Reflections - Arsenal Aftermath

There has been plenty of jubilation, reflection and comment in the wake of what can only be described as our dreamlike result and performance yesterday against Arsenal, but I wanted to pen a few thoughts and reflections myself.

Having been a Liverpool fan for more or less 20 years I can't help but lean towards the pessimistic end of the spectrum most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I've been lucky enough to see more success and trophies than most supporters of clubs get to see in a lifetime, including a European Cup and not to mention a treble!

But equally, by Liverpool Football Club standards, the last 20 years will not be remembered as a glorious period, not when you compare them to the 20 years that went before. I've had to endure Man Utd dominance for just about my entire tenure as a red. So with that in mind, just when I dare to dream and see small green shoots of something special building at the club... I can't help but assume that it will all come crashing down at any moment.

Pre-Derby at Anfield 2014 I wasn't confident at all. Everton were looking the strongest they have for years, Martinez has them playing some great football and we had an injury list longer than a Leonard Cohen song (credit to The Thick of It for that joke). But I was proven wrong... in spectacular style.

At West Brom we dropped 2 points, no doubt about that... but strangely I was surprisingly sanguine. When you think about it, dropping points off the back of a terrible individual mistake, is actually easier to take than dropping points from a terrible performance. Individual errors will happen, we are all human and therefore in many ways you have to simply accept that occasionally luck will be against us and we may be punished by an individual error. It is actually harder to take that after all the preparation that Rodgers and his team put into setting the side up for a game, for the team to capitulate or simply not perform to the level we know they can. That hurts more.

So then it was Arsenal arriving at Anfield. It hasn't felt like we've had a good record against Arsenal for some time, and if I was a stats person, which I'm not, I expect they'd back my assumption up. So again I arrived at Anfield on the morning of Saturday the 8th of February, extremely hungover and certainly a little bit apprehensive. My thinking generally is... things are going well, too well. We'll come crashing down to earth sooner or later.

20 minutes in and I thought I was dreaming. My hangover had certainly evaporated at a rate of knots. We were quite simply breathtaking. Every single player (yes even Ally C) had an absolute stormer. It was an utter joy to witness. Just before the Derby I'd chatted with my compatriot about Coutinho and how I felt he had gone off the boil slightly and was perhaps losing interested in Liverpool FC... well how wrong could I have been? He was breathtaking against Arsenal, as was Sterling... Flanno, Henderson... everyone.

One criticism that has been levelled at Rodgers' Liverpool if any, was that we hadn't managed to beat the big sides yet, well that changed didn't it?

My mild indifference to Rodgers are the beginning of his reign has been well documented, and I don't think I was alone. The sheer length of time it took the Kop to sing his name with any gusto is surely testament to that. But now I am happy to say I am an absolute Rodgers convert... I'm starting to love the man, and so too is the Kop. One of my favourite moments of the Arsenal game, and there were many, was a period before half time when we kept possession with ease and knocked it around the back. The Kop simply applauded, warmly for 30 or 40 seconds. It wasn't loud chanting or even the tribal, fast clapping we do... it was an ovation, a round of applause in absolute appreciation of what we were witnessing. What we were witnessing, we all hope, and something I have never witnessed, was the Liverpool of old.

Having said that... I expect we'll go and lose to Fulham in midweek now. This pessimistic streak is hard to shake off....

@anfieldshrine

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The Anfield Shrine Column - Issue 194 RAOTL - Sterling Support

Originally published in print. Issue 193 of Red All Over The Land Fanzine

Sterling Support

I wanted to write an article in support of Raheem Sterling. To be honest, I’ve found it hard to motivate myself to do so… but I am determined, so here we go…

Image Courtesy of The Guardian

I should imagine like a lot of Liverpool fans at the moment, I currently see Sterling as a little bit of a frustration. He burst on to the scene as an extremely exciting and talented young player, only to be over-hyped and perhaps over-played before retreating to the doldrums of reserve team and U21 football – which in fairness, is where you’d expect most players of his age to be!

We are a strange bunch at times, us Liverpool fans. We pride ourselves on being different… being a supportive crowd, patient, with the ability to support a player in a red shirt whatever their age, nationality or path in football. Yet sometimes, we seem to let ourselves down and throw all of that out of the window. It seems that every now and then, a player comes along that Liverpool fans just don’t ‘take to.’ Deep down, we just don’t seem to LIKE them. Moses is another one of our current crop currently experiencing that very malaise. Although in Victor’s case, I'm inclined to say it’s justified.

Sterling’s rise to prominence and indeed promise was so fast that now we seem to be blaming him for not living up to his own hype. In reality, the position he finds himself in now, is a completely natural one. Having just turned 19 he is getting some valuable first team action, showing some promise and developing.

However, most of the Anfield crowd currently don’t seem to see it like that. We are expecting him to come out and score wonder goals, terrorise defences and beat 2 or 3 players every time he has the ball. It is no wonder that he is looking a bit hesitant.

But I think that there is something that lies deeper in our current frustration with him… I’m just not sure that we like him. Is it perhaps because after showing such initial promise we heard rumours of him falling into the trap of being an overpaid, over-hyped and not highly intelligent young footballer… getting himself into scrapes with the police and the odd scouse hood rat? It’s not the sort of behaviour we like to see from our young players – we’re much more forgiving of a hard-working and seemingly ‘nice’ lad like Henderson. Is it also perhaps that he’s a Londoner? And there’s just something about that which we can’t take to. Is it also perhaps because he runs a little bit like a camp duck… and deep down we just suspect that he doesn’t fancy it in a 50/50? We assume he’s lightweight and easy to shove off the ball. We’re not convinced he tracks back… we’re not sure how much he REALLY cares.

Who knows, maybe we’re right? You can’t escape he does run strangely... and he hasn’t yet got the bullish strength and centre of gravity of Coutinho. But let’s not forget, Coutinho is a good 2 or 3 years older and with much more experience.

Sterling is showing some promising signs again; let’s not crush the poor lad through our slightly lazy prejudices and wild assumptions. They may well all be right… but as Liverpool fans, it’s not in our nature not to give a player a chance and one thing is for certain, if we don’t get off his back a bit… he certainly won’t turn into the player we all hope he can be.