Liverpool FC 1, Reading 2 (aet): Reds' nightmare season just gets worse

AFTER a weekend of high drama, football returned to the top of Liverpool's priority list last night.With so much chatter nowadays about ownership and takeovers, debts and finances, the new stadium and internal politics, it is easy to forget a football club still exists at Anfield, one that used to be the pre-eminent force in Europe.Those days, of course, have long since gone but one thing that will never change on the Red half of Merseyside is a desire to talk about events on the field; about passing and movement, goals, great players and ambitions.It's a form of escapism or, more accurately, it used to be; Liverpudlians, you see, are caught in a terrifying nightmare, one where the farcical affairs in the boardroom are mirrored by the team's desperate lack of quality - it is heartbreaking to watch.Just when you thought things could not get any worse, Anfield witnessed the most gutless performance of Rafa Benitez's five-and-a-half year reign, a display which deservedly sent them crashing out of another competition.Disgrace is a word that does get used lightly even in this era of extreme hyperbole but, frankly, what else can you say about the situation now that Reading - 21st in the Championship, remember - have sent them tumbling out of the FA Cup?Make no mistake, Liverpool, once a bastion of invincibility, is all but on its knees today; lacking leadership, devoid of direction, a calamity like the one 31,063 witnessed has been waiting to happen all season since the alarm bell ringing friendly in Espanyol.There can be no excuses, no spin that the second half of the campaign will see them embark on the road to redemption; should this malaise continue, Liverpool will be lucky to finish in the top eight - the ramifications do not bare thinking about.Having received rightful criticism for their poor second half display at the Madejski Stadium, it was not wrong to expect a positive response here from Liverpool but, incredibly, their start screamed lethargy.Unable to string a sequence of meaningful passes together and failing to make the most of their superior talent, a sign of things to come arrived in the first minute when Fernando Torres was flattened by a crude challenge that effectively ended his night.

Source: Liverpool_Echo