It's time for Liverpool to learn some real lessons
EVEN just a handful of games into the season, a few lessons have already been learned. Mainly, that playing badly is okay if you get the result.
And apparently, if you're getting really carried away with Liverpool's 100% start to the Premier League campaign, it's the mark of champions.
But it's not the mark of European champions. In fact, at the moment it's the mark of nothing more than a confused bunch of under-achievers desperately wondering where their next coherent passing move is coming from and tiding themselves over with face-saving interventions at opportune times.
And when all else failed, that was what they fell back on once again last night, only this time with the added indignity of needing the best part of two hours to do it.
The hope was that Liverpool would up their game considerably, not just from that dreadful first leg in Belgium, but the subsequent underwhelming league games.
But the only standard they raised last night was the one from Liege - giving them a belief that they could inflict one of the home side's biggest European upsets.
For most of this second leg, the home threat was minimal and that is worrying.
It's the competition in which they are supposed to thrive not flounder. Build-up was tentative and often turgid, narrow enough to make cycle lanes jealous.
And the most alarming aspects of Liverpool's current inability to open things up was almost exposed to the full by their opponents last night.
Standard weren't simply sitting back and smiling about the lack of variety and invention that stood before them.
They wanted to capitalise, sensing - as anyone would in the current circumstances - that an away goal would be relatively easy to defend.
They should have got it too in an early period that mirrored the opening to the first leg two weeks earlier, the brilliant Belgian supporters packing half of the lower Anfield Road ensuring the atmosphere was just as inspiring to their heroes too.
And it was a similar story in midfield, where the tough tackling and tight marking squeezed all the control and composure out of Liverpool's play.
They sat back a bit more in the second half, making the priority to continue their relentless frustrating of the five-times European champion. As a result it was all too tense for everyone's comfort - except Sir Alex Ferguson, watching on and wondering what squeaky-bum time was doing turning up in August.
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A complete lack of sustained pressure in the Standard final third ensured supporters grew as impatient as Gareth Barry for Liverpool to make their move, and the depressing inevitability of a second successive goalless draw against a team who were considered more sub-Standard when the draw was made, slowly dawned on them.
With Aston Villa and Manchester United imminent, you wonder how long Rafael Benitez and his players can get away with this. The prospect of returning players alongside a couple of new ones at least points to future positives.
And, of course, the final outcome that seals a place in today's group stage draw, engineered by the introduction of that rare commodity - width, courtesy of Ryan Babel and his fine cross that Dirk Kuyt steered in.
In the end, it was a good job that late winner finally arrived.
Because progress had to be made.
Not being in the main draw for the Champions League is simply not an option for Liverpool.
Similar to the philosophy some Olympians hold of "gold is for winners, anything else for losers." (Not that Javier Mascherano would have dared tell Beijing silver medallist David Price that during their pre-match parade last night).
But it's not just the golden riches and rewards on offer that matters at Anfield - in fact, as Rafael Benitez suggested in the build-up to last night's second leg, he'd take silver any day.
Whether the cash-careful owners see it that way is highly unlikely, but that is what the European Cup is all about for Liverpool. Had the adventure ended before it had even begun last night, where would it have left them?
Free to concentrate on the Premier League? Well, surely professional footballers should be able to do that in the remaining 36 games anyway. And there's no guarantee the extra excitement and anticipation of a Champions League run is a massive distraction anyway. Indeed, it should add extra fuel to the journey.
You don't get Istanbul nights on the way to wining titles. And no six-pointers with Chelsea could ever match the fearsome tension of the three epic semi-finals the two clubs have played out in the competition in the past four years.
Encounters that define eras, shape destinies. There's no Liverpool supporter that would happily accept waiting another year for such moments - last night gives them the hope more memorable nail-biters are imminent.
Especially as Liverpool aren't looking remotely close to cruising through any matches any time soon.
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There's only so often Liverpool can live so dangerously and get away with it.
So far, we've not scored before the 75th minute this season.
When we come up against a strong side, I'm worried we're in for a big shock
Everybody talks about the goals scored in pre-season but seems to forget that we followed a pretty similar trend. When Kuyt and Benayoun were on the pitch we had some pretty turgid performances which only opened up once the younger subs stepped onto the pitch to provide some flair and invention in the attacking third...
I must say Liverpool are not living upto expectations. I find it strange that Benitez is now looking to use wingers to cross when he never employed that last year with Crouch in the side. Now we have Torres up front, still alone as Keane is still not sure were he must play and finds himself more in the midfield. I fear that things are only gonna get worse. Where is Finnan, Arbeloa has a shocker of a game and is unsure in attack. I still do not think Kuyt should be playing out on the right, my money is on Benayoun, he has shown he is capable of running at the defence and also scoring - on the left he is wasted and preditable always cutting inside. I think Benitez has failed in the transfer market, we stll need a left winger. I would have prefered using the 20 million on Silva or Joe Cole.
Lets hope things get better soon as we have utd coming up and would hate to lose to them again.
Thank you for printing this home truth. I'm tired of reading the cliche in so many blogs, newspapers and other articles that winning ugly is the form of champions. This is clearly non-sense. Playing rigid, unimaginative football is a receipe for defeats.