Liverpool - Not Dead, Merely Sleeping

Well, well, well.

So . . .

It's NOT all over after all. Liverpool FC has not died. Liverpool FC do not need a funeral. It seems they were just sleeping.

The fat lady has most definitely NOT sung yet. Sure, she may have been doing a few scales and warming the tonsils but she has most definitely NOT sung.

Fact: Liverpool beat Tottingham by two goals and it could so easily have been five.

Fact: There is plenty of fight left in the Liverpool side.

Fact: We have played better, as a team, in the last 2 matches without our 'prize assets, than we have almost all season, with the exception of a couple of performances.

Let me pose a hypothesis for you and this is one that has been referred to before now and which I will present to you in a positive way.

Liverpool are a better team without Gerrard

I often get a sense that with Gearrard on the pitch in particular and to a certain degree, with Torres too, we do not play as a proper, cohesive team.

It would seem that the idea is for 8 outfield players to get the ball to Gerrard or Torres and then let them do the rest.

Not much of a team strategy and it seems to show as a burden on the players.

Just think of this:

Imagine that every day when you go to work, your boss and everyone else holds up 2 of your colleagues as the ones who are the special, prize assets in the company and that your job is to do all you can to facilitate their achievements.

Wouldn't you get a bit fed up in the end?

Would you not reach a point where you started to give up a little? Wouldn't you start to think "What the heck do I bother to try. They are the only ones who are important and I am just here to make up the numbers so . . . . let those 2 get on with it but I am not playing this game anymore"

I think there is every chance that is exactly what you would think and eventually, the whole company would feel the same way.

I wonder is that, in part, what has happened at Anfield?

But now that Gerrard and Torres are not playing, maybe the other players suddenly feel IMPORTANT AND NEEDED. VALUABLE. WORTHY.

Liverpool played well against Spurs. No doubt.

Not spectacular. Not Brilliant. Not powerful and commanding.

However, they played well.

They worked hard. Closed down well. Chased everything and, crucially, They worked for each other and supported each other

Maybe . . . . just maybe, we have seen the re-birth of a team. Or at least, the re-birth of a new, stronger team spirit.

Synergy: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Previously, Liverpool did not have that synergy because the sum of 2 of the parts was much greater than the whole.

I cannot really find a persuasive argument for a man-of-the-match award against Spurs.

They were all good.

No one was 9 out of 10 but they were all a good, solid 7+ out of 10.

I think the team score was probably higher tonight than for a long while.

If you have 3 players on 5 out of ten, 5 players on 6 out of ten and 3 players on 8 out of ten, you have a team score of 69.

But if you have 11 players scoring 7 out of 10 then the team score is 77, with a mean of 7

So, much better to have 11 solid performances than 8 or 9 mediocre plus 2 outstanding.

So, my friends . . . .

Watch this space . . .

And in the meantime:.

God bless us all, every one!