Many a side has prospered by the fact that if they can’t be good, then they can at least be lucky. Yet in Liverpool’s case yesterday, they only rarely managed the former and were definitely in no danger of benefiting from the latter. In a season already littered with enough dropped points to have long since cast adrift title aspirations, two more were squandered to add to the growing air of resignation hanging over the red half of Merseyside. Title outsiders in August, Gerard Houllier’s team have now resigned themselves to playing for fourth place, nothing more, and that clearly hurts. A Champions League spot is the bare minimum a club of the stature of Liverpool should be aiming for, yet such has been the sustained form of the Premiership’s top three this season, allied to Liverpool’s schizophrenic displays, that fourth now appears to be the height of their ambition, the leading pack almost out of sight before the campaign is even into its second half. Fortune plays a random yet significant part in the campaign of every club, no matter what their stature, and for the second successive game Liverpool were not blessed by Lady Luck. As they had been against Manchester United in their previous Premiership outing, they were denied what looked a clear-cut late penalty and the chance to underline their dominance with a winning goal from the spot.
Jason Mellor, Sunday Times
Liverpool's slow burn fizzles at the finish
Jonny Wilkinson spent part of his summer at Middlesbrough's training ground, swapping tips with Steve McClaren's players. A game bereft of a single shot on target could certainly have done with a little of the England rugby hero's incision but, thanks to attractive cameos from Gaizka Mendieta, Juninho and Steven Gerrard, it proved a surprisingly entertaining stalemate.
Louise Taylor, Sunday Telegraph
Reds draw a blank as bar denies Diouf
A game that promised so much ended frustratingly goalless. Liverpool, after a modest first half, missed chances in the second with Emile Heskey, Florent Sinama-Pongolle and El-Hadji Diouf the guilty men, though the latter was unlucky when a header hit the bar. Boro were always off the pace and their need for a top marksman was again emphasised.
John Wilford, The Observer
Liverpool draw a blank at Riverside
Nil in the net, not a single shot on target - nor anywhere near if the truth be told - but much endeavour to entertain. And, in the end, it boiled down to a tale of two tackles that saved goals that might have been penalties; one by Djimi Traoré that was as clean as a whistle and another by Franck Queudrue which was as murky as the water in the nearby River Tees.
Scott Barnes, Independent On Sunday