The political statement was well choreographed, the
statement of intent less so. Liverpool
rose to the summit of the Barclays Premier League but their
journey there was nothing like as impressive as their campaign for
the release of Michael Shields.
Their supporters let them know as much at the sound of the final
whistle. Never before, surely, has a team gone top to a chorus of
boos. The fans, it has to be said, need to take a share of the
responsibility for what amounted to another desperately
disappointing draw.
A goalless, strangely soulless encounter to rival those here at
Anfield earlier this season with Stoke and
Fulham.
They were great when it came to uniting behind the campaign to
release Shields who was jailed three years ago, wrongly they
insist, for assaulting a waiter in Bulgaria.
After the players wore Free Michael Now T-shirts during the
warm-up and Sue Johnston delivered a rousing speech, the Kop
followed the actress by delivering a message in their own
inimitable style. But give it 20 minutes and no sign of a goal and
anxiety spreads like a virus, first in the stands and then on the
pitch, with the same once-vocal supporters watching in silence as
their team wrestle with the pressure of expectation.
Clearly, and perhaps understandably, it comes from 18 years of
waiting for another League title. But the supporters need to relax
and so do the players, remembering first that it is December and
secondly that their rivals are dropping points, too.
It is that failure to take advantage of a defeat for Chelsea that
will most frustrate Benitez this morning. West Ham
deserve some credit for securing a share of the points. In Robert
Green and Matthew Upson they possessed two outstanding Englishmen.
And the result will succeed only in cementing Gianfranco Zola’s
position as a darling of Stamford Bridge.
On a night when they should have gone three points clear they
managed only one, making that six points dropped — the same as two
defeats — in those three home games.
If Benitez wants to point to the absence of Fernando Torres, the
results do not support the argument. He missed those victories
against Manchester United and Chelsea, too, and in the five Premier
League fixtures the Spaniard had missed prior to this one,
Liverpool
actually won four of them.
In Robbie Keane, though, they have a player struggling to
demonstrate why, at £20million, he cost almost as much as Torres.
Last night Craig Bellamy looked the sounder of the two investments
and Benitez sold the Welshman to West Ham for less than a third of
Keane’s fee.
Not once did Keane even go close to taking advantage of the many
chances created, for the most part, by a certain Steven
Gerrard.
LIVERPOOL (4-4-2): Reina
6; Arbeloa 6, Hyypia 7, Carragher 6, Dossena 6; Benayoun 7, Alonso
6, Gerrard 6, Riera 6 (Babel 78mins); Kuyt 6, Keane 4 (Ngog 66,
6).
Booked: Alonso.
WEST HAM (4-4-2): Green
8; Neill 6, Collins 6, Upson 7, Ilunga 5; Faubert 5 (Boa Morte 85),
Parker 5, Mullins 5, Behrami 5; Cole 5, Bellamy 7.
Booked: Mullins.
Man of the match: Robert Green.
Referee: Peter Walton.
