adamsmithFinished

AS I write this it’s 9.30am on Wednesday. The Liverpool team and coaching staff will be on their way to Plymouth for tonight’s match, but I don’t care. I know loads of people do and that’s fine. I didn’t want us to actively lose, I just didn’t care one way or the other.

I wrote last week about how the league should be our priority above everything else and I’m still very much of the belief that that’s the case, which is why I couldn’t care less about how last night went.

Seventeen games left. That’s all. Seventeen. We’re seven points behind Chelsea and they’ve still got to come to Anfield. There’s nothing that we can do other than beat them when they come to our place. Are you telling me that Chelsea aren’t going to drop more than four points from games against Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United at Old Trafford and even our old Blue mates from across the park? Obviously Everton might throw in the towel like they did against City in 2013-14, though.

Chelsea have also got tricky away games against Burnley, West Ham, Stoke and West Brom still to come. If they take maximum points from all of those games then you’ve just got to hold your hands up and say the best team won. If they do drop points, however, then it’s vital that we’re there to capitalise on them.

There’s nothing we can do about Chelsea, but there’s plenty that we can do for ourselves. There’s a reason that Jürgen Klopp has been banging on about how important the crowd is every chance he gets. You might be like Roy Hodgson and think that there’s nothing you can do for the players once they’ve crossed the white line onto the pitch, but I couldn’t disagree more. You have a job to do.

As supporters we need to get behind these lads with every fibre of our being. I’m not limiting this to just the people who go to the match, by the way. I’m talking about the ones who go to pubs to watch it or sit at home and type opinions on their laptops or phones. We’ve got a responsibility moving forward and we need to take it seriously.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, November 6, 2016: Liverpool supporters on the Spion Kop sing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' before the FA Premier League match against Watford at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

If you’re in a pub watching then scream and shout and act like you’re stood on The Kop. There might be someone in that pub with you who has got a ticket for Anfield in a few weeks and looks at you and decides that’s how you’re supposed to act. Good. Let them learn from you. Let them hear the songs and know the chants and turn up to Anfield like a screaming, snarling lunatic.

If you’re lucky enough to go to Anfield on a regular basis then the biggest burden of all is on your head. Maybe you’re sat next to someone who’s never been to Anfield before, perhaps they’re there on a corporate ticket. That’s the sort of thing that winds people up and understandably so. Instead of getting angry, though, why not have a chat with them? Maybe they want to sing the songs but don’t know the words or are afraid of looking silly? Help them out, sing with them, get them to make some noise.

We haven’t been beaten at Anfield in the league for more than a year, but we’ve still dropped some silly points. As easy as it is to get on the players’ backs and criticise them for potentially being ‘complacent’ against the lesser lights, perhaps the crowd has been too? We’ve dropped just six points against the top six so far this season but we’ve dropped 12 points against the bottom 14. Most of them were away from home but let’s make sure that none of them are at Anfield in the remaining 10 games we’ve got to play there.

There are many shite songs sung by opposition fans when they rock up at Anfield, but one of the songs there should be no excuse for hearing is the trite ‘is this a library’ one. Don’t give supporters, from Swansea through to Crystal Palace, an excuse to sing that ditty. If they think it’s a library then we should be setting fire to the books and hurling them at them. If they want to know if they should sing a song for us we should let them know in no uncertain terms that we’re willing to make our throats red roar to drown them out.

We can’t do anything about the opposition or injuries or team selections. We can’t change luck. What we can do is make so much noise that every single player on the other side is terrified to even touch the ball, let alone try to do something with it. We can make referees think that if they don’t give us a decision we’ll tear them limb from limb. We can ask assistant referees to raise their flag every now and then.

We’ve only got to do it 10 more times at Anfield. Don’t raise your game for the big boys, make yourselves heard every single week.

Up the savage Reds.

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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo

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