Liverpool 'Hammered,' So Is It Time for the Reds To Take Lessons From Man U?

Forget the distant past, lets have a quick rewind to a match about a month a stale. The conditions were very similar to Upton Park on 27th February. 2-0 down at the break.

On 25th January, 2011, playing their second game in 4 days and this time against a spirited Blackpool side who beat Liverpool days back to earn a highly improbable double at Bloomfield Road, Manchester United turned on the heat.

It was back to the veteran Ryan Giggs for Alex Ferguson after the break and United not only beat the odds to draw level but also went further as they handed the highly impressive Ian Holloway's men a cruel defeat and bag three very crucial points.

In a season where no game has been a foregone conclusion, and with Arsenal breathing down their neck, those three points do provide Sir Alex with an additional cover that will do them no harm at all.

Liverpool, on the other hand, created chance after chance to no avail and took a "Hammer"-ing to one of the  relegation contenders of this season.

That defeat meant Liverpool have now lost three points or more to all of the teams occupying the relegation places before the 28th game week kicked off. The Reds lost to Wolves at home, to West Ham away and lost even more ground (4 points) to Wigan as they drew both their fixtures with the Latics.

United, for all their points may have been lucky and subject of bias from the referee on more than one occasion, but its what a team achieves even in mediocrity which makes them worthy of championships. 

At 37, Ryan Giggs has outperformed Steven Gerrard in times of need and the confidence has been evident in the body language of the rest of the players. Well, it has almost been infectious!

Even the biggest of Liverpool fan can see that for the past two seasons, especially Manchester United's body language in the games has been far far better than Liverpool's. I say the last two seasons because of a few reasons.

Liverpool's obvious dip in form in the last 24 months may have been an outcome of many cumulative factors, mainly lack of proper and intelligent investment in the squad. But going by the popular convention, shouldn't a team who barely scrapped the Premier League title finishing four points ahead of Liverpool be far worse off having selling the player of the decade in Cristiano Ronaldo, and only managing a price-inflated, unheard of Ecuadorian in his place?

Even Liverpool spend similar sums that season on replacement of a player like Xabi Alonso and all they found in July 2009 was a crocked Italian who finished off his season with Roma by the first week of March that year due to injury. No doubt Alberto Aquilani was a quality player, but buying him at that time was never going to be smart.

Transfer windows aside, from then on Liverpool FC never showed the body language for a sustained period of time. People started getting injured too, but by then attitude was really the biggest problem with the set-up. The attitude problem took a new nadir under the ex-Fulham boss Roy Hodgson, who now manages West Bromwich Albion in the hope of another Europa final in 2 years time. Much like what he managed at Craven Cottage!

Now even with King Kenny in the hot seat, Liverpool FC comes up with excuses that never really suits a team challenging for anything.

For all the dissimilarity King Kenny has in his game plans to his defamed predecessor, he still has a touch of Roy Hodgson in is press conferences after defeats.

Tiredness, injuries etc. have been Liverpool's favorite excuses of late, and while all they can manage on the pitch is missing chances and average play, they are unable to string together a consistent run of good performances.

Things have improved under Kenny Dalglish, but if the current trend continues, Liverpool will indeed be knocked off their perch by the end of this season. What would be the Reds fate is anybody's guess as they currently lie in sixth place.

The inception of Andy Carroll and eventual blossoming of Luis Suarez's form could still spurn Liverpool's maturing love affair with erratic brilliance and turn them to more consistent performers as they start converting more of their chances week in week out.

However, even if Liverpool do witness Manchester United overturn their glorious domestic record at the end of the season (the two clubs are tied with 18 domestic championships), its high time they learn to fight tooth and nail every single match like United does, with or without their key men. Otherwise it may not be long before players like Suarez and a few others want out in order to win silverware.

They must remember, when the Premier League began in 1992, United were 26 years old, without being Champions of England.(United last won the First Division in 1966-67, before the Premier League Era started ! Actually they even got relegated once in the interim.) So fighting back is not impossible.

Liverpool needs to learn, they need to learn fast and their attitude must change. As many a general has always said, "You win battles in the mind," and that's exactly where Liverpool need a facelift.