PRESS BOX VIEW – TELEGRAPH

From The Telegraph:

‘The dreaded 4-5-1, 4-3-3, 4-4½-1½. Whatever the managers want to call it, the football public are calling it every name under the sun. Never before have radio phone-ins crackled to the sound of listeners calling for a system to get the sack.

Chelsea win with it, England lose with it, Liverpool and Manchester United drew with it yesterday. The first goalless Premiership fixture between the big league's most bitter rivals left a dull rather than bitter taste in the mouth. It was like watching Brett Lee and Kevin Pietersen play chess.

Sure, there was passion and pride. Roy Keane and Steven Gerrard took little more than a minute to touch studs, Rio Ferdinand picked on somebody more than his own size with an angry grab at Peter Crouch and Wayne Rooney was only a partly reformed character. But most of all there were tactics. Careful, cautious, catenacio tactics. Referee Rob Styles gave the game a chance, but the players created only a handful. Openings rather than opportunities.

Sir Alex Ferguson's changes came so late that they did no more than waste some stoppage time. If a point at Anfield is a point gained in his judgment then so be it, but the Premiership table says that any points lost are points lost to Chelsea. If either Ferguson or Benitez had found his side a goal down with 20 minutes to go yesterday, I am almost certain they would have changed shape and emphasis in search of an equaliser. A manager reputedly once told his players to try to equalise before the opposition took the lead. Now they are tactics I do understand.