Willing labrador on last legs?Reds fire blanks again. 8th Home draw.

Liverpool hold the record for the most chances created in the premiership.

And they also hold the award of being bottom of the league for chances taken, converting only 8% of the goal opportunities that come their way so it was no surprise that last night they added to the growing list of home draws this season.

Liverpool played purposefully and tried to break down a solid Spurs defence. Where once Spurs would have rolled over and had their bellies tickled this Spurs team is made of sterner stuff and they blocked and defensively tackled their way to a well-earned point.

Gareth Bale was the villain of the match, clearly diving and then drawing a yellow card for a push on Skrtel which the excellent referee duly punished. Bale later conned the referee into showing Skrtel a yellow card in the second half and suffered the wrath of the home support for most of it.

Pepe Reina was for the most part a spectator to this game only being called to make a save on the one occasion that Bale managed to outrun the Liverpool defence but his shot straight at the goalkeeper completed the off night for the Welsh wizard.

Spearing was impressive for the Reds and saw a superb thirty yard effort just swerve past the outside of the post in the first half. Steven Gerrard was immense and had a game most players can only dream of playing.

Andy Carroll started to show some real promise, although in another life he might have done slightly better with one of the few good chances that came his way.

If Carroll's star is on the rise then Dirk Kuyt's is rapidly on the wane. The Dutch striker had a wretched first half and his touch has completely deserted him.

He was put out of his misery early in the second half being hooked for Luis Suarez who made an immediate impact both on the pitch with his buzzing style and in the stands where he lifted the crowd who were being bored rigid by the defensive stalemate being played out in front of them.

Poor Kuyt. He was once everyone's favourite Labrador running up and down the pitch and chasing bones everywhere but last night he began to look a shadow of the player he once was.

Fans will forgive a player for their lack of technical ability if they run and run for the cause but once they can't do even the basics properly then it's time to hang up the boots or drop down a level. Kuyt has been a great player for Liverpool and he has willingly filled in several holes in the Reds squad over the years but this dog has had his day.

A year ago Dalglish upgraded this team from a promising 1.6l to an even more promising 2.0l but the engine is misfiring badly and needs new injection. Replacing Kuyt with a proven goalscorer would surely go some way to becoming the luxurious, purring V8.

This was as near a full strength Liverpool team as you are going to get with only Lucas a long term absentee and Enrique on the treatment table but Spurs have several class players to come back. Both Dawson and King were fantastic in defence and whilst Friedel didn't have a lot to do he showed his class with a brave save in front of Andy Carroll's high studs in the second half.

The future looks very promising for Spurs and both fans and directors alike must be hoping the manager manages to escape a lengthy spell of detainment at Her Majesty's pleasure when the verdict is announced for his tax evasion trial.

A drab 0-0 draw it was then and it was left to Dalglish to compound the misery by insisting once again that Suarez should not have been banned in the first place. Cue inward groans.

Premiership Football and the hoopla that goes with it lives in its own reality bubble.