Suddenly, maybe not so suddenly, it's not there. The old spark that ignited short conversations, which told you that friendships could last more than just time and distance, has diminished to the point where little can be seen of it. There seems to be no fun, intrigue, even interest.

Reduced contact may have played a part. But then, frequency of verbal exchange should not, and does not, determine the strength of a bond which is supposed to transcend superficial relationships.

Was the past an illusion, the concoctions of a delusional and searching mind? So many questions, so few answers. Where an understanding that once existed, smattering of nods and almost-tiresome acknowledgements now stand. Like watching an empire crumble before your very eyes. Except, it's your own empire.

Maybe this is how people move apart. The natural course of things? Well, I don't like it much.

Wish the years could be rolled back, moments played out slowly. Even the bad ones.

Literary and verbal laziness in football

The mid-season transfer window slammed shut for European football clubs not too long back. No, it did not close gently. It, as it always does, ‘slammed’ shut. Given the nature of football transfers, a door left ajar is as good as one that is wide open. Should a club get a sniff of a want-away player, the 2300 GMT deadline becomes a mere number as deals get ‘thrashed’ out in double-quick time.

For a sport where scripts are written, torn, re-written, and torn apart again in less than two hours, football’s allegiance to cliches is not just annoying, but confounding. And each section of the game is afflicted with the disease, be it the players, managers, or the journalists.

Sample Juan Mata‘s statements on becoming Manchester United’s record signing.

“The time has come for a new challenge,” Mata was quoted as having said by the BBC. “I am excited at the chance I have to be part of the next phase in the club’s history.”

Curiously, footballers always move for a new “challenge”, or when a ‘project’ becomes too tempting, or too ‘big’ to resist. Of course, one cannot expect footballers to be brutally honest and say that the massive salary on offer was instrumental to their transfer, or their former manager was completely wrong to have not played him more frequently. But that does not absolve them of the atrocious post-match interviews, none exemplified better than a victorious Wayne Rooney, basking in the success his immense talent brings to him and his team.

“I am concentrating on my football. I have got my head down and worked hard,” Rooney was quoted as having said in mid-September.

Yes Wayne, we are glad you are concentrating on your football and working hard. A bucket-load of new information: a footballer concentrating on his football.

Jose Mourinho stirred up another controversy recently when he accused West Ham United of playing “19th century football”. Trust Jose to say it like no one else could. But then, don’t West Ham United and Stoke City, at least before Mark Hughes’ subtle shift to a more continental footballing ‘philosophy’, represent the ultimate challenge to a footballer? So what if Lionel Messi scores a hat-trick against Real Madrid? Could he do it on a wet Wednesday night against Stoke City, with the bus parked in front of the goal?

Of course, for every ‘hoof up the pitch’ involving ‘the West Hams’ and ‘the Stokes’ of the world, there is always ‘the Arsenals’ and their ‘top, top, top’ players who prefer to ‘pass the ball into the net.’ The manner in which goals are scored is of utmost importance, and nothing better describes a fluid, passing game than ‘playing along the carpet’.

When one of the less fancied clubs comes up against the ‘big’ clubs, talent takes a back seat for 90 minutes as David versus Goliath is played out for the umpteenth time. Never has the underdog received so much support as he does today. And should plucky David win, it has to be after having ‘worked their socks off’, or having ‘played their hearts out’.

Of course, such a match, or any other for that matter, would require a ‘turning point’. However, if the turning point is incidentally near the 45-minute mark, then it becomes a ‘game of two halves’, ensuring that the incompetent mathematicians packed in the stands don’t make the mistake of thinking that football had borrowed the system of quarters from basketball.

One can only be thankful that Sir Alex Ferguson retired at the end of the 2012-13 season. If anything, Ferguson is singularly responsible for two of the most overused cliches in the history of sport.

Should his team put in a floundering first-half performance, there could only be one place where Sir Alex would be standing: next to the locker room plug point, revving up his hairdryer. Having blown hot air over his wards, the septuagenarian would then take his place in the stands, ‘furiously chewing’ on his favourite piece of gum.

Obviously, Manchester United would then go on to win the match in the dying minutes of the game, better known as ‘Fergie Time’. Whether David Moyes owns a hairdryer or not is yet to be seen. But, it can be safely said that Moyesie Time will not be making an entry anytime soon.

Liverpool’s victory over Everton on January 28 was of added importance, as the two clubs’ adjacent positions in the league table had somehow managed to convert the derby into a ‘six-pointer’. Relegation battles are another category of matches that are assigned six-points by commentators and journalists, even though only three points are awarded to the victors at the end of the match. Little is known of the constituents of the remaining three points, though one could guess that ‘bragging rights’ may form a part of it.

To end with England defender Rio Ferdinand’s fantastically articulated summation of the challenges of the 2012-13 season: ”We want to give the fans what they expect and be battling at the top of the league. The gauntlet has been thrown down time and time again. It is up to us to pull in the right direction. We have to step up to the plate and produce. I am sure we will.”

Football, for all its Brownian motion-like unpredictability on the pitch, is rooted in literary banality off it.

Nature 1 - 0 Tactics: Gerrard deals blow for Rodgers' regista hopes?

Aston Villa gave Liverpool an object lesson in counter-attacking football on Saturday, tearing the Reds into shreds in a first-half performance that could have graced any Champions League season and not looked out of place. In the middle of the first 45 minutes of the Villan whirlwind was Steven Gerrard, sitting in as the deep-lying play-maker, Liverpool’s resident regista.

Rodgers had played Gerrard in a the holding mid-field role against Stoke on January 12, with Liverpool emerging victors by five goals to three in a roller-coaster of a game.

“It’s something Steven and I have spoken about for a while. I thought he did very well in that role at Stoke – the mix of his game was excellent,” Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager, was quoted as having said by Liverpool’s official website ahead of the Aston Villa clash at Anfield. However, the fact that Liverpool let in three goals at the Britannia Stadium should have told Rodgers that Gerrard and the defence had probably not done as well as they should have.

Gerrard was more than just “swamped” against Villa in the fist half on Saturday. He made a measly 16 passes in the first 45 minutes, less than Jordan Henderson’s 33. Even Christian Benteke managed to string together 30 passes in the first half, making Gerrard’s performance in the depths of his own half look even more disturbing. Over the length of the entire game, the Liverpool captain completed only 73% of his passes. Compare that to Raheem Sterling, who completed 97% of his passes, the majority of which were in the opposition’s half.

There is little point in doubting Gerrard’s ability on the ball. However, Rodgers’ dream of seeing his captain strutting his talent à la Andrea Pirlo would have taken a beating after the first half against Villa, and the Liverpool boss was quick to right the ship during half-time, replacing Phillipe Coutinho with Lucas Leiva, who had started the game on the substitute’s bench. With Lucas back, Gerrard was free to roam the length of the pitch and influence the game in the manner he does so well, picking out Luis Suarez with a precise 40-yard pass from just inside his own half, a position he would not have been in if he was providing cover in front of Martin Skrtel and Kolo Toure. Gerrard’s ‘Hollywood’ pass, minutes into the second half, led to Suarez earning the penalty.

Rodgers’ dislike for two defensive mid-fielders is well known. With Lucas having played in front of the back four up till now, Rodgers’ has used various formations according to requirements of the match. Although the unavailability of Suarez and Daniel Sturridge at different points in time has meant that a lone striker was often the norm for much of 2013, if one were to consider matches where two have played together, two basic structures can be discerned.

The 4-3-3: With Suarez, Sturridge and Coutinho/Sterling/Victor Moses changing positions at the front, the midfield trio comprised of Lucas, Gerrard and Henderson. The Liverpool skipper and Henderson here played in an advanced midfield role. Alternatively, this could be seen as a 4-1-3-2, with Coutinho playing as part of the second line of attack.

The 4-4-2: The more conventional English system, although currently out of favour with clubs who cannot afford the luxury of two strikers and the resultant lack of cover. With Sturridge and Suarez plying their trade at the top, Gerrard and Lucas would form the mid-field’s centre, with Henderson and Coutinho/Sterling/Moses playing wide. Lucas would be the conventional defensive midfielder, while Gerrard would provide support in attack.

By moving Gerrard to Lucas’ position in front of the defence, Rodgers wished to infuse a “range of passing” to the normally workman-like character associated with a defensive midfielder, while allowing the other two players in the midfield to aid the three-man front line.

The regista in its modern, 21st century rendition has often been seen with the support of another player. When one talks about Xabi Alonso’s breathtaking 70-yard cross-field sniper-like passes at Liverpool and Real Madrid, it’s difficult to imagine them without the harrying figure of Javier Mascherano or Sami Khedira bundling the opposition into submission, clearing the field for their partner in crime. Xavi Hernandez, while playing in a slightly more advanced position than Alonso, is coupled with Sergio Busquets, who does the proverbial dirty work. Paul Scholes played the ‘keep-the-ball-ticking’ role to much acclaim at Manchester United, punctuating his midfield stability with attacking insurgencies. Andrea Pirlo, everyone’s favourite beard-sporting midfield metronome, had Gennaro Gattuso for company in Milan. His time at Juvetus, however, has seen him without the typical destroyer, although Juvetus’ wealth when it comes to combative midfielders – Paul Pogba, Arturo Vidal, Claudio Marchisio – ensures Pirlo is not caught out.

Rodgers has talked of using Gerrard as a centre-back in his twilight years, with the approaching years rendering him devoid of the pace he so effectively used for his lung-busting runs over the past decade. However, the lack of running speed does not mean that Gerrard should be relegated to a deeper role.

Gerrard’s second-half performance against Villa was a perfect example of a player with more than just pace to his game. While his passing ability would be a bonus at the holding role, the cross-field passes are effective when one is in a slightly more advanced position, with the ball still arriving at pace to the receiver rather than floating and enabling easier interceptions.

It can be argued that Gerrard needs more time to accept the new role and get used to the new positioning and the speed with which the game is played in your own half. Rodgers and Gerrard conceded as much before and after game.

“Now you are reprogramming him(Gerrard) for his movement patterns in this half of the field. Once we continue to do more work on it on the training field, he’ll get that total picture of where he’s at,” Rodgers had said before the Villa game.

Pirlo’s languid style has been the outcome of a prolonged spell in a deeper role, dictating games even before he joined Milan at the age of 22. His development as a deep-lying controller started at Brescia in northern Italy, the club he played for in two spells. The end of his second term at Brescia – a six-month loan deal from Inter – saw his role taken up by Pep Guardiola, whose spell was halted after he tested positive for nandrolone.

Maybe with time, Gerrard too will flower in a role Rodgers has identified for him. If there is any player who has managed to play more than adequately in different positions, it is Steven Gerrard, be it at right-back, centre, left or right midfield, or just off the striker. Surely, sauntering about as Henderson and company do the legwork will not be too difficult? Sporting a beard could probably help.