If Jerzy Dudkek 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 . . . " From Dominic Fifield at Anfield

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 Gerard Houllier. Amid the general doom and gloom on the home bench, they were not returned.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer offered commiserations as he skipped towards the visiting section, though more poignant was the sympathetic hug provided by Chris Kirkland.

Kirkland will surely make only his second Premiership appearance for the club at Charlton next Saturday with Dudek serving his time on the bench.

Houllier, with a solitary point from a possible 12, offered some words of sympathy. "I liked the reaction of the other players, and there was no finger pointing in the dressing room.

"Of course Jerzy is concerned. It's a shame really because he's done well since he's been here. He's won games for us, but he's going through a difficult time at the moment."

The fall from grace is remarkable. It is only a month since the Polish international signed a new, improved contract at Anfield, due to keep him at Liverpool until 2007.

Since then, the mistake at the Riverside has been compounded by weak parries against Basel and Fulham, which have been converted.

The seed of this slipshod form may have been planted at the World Cup, where his uncharacteristic butter-fingers benefited South Korea before Portugal's Pauleta exposed similar weaknesses at his near post to those capitalised upon by Diego Forlan.

Quite how Dudek allowed Jamie Carragher's harmless nodded backpass to slip greasily through both hands and legs remains a mystery.

"You can't legislate for that," sighed Houllier, who had watched in horror as Forlan's second goal burst through the goalkeeper's weak spot at the near post just three minutes later as Dudek peered blindly into the sunlight.

"It affected the whole team and probably Jerzy himself because, otherwise, I don't think he'd have conceded the second."

"The breaks are starting to turn our way," said Alex Ferguson as he departed Merseyside; Kirkland, albeit deep down, might feel the same.

Guardian Service