IT’S the time of year when miracles happen but Liverpool now require one of biblical proportions.
What was already an uphill battle to secure the final Champions League spot, looks almost impossible today.
Yesterday’s desperately frustrating stalemate at St Andrew’s delivered a hammer blow to hopes of clambering into the top four.
With Rafael Benitez’s side four points behind fourth-placed Manchester City having played a game more, only the most optimistic of Kopites can honestly believe the club will be dining at Europe’s top table next season.
This was a golden opportunity to turn up the heat on their top four rivals but Liverpool blew it.
Benitez’s search for a cure to his side’s travel sickness goes on after their weaknesses at both ends of the pitch were laid bare in the Midlands.
Having taken the lead early in the second half courtesy of a fine strike from skipper Steven Gerrard, they proceeded to shoot themselves in the foot as some woeful defending gifted Liam Ridgewell a soft equaliser.
A spirited response in the closing stages should have brought a winner for the visitors but, infuriatingly, a glut of chances were passed up.
The best of them fell to substitute David Ngog but he lacked the composure to make Birmingham pay.
The fact that the young Frenchman was on the pitch was a major talking point after he replaced Fernando Torres with 25 minutes to go.
Torres may have been flagging but he looked less than impressed by Benitez’s decision to take him off. And the striker’s mood will have darkened still further on seeing his replacement waste an array of opportunities.
Even a shattered Torres would surely have netted at least one of the glorious openings Ngog spurned.
The lack of quality cover for the 20-goal top scorer has undoubtedly been a major contributing factor in Liverpool’s struggles this season.
Rather than boost his strikeforce last summer Benitez opted to splash the lion’s share of his transfer kitty on an Italian midfielder who has spent most of his time on Merseyside lying on the treatment table.
