derby entailed.
This time, Rafa's decision to pull him off after 66 minutes was entirely right. Presumably the Torres change was because he was tiring, but the sudden withdrawal of both our centre forwards did hand something of an initiative to Everton. Perhaps Babel coming on for Lucas would have been a better option.
And the Brazilian was back to his haphazard best, running into a player and conceding a free kick within five seconds of being on the field.
You don't warrant wearing those white boots, son.

At kick-off, you couldn't argue with the manager's team selection as it was the side most discerning Reds fans would have selected.
It's about Mascherano was dropped for some woeful showings of late, and a midfield of Riera, Kuyt, Gerrard and Alonso seemed perfect to supply ammunition to £46m of striking talent.
It never quite worked like that though. The first half passed Gerrard by and only Alonso looked comfortable on the ball.
Kuyt did little other than work hard, Aurelio convinced nobody he is the dashing attacking full back we yearn for, and Carra showed obvious limitations at right back.
It's been said time and time again, but when will someone brief our centre halves about bringing the ball out of defence? Or maybe they just aren't capabole of doing it.
With acres in front of them, why do we need a Alonso or a Gerrard trotting back to collect two yard passes from them, deep in our own half?
Consequently, balls to strikers are collected midway in the opponent's half and we're still a country mile away from the penalty box.
If a centre half is capable of progressing forward, ball at feet, to at least the halfway line, the process of ball going to midfield and then onto striker, is all done in more dangerous areas and makes us more penetrating.
That's one of Liverpool's biggest failings for me. Just think what a technically brilliant footballer like Alonso could do if he actually received the ball just outside their penalty area. But he never gets that chance.
As for incidents in the game, from my vantage point, it looked like a clear shove on Torres in the penalty area.
Yet Webb had his eyes closed as he did for most of the night. It needed a stronger character to punish Everton for persistent and deliberate fouling that repeatedly slowed the game down to the tempo they wanted.
Fair play to them though, it was a tactic that worked.
Torres showed his rustiness by spurning a one-on-one that normally he'd eat for breakfast (great pass Sami), there was two decent efforts from Torres and Riera and that was about it.
Finally, Hyppia had a golden opportunity which was prevented from going in by what looked like an unbelievable diving block, I think by Jagielka.
Everton, other than great heart and battling spirit, created little other than Cahill's first half header and a speculative Anichebe drive that had Reina scrambling.
The draw was slightly harsh on us, but we didn't really do a huge amount to say we were really hard done by.
Chanting wise, I didn't see anybody getting thrown out and it seemed a lot of the 'below the belt' singing was shelved by both sides.
'Gerrard's going down' was entirely predictable from the Blues, as was 'The City is Ours' Kirkby ditty from us.

In the end, the only people lapping up last night's result, aside from Everton's ecstacy after scraping a draw, was Man Utd.
It only seems yesterday that they were nine points behind us. But three quick wins and it's all change at the top. That's what genuine matchwinners do for you. It was the disgruntled Tevez who whizzed in a peach of a ball for Berbatov on Saturday at Bolton.
Do we have those matchwinners? Here's hoping.

For a Blue view on the derby from fellow ECHO blogger Greg O'Keeffe, visit http://gwladtidings.merseyblogs.co.uk/2009/01/point-break.html