Natural Born Killers

Victory is like sunrise on another day, always just over the horizon.  It's a place everybody wants to get to but only a select few have the right directions.  Even those that choose the right path might find that the number of obstacles along the way will prevent them from ever getting there.  Because football is not just about putting a ball into a net, it's not even about preventing the other team getting ultimate goal but rather making sure that it's you and your team-mates that get there first.  But the journey is a long one and in order to do that however, everyone else must be eventually be stopped.  Even the ones who have no chance of making it in the first place.

There is a line to be drawn between those that are gifted enough to be paid to play professional sports and the ones that are competitive.  Those that are simply don't just feel the grass of a football pitch beneath their feet and change, it's something that has to be there at all times in anything that they do.  It's the unquenchable thirst to win that compels a person go to any length in order to do what is necessary.  It takes a lot to look another person in the eye and take from them and because for every winner there is a loser, any sporting accomplishment ultimately is a grabbing onto what somebody else thought was theirs.  There are teams that will give you wins while others have to be earned.  Some have to be taken.

When looking for candidates - people who have shown over the years that they are not only able to rip games from the grasp of an opponent but have done on numerous occasions - two spring to mind.  Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez.  They are the tandem for which so much relies upon and that's a reference to their talent alone.  What they also possess, is the longing for triumph that goes above and beyond.  It is not the sportsman's job to be a moral compass, nor is it in their DNA to be anything other than a winner.  There is an obvious limit but those who are not prepared to go right up onto the boundaries of what's accepted have not done everything in their power to seek out success.

As far as the rest of the team is concerned, it is left with a mixture of those who don't have it (Lucas, Henderson, Downing, Cole) those who may yet but are still honing their talents to match it (Shelvey, Sterling) and those who have it but aren't in a optimal position to affect the play (Agger, Skrtel, Johnson).  Brendan Rodgers can do so much with ability and the application of it but he will never be able to change people.  Right now, Liverpool Football Club is in a shortage of players who want to take the game away from their opponents as much as those who can.

That's not to say that the passion to conquer doesn't burn bright in all of us, just that the intensity of that flame will show up when it really matters.  Taking two former Liverpool players as examples; Craig Bellamy and Fernando Torres.  Bellamy would go to war with anyone at the drop of a hat.  Whatever the opposition wanted, that's what he didn't want.  Torres was gifted enough during his time at Anfield to never really have to dig deep within him to find an extra yard.  Now that he does, the results speak for themselves.  Right now Brendan Rodgers could do with the talents of both men, but the attitude of only one.

A lack of a cutting edge comes not through the want of trying.  Precision is about seizing a moment.  You may only get one chance to win a game.  The very best see every passage of play as that instant.  They're not trying to do something that's asked of them at that point, they're trying to do everything that's asked of them.  It's about winning every individual battle along the way; a tackle, a pass, a shot - all of them have to be better.  Their mind works in such a way as to be conditioned to be so much better than anyone, they're often selfish.   You're not allowed, internally, to give yourself as much as a second to catch your breath because everyone that passes is another one in which the game could be won.  Luis Suarez has said as much himself.  That's why they're such a danger to opponents.

Tactically, the team is not set up for the onslaught.  The passing game is more of a gradual death than a sudden one and we're far more likely to suffocate a team than deal them a knock-out punch.  That step up in tempo or rhythm that people want to see when they talk about attacking play or movement, in a way goes against what we're trying to accomplish.  There should not be a step up in the speed of what we're playing because there should be no need for it, unless the team is trying to simply hang on in the face of opposition pressure and even then there should be gaps that are exploitable.  It's not about starting slow and then building up a head of steam until they can't withstand any more.  It's about not starting slow.

When the time comes in January to add players to the squad, Brendan Rodgers and the management must think long and hard.  The team is crying out for attacking talent, of that there is no doubt.  But it also needs a certain type of person.  Someone who is both capable of sticking the ball into the net on a regular basis but also has something more.  Someone who is fully prepared - when necessary - to pull the trigger.  Brendan Rodgers isn't going to stick the knife in carelessly, like the villain in some low rent slasher movie.  It's going to be slow and gradual.  Make them suffer.

After last weeks creditable draw against Chelsea last week, once again attention turns to what on paper appears to be a fairly straightforward three points.  That phrase has been used so often now it's gone beyond the realm of cliché and is now a parody of itself.  There are no easy games and the club itself is seen as something of a pushover, especially for those teams whom Liverpool are supposedly vastly superior to.  Wigan last tasted defeat at Anfield way back in 2009, having earned two draws and a victory in their last three visits.  That day in December was incidentally the last time home or away that Roberto Martinez's side were beaten by any Liverpool manager.

As an epidemic, the continued prosperity of mid-table and lower league clubs needs to stop.  The only way to achieve that is through a series of lessons.  One at a time, Liverpool has to re-instil the image of fear that teams used to have.  That's not to say it has to be complete domination.  Those calling for a dismantling of epic proportions will only be disappointed and most likely echo those feelings onto the field when things do not immediately transpire in that way and in turn make it all that much harder.  Once again those words that everyone is sick of hearing will be repeated ad infinitum.  Patience and professionalism.  It doesn't matter how comprehensively a team is defeated.  How hard they are knocked from the road.  What matters is that they are.  Eventually, the road will be clear.