LIVERPOOL - THE CASE FOR DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE

I'm going to do the impossible - defend Liverpool again (yes, including Ballotelli)!

Liverpool 0 
Real Madrid 3 (should be many more)

So, what's my excuse this time? Well, for one, Liverpool should not be playing in this competition at all. Because last season's excellence was such an aberration, it is now a great curse in the sense that Liverpool will be facing Champions' League teams that Liverpool cannot hope to match. Our expectations of Liverpool's football have been too high because it is based on the free-scoring exploits of Suarez and Sturridge which now seem to be like some kind of romantic fantasy.

THE STRUGGLE

I struggle to describe the kind of football now being displayed by Liverpool.

What do you call the goalkeeper's lack of dominance in the 6-yard box? What do you make of the defenders' tendency to spend endless minutes making only square passes and back passes to the goalie? What is the term to use if footballers stand rooted to a spot on receiving a pass and puzzle over where to pass instead of moving the ball and running in some meaningful direction?

How do you comprehend the lack of cooperation among players such that when the ball is won, surrounding players do not quickly get into positions to provide options for a simple pass to be made. Inevitably, the Liverpool player holding possession of the ball has no choice, but to run into trouble and get dispossessed easily. How come simple skills like stopping a ball, making a simple pass, shielding the ball and shooting on target seem foreign to most of the players in red?

I have moved beyond the point of being disappointed with Liverpool.

In fact, I'm more disappointed in the players of Real Madrid. Aren't they supposed to be Galacticos? How come they are merely playing elementary soccer with short simple passes and highly-predictable attacking patterns? No fanciful flicks, no dummies, and no long dribbles. Not even a bicycle kick?

Yet, you have to give Real Madrid credit for playing simple, efficient football and winning easy to conserve energy for their upcoming domestic clash with Barca.

THE UNDERSTANDING

Ok, never mind Real Madrid; let's think about our beloved Liverpool: why do all Liverpool teams play in the same infuriating way in the Premier League era (from 20 Feb 1992) and not winning a single title for 22 years, despite different managers and players throughout the period? Why do great players from elsewhere become mediocre once they were transferred to Liverpool and once sold to other teams become great players again?

Yet, if such mediocrity have been prevalent for so long, why has Liverpool been always near the top of the table during the last 22 years? For that we have to give great credit to the tremendous effort of all the players and the managers involved despite their mediocre standard of football.

What's at fault is not the personnel. The real problem is a great irony. It seems that the past successes of the seventies and eighties had set the football culture of the club so strongly that their football philosophy today is the same one that they had 30 to 40 years ago.

THE CURE

In short, Liverpool are in trouble now because they have not moved with the times and are still playing 70's and 80's football! During those times in England, tactics, fitness and effort are king, but the modern game is much more technical.

So, to turn the corner, they need a full update and total revamp of their thinking about how to play the game. Let's hope such reinvention is in the works somewhere in the club.