Nice one Xabi. I admit i was among those that thought Xabi was at the end of his Red career prior the start of the season, but now i cant express enough relief that he ended up staying and revitalized. He is truly one of Rafa's best ever purchase, a real pro, a humble gent, and a red through and through. I know its a no brainer, but for Xabi to come out and say all the positive stuff about his gaffer after nearly gotten traded off, is admirably humble and loyal. Most players would sulk and moan in the media. But Xabi accepted it as if it was a service required of him, like he was ready to be traded off for the greater good of the club. He's the total opposite of the modern football mercenary like Drogba.

The bold bits of his comments i found really interesting and insightful. "When he came here, Liverpool had a massive history but they had lost competitiveness compared to the other European greats - and had spent a long time without winning major trophies." - This bit here puts everything into perspective and an important point to ponder for those who questions and doubts Rafa on the basis of lacking trophies or yet to sign that 30mil winger. Have we forgotten the Liverpool of 2003-2004 ? That season Wenger's Invincibles went undefeated and won the league by whopping 90 points. We were a team in crisis, that was anti Shankly's pass and move football, afraid to attack, depended on uninspiring ultra defensive doctrine to grind out results, and were made of fringe players who didnt have the required ability nor the mentality of a true Liverpool player. I remembered how we struggled and aspired to secure that last champion league spot as if it was a quest for the holy grail. When people moan that Rafa plays defensively with 2 holding mids, do they remember the Houllier's dreadful ultra defensive doctrine ? Is a Rafa's high line defense in a balanced 4-5-1 formation, whose 2 holding mids consisting of a captain of Argentina and the other, a recent Euro Champion, the club's best passer of the ball Xabi Alonso, spearheaded by attack minded players in the mold of Benny, Riera, Kuyt and Gerrard, is anywhere nearly as defensive or perhaps as toothless as Houllier's deep line defense, instructed to remain passive till the final whistle, featuring the likes of Diouf, Murphy, Cheyrou, and Smicer deployed defensively ahead of shackled, overburden Steven Gerrard ? Its worth reminding ourselves how Houllier had masterfully destroyed the dreadful defensive football he himself created when he deployed the likes of Biscan and Traore to safeguard the team's goal. This Liverpool team, were miles behind the mancs, oblivious to the concept of Arsenal's pass and move football, and could only helplessly watched Chelsea in shock and awe as the Londoner 's began acquiring players from all over the world whose talents we ought to have in the first place.

Fast forward to today, can people not see how this team has been transcended into a more respectable and competitive outfit ? Gone were the days when we saw our team embarrassingly dismantled and thrown out of European competition. Now, its in the subconscious of every Red fans expecting the team to steamroll the group stages and to at least make it to the semi final. We're once again a team where the elites of Europe dreading to play against. To even merely call us competitive is quite an understatement as the Liverpool team now is a highly motivated combative outfit, resilient to defeat and aspired to subdue their opponents via resolute defending and punishing attacking football.

Four years ago, we set out to defend deep with no real intention to cross the halfway line in numbers. Now, we defend much higher up the pitch, demand the defenders to contribute offensively, players pass and move the ball swiftly and confidently around the pitch, and committing attacks with real intent, guile and purpose. Its exactly what Xabi meant when he said - "We've got quick-moving and quick-thinking players throughout our side and when we play good football our speed is our key". Players like Alonso, Agger, Arby, Kuyt, Lucas, Riera, Benny and Gerrard are all unique yet very similar in the sense that they are intelligent, disciplined, tactically sound, confident and natural passer of the ball. These are all Liverpool certified players and the kind of quality you expect to be able to execute flawless pass and move football.

Pass and move football isnt a Scouser thing, or an English invention. Its a tricky football language that can be spoken by either the best European club or your average div 3 team. Anyone with the most basic football skills can embrace it, only requiring everyone in the team learning the same language and able to speak the language to one another as fluently and as accurately as possible. Sounds simple enough, but the tricky part is that it requires the all players to be devoted and responsible to one another. Its not about making that perfect weighted pass to a teammate per se, but to actually serve and protect one another, and to be able to read one another like an open book. The more connected and devoted the players are towards one another, the better they are at expressing pass and move football. This was how Shankly got us playing pass and move football, by first encouraging a sense of brotherhood among the players that created a sense of duty and respect to one another, and then establishing a creed that reminded the players to keep it simple on the pitch; pass and move.

The current players, similar to the Shankly days, understood the meaning of teamwork. The players are captain materials, and as such they are leaders who should possess the people skill and the desire to lead one another. They took it upon themselves to learn, communicate and understand their teammates so that they could judge how to best serve one another. Its why players like Keane, Diouf and Cisse failed at Liverpool because they weren't the best team player or not have the devotion required to assimilate into the team. Both these players often threw faces when gotten subbed and have the habit of throwing tantrums whenever a teammate fail to deliver a pass to them on a silver platter. They play mostly for themselves, for their own glory and neglected or perhaps clueless as to how to play to the strength of their teammates. Its why Riera, despite being his debut year, has been a revelation. Like all other Spanish players, the concept of teamwork is no stranger to Riera and he took the effort to understand his teammates and learned their strength and weakness, and as a result he fitted in right away, giving the impression that he's been with us for years.

Teamwork, aside, IMO what separate the current crop and the previous Houllier's generation, is that current players are hands-down more naturally gifted footballers, in the sense that football decision making comes to them more naturally or rather instinctively. For instance, during the games the players would normally have already decided what to do with the ball, long before they even receive it. Thats how Xabi's able to make a perfectly weighted cross-field pass in a blink of an eye, or how Lucas despite his age can instinctively pings the ball to his teammates without even looking at them, and how Agger looked like a seasoned midfielder whenever he charged forward with the ball to his feet. Even Kuyt is able to do this effortlessly. How often do you see Kuyt hogging the ball and run into blind alleys ala Baros ? Probably never. Both Baros and Diouf have pace and skills to take on players but we saw how ineffective those runs were and how it became counter productive to any decent build up attacks. Kuyt's typical Saturday's football routine is pretty much a collective of an 'uninspiring' no-nonsense series of simplistic actions; pass, move, sprint, tackle, pass, move, win a header, pass, move, sprint, attack a cross, and repeat. Easily forgettable contributions and its why most wonder if Kuyt is indeed truly a long lost son of Rafa, when in fact Kuyt is exactly the kind of player the team needs to play effective pass and move football. Like an ordinary nut or bolt that does nothing special, but holds all the vital engine parts together.

IMO, from reading past Xabi's interviews etc, its clear that he feels privileged to be part of this Liverpool team. He, like Riera, Torres and few others are hailed from Spain, a country that celebrates intelligent and free flowing football. Rafa too originates from Spain, so his football aspiration and philosophy cant be that far different from them. Basically, we have a gaffer and a contingent of the Spanish Euro Champions, who experienced and breathe pass and move football. We have the right people and mentality to re gain what we've lost. The only other things left is us fans to be remain patient, sensible and unmoved when seeing our effort and intent are ridiculed by paid-to-bs pundits, taunted by rival mates, and the ever more increasing effort by the medias whose blatantly trying to hurt the club, its personnels, its fans, and the people of Liverpool. Regardless, what happens this season, this Liverpool team is still improving. We need to remind ourselves that we are still a work in progress, only barely recovering and restructuring from previous catastrophic mismanagement, a team whose slowly yet surely re-discovering its long lost (perhaps abandoned) football identity. But i reckon we will get there under the current team management, im hoping its sooner rather than later.