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.

Purple Hazing

Unique, ever changing and about as hard to pin down as Luis Suarez inside the penalty area, style is an important tool in how we are perceived in the wider world.  It is that individuality that places like school and work can sometimes try to take away from us.  They group people together through no common bonds, other than the fact that they are learning or earning money under the same roof.  Sport is different.  That everybody has the will - even if not the means - to wear whatever they like, the idea that a group of people would choose to dress the same is one that speaks to the tribal nature of football and the idea of belonging to something.  More importantly than this however, is to be seen belonging.  The more something is associated with success, the more people will want to be seen wearing it, hence the growing amount of Manchester City shirts that are popping up in city centres all across the country.

Most of the time fashion is subconscious on both parts, we wear things that we like and look down on those that we don't without ever giving much thought as to why that is.  Colours themselves are inoffensive - even aesthetically pleasing pending on their usage - but associated with something then they become more.  In football they are just that and become the constant that connects past from present.  Billy Liddell, Roger Hunt, Kevin Keegan, John Barnes, Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard.  They all wore the red of Liverpool FC.  The identity of a club and what they represent are all epitomised by what they wear as they cross that white line.  For all that's different between two sides of a city, all the diversity and distinctions between Liverpool and Everton, this is what is all comes down to.  Red or blue.

Off the field, it means more than just what will be the fashion for the following season.  Manchester United fans went back to green and gold, the colours of Newton Heath in order to visualize their fight against the Glazers.  Cardiff City now face an even deeper crisis, having had an entire history altered and what once was their traditional blue will now only ever be seen away from Ninian Park. Even closer to home, a kit designed as a protest shirt against Hicks & Gillette was made for those who wanted to show their support without filling the pockets of those hurting their team.  That Liverpool fans are now engaged in a simple debate over whether a shirt looks good or not puts things into perspective.

At the end of last season, Liverpool's kit deal with Adidas was replaced by a company very few had heard of.  Formed in 1992, Warrior had been primarily making lacrosse uniforms until having been acquired by New Balance and moving into Ice Hockey.  The deal itself is a bold statement from the relatively unknown manufacturer, with Liverpool receiving a whopping twenty five million pounds a year through the next six years.  A brand new look to go with the new direction of it's young manager, virtually every aspect of Liverpool Football Club has been freshened up over this post season and with this injection of cash it's hoped that will do the same to the playing staff.

Unlike any other kit reveal - certainly in the last decade - this one had an element of secrecy about it that none had gone before it.  Twitter, those in the know and various forums all around the internet could only speculate as to exactly what would be draped over the shoulders of players to come in the following year.  When the home kit was eventually reviled, there was both a collective sigh of relief in that Warrior hadn't given us an abomination but a sense of satisfaction that it looked very smart.  There was a shadow looming over the horizon however.  It'd take a monumental effort to oust Man United's tablecloth effort as the worst kit in circulation, but that's what appeared to be on the cards.  For as good a job as they had done with the home shirt, everyone began speculating about the third.  With nothing official to go on, other than the colour scheme of purple and orange, rumours spread like wild fire.  Were Liverpool about to be lumbered with one of the worst kits of all time?

The actual need for a third kit - aside from the cynical, potentially more accurate response of more money - is that Liverpool are once again back in Europe.  Short of coming up against AC Milan, there will be very little in the way of an actual clashing of shirts that will require the use of the purple strip and so it is unlikely to be used excessively over the course of the season.  The nature of modern sportswear manufacture and the constant turnover of new product - especially now that Liverpool will now be changing the home kit every season as opposed to every two - mean that it's likely that something else next year will be heralded as an abomination.

On the fourth of July 2012, it was finally revealed to the world.  By then pictures had been circulating the internet of exactly what kind of monstrosity we were supposed to be getting but this was the first time Liverpool players had been seen wearing the shirt.  Rather unsurprisingly, a lot of fuss had been made about nothing.  There will always be people who hate the very concept of Liverpool wearing purple - or nightshade as Warrior so melodramatically put it - and those who would have purchased it along with their home and away kit regardless of how offensive to the eyes it was.  Citing David James as inspiration behind it's colour doesn't exactly inspire greatness, however there have been far more upsetting Liverpool kits in previous years.  Last years dubious blue effort springs immediately to mind which went on to become one of the most successfully sold shirts in years.  Controversy creates cash.

Think back to the 22nd of February 2007.  The day itself may not immeidiately ring any bells but the result certainly will.  Barcelona 1-2 Liverpool.  Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise scored as Liverpool pulled off one of the best results in European football this century.  That night - as I'm sure you're now picturing it - featured a kit many thought very little of but that image has now been forever burned into the memories of LFC fans the world over.  It wouldn't have mattered if those shirts been made of wool and featured a polka dot pattern.  Those kits that endeer themselves to the memory only ever do so because of the results made wearing them.  If Brendan Rodgers and his team have a good season, the next time Liverpool are to wear purple it won't be just to commemorate a couple of old goalkeeper jerseys.

In the end what Liverpool are left with is an home strip that's as close to being universally liked as is possible these days, one which was nowhere near as bad as had been made out and an away kit that if anything has underwhelmed.  Football is a world away from the game that saw Juventus borrow the colours of Notts County and never relinquish them.  Every single aspect of the game is far more commercialized and that's something we have to acknowledge and move with the times, as well as trying to maintain our proud traditions.

Hard to believe but there was a once time when Liverpool took to the field in blue.  After changing to a red shirt, white shorts and red sock combo in 1904, it wasn't until Bill Shankly himself decided to change the kit by going out in an all red kit in 1964.  Though it is a vital part of the history of the club, it is not defined by its colours.   The shade of red which coarses through the veins of every Liverpool fan that is far more vibrant and fantasic than any that could be put onto a strip of material and it will remain that way regardless of what players come and go, what manager is at the helm and what we go onto the field wearing.

Medal Of Honour: Liverpool & The Olympics

Imagine a computer capable of almost anything.  Something with the capacity to store masses of information and data as well as the intelligence solve complex problems at the same time and also an output sound quality far more advanced than any MP3.  Durable, with the added bonus of being able to repair itself.  Able to operate at relative high speeds, with an interchangeable shape that allows for best usage.  On top of all that, the aptitude for learning as well as adapting to any given surroundings and circumstances.  Man is that machine.

Like every cliche, there more than a modicum of truth in the idea that taking part matters more than winning.  Not everyone can be the fastest man on the planet, but that won't stop thousands from trying.  Being the best in the world at anything is such a lofty ambition it cannot simply begin with that kind of supposition alone.  Seeing how far the human body is willing to push itself is not only great drama but endears us to one another for the notion of simply trying.  Triumph may be the ultimate goal but before anyone can test the limits of humankind they must first find out where their own breaking point lies.  Sport captivates us not because of how naturally gifted a person may be but what they will do to make up for in spite of it.  Over the last twenty years heroes have been made based not on their individual talent but their willingness not to give up.  It is that indelible spirit that helps defy humanity.  That Olympic spirit.

As a game rather than merely athletic competition, team sports may be less of a pure contest but they are no less enthralling.  Reliant on so many different people and actions, in no other discipline can so many mistakes still lead to success or so much talent lead to failure.  It's for precisely this reason that football is loved the world over.  Legends can be brought down by the actions of those around them and that a team of otherwise pedestrian players could collectively rise above themselves and achieve the impossible.  Unlike athletics, football also gives someone the chance at redemption.  A momentary lapse in concentration for a runner may cost him everything he's worked his entire life for.  So long as there's still time on the clock, anything is possible.  Even coming from three goals down in a European Cup final.

A quarter of a century after the first ever international match, football was represented at the 1900 Olympic games held in Paris.  To say it was a modest affair would be an understatement.  It was comprised of just three teams - each nation represented by a chosen side - and was eventually won by Upton Park FC (Great Britian). In 1904 there were again three teams, this time representing just two nations.  Slow to start with, both the games themselves and the place of football within them would continue to grow.  Twenty two teams took place in 1924 - which an emerging Uruguay side would eventually win - but football was at crossroads.  Having gone professional in some places over the world, though a gold medal was seen as claiming your place as the best team in the world, it was strictly an amateur competition.  Disputes over whether teams had indeed paid their players as compensation for "lost time from work" led to Britain's withdrawal from the 1924 games and it was then dropped altogether in 1932, due to it's lack of popularity in the United States.  By then something else had grabbed a hold of the footballing masses, something which has never let go.  The World Cup.

Following on from World War II, the Great Britain football team continued to participate in the Olympics, handcuffed by the fact that it's now flourishing league system could not be utilised - with it's players counting as professionals.  With that in place, the gap between the England amateur team - from which the basis of the squad was picked - and the rest of Europe shortened, to the point where they did not even qualify for the main tournament for another twelve years.  At this point the FA decided that there would be no distinction between amateur and professional and that they would all be "players" instead.  Since then, with a football team from these shores not taking part in the Olympics there has been very little of a connection or emphasis on it and Liverpool Football Club.

Even after the rules were changed to include professional players, Great Britain declined the chance to take part - even though twice Scotland and once England were both given qualifying berths based on their European Under 21 Championship performance.  This may have seen a greater opportunity to LFC players throughout the nineties to have a chance of winning a medal but as it was it would not be until 2008 until a Liverpool player would take part in an Olympic games, with Lucas Leiva, Javier Mascherano and Ryan Babel becoming the first men ever to take part while at the club (Arthur Berry, Joseph Dines & Tom Armstrong represented Britain in 1912 and would all later go on to play for the Liverpool).

Having dipped their toe into the competition last time around, Liverpool will again be represented in London.  Craig Bellamy, Sebastian Coates and Luis Suarez will all be doing their part to get their hands on a medal.  It's unclear as to how much of a role Bellamy will have within Stuart Pearce's side and there will still be a concern over his fitness, especially in the latter stages of the tournament when the games come thick and fast.  Having said that this represents Bellamy's best and only chance of ever being able to grasp something on the international stage and he will be chomping at the bit in order to do so.  As one of the elder members, it's both a sign and a test of Craig's growing maturity that he will be be given a paternal role in the squad.  With regard to his place in the pecking order at Liverpool, there's no doubt he has the ability but both his injuries and lack of consistency over the last year mean that while he will be missed, his place in the starting eleven is far from certain.

It seems that barely a tournament goes by without a player from Anfield taking centre stage.  From the Spanish contingent that came via of Melwood in 2008 and 2010 to Suarez lighting up the Copa America last year, success and Liverpool go hand in hand as ever.  Impressed heavily during Uruguay's triumphant campaign in Argentina last year, Sebastian Coates will be hoping to pick up where he left off.  Having tasted nothing but success so far in his short career, the man who could just as easily played for Scotland has everything going for him right now.  His talent is raw but obvious and any experience for him at a major tournament can only be good for both he and Liverpool.  With playing time again likely restricted to League Cup and Europa League games, he may miss an early opportunity to impress Rodgers but it's a chance he will almost certainly have again.

As influential a figure as one can be, especially in an area in which is so vital as Liverpool failed in that respect so spectacularly last season, it's fortunate enough in that Luis Suarez will potentially miss no league games.  The final takes place a week before the curtain falls on the opening day of the Premier League season and with the tournament being on home soil, barring injury all those taking part will only miss Europa League qualifiers.  Following the tournament in 2008, however Javier Mascherano took a long time in getting back to full form and fitness, missing four out of the next seven league games in the league after the tournament had finished.  Having finally had a summer break after a couple of years, Suarez will report for international duty with a team tipped to go far if not quite all the way.  He is unlikely to be home early, although Brendan Rodgers may be secretly rooting for it.

Because of it's four year cycle so few get more than one shot at glory, to the point where Mascherano is currently joint top of Argentina's all time gold medal winners.  Players from all over the world may go on to challenge for further glory and London 2012 may be just the springboard that set their career into motion but for some this tournament is all they are ever going to get.  Footballers the world over will forever hunger for success and trophies, athletes and sportsmen crave nothing more than to have that gold medal draped around their neck.  This is a unique occasion in which a lucky few get the chance to represent their country as well as showcasing the sport itself.  When the tournament is all over, Suarez, Coates or Bellamy may have written a new chapter in Olympic folklore.  Brendan Rodgers will be waiting, ready for them to make history with Liverpool as well.