TERRACE TALK: Liverpool: A dour affair where fear really did take over

There was a derby, back in the dark distant 1970’s, where the Everton manager was so grateful for a point he strode onto the pitch and shook every player’s hand, writes Steven Kelly.

You half-expected Martinez and Rodgers to do the same on Saturday, along with the police, after the dampest of all possible squibs.

Fear really did take over this one.

As a chap fast approaching a pensionable age I appreciated the nod towards tradition.

Still get searched before entering football grounds, of course. Fair enough.

I do carry a mean packet of sharpened mints, just in case it “goes off”.

With Spurs, Southampton and City to come in the league these extra two points were dismissed too casually for my liking.

I’m not stupid enough to expect a top-four place obviously but I’m assuming others still believe.

Rodgers calls every Liverpool performance “outstanding” nowadays so you’d think he possesses the required myopia to expect good things from 2015. Apparently not.

At least we still have the cups, just. You wouldn’t trust Alan Pardew as far as you could throw him and Palace developed a little bogey-team ordure on the quiet.

Liverpool made even Bolton harder than necessary but got there in the end.

I received a social media message afterwards joking I’d been right all along about Coutinho being the next Messi. Yeah, just the 400 goals to go now…

We need to talk about Steven. You know that early announcement of his working holiday in LA, the one that was supposed to end speculation and help the manager and team focus on football? That’s not really working, is it?

He was dropped for West Ham after putting in a two-hour shift (of sorts) at Chelsea.

We managed to look okay against the Hammers without him.

Normal procedure would have been to rest him for Everton after running around somewhat aimlessly at Bolton. Trouble is; whoever pays the piper calls the tune. The satellite broadcaster’s trailer for the derby was based exclusively on it being Gerrard’s last trip to Goodison.

Actually it might not be but don’t let that stop you. It makes you wonder if Rodgers’ wings are being clipped by sentiment here.

The captain’s attacking gifts have been somewhat blunt of late, although it doesn’t help having no strikers worthy of the name to aim for. Central midfield roles have been swiped by Lucas and Henderson, and whenever the latter gets shunted out wide to accommodate Gerrard the thing falls apart.

It will do anyway because Rodgers cannot master rotation. Any change weakens us. Full marks for giving Jordon Ibe a game, not just any old game either, but fulfilling Markovic’s duties isn’t quite the Herculean task you’d think. This won’t be the only stop on Gerrard’s Farewell Tour, either. Last FA Cup match, last Man United game, last Chelsea game, last home game, last game period.

The manager who dropped him at the Bernabeu may need to rediscover his balls, and quickly.

The main talking point on Saturday was the stupidity of a trebled police presence and their suspicious attempts to make the derby look like The Alamo.

Grassy knoll-like links were being made to the current Hillsborough inquests, where fresh evidence of police inhumanity is uncovered almost daily.

The overtime from the resultant hysteria must have come in handy, too. It’s hard to be anything but cynical in modern Britain.

The match itself was desperately poor. It was as if last season’s freaky 3-3 haunted both managers and they weren’t prepared to suffer again.

Sturridge got another 30-40 minutes of match fitness and Ibe looks promising. That really was it, since we now take Can’s brilliance for granted.

Was the new, pragmatic Rodgers setting his sights on resurgent Spurs tomorrow? That doesn’t make the squandering of two extra points here any easier to take.

At least the city didn’t burn to the ground afterwards. That’s a plus, I suppose.