Birmingham City - 2 Liverpool - 2: Liverpool are back on their game, the one in which they are so clueless in the league the top dogs of Europe are gulled into treating them as trifling pups. Chelsea, for whom Europe is but a staging post to the intergalactic title, have been warned. They are due at Anfield twice in five days, starting on Wednesday with the opportunity for revenge for May's 1-0 Champions League semi-final defeat, then returning 14 points to the good in the Premiership.
Liverpool did spring a surprise, though. Hitherto their games had virtually been no-goal areas, Xabi Alonso's direct free-kick to beat Sunderland a seeming aberration. Now they scored in open play for the first time, after more than seven hours, and conceded likewise, not once but twice. The home point broke new ground for Birmingham too, after three defeats at St Andrew's.
Birmingham, without five midfielders who would have played before the 19-year-old debutant Neil Kilkenny, set out to do little more than stem the flow, only to find Liverpool constipated. The first hour offered nothing but Steven Gerrard's shot on to a post, a rare moment when Peter Crouch found someone close enough to lay off to.
Rafael Benitez' record is unarguably impressive. Tactically in Europe he has succeeded where other aspirants have failed. But how could he persist with 4-5-1 against such hamstrung opponents? And how, with such huge advantage in possession, could Liverpool not create more than one first-half chance? It was Sven-Goran Eriksson's recent England all over again, the common factor being Gerrard.
Steve Bruce said the Liverpool midfielder was "fantastic, as good as anyone in the world". Why then can no one bring the best out of him at present? He looked to have it all and not know how to use it, making runs that were ignored, finding team-mates where he wanted to be, a high-powered car in traffic, revving and braking.
Birmingham had the game's two genuine wingers, Jermaine Pennant and Julian Gray. "We've gone with two wide men and tried to get the ball out there quicker," said Bruce of a change of emphasis after "an edgy first half". To rub the point in, they set up the goals, in four minutes to turn 0-1 to 2-1, even if one was an own-goal.
By then Benitez' syrup of figs was taking effect. Fig one showed Gerrard picking out the run of the substitute Luis Garcia, scorer of that "ghost goal" against Chelsea. Fig two was a set-piece that ill served Birmingham's defence in which Mario Melchiot's interceptions and Jamie Clapham's headers off the line stood out. Maik Taylor tipped Jamie Carragher's header at a corner on to the bar and Kilkenny pawed the ball away.
No doubt he remembered Liverpool do not have to get the ball over the line to score. He will remember his red-card debut and the penalty that gave Liverpool a point. Benitez said: "We can approach Wednesday with confidence as we are scoring again."
It sounds like a confidence trick.
Guardian Service
