I have this idea for a movie. It's your classic sports story, beginning with a football club being successfully liberated at the hands of their callous former owners. We bring in a well respected veteran to try and restore the club to it's former glory, somebody that everyone can rally behind. Following that we put together a team of characters; some likeable, others are Craig Bellamy. Things don't go according to plan. Despite their underaccheivement, they manage to get to the final of the cup however. That's when one of our characters - the one whose character arc has seen him become a figure of ridicule, despite his talent - will in their great hour of need come to the rescue and find salvation for himself and the team. It all comes down to one play. Our heroes look to have done the impossible and... the linesman doesn't give it. It's not very Hollywood, is it? Neither is life.
Sunday May 6th. I don't resurface until late into the afternoon and even then there are many things that still need to be resolved from the night before. For starters, I have no idea what happened to my trousers and how or why I decided it would be a good idea to sleep on the floor at the top of the stairs. Much like Rangers, I can't account for a lot of what I spent and my self respect issued a transfer request somewhere around midnight. There is however, one inescapable truth. We didn't win.
Given that prior to kick off I'd worked myself up into a state - that I'd seemingly put my entire being on the line in one match - there doesn't appear to be any lasting damage. I don't have any memories of euphoric blue shirts celebrating wildly on the Wembley pitch, although that is mostly due to the fact that I had my eyes fused shut well before Phil Dowd called an end to proceedings. Moments earlier, I had let out a guttural shout that came right from the depths of my desperation as we tried in vain to force extra time. When the final whistle did ring out, frustration gave way to acceptance surprisingly quickly. I'll have to be careful in not trying to take away from what they did or sound in any way bitter. Having said that - unlike the club I dearly love on Saturday - I'm not going to give anyone anything they haven't earned. Cheslea did indeed beat Liverpool, but for sixty minutes that was not the case. There's being late, fashionably late or not even bothering to turn up at all. Had we been absent for the full ninety, I would have been inconsolable. As it was, they took everything we could throw at them in the time we had and they withstood it. At least Torres didn't score.
The days come and go, hangovers subside and you face the next challenge. As it was, we were to find ourselves given a chance at immediate redemption. The whole build up to the game felt rather unusual but if nothing else I was looking forward to seeing the continual resurgence of Andy Carroll as he continued to gorge himself on a Chelsea team needing to win. If they needed it for footballing reasons, we needed it as a matter of principle. I didn't want to put the final nail in the coffin of their chances of finishing in the top four, I wanted to drive a stake through their heart. Given both our home form this season and the fact that everyone around them seemed desperate to allow them into the top four - in addition to how highly I rate Bayern Munich this season - I actually rated this as their best chance for Champions League football. Thankfully it wasn't to be. What happened down Wembley way on Saturday was always going to garner a reaction but I didn't quite think it was going to be quite like that. Peace of mind, if not a piece of silverware. They're going to get my hopes up again, I can feel it.
It was the centenary of the Kop. West Ham arrived for an early kick off on Saturday morning and due to the rail network being amazing as it is in this country I arrived to Anfield having just missed the mosaic and "You'll Never Walk Alone". On that day Danny Agger showed the world just how hard he hits the ball and Rafa got his Dirk out for the very first time. I always had a soft spot for him, not least of all because he's very much in my own mould as a player. Technically limited but incredibly hard working. He was the best to come out of Athens in that the goal he scored sparked a run where no big game would pass without Dirk making his mark. Because I'm gullible and like to get carried away with these kind of things, I can't help but wonder if the goal he scored on Saturday could do the same for Andy Carroll. He's already scored against Everton twice - one winner and a decisive first goal at Goodison - so maybe, just maybe we will start to see the colossus we all hoped we were getting all next season. At the moment he certainly looks like it.
In the modern world of football, the phrase "long term planning" is often met with derision. To introduce it into the conversation implies that everything which led up to that point were either deeply flawed or in some extreme cases non existent. The idea that you start a process as long and arduous as winning the Premier League title all over again is a test to the patience of any fan, most likely because it's easy to get lost along the way. Sitting here now, I think a lot of the frustration of this season has been brought about because there's no doubt we're at that point again. With the side that finished second in 2009 having been completely dismantled, I saw last summer as something of a last chance. It wasn't that we were to emulate the style of football and results we saw back then - although it would have been nice - but to get us back to that kind of platform from which we could build. Going from a Champions League finish to simply challenging for the league takes a lot of effort, let alone winning it. The best way I can liken it is to suggest that while well intentioned, the summer of 2011 was something of a twelfth round situation. With everything that had gone on in the last eighteen months, the judges scorecard had us losing and so we had to come out swinging. As an experiment it appears to have failed - for a variety of reasons - and we're back to square one. Where do we go from here then? Forward, hopefully.
I've been the first to criticise Arsene Wenger and the team he now finds himself with. I think he's a great manager but is reaping the reward of sink or swim football at the youth level. The league cup in years past has been the proving ground for many of the players who now frequent the first team and I think Wenger's insistence in not calling upon his more experienced players at the time has bred the a losing mentality when it comes to the big games. I'd argue the reason that they're so mentally fragile now is because when they had a chance at a trophy over the last few seasons, nobody was there of the old Arsenal team that had the experience of getting over the line to show them how it's done. I think in a sense, that same kind of fragility now exists among the current crop of Liverpool players, although it's nowhere near as epidemic.
Mental conditioning tells us to believe that if the same set of circumstances arises, the result will be the same. You can see it on the pitch in the games recently, it was frighteningly apparent against West Brom. Dominate the play, hit the bar a few times and we almost expected to be caught on the break. This season isn't exactly isolated either, in terms of results. Things have been a lot worse but we've had a problem with teams that come to Anfield and sit back for a while now. The one thing I would hope moving into the future is that we don't become cautious ourselves as a result. If the last couple of games has taught us anything it's that with the players we have now, shape means far less than tempo. Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez haven't clicked as much as we'd like but they're not Robbie Keane and Fernando Torres either. The games they have been together and it's worked well however are those in which we play very high up the pitch and look to get things going very quickly. The times when Carroll looks the worst are when we are ponderous in midfield, it also makes it far more likely we'll end up punting it up to him aimlessly rather than playing it on the floor. Also, Luis Suarez thrives in a side that's playing one touch football. If we found the right player for the right price, I might like to see Suarez out wide (of a front three, not a traditional winger). Both Man United and Chelsea have been dealt damage at the hands of his quick feet when he runs down the wing and cuts inside, it's something I think we may try to exploit more often next year.
One thing we do need next year is to be far more efficient in front of goal. That goes for everybody. Being a clinical finisher is very elusive in terms of defining. Ian Rush said that it was something you either had or didn't and that's about as well as I can put it. At the risk of sounding condescending, scoring goals makes everything easier. Who knows how well someone like Stewart Downing could have done over the course of a season if someone of his crosses were actually put in for a change?
A few years ago you wouldn't have believed it but everybody is waiting with baited breath for the return of Lucas Leiva. I'm very much a "stat guy" and the fact that if you extrapolate the points per game we had with him in the team (1.83) over the course of the season, we'd be comfortably third tells me that we need him back as soon as possible. I don't want to get too carried away however for a multitude of reasons. Primarily, the type of injury he sustained means there is no guarantee he'll be the same player. The bigger worry is that so much importance is put on his return, forgetting the fact that even with him in the side we struggled for goals this season but his exit seemed to dovetail with Steven Gerrard's return. With them both in the side next year I am hopeful a balance can be struck, though I would like a "Lucas type" player alongside him allowing Gerrard the freedom further up the pitch we know he can exploit. It was something of a criminal oversight given what has happened this season not to have a ready made back up for Lucas. Jay Spearing - try hard as he might - will never be that player. If it's a mistake we rectify in the summer, that's a huge gap plugged.
Rightly or wrongly, assumptions are a big part of football. They become the basis of expectation because for the most part, football is so simple that it's only natural. Problem is, short of presuming Arsene Wenger didn't see it, things aren't often that clear cut. The only thing that links expectations, opinions and even informed opinions is that all three can still be wrong. If you'd never seen Charlie Adam (purely as an example) before he signed for Liverpool I imagine your opinion of him now would be different to someone who saw him often when he was still at Blackpool. My opinion of him was tempered with the fact that he was incredibly good in the games against us when he was still playing for Ian Holloway so maybe I expected more when I should have simply realized the dictating circumstances.
It's not only players who are unwillingly tagged with unwarranted labels. I may be way off the mark here but there's perhaps a conception that anybody who thinks winning the league cup constitutes a good season means that they're happy with every other aspect. I'm very old fashioned in that I believe first and foremost football is about winning things. This season we have one trophy in the cabinet and were a flag (potentially) away from another. Does that mean I'll accept finishing below Everton? A million times no. This arguement becomes most apparent when you expand it over the management. If you weren't happy with Rafa Benitez at the end, that doesn't mean you were in favour of Roy Hodsgon. Likewise if you have doubts about Kenny Dalglish, that doesn't mean that you want to go back to a Hodgson. I have no idea what will happen over the next twelve months at Liverpool Football Club. Players, managers, seasons all come and go. The only thing for sure is that I'll be there. Probably hungover again.
Sunday May 6th. I don't resurface until late into the afternoon and even then there are many things that still need to be resolved from the night before. For starters, I have no idea what happened to my trousers and how or why I decided it would be a good idea to sleep on the floor at the top of the stairs. Much like Rangers, I can't account for a lot of what I spent and my self respect issued a transfer request somewhere around midnight. There is however, one inescapable truth. We didn't win.
Given that prior to kick off I'd worked myself up into a state - that I'd seemingly put my entire being on the line in one match - there doesn't appear to be any lasting damage. I don't have any memories of euphoric blue shirts celebrating wildly on the Wembley pitch, although that is mostly due to the fact that I had my eyes fused shut well before Phil Dowd called an end to proceedings. Moments earlier, I had let out a guttural shout that came right from the depths of my desperation as we tried in vain to force extra time. When the final whistle did ring out, frustration gave way to acceptance surprisingly quickly. I'll have to be careful in not trying to take away from what they did or sound in any way bitter. Having said that - unlike the club I dearly love on Saturday - I'm not going to give anyone anything they haven't earned. Cheslea did indeed beat Liverpool, but for sixty minutes that was not the case. There's being late, fashionably late or not even bothering to turn up at all. Had we been absent for the full ninety, I would have been inconsolable. As it was, they took everything we could throw at them in the time we had and they withstood it. At least Torres didn't score.
The days come and go, hangovers subside and you face the next challenge. As it was, we were to find ourselves given a chance at immediate redemption. The whole build up to the game felt rather unusual but if nothing else I was looking forward to seeing the continual resurgence of Andy Carroll as he continued to gorge himself on a Chelsea team needing to win. If they needed it for footballing reasons, we needed it as a matter of principle. I didn't want to put the final nail in the coffin of their chances of finishing in the top four, I wanted to drive a stake through their heart. Given both our home form this season and the fact that everyone around them seemed desperate to allow them into the top four - in addition to how highly I rate Bayern Munich this season - I actually rated this as their best chance for Champions League football. Thankfully it wasn't to be. What happened down Wembley way on Saturday was always going to garner a reaction but I didn't quite think it was going to be quite like that. Peace of mind, if not a piece of silverware. They're going to get my hopes up again, I can feel it.
In the modern world of football, the phrase "long term planning" is often met with derision. To introduce it into the conversation implies that everything which led up to that point were either deeply flawed or in some extreme cases non existent. The idea that you start a process as long and arduous as winning the Premier League title all over again is a test to the patience of any fan, most likely because it's easy to get lost along the way. Sitting here now, I think a lot of the frustration of this season has been brought about because there's no doubt we're at that point again. With the side that finished second in 2009 having been completely dismantled, I saw last summer as something of a last chance. It wasn't that we were to emulate the style of football and results we saw back then - although it would have been nice - but to get us back to that kind of platform from which we could build. Going from a Champions League finish to simply challenging for the league takes a lot of effort, let alone winning it. The best way I can liken it is to suggest that while well intentioned, the summer of 2011 was something of a twelfth round situation. With everything that had gone on in the last eighteen months, the judges scorecard had us losing and so we had to come out swinging. As an experiment it appears to have failed - for a variety of reasons - and we're back to square one. Where do we go from here then? Forward, hopefully.
I've been the first to criticise Arsene Wenger and the team he now finds himself with. I think he's a great manager but is reaping the reward of sink or swim football at the youth level. The league cup in years past has been the proving ground for many of the players who now frequent the first team and I think Wenger's insistence in not calling upon his more experienced players at the time has bred the a losing mentality when it comes to the big games. I'd argue the reason that they're so mentally fragile now is because when they had a chance at a trophy over the last few seasons, nobody was there of the old Arsenal team that had the experience of getting over the line to show them how it's done. I think in a sense, that same kind of fragility now exists among the current crop of Liverpool players, although it's nowhere near as epidemic.
Mental conditioning tells us to believe that if the same set of circumstances arises, the result will be the same. You can see it on the pitch in the games recently, it was frighteningly apparent against West Brom. Dominate the play, hit the bar a few times and we almost expected to be caught on the break. This season isn't exactly isolated either, in terms of results. Things have been a lot worse but we've had a problem with teams that come to Anfield and sit back for a while now. The one thing I would hope moving into the future is that we don't become cautious ourselves as a result. If the last couple of games has taught us anything it's that with the players we have now, shape means far less than tempo. Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez haven't clicked as much as we'd like but they're not Robbie Keane and Fernando Torres either. The games they have been together and it's worked well however are those in which we play very high up the pitch and look to get things going very quickly. The times when Carroll looks the worst are when we are ponderous in midfield, it also makes it far more likely we'll end up punting it up to him aimlessly rather than playing it on the floor. Also, Luis Suarez thrives in a side that's playing one touch football. If we found the right player for the right price, I might like to see Suarez out wide (of a front three, not a traditional winger). Both Man United and Chelsea have been dealt damage at the hands of his quick feet when he runs down the wing and cuts inside, it's something I think we may try to exploit more often next year.
One thing we do need next year is to be far more efficient in front of goal. That goes for everybody. Being a clinical finisher is very elusive in terms of defining. Ian Rush said that it was something you either had or didn't and that's about as well as I can put it. At the risk of sounding condescending, scoring goals makes everything easier. Who knows how well someone like Stewart Downing could have done over the course of a season if someone of his crosses were actually put in for a change?
A few years ago you wouldn't have believed it but everybody is waiting with baited breath for the return of Lucas Leiva. I'm very much a "stat guy" and the fact that if you extrapolate the points per game we had with him in the team (1.83) over the course of the season, we'd be comfortably third tells me that we need him back as soon as possible. I don't want to get too carried away however for a multitude of reasons. Primarily, the type of injury he sustained means there is no guarantee he'll be the same player. The bigger worry is that so much importance is put on his return, forgetting the fact that even with him in the side we struggled for goals this season but his exit seemed to dovetail with Steven Gerrard's return. With them both in the side next year I am hopeful a balance can be struck, though I would like a "Lucas type" player alongside him allowing Gerrard the freedom further up the pitch we know he can exploit. It was something of a criminal oversight given what has happened this season not to have a ready made back up for Lucas. Jay Spearing - try hard as he might - will never be that player. If it's a mistake we rectify in the summer, that's a huge gap plugged.
Rightly or wrongly, assumptions are a big part of football. They become the basis of expectation because for the most part, football is so simple that it's only natural. Problem is, short of presuming Arsene Wenger didn't see it, things aren't often that clear cut. The only thing that links expectations, opinions and even informed opinions is that all three can still be wrong. If you'd never seen Charlie Adam (purely as an example) before he signed for Liverpool I imagine your opinion of him now would be different to someone who saw him often when he was still at Blackpool. My opinion of him was tempered with the fact that he was incredibly good in the games against us when he was still playing for Ian Holloway so maybe I expected more when I should have simply realized the dictating circumstances.
It's not only players who are unwillingly tagged with unwarranted labels. I may be way off the mark here but there's perhaps a conception that anybody who thinks winning the league cup constitutes a good season means that they're happy with every other aspect. I'm very old fashioned in that I believe first and foremost football is about winning things. This season we have one trophy in the cabinet and were a flag (potentially) away from another. Does that mean I'll accept finishing below Everton? A million times no. This arguement becomes most apparent when you expand it over the management. If you weren't happy with Rafa Benitez at the end, that doesn't mean you were in favour of Roy Hodsgon. Likewise if you have doubts about Kenny Dalglish, that doesn't mean that you want to go back to a Hodgson. I have no idea what will happen over the next twelve months at Liverpool Football Club. Players, managers, seasons all come and go. The only thing for sure is that I'll be there. Probably hungover again.
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