‘If Jerzy Dudek could muster any sleep amid his deepening despair last night, his nightmares will have been haunted by the question crowed from the Anfield Road end long after yesterday's final whistle. "Who put the ball in the Scousers' net? Jerzy, Jerzy Dudek . . . "
The Pole, arguably the best goalkeeper in the Premiership last season, awakes this morning dazed and confused as to how he has become a figure of such ridicule almost overnight. In fact it has taken three weeks to undermine his reputation and confidence, from the moment he fumbled Szilard Nemeth's cross at Middlesbrough for Gareth Southgate to score, and reduce him to a pale shadow of last year's inspiration. Today he is a broken man.
Against United, the 29-year-old simply could not have played or endured any worse. Shoulders hunched, pain etched across his face, he sidled sheepishly and dejectedly from the field at the end, casting nervous glances towards his manager Gérard Houllier.’