Liverpool 0-0 Blackburn Rovers

3 min Martin Skrtel's 50-yard crossfield ball sparks the first attack of the game, but when Dirk Kuyt and his concrete slippers finally catch up with the pass, he slices it high and wide into the stands. "This game clearly does matter to Rafa as, one suspended Argentinian aside, this is his strongest side," writes Ian Copestake, setting himself up for the inevitable pay-off. "Unless Crouch is now so important to the side that he cannot be risked."

1 min After a minute's silence to commemorate the anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy, a peep, peep, peep signals kick-off.

Here comes kick-off "What is your picture 'the scene at Liverpool today' meant to depict?" wonders Kayleigh Martin. "I'm stumped. I usually pride myself on having a silent snigger at the highly amusing pictures uploaded on the minute-by-minute reports. So who's let the side down? Me, with my inability to read a simple picture message, or you?" I'm going to share the blame, Kayleigh. The dirty laundry picture has clearly missed the target, but you really shouldn't be expecting anything 'highly amusing' from me either.

Questions Will all this off-field bedlam affect Liverpool on the pitch today? My own Kent Brockmanesque two cents? No. Apologies Everton fans, but fourth is as good as in the bag and Europe is all they've really got to play for. Does this game really matter to Liverpool. No. And do we really need to know where the ref is from? "Since Dutch referees favor players from the neighboring village, I think we do need to know where the referee is from," sniffs Luke Kelly, still reeling from the decisive moment at Anfield on Tuesday night.

Form guide Not since their FA Cup shellacking at the hands of mighty Barnsley two months ago have Liverpool failed to win at Anfield - seven victories out of seven. Rovers, currently ninth in the table, have only lost one in seven, but they haven't won at Liverpool since a 1-0 FA Cup win in 2000 when Nathan Blake grabbed the late winner.

Team news Three changes for Liverpool, for whom Fernando Torres hasn't been rested. Sami Hyypia, Peter Crouch and the suspended Javier Mascherano all drop out, with Alvaro Arbeloa, Ryan Babel and Lucas coming into the team. For Blackburn, Brett Emerton is the sole change to the line-up that drew at home to Spurs last weekend, with Andre Ooijer dropping down to the bench.

Preamble Another day, another bout of Anfield in-fighting. What an utter shambles of a back room brawl after a brilliant week on the pitch for Liverpool. "After watching him operate, I came to the conclusion it was time to ask [Rick Parry] to resign, due to his inability to manage an organization, his seemingly arrogant attitude to our supporters and his lack of communication with Rafa," sneered Tom Hicks this morning. Far be it from me to cast aspersions on the man who bought Dr Pepper, but when it comes to an inability to manage an organization, an arrogant attitude and a lack of communication with Benítez ... etc and so on.

Anyhow, today's teams - Liverpool: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Lucas, Alonso, Kuyt, Gerrard, Babel, Torres. Subs: Itandje, Hyypia, Riise, Voronin, Benayoun.

Blackburn: Friedel, Emerton, Samba, Nelsen, Warnock, Bentley, Vogel, Reid, Pedersen, Santa Cruz, Roberts. Subs: Brown, Ooijer, McCarthy, Mokoena, Dunn.

Referee: Alan Wiley (Staffordshire - that's the important info you really need).

In the meantime, you can keep up with Steven Gerrard's gangland run-in here.