Liverpool 1, Reading 1 HT: Litany in a time of plague

The penalty was bullocks, but it happened and there's nothing to be done about it now. The ref should have reciprocated though when Torres was clearly taken out in the box or even when Sissoko was taken out in similar fashion of the call against Carragher. If the fix is on, he's doing a horrible job of hiding it.

Our erroneous play was infectious there for a while, but after our world class striker set up our world class midfielder, who netted for the ninth time in ten games, we appeared to gain composure. Still, poor decisions have been made through out, even by the two aforementioned players.

I don't like to second guess nor even criticize Rafa, but he got the selection all wrong for this one. I would have much preferred Lucas in the middle for either Masche or Sissoko, both of which are having shocking matches. Voronin and Crouch have been wholly useless as well, maybe it's King Harry time.

I guess we can't play Reading-style chaos ball nor should we. We're the better side and what happened to all this talk about possession beforehand? You'd figure boring the Reading players to death would be the proper approach, let's hope that's how we come out in the second.

Our inability to complete a decent pass early on combined with being rattled by the crowd and jolted by Reading's fierce attack has left it's mark. I can't state that we need to assert control in the second half enough. This is ridiculous, we're years ahead a side.

Adieu, farewell, Earth's bliss?