Sheffield United 1 Liverpool 1

Overall Rating: 5/10

Goals: Hulse 46, Fowler 70 (pen)

Ratings:

- Goalkeeping: 7/10

- Defence: 5/10

- Midfield: 4/10

- Attack: 4/10

COMMENTS: Played Well: Gerrard, Bellamy, Reina. Played Badly: Kromkamp, Zenden, Aurelio. Best Moment: Gerrard driving forward to win the penalty. Worst Moment: Conceding the stupid, stupid goal. Stupid goal. Ghastly marking led to the first goal. Aurelio has to take the blame for that. Riise & Carragher got injured. I hope they recover soon. Makeshift backline of Kromkamp, Hyypia, Agger & Aurelio looked vulnerable. Midfield mispassed considerably. Gerrard should have been playing in the middle and Zenden out wide. Zenden is not a central orchestrator. Why Rafa? We built the team AROUND GERRARD remember?? We had no axis of attack down center. With a congested 5-man Sheffield United midfield supporting a packed defence and no Crouch to aim at, we had no clear target when crossing infield from out wide. And by not hustling our way in the middle of the park, we got stuck. It did not help that our front men misread most the passes that came through. Garcia & Alonso were really missed today. Not good. Our offence had no cutting edge. Ironically Sheffield United's nickname is The Blades. Our blade was bloody blunt. In basketball terms, our transition game sucked. We were very lucky to have been awarded the penalty. I am not pleased at all and borderline pissed.