Avoiding the truth amid more of the Rafa red herrings

I DO my bit for the environment. In order to save paper, I asked the editor if I could redirect readers to a December column and have the week off.

You can imagine the response. One extra syllable before the word “cough” and you’ll get the gist.

So I guess I’ll have to type it out again, one segment in particular: “We won, stop complaining” becomes “we’re top, stop complaining”. Let’s hope we’re not soon subjected to the perennial “we’re still in the hunt”, “well, looking at it mathematically” and “how can we compete with United and Chelsea’s millions anyway?”

What a forlorn hope that turned out to be. Not that we’re giving up yet of course. Perish the thought.

Benitez may have released a shoal of red herring to convince the gullible it was an impossible dream to begin with, but the fighting talk comes in torrents, even if the eyes give him away.

We may be woefully short of money, guts, attacking options, flair, boardroom stability and managerial sanity but one thing in plentiful supply is wishful thinking.

Everything may be going United’s way and the illustrious name of Manchester City is added to the pantheon of titans that have left Anfield with a point, but hey (dusts off handy cliché number 3,472) “you never know…”

You’re supposed to froth at the mouth over referee Webb’s performance at Old Trafford, but apologies for not echoing the sheep’s bleat. I find that a huge distraction.

He was right to disallow Evans’ goal, right to book Ronaldo for diving and probably right for thinking Pedersen made a five-course banquet of that touch on the shoulder.

As for the Portuguese waxwork kicking Dunn, some perspective is useful. Refs make rods for their own backs by being ultra-strict with the lesser players and hoping nobody noticed they let the superstars off with similar “offences” time and again.

Annoying? Yes. Petulant? Undoubtedly, but there are worse things in the game. Kevin Nolan springs to mind.

With nothing better to do on Saturday night anyway what I found remarkable about that game was United’s line-up at the end when they were holding a narrow lead.

Tevez, Rooney, Berbatov, Ronaldo. All still out there, all of them trying to score another goal. Perhaps only a Liverpool fan could find anything remarkable in that, since (a) we haven’t got four full-on attackers (b) they’d have already been replaced by diligent workhorses protecting what we already had.

And not very successfully at that.

So embroider your conspiracy theories and add Webb’s name to your little black books if you wish. Me, I’ve had a bellyful of excuses.

As if the City game wasn’t awkward enough, it was preceded by further slurries of Rafa To Quit headlines from the usual stenographers. Surely even they can’t consider themselves “reporters” any longer?

One particularly revolting example of obsequiousness was the claim that Rafa will stay if Gillett sells his stake. That’s mighty big of him. And what about Hicks’ stake? The manager’s had an easy ride over this tacit approval of the most loathsome of the gruesome twosome’s antics and his contract stalling is now irritating beyond belief.

The arrogance of the man now sticks in the craw. Perhaps he thinks the more voluble supporters, the ones who shriek and march, represent the true voice of Liverpool’s support.

Another draw next week and he will discover he is hugely mistaken.

During the first half, the opposition gave such a pale, disinterested performance, we were convinced they, to a man, hoped we could add Hughes’s scalp to that of Ince and Adams.

But check that statistic: 16 shots off target. Sixteen! It has been like that forever and is never going to improve after five years of waiting.

When we finally went at them, I mean really gave it our best shot, they had no answer. Not that the manager liked that, “too open” was his jaw-dropping verdict.

That a team with such a poor away record left with a point cannot be condoned, not even by the apologista, surely?

As for Dossena and Lucas, words are beginning to fail me, and Riera is also testing the fans’ patience. There are too many passengers.

The manager keeps selecting lame ducks in the hope of proving everyone else wrong. The good of the team? Why bring up such a trifling irrelevance? It was something Houllier did often in his final year. Tick, tick, tick…