“NEVER write angry. Always leave it a day to get your argument straight.” I was told that a few years ago. As an argument it has merit. Nobody wants to read spit, so it’s best to relax, gather your thoughts and throw them out to anyone who wants to listen. The trouble is, 23 hours on from an absolutely appalling result and a performance that has more or less confined us to a Europa League place, I’m somehow angrier.
My waking thought was Alberto Moreno performing Riverdance in our box. So, sod it to balanced. Sometimes you just have to go with how you feel.
Firstly, I’ll admit to being a terrible loser. Seeing people smiling and laughing with their mates after we’ve lost a game sends me into a silent fury. Worse still, seeing Liverpool players come over to accept applause after a meek performance makes me want to hurl stewards around the terrace. I made eye contact with Riise once after an awful goalless draw with Birmingham. He played his usual game of lashing ball after ball into the Kop when he had runners in better positions but he was ever the one for the Match of the Day showreel so just went for glory whenever he could.
When he trotted over to take his bow he became confronted with a purple-faced man screaming: “You! Pass the ball! It’s not about you all the fucking time!” He dug his heels in and gave me an extra 10 seconds of applause, thinking I’d be made up. I was still shaking on the motorway an hour later.
There’s nothing wrong with applauding a side that went close but didn’t have enough or were just beaten by a better side but adding ‘YNWA’ on Twitter after we’ve been walloped or the stern-faced ‘We go again’ mantra from last season just drives me mad. I don’t want to prove what a big fan I am. If we’ve lost due to our own ineptitude I want to get on the team coach and find people.
I respect Brendan for his post-match interview yesterday. It’s never easy to say, ‘We were just shite’ and he seemed as pissed off as me when the BT reporter twisted the knife. It’s not always the best policy to say ‘We’re locking Kolo in the bogs on the way home’ — which was my policy — but he’s not allowed to vent spleen in front of a sponsor’s board. I’d have been holding that reporter up against the wall like Darth Vader.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKayu9unyCI
You can’t slate your players in public but I hope to God he didn’t go for the arm around the shoulder last night. They should be told, not cajoled. We can do that in training in Monday. I’ll go further. He got a lot of stick, from me included, for the Madrid away line up, but I’d love it if he’d said ‘They were shite at Newcastle on Saturday so they don’t deserve this trip.’ I’d have been more than happy with that. That’s carrot and the stick.
It’s not been easy for him this season. The hangover from May, the players not bedding in, the Balotelli issue, the Ricky Lambert issue, the Champions League campaign but he has a broad back and should get through it. The 13-game run was great as there’s nothing better than taking points when there are problems all over the pitch but we’ve had a holiday since. He has a history of turning it around but it seems a bit late now.
Right, that’s the nice bit done.
I’m furious with this side. Arse-clenchingly furious. I’m incandescent about the last three games. Three in defence. A lad who isn’t a centre back and is targeted constantly, the world’s slowest midfield and half a pitch between them and the lads up front. Swansea should have been a massive signal to the coaching team that we’ve been worked out but we still go with the same shape against Man U, whose manager knows a hell of a lot about 3-4-3.
You need a tempo statement in games like these. Look at the City game last year. It was obvious what we were going to do. Go for the jugular the second the whistle blew and keep at them until they yielded. City aren’t soft. They knew full well what the plan was and they still couldn’t live with us. Raheem puts us one up and we decided it wasn’t enough. If anything we up the pace further to get the second. Then we play the next hour like it’s a chess match. I loved that game. Dominant at first and then clever when we needed to be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwQOK6GEDsE
You would think that maybe we would do the same a fortnight ago against Manchester United. Nope. We walked out like we were going to apologise to them for getting in their way. Time and again they attacked the space between Sterling and Can with Fellani. Time and again we ceded possession and couldn’t get out. No maraudering this time. We sat and sat and sat with limp shoulders and shambling gaits. Not an ounce of chutzpah between them.
So what happens when we crawl off the pitch with our lessons learned? We do exactly the same again against Arsenal, who don’t target Can. They target the entire system and press and press and press until we give them the game. Bullied by Arsenal. It’s like being beaten up by Warwick Davis.
Don’t get me wrong. Arsenal and United are good sides who are at their best when their blood’s up. But we are, too. Or at least we should be. The lack of testicular fortitude in that side was a disgrace. When the going got tough, the tough bent over and whimpered.
You have to look to the manager for this. System aside (and playing Henderson on the wing to cover a square peg in a round hole) are we doing enough to remember who we play for? Are these lads walking on to the pitch, heads held high and shouting ‘Fuck you, I play for Liverpool Football Club’? Why not? We should be. Going to press us, are you? Fuck you, I play for Liverpool Football Club. Going to stick Fellani on me, are you? Fuck you, I play for Liverpool Football Club.
But what do we get? A shrug, an apology and a ‘we go again’ a few days later. Simon Mignolet wished us all ‘Happy Easter’ on Twitter this morning.
We’re to blame in some of this. The whole cult of Kolo thing, the deification of Emre Can and those fucking Rodgers and Shankly pictures from last season. I’m all for a laugh and a bit of rabble-rousing but, know what? Show me your medals, lads. Show me what you can do first, then you can have all the memes you want.
You’ve come to the most difficult club in the world and you have to work very, very hard to do well, so do it. Here’s your chance now. If you’re here to move somewhere else, prove yourself here first. Liverpool isn’t a retirement home. You don’t get a day off here but time and again we put them on plinths and talk about them as if they’ve done something.
Yes, last year was different. We came close to showing medals but the mentality of that side has gone to Barcelona. Now, right now, standing around with our hands on our hips looking each other isn’t getting the job done. Yes, it’s a tricky season. So make a name. Yes, there are no goals now as Neil correctly points out but there are also no tackles. We’re the world’s best side at standing in front of the opposition and not jumping in. Arsenal didn’t need shin pads yesterday. We were nice. Always nice.
We’re lucky too. We’ve had four bad games on the bounce, one won, drawn one and lost two, but we get to put it right in the next game and go to Wembley. Give us that. This is the perfect opportunity to make a statement about what we can be rather than what this season has been. None of this cat and mouse nonsense either. Get in there and get what we come for. Play like we’re Liverpool Football Club, not a side with an upset in them.
This side is capable of great things but it isn’t firing yet. Nowadays we have to work very, very hard to play alright. The second we stop doing that we sink.
Forget who you think you are and aspire to be worthy of that shirt. Twitter discussions about your day out at Knowsley Safari Park, your tours of Melwood and your excellent groomed scalps are all well and good.
Show us your mettle first.
LISTEN: Post-match reaction from The Anfield Wrap
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda
well bloody said!
Hold on Mark, Rodgers said we were playing well until the United game! Believe the hype about this bloke and his team of arch tacticians – Pascoe and Marsh, and you’ll carry on being livid until they finally get FSG’s call to find a club where failure is not a problem.
I enjoyed last season’s ride, it was a privilege watching Luis, but he was light years ahead of everybody else and he made the team thrive. Take him away, add an old, slow bloke who never plays, a lot of expensive ‘potential’ and two overpriced mid table players who again don’t play that much, and you’re where we are.
You are right to say “So what happens when we crawl off the pitch with our lessons learned? We do exactly the same again”. Yet today Rodgers talks about learning lessons. I wish he would!
The major problems with the current side are massively obvious? Moreno CANNOT defend, Emre does his best but is not a Centre Back, aside from Sturridge nobody offers genuine goal threat … On top of this is an array of players who offer potential, but who wouldn’t get picked for any team above LFC in the league, all signed for more than they were ever worth.
What we need is leaders all over the pitch. Not necessarily a great captain but every player taking responsibility to be a leader in their area of the game. That’s what we had during our dominant years. Players that took responsibility.
What we have now, in general, are players that only look to their own performance.
It’s not something you can expect from younger players but the more mature professionals need to show the way. Too many of them are hiding at the moment. Brendan needs to instill the leadership discipline in them.
The Blackburn game is immense now. Lose that one and all options are on the table.
Great article.
Marcel Desailly once said he preferred Italian football to English football. He said you had to earn your respect and admiration in Italy through real achievement, whereas in England the fans gave it much easier and he felt it meant less if it’s given easily.
Too many of the current Liverpool squad and management are made out to be a lot more than they actually are. Show me their medals.
Finally an article that sums up exactly how I feel. As fans we can accept pretty much anything as long as the players put in a shift full of passion and pride. Very often this season we aren’t even getting that.
I’m not going to sit here and moan about formations and tactics because there are plenty of folks a lot more qualified to do that than me. What I do hate and what was mentioned in the article is the lack of pride in the shirt. I couldn’t sum it up any better that the author did ” fuck you I play for Liverpool FC ”
I don’t think that asking for the players to actually give a damn about a bad performance is too much. The season was almost salvaged, beat United and get something at Arsenal and we were nailed on for a Champions league place.
Now we have only the FA cup left to play for and while that’s still a big deal, it won’t provide the much needed cash that Champions league will.
I honestly fear for the managers job, but mainly I’m worried about our beloved club having another period of transition ahead.
Best I’ve read in ages that.
As for the season being over, yeah it doesn’t look likely at all but not impossible. Things could look very different in 5 games time. 5 games, all very winnable. Man United ‘ s next 4 league games look very lose able. I appreciate they are on great form but they are tough games for them – real tests. In 5 games time we could be both going to Wembley and a point above the scum with 3 games to go. But it ain’t gonna happen without some epic support. I know the players aren’t making it easy for us right now but he support has been abysmal just lately. Get behind them for 5 games and see where we are. If they let you down after then let them know.
Also, if Kolo is locked in the bog, do we call for Lovren?
Bravo. Read this 3 times and it gets better and better.
Excellent stuff that sums me right up about now.
Up on the wall at Melwood now and make ’em read it including Rodgers
Sums up a lot of raw emotion, but the premise much of the article is based on is plain wrong. You seem to suggest we just say ‘fuck it, we’re Liverpool, let’s blitz these’. As if it’s a conscious decision. ‘Ok, lads, let’s win today. We’re Liverpool, eh!’
Whereas actually, the last two games have been better sides playing well and beating us. Yes, our performances were poor, but that’s the fact: the opposition’s players were better than ours. And they played better on the day, too.
It’s not that easy to just come out at a breakneck tempo (thus making a, ‘tempo statement’?!) and swarm all over the opposition. Let alone against good sides. Let alone against a good side, away from home. If it was, then everyone would do it, wouldn’t they? To do so is the result of 11 players all in tune with one another, playing some of the football of their careers – as we were 12 months ago. Unless you’re an exceptional side, then it’s the exception; not the norm. And it’s certainly not a conscious: ‘Remember the City game? Yeah, that 3-2 one. Let’s just play like that today, chaps’.
Unless all 11 players are technically good enough to play like that, fit enough to do so and tactically intelligent enough – then you’ll simply end up losing a lot of ball and generally become a mess. Which neatly takes us to the Arsenal game…
They pressed us, and pressed us well. No amount of strutting round the pitch shouting, in your own words: ‘Fuck you, I play for Liverpool Football Club’ would change the fact we were losing the ball because they pressed us very well, and we didn’t have players who were technically, tactically and mentally good enough to beat their press and pass the ball out from the back. That’s why we kept losing the ball. Not because we didn’t show ‘balls’.
It’s not Football Manager. You don’t just click a button that says ‘Fast Tempo’, click another giving a motivational team talk – then watch your players tear into superior players – and that’s what, generally, Utd and Arsenal have. Superior players.
It’s too easy complain we didn’t have the attitude that says ‘fuck Fellaini, I’ll show you. I play for Liverpool Football Club.
We won the league a load in the 80s, y’know’ – but what if we did have that attitude? What if Fellaini had a better day than Can? What if he’s simply a better player at the moment?
Technique and quality beats a ‘fuck you attitude’ nine times out of ten. That’s why there’s so few cup giant killings.
You’re correct to allude to the lack of leaders in the team, but there seems to be a theme on TAW, suggesting all Rodgers needs to do is shout ‘you’re all fucking boss lads, just go and play at 100 miles per-hour, be fucking crackers, show some balls and we’ll win the game.’
Unfortunately it’s not that easy. It’s one of the biggest misnomers in sport – ‘Lack. Of. Fight’. It is all well and good having a ‘fuck you’ attitude and having the mindset you play for Liverpool and you’ll have a scrap; but if a better side than you, plays better than you on the day, more often than not, you will lose.
I see your point but the complaint lies in the lack of fight shown in those games. We played like we were in shock rather than adopting the necessary chutzpah to at least compete. Yes, they’re better sides but we have no chance if we roll over or panic.
In that City game we began with pace and then settled into tactics. If you’re the lesser side you have to get your shirts dirty, or at least put a tackle in.