Adios Luisito!

Straight off the bat, I’m going to admit that I have been negligent. Of what, you ask? I have been grossly negligent of my first true love, oblivious to the need for lettering about my life’s biggest passion, unmindful of the very rubric under which I christened my personal blog. Being a wannabe blogger, I am guilty of being utterly neglectful of the need to nourish that most precious of personal motivations, Liverpool Football Club. It’s time I set the record straight – and talk about the elephant in the room when it comes to LFC these days, the one and only Luis Suarez.

Luisito - fondly referred to as ‘El Pistolero’ - is the man who everybody loves to hate in football. I’m not going to sit here and rehash every sordid detail of his antics during the recently concluded World Cup, or any of the various other ‘extra-curricular’ activities that he’s been involved in as a Liverpool player – it has been done to death by the British media, every television program ranging from Sportscenter to Family Guy, as well as by every self-righteous Liverpool hater on Facebook. 

I write this blog instead to revel, one last time, in some of his more glorious moments in a red shirt (bearing that most celebrated of numbers on its back, 7), to quantify the import of his presence on the pitch for Liverpool, to forgive him for his deplorable behaviour on the pitch but most importantly, to try and come to grips with his departure from the club. I have no shame in admitting that in all my years as a Liverpool fan, barring Steven Gerrard, no player has become an object of my affections quite like Luis Suarez had.

Reminiscing is hard – it makes one long for what was once theirs, and wish what followed later never transpired. Here are my top 5 moments from Luis Suarez’s career at Liverpool:

The 40-yard goal against Norwich: Suarez has scored a number of difficult goals during his time at the club, but none quite like this stunner against Norwich in the Premier League. That the Canaries were Suarez’s favourite opposition was well-documented (he scored an astonishing 12 goals against them in just 6 games) and something about the sight of their yellow and green home kits elevated his game to stratospheric levels. This goal is particularly memorable for me, given the absolute audacity and technical precision with which it was executed.

The opener against Tottenham Hotspur at WHL: This goal typifies all that is good about Luisito: vision, pace, tenacity, deception and the most deadly trait of them all, accuracy. When I watched this goal at home, I was struck by the speed and clarity of Suarez’s decision-making. To think that, from producing the pass unlocking the Spurs defence, making the run to give Henderson the option to dump the ball off in his path, and then evading not one, not two but three defenders (one of them with a delectable pull-back) to finish with surgical precision beneath the despairing hands of Hugo Lloris, Suarez did all of these things in a matter of seconds beggars belief.

The free-kick in the Merseyside Derby: How can I not include a trademark Suarez free-kick in this list? One of the most potent threats in his arsenal, Suarez possesses this uncanny knack of scoring vicious goals from outrageous positions on the pitch. I chose this particular instance of his set-piece prowess for three reasons: one, because of the amount of curl he generated on the ball to get it around the Everton wall, yet unerringly find the bottom corner; two, because of the circumstances in which it was scored – Everton had equalised with a Kevin Mirallas strike, and had their tails up; and three, because it was scored with Tim Howard in goal. Now, that’s one thing that won’t feature in a #ThingsTimHowardCouldSave meme.

The solo goal versus Newcastle: This goal… wow, there are times when I still scratch my head ape-like and marvel in bewilderment - did he just do that? In fact, when it did happen I simply refused to believe that Suarez had scored – I kept waiting for the referee to blow his whistle for a ‘foul’ or for the offside flag to be raised unflinchingly in the corner…or something. Words won’t do justice to the sheer difficulty and technical complexity of this goal - a golazo to crown every other he’s ever scored for the club.

The amazing dribble against Manchester United: It’s ironical that the moment that sealed my unmitigated affection for Suarez was in fact, a goal which he did not score. But that’s about the only thing he didn’t do - even today, when I look back at the grainy footage of the goal on YouTube, the way Suarez twisted and turned and completely bamboozled the United defence to lay it on a silver platter for Kuyt sends a shiver down my spine. Back then, I knew I had just witnessed the birth of a modern-day footballing genius.

Numbers usually do not do complete justice to a player’s performance, but in Suarez’s case, they only serve to embellish his aura. There are too many to pick from, but sample these:

·              82:   Number of goals he scored in 133  games for Liverpool (a games-to-goals ratio of 1.62)
  50.4%: Liverpool win percentage with Suarez in the team.
  20.3:   Average no. of games taken to score a hat-trick in the Premier League.
  0:  No of penalties he scored for Liverpool.

All of these stats are rendered meaningless when juxtaposed against his dubious on-field behaviour that is the cause of much heartburn for Liverpool supporters. It raises doubts about his integrity and exposes him to questions ranging from the innocuous (“Why would a great striker resort to cheap tactics such as biting a fellow professional?”) to the pejorative (“Is Luis Suarez racist?”).

If history has taught us anything, it is the supposition that genius and eccentricity are inextricably linked representing two sides of the same coin. If I have to come to terms with his behaviour on the pitch, I have no choice but to believe Suarez is also a victim of this quirk.

Hard as it may be to digest, Luis Suarez’s departure from Liverpool was a foregone conclusion much before his shenanigans vis-à-vis Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup – his latest ‘hickey’ (if one may call it that) only served to hasten it. Which raises the biggest question of them all: Can Liverpool reprise the heights they achieved during the 2013/14 Premier League season without their talisman?

My head says no, and yet, being the prejudiced Liverpool supporter that I am, my heart says it is possible. Whatever may come to pass this season, one thing is certain: I’m going to miss Suarez’s dancing, twinkling feet take the pitch for Liverpool. Adios amigo – you’ll never walk alone!