Brian Reade Column: Football: Boring Liverpool? Overnight, they became a team of genius who won the greatest final of all time.

Byline: Brian Reade 

FOR a people who claim to have invented total football it's surprising how many Dutch players speak total balls.

Take Marc Overmars, who displayed the deep level of knowledge he picked up playing in England and Spain with this piece of stunning insight ahead of Wednesday's UEFA Cup Final.

"I think Alaves will put about nine players behind the ball and Liverpool will put about 10 players behind the ball. It could be heavy going to watch."

Indeed it was, Marc. Heavy on the old ticker and even heavier on the old bladder if you'd had a few pints and refused to go to the toilet in case you missed another goal. But not quite as heavy going as watching Liverpool's semi-final, when Marc and his fellow Barcelona gods spent three hours trying to get the ball near Sander Westerveld. And failed miserably.Then there was Jordi Cruyff, who mouthed off about Liverpool's sterile European displays and predicted the final could be "the most boring in the competition's history."

Throw in his father Johan's assessment of Liverpool - "They play horribly and are incapable of putting three passes together" - and you may begin to think the Dutch are either riddled with jealousy or their blood-streams are full of the substances on sale in their coffee shops.

Or maybe not. Maybe they are just reflecting what British critics were saying after the FA Cup final. That this Liverpool team is a cross between George Graham's Arsenal and Harry Bassett's Wimbledon, who churn out results due to a jolly blond giant at the back and a baby-faced assassin up front.

But oh, how their tune had changed by Thursday morning. Suddenly Liverpool were a devil-may-care side of rare attacking genius who had just won the greatest cup final since the invention of the ball. And both knee-jerk reactions were as accurate as the double Dutch quoted above.

I salute all fans of English clubs who didn't want Liverpool to do the treble. That's how football fans work and that's how it should be, because it makes the winning that much more enjoyable. But the amount of ex-players and managers who are paid to comment on the game who have failed to grasp what Gerard Houllier is trying to achieve is quite baffling.

How many boring teams do you know who score 123 goals in a season? How many clueless, sterile sides survive 25 major cup ties on the trot while picking up every cup on offer? How many negative teams play all-out attack in a pulsating 2-2 draw against Chelsea on a Wednesday, produce that heart-stopping last 20 minutes in an FA Cup final on a Saturday, then come out on top in an extraordinary 5-4 European final days later?

What Liverpool showed in Dortmund, as they showed in Cardiff and against Manchester United, Arsenal, Leeds, Barcelona, Roma and Porto, is that they are a young yet highly sophisticated squad with the talent and spirit to vary their tactics, raise their game and get a result against anyone in Europe.

If Houllier was over-cautious against some of those sides it was because he felt they were better teams than his own and he set about preventing a mauling which may have made his youngsters think that what they had achieved was a mirage.

What critics forget is when Manchester United did their treble in 1999 they had been picking up trophies together for half-a-dozen years and when Liverpool last did theirs in 1984 they had been hoarding silver for a dozen years. Yet Houllier's side is based around a nucleus of relatively inexperienced players, who two years ago where mostly total strangers.

But then the only people who really mattered knew that all along. The fans. They have seen the resurrection in all its truth because they were present at all the crucifixions in the 90s.

When you have witnessed your great European pedigree torn to shreds by French and Spanish non-entities, stopping Barcelona and Roma scoring on their home ground isn't something you find horrible or boring. It gives you back your pride and more importantly it gives you back the kind of magical night we had in Dortmund this week.

A night when Liverpool's fans contributed so much that UEFA are thinking of giving them an award for the sporting tribute they paid to Alaves. Only those present at Heysel will truly understand how much that means.

For Liverpudlians to be able to hold their heads high, both on and off the field in Europe, after 17 long years, is something more precious than any treble.

And Johan Cruyff to be there handing out gongs is simply the icing on a gorgeous cake.

CAPTION(S):

NIGHT TO REMEMBER: Gerard Houllier shows off the UEFA Cup after Liverpool's memorable win over Alaves in Dortmund