DAVID PRENTICE: Robbie Keane must start taking his chances

While John Pantsil, Brede Hangeland and Mark Schwarzer clocked up the air-miles, the furthest Robbie Keane drove was to Melwood and back.

But freshness of mind and fleetness of foot did not offer a new outlook in front of goal.

Keane squandered another excellent opportunity - and Liverpool do not have the goals in reserve to be able to indulge such wastefulness.

The Keane conundrum is a growing concern at Anfield.

There's no doubt he is a talented striker - a career total of 173 goals is testimony to that.

And while Reds fans might have raised eyebrows at the size of the transfer fee forked out last summer, not one quibbled about his quality.

But he has regularly missed chances in a red jersey.

When Fernando Torres signed for the Reds, his international boss declared he never scores any one goal the same.

In a worrying counter to that description, Keane is capable of missing any variety of opportunities.

The air shot at Bolton, the back-heel in Madrid, a one on one at Villa Park - Saturday's opening against Fulham was the kind of chance top class goalscorers would offer a tooth for.

Keane lifted it at a convenient height for Schwarzer to parry.

In a match of such tightness it was a crucial miss.

Maybe it's confidence, perhaps he's trying too hard . . . it's difficult to pinpoint because the Irishman clearly has talent.

In the calendar year of 2007 no-one scored more Premier League goals than Keane, not even Cristiano Ronaldo - while an even more revealing statistic is that around 50% came away from White Hart Lane.

But it simply isn't happening for him at Liverpool right now.

Just two league goals in 12 starts - both against a bottom three side - is a poor return while such is his manager's confidence in him that Saturday was only the third time he's been on the pitch at the final whistle.

Keane's team ethic is often cited as one of his biggest qualities, but perhaps he now has to start thinking more about himself.

Liverpool do not possess the all-round goalscoring threat of Chelsea or Manchester United.

If Torres or Gerrard aren't scoring, there's only Dirk Kuyt who can be reasonably relied upon to chip in. That's why Keane's potency problems are such a concern - because there's precious little else in reserve.

I've said before, Liverpool's forward options are the one weak area of an otherwise superbly equipped squad.

We still don't know if Ryan Babel is a forward or not, Dirk Kuyt, apparently, is not, while David Ngog presently does not have the confidence or maturity to challenge regularly for a Premier League starting spot.

If all this sounds unnecessarily negative about a team which is joint-top of the Premier League, it's because the margin for error is so slight in the modern top flight.

The Chelsea result meant that Rafa Benitez gave the appearance of a man who'd dropped a tenner - then found two five pound notes in his post-match briefing.

But appearances can be deceptive.

Benitez knows he still has problems to address in his squad.

Lucas harshly bore the brunt of the fans' frustration on Saturday.

The most un-Brazilian Brazilian since Dunga - a Dunga he clearly is not - but equally he is not a perceptive playmaker either, which left him with an impossible task trying to break down Fulham.

When Xabi Alonso was belatedly introduced, Liverpool's imaginative output improved, but he simply didn't have enough time to make a difference.