Anfield’s faithful may have breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing the news that Lucas Leiva’s latest knee injury will keep him on the sidelines for 8 weeks, as opposed to the rest of the season. However, there should be some genuine concern about Brendan Rodgers’ failure to buttress the Reds’ midfield and defensive capabilities during the January transfer window; a move that may impede the club’s pursuit of a top four finish and ultimately scuttle what’s left of their slim title chances.

Rodgers has strengthened his squad significantly since he took over two years ago but the one glaring position with no cover is defensive midfield, and with the stop-gap options of Shelvey’s brute but sometimes effective clumsiness or Jay Spearing’s pugilistic like tenacity no longer available, the vacancy is even more glaring.

Lucas was not an initial favorite of many Liverpool fans when he arrived at the club. With his slow start, both he and Rafa Benitez, took a lot of vitriol from sections of Anfield’s impatient peanut gallery but with Javier Mascherano off to Spain, Lucas’ importance to the club grew with every solid performance, to where he was arguably Kenny Dalglish’s most important player, until he injured his knee at Stamford Bridge two years ago.

The absence of an in-form Lucas, as devastating as it was for Dalglish’s more conventional side, is even more of a liability for Rodgers’ passing and transitional philosophy. Lucas’ defensive presence allows Liverpool’s full backs to go forward and press, their attacking midfielders more freedom to roam, and their center-halves more time to take up positioning against a counter-attack.

Even with his strike partnership back up to their pre-holiday form, in their decisive demolitions of Everton and Arsenal, Rodgers must be concerned that without Lucas his side lacks tempo or energy, they struggle to keep and hold their shape, especially when they lose possession.

Rodgers’ decision to rest the Brazilian at home against an under-achieving, semi-potent Aston Villa, should have been a deserved luxury. Instead it turned out to be an un-mitigated disaster. The Reds were ripped apart, as Villa peppered The Kop with balls over the top, knock downs and diagonal passing, ruthlessly exploiting the space left open by Liverpool’s out of position full backs. Rodgers’ lethargic midfield, together with their hapless and exposed centre-halves, had no answer for Villa’s devastating pace up front. The Merseysiders were lucky to be down by just one goal at the half, thanks only to some wayward Villa finishing. Rodgers’ tactical changes in the second half, including a brief cameo by Lucas, salvaged a point of course.

However, any thought of Liverpool’s arguably undeserving draw against Aston Villa being an aberration, was quickly put to rest with the Reds’ uneven performance against Bournemouth a week later in the F.A. Cup. Liverpool, at practically full strength, struggled to keep a dynamic and ambitious Bournemouth out of their own half for large swaths of the match early on. Credit to Bournemouth’s talented young manager for taking the match to Liverpool but it was painful to watch Jordan Henderson run around like a headless chicken in his attempt to cover defensively.

As he did against Everton, in Lucas’ absence, Gerrard can play a more defensive role if asked but he does not consistently have Lucas’ defensive awareness, and over a stretch of matches, his discipline to resist going forward inevitably falters.

Joe Allen, who replaced Lucas in the Villa match, has nowhere near the physical presence or the form he had at Swansea, to be trusted as a holding midfielder, must less a defensive one.

Rodgers’ ability to successfully drill his footballing philosophy into his squad while ruthlessly sieving out players he deems not able to adapt, has resulted in the most  cohesive, potent, and improved side Anfield has seen for years but this has come at a price. Liverpool knows only one way to win – push forward and outscore their opponent. Defending a close lead, especially against confident and technical sides, even at home, has become uncomfortably burdensome, as witnessed against Swansea last Sunday.

If Liverpool are to mount an even more serious title challenge next season or avoid floundering in their near certain return to Europe, Rodgers must turn his gaze towards finding cover for Lucas this summer, together with the daunting task of finding a long-term replacement for Gerrard. Failure to do so and Rodgers’ Anfield revolution, as entertaining as it is, will eventually flatter to deceive. And like Wenger, the Northern Irishman will experience the limits of “20th century” football and the empty trophy cabinet that comes with it.

For more Liverpool coverage, visit the Liverpool team page for news, analysis and opinion.

At a press conference and again in a recent interview, the temperamental Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez has expressed his desire to leave Liverpool Football Club to ply his trade in another country, due to him feeling unfairly singled out by the UK press.  The Suarez question is the first major transfer test for Rodgers this summer and, if the Northern Irishman and the Liverpool board have any sense, they should do their best to cash in on Suarez as soon as possible.

There is no doubt that Suarez is currently one of the best footballers in the world. No one can argue his work ethic and his drive to win – week in week out.  Without a doubt, Liverpool have benefitted from his close to 40 goals since his now bargain transfer from Ajax two years ago.  However, the club has paid too high a price with their image and reputation, employing a player with such serious character flaws.

Even with his despicable World Cup hand ball and previous ban for biting a player at Ajax, Liverpool rightfully took a gamble by signing the talented striker.   Players make mistakes, even the great ones have faltered with a rush of blood to the head: Cantona, Rooney, Beckham, Leonardo, etc   Yet they have bounced back with a sense of humility, remorse, or maturity by trying their hardest not to let their club, fans, and most importantly themselves down as easily as before. But not Suarez.

In his two and a half seasons at Anfield, Suarez has managed to get himself banned for over 20 matches, with the club publicly standing by him even as they took some deserving hits on their reputation with some ill-advised methods of defending their star striker.  Can you imagine any other club sanctioning its players to wear T-shirts in support of a player (even if only accused) of assaulting his wife? How about “allegedly” racially abusing a fellow player?  A desperate Liverpool did exactly that.

On top of overlooking Suarez’s habitual diving and simulation, Dalglish and Rodgers  rarely substituted Suarez out of games, outside of the final 10 minutes. Nor they did impose the same tactical discipline on Suarez that was required of the rest of the squad.   In trying to hold on to arguably the only other world class player it has outside of an aging Gerrard, Liverpool – in its desperation to placate Suarez – have violated a major tenet dearly held during their glory days: They have put a player above the club.

One can see why Liverpool would be tempted to do such a thing. They have had to suffer the humiliation from seeing their 90’s starlets in Michael Owen and Steve McManaman leave Anfield to “win things,” to losing star players like Javier Mascherano and Fernando Torres.  And with Liverpool’s checkbooks held tightly in the hands of the club’s American owners, mitigating the departure of top players with quality – albeit mercenary replacement, the way Manchester City or Chelsea can – is hardly an option.

With the sight of Champions League football increasingly remote at Anfield, most Reds fans have instinctively known that the shelf life on Suarez’s stint at the club would be two or three years at best.  Liverpool should not give up any more of its soul to put off the inevitable.  The club must cash in now.

Suarez’s nihilism goes against everything Shankly, Paisley and Fagan stood for in putting the club and team first.  Suarez is not an archetypal hot-head with ostensibly uncontrollable emotion.  Everything the Uruguayan has been accused of has been done with the pathological, cold-hearted, calculated, cynicism of a modern footballer who knows that — as long as he can score goals and top clubs desperate for instant gratification, and are ready to write big checks — there is little reason to accept responsibility for anything, including honoring a contract.

Liverpool will find it difficult to replace Suarez’s footballing class or replicate his energy and goals in their tedious quest for former glory.  However, they will be better off, partially regaining the one thing held precious during their glorious past – their honor.

Tell me what you think.  Should Liverpool try to hold on to Suarez at all costs or should they try to cash in?

As Liverpool started a new season with its fifth manager in five years, many Reds fans were hopeful that Brendan Rodgers would transform the club back to its former glory, with him imposing an overall footballing philosophy on the Club, something Liverpool hasn’t had in over 20 years. However, four matches in, some Liverpool fans may be nervously asking – has Rodgers allowed his grand, long term plans to undermine practical, short term thinking both on and off the pitch?

Rodgers’s Iberian influenced philosophy of short, ball to feet passing, has supposedly made Andy Carroll, with his “limitations,” redundant at  Liverpool but, regardless of what one thought about  Carroll’s talent or future at Anfield, until three weeks ago, he was Liverpool’s only recognized out and out center-forward.

Whilst clubs with managers who’ve actually won things — Ferguson/Mancini — usually get cover before off-loading surplus to requirements, Rodgers has actually done the opposite. Rodgers’s summer long obsession with getting rid of Carroll — together with letting Bellamy leave before the transfer deadline — has been a true head scratcher. It seems that bringing in a stop gap journeyman goal-scorer or promoting a striker from the academy wasn’t even considered as serious last minute options. As the Reds comprehensive lost against Arsenal painfully showed, Liverpool has no one of any size or presence to lead the line in the best of times outside the untested, hardly prolific Fabio Borini. Should Rodgers need to chase the game, (something I suspect the he will be doing a lot of this season) by grudgingly switching to a more direct route the last 20 minutes, Carroll, even in a limited bench-warming “plan B” role, would have been worth keeping for such a job, at least until January.

Another concern for Rodgers has to be his players at times struggling to adapt to his 4-3-3 formation. Without the likes of the recently departed Alberto Aquilani, Maxi Rodriguez, or inactive Joe Cole around to create any link-play, Liverpool seem to have trouble breaking sides down. Up front, the brilliant but often unfocused roaming of Suarez – coupled with the raw, semi-polished talent of Sterling, as exciting as it is, often lacks composure in finishing. Without Steve Clarke’s defensive organization, the Reds look extremely vulnerable to the counter-attack when possession is lost, as witnessed when Arsenal ran through the Reds’ midfield at will. One has to wonder if even a fit Lucas would have made a difference.

Rodgers must be careful not to be lured to the “El Dorado” of total football. It took the notable purveyors of Total Football’s current tiki-taka variant — Barcelona and Spain — literally generations to achieve tangible success with players whose technical ability exponentially exceeds any player Rodgers can only dream of bringing to Anfield.

Champagne football is a lofty goal in the best of times but once the ball turns from summer white to winter yellow, with freezing cup ties on god awful pitches, jet-lagged euro-trips, and bottle-necked holiday league matches coming as fast as the injuries and suspensions inevitably will, Rodgers must understand there is no shame in switching to “route one” if only for the necessity of getting a result on the day.  Spain may prefer to play with a “faux number 9” but they keep a real one in Torres on the bench, just in case.

Assuring as it is, after 20 years to see the return of the liverbird crest on the club’s shirts and red nets to Anfield’s goals, the modern game has little patience for sentiment as witnessed by Dalglish’s sacking.

Liverpool sadly, has been living off the rancid fat of its past glory for far too long, from the Souness-era policy of signing players that were simply not good enough, to Dalglish’s undignified, indignant handling of the Suarez/Evra incident last season – with the 20 odd futile, title-less years in between. Rodgers must transcend the club’s hubris, not get enslaved by it. Rodgers must be humble enough to acknowledge football’s gravitational pull affects all clubs, including Liverpool, that no club (or manager) is too big to follow simple, common sense caution, whether it is in tactics or transfers. Rodgers and Fenway Sports Group have no “director of football” to blame for their latest transfer-deadline fiasco.

With Benitez’s similar decision of getting rid of Robbie Keane, on principle, without bringing in cover a few years ago, arguably costing Liverpool the title – still stinging the Anfield faithful, the re-threaded “We are still in the process of reversing the errors of previous regimes” excuse in John Henry’s open letter, might as well have been written by Hicks and Gillett.

Liverpool fans understand that Rodgers, like his recent predecessors, will need time to turn the Club around. They simply hope that this time, it will actually happen.

There is little doubt that both Ronaldo and Messi have been the best two footballers on the planet the last five years. So, why do many followers of the beautiful game, especially those over the age of 30, myself included, bristle at the “he may be the greatest ever player” comments periodically laid, particularly at Messi’s feet?

Yes, both players are coming off of yet another brilliant goal-scoring season with their respective clubs but Real Madrid and Barcelona are laden with 10 other superstars on any given weekend, something Maradona never had at his successful stint at Napoli. As this current Barca side goes down as one the greatest club sides ever, one could argue that would have been possible, even without Messi, and with La Liga increasingly becoming a two team league; it’s not hard to see why both Messi and C. Ronaldo have struggled at times, to impress outside of their Spanish based comfort zone.

Ronaldo and Messi have been underwhelming at football’s ultimate acid tests – The World Cup and The Copa America/Euros respectively.  Neither player has yet to individually grasp an international tournament by its neck with moments of sheer brilliance, as Van Basten did at Euro 88, with “that goal”,  or by willing his teammates, almost single handedly to glory, as Maradona did in Mexico 86 –  a feat he almost repeated in Italia 90, as the Argentinean – a mere shadow of his former self, with pieces of an ankle held together by screws, still managed to get Argentina to the losing side of the final, albeit a dreadful one. There are of course other football gods who’ve solidified their legacies on the international stage:  Cryuff, Matthäus, Beckenbauer, Moore, Charlton, Rossi, Baggio, and of course – the great Pele.

Two more recent examples: Brazil’s Ronaldo, a prospect, too young to factor in Brazil’s USA 94′ World Cup win, then as a superstar, only to falter at his coronation at France 98′ – with a ghost-like performance at the final, filled with pre-match, conspiracy tinged rumors of hotel room seizures and sponsor influenced team selection.    What a difference four years made, in 2001, Ronaldo, struggling with career threatening knee injuries and an indifferent club form, was considered washed up and surplus requirement to Brazil’s 2002 world cup squad by some. Expected by many to play at best – a peripheral role in Korea/Japan, not only did Ronaldo inspire Brazil to their record 5th world title, he ended up top goal scorer, in spite of that haircut. There is also Zidane, coming out of international retirement, to take France to their 3rd major final in eight years.

There are many great players who, can legitimately use their country’s lack of footballing pedigree as a hindrance to true, all round greatness: Kenny Dalglish, George Best, Ryan Giggs, The Laudrup brothers, Roy Keane, to name a few.  With Portugal and Argentina however, neither Ronaldo nor Messi can use history or team quality as excuses. To put it bluntly – in order for either player to truly cement a lasting legacy amongst the footballing gods, they must at some point, repeat their club form to propel their country to a major final.  Ronaldo, after yet another quiet start to a major tournament, has steadily imposed himself on Euro 2012 with inspired performances in Portugal’s victories against both The Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Later today, the Portuguese superstar will play one of the most important matches of his career, when his country faces an imposing Spanish side.  Will Ronaldo, with another brilliant performance, stay on the path to immortality, or will he and Portugal squander their chance yet again, to make footballing history?

Will you still consider Messi and Ronaldo, two of the greatest players ever, even without success at the international level? What are your thoughts?

Months of speculation and seemingly limitless Internet Photoshop mockups finally came to an end Thursday night with the long awaited, official release of Warrior Sports’ Liverpool home and goalkeeper shirts.

Countless Liverpool fans and shirt collectors worldwide probably expected the worst when it was announced that Liverpool, for a record amount of money, would be ending their second stint with established sports giants Adidas in favor of an American based company with no history of making soccer shirts. Yes, it has happened before, when Arsenal switched their account over to Nike 18 years ago. At least Nike was already a global sport and brand juggernaut. Most people outside of lacrosse have never heard of Warrior Sports.

I am pleased to say that Warrior has hit, pardon the American parlance, a home run. Liverpool’s new home shirt is probably the best the club has had since 1986. In its debut effort, Warrior has delivered a masterstroke in simplicity, tradition and design.

Let’s start with the crest. In one sweep, Warrior has refreshingly, albeit controversially, brushed aside the cluttered mess that has been the Liverpool crest since 1992 when Adidas, in a marketing gimmick to justify fans buying a new shirt forced by a sponsor change, created a new badge to conveniently “commemorate” the club’s centenary year. Gone are the Shankly gates, the “You’ll never walk alone” and “est. 1892.” The eternal flames have also been removed, to the ire of some of the families of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster, whose memory the flames symbolize. Warrior has partially made up for it by putting the flames on the back. Whether it is an adequate gesture, I can’t say but there is no denying, it is a joy to see a full sized golden yellow liverbird back on the club shirt.

For the first time in decades, there is no white on the shirt. Even Standard Chartered has graciously allowed their logo to be printed in yellow – giving the shirt a wonderful consistency. The shade of red used, looks darker than recent kits, and when coupled with the rich, simple fabric — thankfully devoid of any multi-tones or diamond patterns — it gives the kit an almost intimidating look, something Bill Shankly strived for when he changed the club’s strip to all red. The pinstripes give the kit a subtle touch of class. Decent tailoring makes the neckline and the flip collar, a relative rarity on a Reds shirt, look at home here.

I would have preferred not having the “warrior” name under their mark but considering that they are a relatively unknown company, I can’t blame them for branding themselves – they certainly paid for the privilege and considering the garish, over-sized logos brands like Macron, Lotto, and now Kappa put on their shirts, it is certainly a confident move on Warrior’s part. I love Adidas but they were starting to run out of ideas, especially with the away kits. This season’s god-awful white and blue still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

As a shirt collector for over 20 years, I think this one is a winner. It is simple yet classy, traditional yet modern. It’s already in pole position for next season’s best kit. Warrior certainly did their homework. And based on this effort, I wouldn’t mind seeing them snag more English football accounts. Hopefully it will inspire the players to do better on the pitch.

What do you think? Do you miss Adidas? Your thoughts on the badge? Let me know what you think.