At one point, a man much maligned, decided enough was enough, that he was going to stand up and make a name for himself. He stood tall and heroically blew his whistle three times. God bless you Mr Marriner. You did more for the game than Liverpool.
I thought Portsmouth was bad but this one made it look like Real Madrid v Eintracht Frankfurt. When we walked around the pitch against City we at least had the excuse that they were just as incompetent but last night was far worse. To quote Bernard Black, it was everything I expected and less. Wigan Athletic, six defeats in seven and knocked out of the Cup by Notts County, took the game to Liverpool and were never threatened once. Not one shot on target. They let us off with one. A nice goal, incidentally, with a lovely ball down the channel from their ace midfielder Dirk Kuyt.
Where to start?
Some say time is running out for Rafa but for how long must the players push the blame in his direction. True, he picks them but the amount of time Insua was pulled out of position, the amount of times Dirk rolled the ball onto an enemy foot, the amount of times Gerrard...well, Gerrard wasn't actually playing so he gets a pass and the amount of times Torres thought he could win more arguments with the ref than with his centre back all point to weakness, culpability and cruising. That side does not want to know and I for one won't blame Rafa lack of animation on the sidelines. You train them all week and the runners up in the League last season turn into a tribute team when it matters. A bad one at that.
That was a very strong side, despite the mystifying inclusion of Mascherano at right back when we had two real ones on the bench. The team can't blame injuries this time. It's good that the manager's criticised them but I'd like to see a real threat. Dropping Gerrard and Kuyt for Lille and Portsmouth would be a solid statement. I'm tired of the limp argument that he deserves better because of what he's done for us. I don't want to fight for sixth with Everton in May just because Gerrard played well last season. By the same token I can't abide this suggestion that he's tired of carrying lesser players. He barely carried himself last night.
Someone needs to tell the senior players that they're betraying their own ability. I'd love a big 21 man brawl in Melwood this morning after a few home truths but that's unlikely. Someone has to tell them. Liverpool are a bloody awful football team and our badge always comes first. Avram Grant may not have much to look forward to at the moment save for (ahem, deleted for legal reasons) but at least he has the solace of an easy game next week. As things stand their administrators may give us a hand. Christ knows we need one.
What with the American situation, the real or fake Asian interest and being massacred by Allardyce, the Lancastrian Sun Tzu, we have a lot to contend with but I refuse to believe that a footballer can mislay a pass because of the club's finances. Something is rotten in the state of Anfield and I wish someone would point at it so we can fix it. Some say it's Rafa and they could be right, some say it's the coaching staff and they could have a case but before yesterday no one was pointing at a team that's created two goals in eight away games. I'm no Colombo but I'd start there.
In The Godfather Johnny Fontaine tells the Don that he doesn't know what to do now that his life is spiralling out of control. The Don springs from behind his desk, slaps him a beauty on his tear-stained face and roars 'YOU CAN BE A MAN!'. The same rules apply here. They can be men. They can be Liverpool Football Club. They're certainly nothing like that at the moment.