DOES it always come to this? Or does it just feel like it does?
A season on that infernal precipice yet again.
It won’t hit us for a few weeks that we’re out of all the cups. Just wait till late February, though, when we realise we’ve only seen Liverpool play three times in a month. In the middle of a season.
Now, imagine what it will feel like if the next league fixture means nothing more than a desperate attempt at trying to get into the top four. That time in a campaign when even the booby prize is slipping from your grasp. You should all be shuddering right now.
We’re on the verge of living the longest winter in memory. We’re like Napoleon and Hitler, turned back at the gates of Moscow, to face only damnation and ice. Nothing to look forward to but death.
Was it only in breezy November that we still felt like we had the sun on our backs? That endless summer. I can’t recall a single cloud over Anfield in the Autumn as we romped home, game after game, 6-1 demolition after 5-1 trouncing. Simpler times. Happier days.
Am I depressing you, because I’m depressing myself. I’m the guy who gets accused of only looking on the bright side. The ‘Mr Positive’ of the operation. Like I’m some kind of happy-clappy dickhead. Well, now I’m going to tell it like it really is.
Positivity is the only option. It’s the only option when you realise that you’re going to die. When it dawns on you, as it dawned on me at about the age of six, that the story of my life, of all of our lives, ends badly. Terribly in fact.
Coming to terms with this is an endless quest. Well, not endless, unfortunately, but you know what I mean. But knowing that everything is in vain, is futile, forces you to take the wins that might just come your way. It’s really your only choice. That or just kill yourself right now. Don’t kill yourself., please. That would be awful.
I face this season-defining game with Chelsea, then, by only looking forward. Of course I can see how badly wrong it could go. It is beyond obvious to assert that a Liverpool team without a league win in a month and on the back of three straight home defeats, matching up against flyaway league leaders could lose awfully.
What do you want me to say? We’re fucked, you know. Goosed. No chance. Their heads have gone, and Chelsea are just too good.
You can get that kind of weary punditry in any boozer or on any radio phone-in you care to suggest. Great, so we’re going to lose.
If you think that though, and I mean really think it, then why would you bother even engaging with the contest? If you turn on the TV or put your coat on to go the game, surely you do it with some hope in your miserable heart? If you don’t then you are admitting that you actively enjoy watching your team suffering. You must in some subconscious way want them to fail.
A psychologist once told me – and I choose to believe it – that we don’t tend to do things we don’t like doing. He said that if human beings are repetitive in their behaviour, even where it appears self destructive, it is because they are getting something out of it.
This leaves the non-positivist with one of two possible positions then; he/she is either lying (perhaps to themselves) when they proclaim their team is doomed, or, they actually get a buzz out of seeing them lose. So, make your choice neg-heads. Which one of these wretched creatures are you?
‘Oh, but Rob, you just can’t help yourself but see happy outcomes, you naive deluded twat.’
Nope. Committing to the positive is not an act of faith, it is simply about making a decision to face forwards. The alternative – to live on your knees – is not a viable option.
Make no mistake, in the unlikely event Jürgen Klopp is reading (and understanding) this ill-thought out cod philosophical treatise, then he’s clapping ferociously. He’s nodding, he’s punching the air. He’s 100 per cent with me.
Does he walk into a Liverpool dressing room pre-Chelsea and say: “boys, you know how you haven’t put in a decent performance in about six weeks? Well, it’s because you’re actually shit. It’s because you’ve been found out. It’s because you’ve run out of legs. It’s now obvious the squad has no depth and that I’m not actually the messiah I kidded you all that I could be.
“Know all these things, lads, and the truth will set you free. Or something.”
Or, does he say:
“This game is made for you. You are Chelsea’s worst nightmare. Your dip was inevitable, because being as brilliant as you were was never meant to take you through a whole season unbeaten. But, as inevitable as the bad spell, is the power and greatness of your next surge upwards.
“It is a surge that can begin tonight against Chelsea, if you will it to be so. When you have faced the best you have always shown that you are better. When you play like you can play, you carry all of Anfield with you. Together, Chelsea won’t be able to live with us.”
Philippe Coutinho looks across that room and sees his best mate Bobby Firmino. Together they have plundered goals this season. Sadio Mane is back there too. He scores when he wants. He will surely provide that missing five per cent. When this trio gel, they are the best in the country. Their manager will remind them of this.
He might also observe that behind them are all his first choice picks. Joel Matip, Dejan Lovren, James Milner, alongside the promising Trent Alexander-Arnold. In midfield Jordan Henderson and Adam Lallana have been the starts this season and have both been missed when not available. They are available now, though. At this most pivotal juncture of the season.
Matip – Henderson – Lallana – Coutinho – Firmino – Mane. The planets are aligning once more.
Chelsea are smoking cigars and laughing at all of this. They have been imperious. Fair play to them. They will know though, in a part of their psyches that their boss Antonio Conte has got them to brilliantly suppress, that they are vulnerable. They are particularly vulnerable against their peers.
Liverpool beat them at Stamford Bridge, and Arsenal whopped them 4-0. Tottenham defeated them soundly recently, and Manchester City (despite losing) totally outplayed Chelsea. Only Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United have been put firmly in their place by the Champions-elect.
To this end, this game is in Liverpool’s hands. If we can remember how to win, how to be Klopp’s Liverpool once more, then we will take the points. Chelsea will be measured, calm, work hard and be tactically perfect. Liverpool can be a whirling dervish, though. A crazed Wolverine of a team.
I’ve made you think, haven’t I? It can be done. It might not be done, but why should we even contemplate that?
Three points or death.
The immortal Reds: Mignolet; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Lovren, Milner; Henderson, Can, Lallana; Coutinho, Mane, Firmino.
Kick-off: 8pm live on BT Sport 1
Last Match: Chelsea 1 Liverpool 2
Referee: Mark Clattenburg
Odds: Liverpool 13-8, Draw 47-20, Chelsea 2-1
Our free Anfield Wrap show in the aftermath of the loss to Wolves:
Recent Posts:
[rpfc_recent_posts_from_category meta=”true”]
Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
Enough death chat. It’s a game of football. An important game but still
a game. I seem to remember making a similar comment on a piece you wrote a while back. Up the behaving yourself Reds.
You are right of course If any club knows that football ISN’T a matter of life or death,we do
Too right Rob. Let’s do these.
There is a truth of the universe known as the law of attraction. Its more simply called You get what you wish for. So If you expect bad things then that it what you Will get. Klopp understands this. He has kept calm and focused despite the typical media kicking for LFC. He is also right to ask Red fans to make Anfield a place that opponents fear. That support could make the difference when the team is struggling. Its not in the Scouse dna to give up when things get tough. We come out fighting.
Muy excellent, Rob. Don’t apologise for being positive. It’s the only way!
Mr. positive (Rome)
I love your positive attitude!
The negative Klopp team talk had me in stiches Rob!
Hey Rob, please we only lost 3-0 to Arsenal!
As a Chelsea fan I don’t think this team is arrogant. We were lucky that Citeh didn’t hit us for three or four, Spurs put us in the shade for sure.
The probable difference between the teams right now is that Chelsea seem to be enjoying their football and Liverpool not so much.
That said, these games are so unpredictable. I’d rather play Arsenal or Manyoo any day. Can’t call it, other than Chelsea boss it or Liverpool go for that wolverine attack and our defensive frailties come back to haunt.
Um weve only played 1 league game this month. lol
Sunderland, United and Swansea. Three games.
As a reminder, Arsenal arrived at Anfield as the league leaders at the start of February, leading us by 8 points (them 55, us 47). The Gunners weren’t even in the conversation by the end of the season.
Who knows what sort of personal shit-storm Diego Costa is stirring behind closed doors. But if it is anything like the one being played out in public, there’s every possibility of a loss of focus in the squad. One defeat, as we’ve seen, often leads to others.
In any case, this is a perfect opportunity to watch that Vine of Hendo giving him the stink eye. I literally never tire of watching that.
Well in lad
Rob giving voice to my inner 9 year old, as ever. I mean my metaphorical inner 9 year old, not an actual 9 year old that is physically inside of me, a 49 year old man. That would be odd. And illegal.
Up the metaphorically positive reds!
January 2017 – fucking January 2017. It’s been the worst month of my life. I had a week long work conference in Orlando, an emergency flight back to the UK because my mum was ill, I’ve had to deal with my mum passing at just 68 years of age, I had myn light home to australia diverted because some twat decided to claim he’d planted a bomb on the plane – and Liverpool have kicked me in the nuts every match. But here in australia January comes to an end in 6 hours. It’s a new month, a new spark of life, a new beginning and I refuse to be negative. Rob – never stop believing that the new beginning is just 90 minutes away. Thanks mate – and thanks to all of you for providing some moments of humour and light in the dark places. Up the reds, because the reds owe us all the joy that comes with a performance against the odds, 90 life defining minutes. My only regret is that the kick off is 7am my time and I’ll probably be sober…
Yes finally some optimism and positivity instead of all the “season over in a week” shite! Forget all the negativity of possibly being 13 points behind the leaders and consider the potential that at 5pm on Saturday night we could be 4 points behind the leaders! A Liverpool team with one target and one target only, no distractions whilst our rivals play mid week in Europe and the fa cup, our harder games (on paper) at home (City aside but we can smash them at their place like we did last year) and the belief that we can achieve greatness (13/14 belief).
Yes we may be in a blip/slump/crisis at the moment but there’s this song I know which talks about what is at the end of a storm…….
Make us dream reds