Reverse Engineering The Title

With disappointment comes introspection. It's usually preceded by an interminable amount of anger and sadness but eventually the trail will lead inward. Sometimes it's unwarranted. Even after having exhausted every avenue and strained every sinew, thoughts turn inevitably to what could have been.

Hindsight can sometimes be nothing more than arrogance dressed in more appropriate clothes. Someone's own ego in formal wear. There are times when minor adjustments lead to obvious conclusions but when it comes to the unforeseen circumstances of a complex problem, the after the fact solution takes everything for granted.

A lot can happen in ninety minutes. Less so if you're watching the MLS. Every league game comes with a dissection and latterly entire seasons are given a thorough inspection. Within that scrutiny emerges a narrative that will then be pulled apart. Highs and lows are categorised into negatives and positives and while it's important to learn from the past in order to shape the future.

It happens frequently. Usually it hinges on refereeing decisions be they legitimate call or poor decision. On Tuesday night against Manchester United, Milton Keynes had a very good penalty shout turned down when the game was still in the balance. Had they gone on to lose that game it would no doubt have been dubbed the turning point, even though there was no guarantee of any spot kick being scored. Whenever a corner is given erroneously and subsequently scored, fingers often point toward the official rather than the defending. Again, the outcome determines the script from which we all work off.

The moment that a game – or even a season – potentially hinges isn't all-encompassing. It only exists at all because of that which preceded it and is only important because of what followed. To focus on it alone is to shut one eye. It will allow for closer inspection but ultimately prohibit any real depth. Fixating on the failure itself ignores everything that led up to getting close to success in the first place. Becoming infatuated with a winning goal may overlook the fact that it was fortunate. Without the scope for both, there will be no way to get anywhere near whatever ambitions that may be set.

Had Steven Gerrard not slipped, Liverpool would have been crowned Premier League champions last season. A fair assumption, if not a common consensus. It's not the act itself that needed changing but rather the response to it. Learning from the past is just that. Whatever repairs that are needed must take place in the present. Improvement cannot be made retroactively, it must come in the hereafter. Rodgers isn't coaching his players not to make mistakes but to be good enough to correct them.

We forget sometimes that the role of an opponent is to force defeat as much as it is to win. In order for a forward to do his job well, someone at the other end is very likely to be in the wrong. As much as anyone would like to eliminate deficiency completely, in sport it is an inevitability. Talent is not an equivalency and as such there will be an imbalance. Simply making those bad times vanish doesn't work.

When it's not singular instances that get scrubbed, results do. Remove all context completely and just change history altogether. “If only”. The ultimate in wishful thinking. Swapping two (very specific) scorelines around gives Arsenal the title last year, it's that easy. Only it isn't. One outcome affects the next and you very quickly enter a world of pure speculation. Had Sunderland beaten Manchester City, do they then go on to beat Chelsea that weekend? That one week, those two fixtures alone, a whole table thrown into chaos.

Southampton and Aston Villa at Anfield. Hull and West Brom away from home. Those the games in which Liverpool failed to win which they would have been favourites for. Visits to St. James Park and The Liberty Stadium could also have yielded more. Is it possible that the title could have been lost in October? In terms of pure mathematics, yes. In actual terms, no. Setback in those early games may have given Rodgers the catalyst to things on the training ground which led to the victories that were to come.

While it ultimately leads to nowhere, the theory is sound. More points gained on any season represents some improvement and in this case it would at the very least grant the Reds a shot at the title. In the tentative start already made, the opening day victory over Southampton already allows for a three point advantage over 2013-14. Getting to a greater total than last year is about being able to maintain the standard which saw so many victories, rather than micro managing those instances where it wasn't possible.

Ten from the first fifteen available. It's a more than creditable way to begin the Premier League toil. Seven from the next three is more than feasible and could also do more in terms of bettering past results when Aston Villa come to Anfield. In amassing enough points to be successful over the course of the next nine months some will always slip through our fingers. When that happens we just have to collect some from elsewhere.

That which will define this year is still far in the distance. The game to be dissected from every angle won't be played for some time. Any kind of real endeavour must be taken as a whole, which is why they say that the journey is more important than the destination. This trip has barely even started and already there's been a bump in the road. Spurs loom large on Sunday, waiting to make our passage even more difficult. We can't pick and choose what happens in a season any more than sections of a path can be skipped. Obstacles may seem immovable and we cannot close our eyes and ignore them. They have to be gotten through or around. Brendan Rodgers needs to find a way.

Begins. Falls. Rises.

Familiarity can sometimes be a trick of the mind. Know something for long enough and it's capacity to surprise seems to disappear while never vanishing completely. The capacity to change for the better is always there and while the challenge to simply maintain becomes ever greater, let the rest of them be duped into underestimating again.

In emerging from nowhere they became larger than life. Expectations were exceeded in a way that went above what most would have ever dreamt of. No longer was the idea of a nineteenth title consigned to the shadows. Challenging for the title wasn't new for this team but it was new for this team. This is all part of a story that's been told over and over. An old story for a new generation.

So how do you reignite the fire for a conflict that everyone seems to known inside and out? For most it won't take much. Off the field there has already been a lot of work in trying to breathe new life into that which we think we already know while maintaining that which worked so well. With the right attention to detail, a vision can be made reality. Only then can you take the kind of heritage that comes with LFC and make it your own.

Some interpretations don't work at all. When you have an entity that is so ingrained into popular culture that it becomes very clearly defined – by those who like it and those who don't – then there are parameters to work within. Even in those circumstances it's possible to be unique while maintaining that which people know. In certain hands however, these marks can be missed so much so that the end result then becomes like a parody of that which it once stood for. Roy Hodgson did for Liverpool what Batman and Robin did for cinema. In this instance, Brendan Rodgers has a little more of the Christopher Nolan about him.

Legacies are defined by what's left behind, long after the aspects that established it are gone. If everything crumbles to dust the moment that it's architect is gone, then the foundations weren't quite strong enough in the first place. The truly great can stand the test of time. At Anfield, those foundations have been rocked to the core over the last decade. At last there appears to be something with which we can build greatness upon.

Tomorrow will see the start of a new chapter. The third part of Brendan Rodgers' tenure at the helm. Year one gave us an introduction to this new incarnation, then came the much lauded sequel. Does the closing chapter of this trilogy end with Steven Gerrard lifting the Premier League trophy? We'll are thirty eight games and another emotional roller-coaster ride away from finding out.

Early previews suggest that hope is lost. More will have to be found. The stakes are higher now. There's a storm coming. Isn't that always the way? A resurgent Manchester United and a buoyant Arsenal; coupled with Chelsea and Manchester City whom Liverpool fought so hard last year and suddenly the rogues gallery appears very full.

Also, this time the battle will be as much internal as it is external. History doesn't get rewritten all that often. Every miskick and every dropped point will summon forth his name. Speak of the devil and he shall appear. He was once was the bane of Premier League defenders up and down the country; this time he will be Liverpool's reckoning.

For those on the outside looking in, Luis Suarez's departure will cast a great shadow over the club. He was born in the darkness after all, we merely adopted him. With that also comes the idea that last year was a fluke. Steven Gerrard and Brendan Rodgers won't be wallowing in a pit of despair, looking on as all their hard work is destroyed. There are bigger challenges that inevitably await, that must be met head on.

“Why do we fall?” asks Michael Caine's Alfred, in a voice just the right side of parody. “So that we can learn to pick ourselves up” comes the self supplied answer. It's a theme that echoes not just on the screen but as we strive to come up against whatever problems there are in our daily lives. A nice sentiment definitely - but also massively incorrect.

Ultimately there has to be a reason behind that fall in the first place. Simply continuing to stand isn't enough. Avoiding mistakes is as advantageous as learning from them. As far as Liverpool are concerned, such sentiments serve a dual purpose. Standing up in the face of adversity is more than honorable enough but this time around it's more about not letting anyone push them to the ground in the first place.

Whatever story there is left to tell and whatever ending we have yet to arrive at, everything looks much different now than when it started. In football it's often said that it's the hope that kills you. On the screen it was said that “there can be no true despair without hope”. That might be the way it felt in the immediate aftermath of the Chelsea and Crystal Palace games, but certainly not what those on Matthew Street would have said at 2am after the Newcastle game.

Faith can be poisonous when it is blind and unwarranted. But placed in the right hands and it will be rewarded. This team has just given us a season that even without a defining piece of silverware is unlikely to fade into the memory. Continuing in the same manor and trophies will not be far behind. There were not only incredible victories but the sheer scale and method of them, the likes of which we'll be looking forward to seeing again this year.

Maybe we've seen it all. Maybe we just think we have. Maybe the best is yet to come. Maybe they've given us everything. Well, not everything. Not yet.

Devil In The Details: Stop Telling Us What We Already Know

Little things make a big difference. For instance if you were to put the word modern in front of both football and art, it conjures up very specific imagery. Flocks of people gathered into overbearing, soulless hives; all looking to fill a void. Not all galleries are bad though.

Really honing a craft takes many hours of painstaking effort. Whether it be on the canvass or on the training ground, attention to detail is key. Everything that works well is there for a reason, so retroactively speaking it makes sense to assume that what's not there is just as important. Because the line between success and failure in sport is so incredibly small it can appear as though what would be needed to sway the balance is blindingly obvious.

From the outside looking in, even those of us that are well versed in footballing theory are only capable of reading any given scenario in a limited number of ways. Those with hands on experience and the physical ability to effect change get the full picture and there is no need for interpretation. Then again, the idea that someone watching from the stands can see something the manager can't isn't exactly a new one.

With more eyes on more of the game than ever before, with that comes more critics. Simply knowing – about any given subject – isn't enough for some people. Their insight has to be commended or opinions have to be validated. It's not enough to be right any more, it has to be illustrated and reiterated on a regular basis. Nothing happens on the football field with a hundred percent certainty.

There is very little that goes untracked these days. Mention a player and immediately there is a digital compendium available regarding every conceivable aspect. Judgements are made by both those on and off the pitch, after which only one group makes decisions. This process is too much for some, who will try and prove all sorts of things before the ink is dry on his contract. The reasons why we like or dislike a player don't have to be rational but when it comes to Liverpool, the very least they should be given is courtesy and respect. No-one ever knows for certain prior to a ball being kicked and regardless of any labels they may have, there won't be a consensus on anyone that isn't either lazy or too obvious.

The difference between players at the highest level are so small that when true quality shines through, that gap is large enough so that it doesn't need pointing out. Also, because of the minutiae involved in a single game, let alone a whole season; failure does not instantly validate any pre conceived notions. Look at the difference in Luis Suarez playing alongside Andy Carroll as opposed to Daniel Sturridge. In both scenarios the ability of everyone involved doesn't alter but they are regularly used to substantiate all sorts of claims. In the case of the former, it was once argued that Suarez would never be a prolific goalscorer at the top level.

Only over an elongated period of time – when a negative has been shown to be truly consistent – does the point have any real weight behind it. The problem now is that these valid arguments are being taken and manipulated into something else. Driven home to the point where conformation bias comes into play and all objectivity is lost. Glen Johnson is the easiest current example to use. For the purposes of this, it's only worth taking into account the time since Brendan Rodgers took over.

The statsheet reads like a horror story. One league goal and six assists in sixty five out of seventy two possible games. It would be cynical and easy to suggest that if he were playing for another club, under no circumstances would he be wanted here. That's understandable but Rodgers clearly does; for now at least.

Is it because of the sheer weight of information that someone will make the right choices or does it matter what is then done with that data? Coaches can know the game of football like the back of their hand but if they don't know how to effectively communicate these ideas then they are effectively sterile.

While in Johnson's case there may be enough evidence to suggest immediate exile from Anfield, whatever can be seen Rodgers is unlikely blind to it. Because of his history with the player and a lack of viable alternatives both in house and elsewhere, in the immediate future he will be a part of this team. Spending the following twelve months – after which he is likely to leave anyway – pointing out his flaws would be as valuable as alerting everyone to the colour of his shorts.

This also applies in reverse. Making a stand against popular opinion because it's widely regarded is very peculiar but not uncommon. A handful of good games and there will be calls of a “return to form” as well as other people reaching out, cherry picking numbers and passages of play that make it appear as though Liverpool suddenly have Phillip Lahm, Javier Zanetti and Lillian Thuram all rolled into one. Warts and all, he will always be Glen Johnson. If the manager doesn't know what he does or doesn't bring by now, this is a completely different conversation.

With the new season rapidly approaching, lines already being drawn. Dots being connected. Lovren, Sakho and Skrtel will each be both hero and villain every week. Every moment Rickie Lambert makes – from the dressing room onward – will be charted. It's not that these things are being said blindly but the idea that they're the only one noticing is. So many of us standing in front of a picture that Brendan Rodgers had made look so good last year, all arguing about subtext and conjecture. If we stop arguing, we may be able to appreciate the art of it all once again.