Real-ity check for Rodgers

THEY had waited so long. And with such fevered anticipation. What had once seemed a birthright had been denied them for five wilderness years. They had fallen to slumming it among the dirt-trackers of the Europa League and below, but now they were back – where they felt they belonged.
Five Champions League triumphs has Liverpool sharing third place on the all-time podium with Bayern Munich; only Real Madrid and AC Milan are above them. Football royalty indeed. And how appropriate that it was Real, the reigning champions and undisputed king of kings, who were the visitors.
Oh, how they'd missed those big European nights, those special Anfield nights, when they came with their banners and their anthems and the decibels soared to sound and fury levels. Opponents would visibly quake in their boots at the Kop-inspired onslaught.
September's rehearsal with modest Ludogorets had shown how rusty they were but now this was the Big One, Ronaldo, Rodriguez, Benzema and all the aristocrats in white.
It all went OK for a quarter of an hour. The Kop was in full voice, the great and great of Anfield nights past were present and Liverpool looked up for it.
But when their opening forays came to nought, they stopped pressing and Real got a grip. Then a couple of touches of pure class and it was game over, possibly season over.
A halftime shirt-swap later it was possibly Mario Balotelli's Liverpool career over.
The Reds may still find it in themselves to scrape through the group phase but any thoughts of establishing a base camp for future assaults on the summit have to be forgotten for the foreseeable future.
Yes, there was royalty out there but they were wearing white: on this showing Liverpool did not belong in such exalted company.
Indeed, but for tomorrow's El Clasico looming very much in Madrid minds it may well have been a lot more embarrassing.
Three-nil up at halftime against Liverpool will never be a position of comfort for Carlo Ancelotti and he understandably opted for containment. And once he could see there would be no repeat of the Miracle of Istanbul he could afford to rest his talisman, Cristiano Ronaldo.
It was just about the perfect evening for Real: with one less day to recover than Barcelona for the first of what is usually a two-legged title-decider, they did not want to be stretched. They weren't – this was little more than a decent training exercise such was the gulf in class.
We had been warned by the way QPR had dominated them on Sunday that this was a Liverpool side unrecognisable from the one that had terrorised the top teams in England in the second half of last season, often blowing them away in the first 20 minutes. A side that was unlucky not to lift the title. By any standards, it is an amazing turnaround.
On Tuesday, I mentioned the many changes in personnel and the obvious Luis Suarez factor but with every depressingly lacklustre showing that goes by, last season's Liverpool are looking more like a one-man team. Suarez copped some stick from Liverpool fans for saying as much last week but it is hard to think of a top side that has sunk so quickly after the loss of just one player.
It has to be said that Daniel Sturridge is also being sorely missed but no one is expecting him to turn it around singlehandedly. Overall the current Liverpool look little better than the one that failed to even qualify for the Europa League. Indeed, the defence, dare it be said, looks worse than when Roy Hodgson was in charge.
Victor Valdes must be rushed in asap as Simon Mignolet is clearly a liability. At least Roy had Pepe Reina in goal. Rodgers did not seem to have a Plan B but appears to have reached the end of his tether with Balotelli. The Italian did actually break into a trot once but his selfishness was again on view when a pass was screaming to be made to Raheem Sterling in a threatening position. But the shirt-swap with Pepe has to be the final straw. It was for Andre Santos at Arsenal.
You have to wonder just what owner John Henry made of it. His grasp of the game now must be enough for him to realise that only a sizable divot in his bank balance in the January transfer window is going to bring Champions League football next season. But based on Rodgers' recruits so far, is he going to be so willing to sign any more big cheques?
Loyalty is a quality Liverpool make much of and to their immense credit the crowd still rustled up a defiant rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone even as their team were being humiliated. Nor were there any signs of a 'fire drill'. Henry will have noted these traits and want to remain loyal to a young manager he chose over Roberto Martinez and who appeared to have delivered handsomely last season. And he certainly won't want to start building another team all over again.
But if, after a presumably hefty spend in the winter, Rodgers cannot steer Liverpool into the top four, his position will come under serious review. The more we watch Liverpool this season, the more their resurgence looks to be down to the genius of a once-in-a-generation player than the judgment of a still unproven manager.