FRANZ BECKENBAUER signed up to the anti-Liverpool club yesterday, with the latest attack on their style of play.
With barely a pause to reflect on the irony of a German calling an English side boring, the football legend added his name to the list of those who seem to object to Liverpool's winning strategy.
He moaned: "Liverpool lacked ambition. You could hardly tell which side was at home."
The Anfield club, of course, defeated Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday with a functional and organised display that had a Germanic stamp of discipline about it.
But Beckenbauer insisted Liverpool were a shadow of the side that beat his Bayern Munich team in the European Super Cup final in August.
The Bayern president, a World Cup winner as player and manager, said yesterday: "If I was Gerard Houllier I'd have a major headache before the second leg. I started to ask myself if there had been another Liverpool out there than the team which beat us 3-2 in the European Super Cup final.
"They seemed happy to let Leverkusen have all the possession, which was a really strange thing for a home team to do."
Beckenbauer seems to have forgotten Bayern adopted even more negative when they mugged Real Madrid in last year's quarter-finals.
In Madrid, the Germans had one shot in a match the Spanish totally dominated, yet they sneaked away with a shame-faced 1-0 victory.
The story was little different in Munich, with Bayern's counter-attacking tactics smuggling them into the semi-final.
Leverkusen's players also dismissed Liverpool's chances, even though Houllier's men have not lost away in European competition for almost four years.
Germany defender Carsten Ramelow insisted: "We are very confident for the rematch. Liverpool looked like they didn't know what to do sometimes."
But Liverpool manager Houllier was unconcerned by the taunts, just as he ignored criticism from Johan Cruyff, Patrick Kluivert, Fabio Capello and Frank de Boer.
He said: "We were disciplined and intelligent tactically. Our performance warranted more than one goal, while the Germans didn't create anything."