IT clearly wasn’t in Rafael Benitez’s plans to get to a day from the end of the transfer window and be watching Gareth Barry playing for the opposition.
But it was the players missing from his own squad that proved the greatest frustration for the Liverpool manager.
Steven Gerrard’s absence already assured Liverpool would be suffering from a lack of creativity – but having to make do for an hour without Fernando Torres, the one player who can make something happen out of nothing, left Benitez on a hiding to nothing.
And although in circumstances a draw can be considered a decent result, it brings back bad memories of what cost Liverpool a title challenge last season – settling for one point when three were on offer.
A win would have given Benitez the boost of getting one over on Martin O’Neill where it really matters – on the pitch.
If only events between the two clubs there could have been half as feisty as they have been off it during this long, heated summer.
But victory would have taken Liverpool top of the Premier League with three wins out of three. And unlike the previous two successes this season, they would have been easily forgiven for another below-par performance if they had forced the decisive breakthrough against a side like Villa.
The statement of intent that all title challengers want to make would be there for all to see this morning.
As it is, they stand unconvincingly shoulder to shoulder with Chelsea having not been able to produce a display that will inspire confidence that they will still be alongside them come May.
The loss of Torres with a hamstring injury after half an hour could still have major significance with Manchester United the next opponents but it wasn’t the biggest problem yesterday.
Indeed, his replacement David Ngog looked lively and almost scored towards the end of the first half.
But the deadliest finisher in England might as well be limping down the tunnel when he’s not being given anything to feed off.
Once again, a chronic lack of options and ideas in the final third paralysed Liverpool’s chances of getting among the goals.
The return of Javier Mascherano and Lucas Leiva from the Olympics couldn’t have been better timed, but teaming them up with Xabi Alonso in midfield again exposed a lack of width.
At one point, Mascherano stared into a gaping hole where Albert Riera should be, realising all his team-mates were to his right even though he was in the centre of the field.
Lucas had seemed to start on the left flank, then Robbie Keane occasionally dropped in there to provide an outlet before everyone seemed to abandon the idea all together.
All too narrow and negative to cause Villa any serious sustained problems
For that reason, it wasn’t just the sight of Barry in a Villa shirt that made Benitez envious.
Nigel Reo-Coker and Ashley Young proved the value of genuine wide men with some electrifying breaks. Their supply line was pretty well snuffed out on the whole but they still showed up Liverpool’s lack of variety.
And when Reo-Coker was shifted to right-back to allow James Milner to make his second Villa debut, Benitez responded by adding full-back Fabio Aurelio to the midfield battle.
It was all taking on a congestion of spaghetti junction proportions and just made the likelihood of a 0-0 depressingly inevitable.
But at least that scoreline only reaffirms the one positive constant running through Anfield this season and that is the reliability of the defence and goalkeeper, having now only conceded once in five competitive games this season.
Pepe Reina’s fine save form John Carew proved vital while Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel expertly repelled perhaps the most dangerous attacking line-up outside the top four.
Villa – six goals in their two previous Premier League outings plus a glut in their Uefa Cup qualifiers – had plenty of pace and passion but, like their visitors, couldn’t transform it into anything that overly-worried the opposition.
And other things were just as predictable.
Such as the biggest cheers of the day being for Barry, the biggest jeers for Benitez. The Villa fans’ way of sticking one to Liverpool for the apparently despicable way they tried to prise away their captain.
Incidentally, the next loudest roar was for Milner, the same supporters presumably having no problem with their club’s pursuit of the winger to the point of him handing in a transfer request to Kevin Keegan last week.
Double standards that perfectly sum up a tiresome transfer window.
Yet Barry has emerged from the whole saga relatively well off out of it all.
He still has the adulation of the Birmingham faithful and his desired move falling through doesn’t seem to have affected his game.
Bes of all, not being a Liverpool player spared him from having to wear those hideous red stockings with his silver away strip.
It was Barry who opened up the Liverpool defence to create the game’s first real chance after 35 uneventful minutes of shadow boxing, setting Ashley Young free to tee up Carew, whose low shot was well blocked by Reina.
Liverpool took 40 minutes to register their first meaningful effort took 40 minutes when Dirk Kuyt lashed into the side netting – but it lifted his team-mates and Ngog was soon shaving the crossbar after a deft touch by Keane put him free.
It was a spell that at least seemed to give Liverpool some inclination that they could win the game and they came out for the second half in a much more positive frame of mind.
Keane teed up Alonso for a shot deflected wide by Nicky Shorey then Brad Friedel had to tip Dossena’s dangerous cross over the bar.
Keane then had an opportunity to find the net in August for the first time in six years when he raced on to a long ball but he fluffed the finish under pressure from Reo-Coker.
From that point, Villa looked the more likely as Milner forced Reina into a sprawling save and a series of late set-pieces also had the nerve ends jangling.
And as many have feared during Liverpool’s recent run of late winners, when the standard of opposition was raised, the chances of getting away with another ineffective attacking showing would lower.
Which proved the case yesterday as Villa, with Martin Laursen enjoying a much better afternoon than this time last year when his own goal contributed to an opening day defeat to the Merseyside men, found them all too easy to defend against.
All of which means it shouldn’t be too difficult for Benitez to stop lamenting his being without Barry – because the players he has got are giving him plenty enough to worry about at the moment.
