Collymore wins the plaudits

On the season's opening day these sides drew 3-3 at the Riverside Stadium. Saturday's return yielded another six goals. Their distribution, however, was somewhat different.

Liverpool, their odds as title favourites shortened after moving to within a point of leaders Arsenal, have travelled a long way since August. The same can be said of Middlesbrough, in the opposite direction.

Saturday's match underlined the depth of Bryan Robson's unenviable problems and emphasised the prodigious talents of the predatory Robbie Fowler, who scored both the fastest goal of the season (29 seconds) and his 100th for Liverpool. But, the deadliness of Fowler apart, nothing caught the eye quite so strikingly as the energy and enthusiasm of Stan Collymore.

The enigma of Anfield, the pounds 8m player who still cannot be sure he is wanted, Collymore was the most effective participant, certainly, after Fowler. His commitment, this time, was beyond question. Three times it was his ammunition loading Fowler's gun, and it was his free-kick, too, that led to Stig Inge Bjornebye's goal.

"Robbie will take the praise today, deservedly, but Stan was tremendous," Roy Evans, the Liverpool manager, enthused. "I don't know a better talent around than Stan when his application is right. " And yet, in the same breath, Evans was admitting that had Patrik Berger not been weakened by a flu attack, Collymore's role would have been to keep the bench warm.

Talent. In Collymore it has many elements. He is at once powerful and subtle, an accomplished target man but with the touch of a playmaker in both feet, blessed with the balance to run and the vision to make a telling pass. Yet Liverpool might still sell on the right terms, joining the list of clubs who have failed to make their relationship with this modern maverick work.

Perhaps Collymore was foolish to leave Nottingham Forest.Then again he is not the only expensive player to have made a questionable move.

He might compare notes, for example, with Fabrizio Ravanelli, whose renewed public pledge of loyalty to Middlesbrough must surely hide private disillusionment. The Italian needs no interpreter to appreciate the nature of his new side's plight after 12 Premiership matches without a victory: were those below them to win their games in hand, Middlesbrough would be bottom.

For the man who introduced himself to the Premiership with a hat-trick against the same opponents there was hardly a sniff even of one goal here, his presence obscured by a Liverpool back three who possessed every quality Middlesbrough's trio lacked - vision, rapport, know-how. No wonder Ravanelli, as we are given to understand, has been screaming at Robson to buy some Serie A defenders.

Injury robbed Robson of three first-choices here, in addition to Juninho in midfield, but he did not pretend that all would otherwise have been well.

"With Liverpool in that kind of form, any team I fielded would have had a hard game," the manager said. "They were red hot. The movement and finishing of the strikers was very good and their passing was simply better than ours. At least we do not have to play them every week.''

At least they do not have to contend with Fowler, whose 100th goal came in his 165th Liverpool game, one fewer than Ian Rush needed to reach the same milestone.

Goals: Fowler (1) 1-0; Fowler (28) 2-0; Bjornebye (45) 3-0; Fjortoft (75) 3-1; Fowler (77) 4-1; Fowler (85) 5-1.

Liverpool (3-5-2): James; Wright, Ruddock, Babb; McAteer, Thomas, Barnes, McManaman, Bjornebye; Fowler, Collymore. Substitutes not used: Redknapp, Kennedy, Matteo, Jones, Warner (gk),

Middlesbrough (3-5-2): Walsh; Cox, Whyte, Whelan; Stamp (Campbell 57), Mustoe, Emerson, Hignett, Liddle; Ravanelli, Fjortoft. Substitutes not used: Beck, Morris, Barron, Roberts (gk),

Referee: K Burge (Tonypandy).

Bookings: Middlesbrough: Liddle, Whyte.

Man of the match: Fowler. Attendance: 39,491.