In a season that has already delivered so many lows, Liverpool contrived to dip even further. Having made public the importance of the FA Cup given current form, the players put on a pathetic performance, one for which they should appologise to the fans who made the trip to Reading to watch them play.

Reading played as you would expect them to play: put pressure in midfield, use the flanks and loft in balls to their target man. What was surprising is that such basic tactics were allowed to prosper.

Liverpool, on their part, started with a theoretical 442 but, in reality, no one seemed to know where they should be and without any proper wingers or pace on the flanks, there was no one to exploit the chasms on either side of Reading's defence. It was a total shambles and hadn't it been for Steven Gerrard's goal, this could easily have been a repeat of recent FA Cup humiliations against Barnsley and Burnley.

Good Game
One fantastic save by Pepe Reina in the second half kept Liverpool in the game because, had that gone in, there's no doubt in my mind that the game would have been lost. Reina also did well to handle Reading's punts into the box especially as most of the time his defenders seemed reluctant to do anything.

Defensively, there is no doubting Steven Darby's abilities as he proved here once again. It is when going forward that his game falls down and, despite a decent performance here, he doesn't look Liverpool quality. That said, he should be praised for holding his own when so many around him faltered.

One major exception was Jamie Carragher who is back to his best after a difficult start to the season and who put in an innumerable amount of last ditch tackles to prevent Reading from hurting Liverpool even further. My man of the match.

A good goal and his usual effort means that Steven Gerrard did his job here without really excelling or playing as well as he can. The same applies to Fernando Torres who might have failed to score - and he did have some chances to do so - but at least gave the Reading defenders a torrid time.

David N'Gog was full of running in the first half and tried his best to kick-start something. Sadly, it looked that he and Torres weren't on the same wavelength as this feeble attempt at forming a partnership upfront fell flat.

Bad Game
Having lost his spot in the first team, this was the ideal opportunity for Martin Skrtel to prove his worth but instead he was easily outbullied by Gregory Rasiak and far too easily flustered by the running of Simon Church. Much worse, however, was Emiliano Insua's handling of Jobi McAnuff with the Reading winger leaving him for dead time after time. How he stayed on till the end is a mystery.

Lucas Leiva's job was to win the ball and then push it on to the next Liverpool player. He did the first part of that well enough but when it came to passing the ball, he simply didn't get to grips with the concept. Far too willing to pass it backwards rather than try to create anything, this was a game that really exposed his limitations.

It isn't Fabio Aurelio or Dirk Kuyt's fault that they are being asked to play in positions - on either side of the midfield - for which they aren't suited but are they so poor that they can't play well in those positions against a Championship side? Then again, that is something of a rhetorical question given that neither one has any semblance of pace or ability to beat their man.

Substitutes
Some sections of the press have already labelled Alberto Aquilani as a flop and, sadly, his cameo here will give them plenty of reasons to confirm their hastily formed opinions. Yossi Benayoun was brought on to try and add some sparkle to Liverpool's game and he did cause a bit more confusion in the Reading defence, although nothing too significant.