THE music stopped. Liverpool had scored more goals than Swansea. Don’t ask me how many more. Just more.
More is enough but this manner of enough is exhausting. Andi Thomas recently wrote that no one is having any more fun than Liverpool supporters. That wasn’t fun. It is heart thudding stuff. It made me faint. My head is light, stomach is empty.
I am not alone in this. Loving football brings loads of people together in a crazy way.
It wasn’t a rollercoaster ride, it was a rollercoaster ride breaking mid loop, left dangling, soft daft gel fringed lad from Stoke telling you not to panic.
I’ll panic. Oh I’ll panic. This is me panicking. Quivering. Wishing it will all end knowing it’ll be all the end for the ending. My head becomes full of everything, full of this mad year, clattering around. Australia, Suarez and Rodgers. Sturridge, Spurs and Fulham. To this quivering panic.
How do professional footballers do it? What a gang of lads we have here. What a gang of lads. Flawed but with balls.
Never known anything like it for spares. Everyone is looking. I’m looking! I agreed to give my ticket away a few months ago to some visitors, thinking I’ll get sorted. Obviously. I did, finally, yesterday, but it was a close run thing.
You’d think we were in with a chance of the title.
We are. We very much are. But it’s too mad. Far too mad. Everything’s far too mad. I need things to calm down. Like for instance sitting Henderson next to Gerrard for ten minutes at thirty. That would have been less mad. But we didn’t do that. To keep it mad.
Here’s another mad thing: I’ve met Russell Brand. It was good. Me and Russell had things in common and things not in common. If you have been paying attention to this quasi column you’ll know I love a list. Here is a list:
- We both have a fine line in knitwear (mine’s on a budget).
- We both love showing off in front of people (he shows off in front of far more people. Lucky bastard).
- We would both love to see significant social and economic change in this country based around the inherent decency of humans.
- We both love football.
Loving football brings loads of people together in a crazy way.
So here’s a key difference:
Russell meets Sarah Marshall. I meet Peter Marshall.
Peter Marshall in Leaf. 1130. I’m sitting next to him today.
Loving football brings loads of people together in a crazy way. This is important.
Things Peter Marshall said to me before, during and after the game:
- “Shankly loved Tom Finney. Talked about him all the time. Loved him.” Did you see him play? “Retired in 60. My first game was 61.”
- “What a player he is.” [Suarez]
- “It’s decadent this. Decadent defending.”
- “He’ll be a great player Henderson. A great player.”
- “I’m so excited at the moment. Excited like a child. The most excited I’ve ever been.”
We are entering the realm of the Keegan. Things spiralling out of control. Goalkeeper coming for nothing. Wobbling. The realm of the Evans.
But there’s more steel. So much more steel. Allen, Henderson, Gerrard. Proper steel. The back four could do with some of that. The defending is decadent. Peter is right. The keeper needs to consider the spatial concept of the penalty area soon.
Toure appeared to calm them. If ever a sentence has connotations it is that one.
The Allen change was fantastic, Joe had everything that was lacking, emphasising the flaws that started the game.
Car. Graves and Girling.
Mike Girling: “I’ve got battle fatigue.”
Steve Graves: “Because it matters.”
“Two hours of post traumatic stress.”
“Because it matters. It matters.”
Best thing that happened all game was Johnson not giving it back on 67. You terrible bastards Reds. Equally out the cloying non-celebration and round of applause of Shelvey. (I joined in. Will do an hour in front of a mirror tonight.)
Best thing that happened all day was Suarez’s cross.
Best thing that happened all day was Henderson following up like a demon.
Best thing was that we were all together. 45000 panic stricken folks. Panicking past ourselves. Together. Our numbers buttressed by people who couldn’t get tickets. Those who weren’t ever around. Panicking past ourselves because we know.
Best thing that happened was the final whistle going. Mike Jones’ despicable whistle blowing.
Too many best things. Too many worst things.
…. So I wish you could all have been here. But we are all. Shrieking, screaming, walls of noise, grabbing the skies, pulling ourselves up into the skies.
I gave my ticket to visitors. They flew in. At John Lennon Airport it says “Above us only City, Arsenal and Chelsea.”
They aren’t very good.
They are good.
They aren’t very good.
Those lads in red look very good going forward. Very good indeed. They look the business going forward. They are in recession going backwards. But they are very good indeed.
Another crazy win.
Pics: David Rawcliffe / Propaganda
Cracking read mad game we are gonna win the league
That gave me bad boob sweat….
Is it bad defending or average defenders? I can’t tell. I don’t think the constant rotation is helping, but there is a distinct lack of confidence. Minolet looks unhappy with whats in from of him.
I think Johnson was thrown back into a game too early today. Would have been happy with Cissokho and Johnson coming on for the last half hour. The other issue with a young team is decision making – few of the wrong decisions made? We were 2-0 up. We should have dropped numbers into the midfield and settled it down. Joe Allen may help in this regard. Coutinho and Allen likely to be rotated in remaining games I suspect.
Can’t remember who said it but a Ferrari towing a caravan was a cracking description of Roger’s crazy tricky reds this season…
But right now that Ferrari is screaming past almost everything on the motorway with 5 lads in the back of the caravan giving it the V’s out the back window!
At times I feel like I’m having heart murmurs but it’s the most fun I’ve had watching LFC for many a year.
11 more crazy games to look forward to…
Marvelous mental imagery you’ve given me there mate.
Just consider this…
We are as good going forward as we are bad at the back, would any single one of is swap one for the other
Now that really would be MAD
Indeed we had that reverse 2 years ago-a gritty defensively sound team and blunt workmanlike attack. Finished 8th with 52 points, 41 goals.
Seems so long ago now…
great comments Lee! Sums it up perfectly. After match diary is great Neil too. great times!
We’re the best of teams. We’re the worst of teams. A team of two halves. Like watching Messi and Ronaldo upfront with Bramble and Demichelis at the back.
Seriously though Skrtel, Kolo and Mignolet would be hilarious if they played for any other team some of the shit they come up with like. I always remember Toure being the best center half in the league at Arsenal and I certainly don’t remember him having a nervous breakdown every time the ball got near him. It can’t just be the playing left sided center half thing can it?
Henderson’s fast becoming my favourite ever player the way he’s carrying on as well. It’s the seething goal celebrations that have captured my heart.
Funny that this team isn’t even at its peak.
Our goals are all preventable, and our defenders are all high grade internationals. Kompanys the only PL centre back who’d walk into our team.
Good piece Neil. I watched the match on a crappy satellite feed at a local pub, and afterwards my head had gone. Just completely gone. I had to do a bit of food shopping afterwards, and walked in and out of the supermarket three times as I kept forgetting stuff I’d decided to buy whilst originally in the shop (oh, and that I was hungry, as well)
That’s what this Liverpool side does to me, and the rest of us at the moment. Being a fan of roughly 25 years, I’m finding it hard pressed to remember a team which looks like scoring as often as we do. (I was a bit young for Dalglish Mk 1’s class of 87/88, arguable Rafa’s 08/09 side came close). We just seen to carve defences apart at the moment, to the point where you’re expecting us to score four goals at home as a matter of routine, and are almost disappointed when it doesn’t happen (I was actually a tiny bit annoyed when we only beat Cardiff 3-1)
Of course, as you say the flipside of that is some truly comical/horrific defending. There was a moment today when one of our centre backs – I forget who – cleared the ball straight against his team-mate’s back, and the resulting rebound almost looped over Mignolet. It wasn’t even so much Swansea pushing forward – our players seemed almost to be nervy and weary of each other. It didn’t help that Shelvey was given acres of space in which to work in the first half, and I felt we only truly managed to shut that space down when Joe Allen came on. After all, you can have the best defence in the world – and we certainly don’t have that – and they will still be struggling if midfielders are given the time and space to run directly at them (This isn’t a criticism of Gerrard so much, I just felt he needed help,especially in the first half, due to his reduced mobility)
At the end though, we’ve got away with it, and it’s not the first time this season. This is a crazy Liverpool side in a league split into crazy teams (Us, City, the Ev) and functional sides (Chelsea, Spurs and United to an extent) and it would be nice to think that it’s brimful of just enough madness for us to have a shot at winning the damn thing, even if my head tells me that if we defend like that against Chelsea or City we’re getting barbecued. (Although if we attack like that against pretty much anyone, so are they). Still, it would be nice enough to have one or two games where nothing happened and we won 2-0, just now and then, to give us all a breather. Is that too much to ask?
Listened to the match on Radio 5. I was up and down like a fiddler’s elbow. Love them. Hate them. Love them. So glad it’s over. Couldn’t wait for the final whistle. Tried to manage my fear ‘They’ll score – it’s only a game.” Didn’t buy it. So so glad it’s over.
Cracking piece Neil. As brilliantly random and disjointed as our team was today.
A couple of other things stuck out for me today….
Firstly, we’ve got too many divvies inside Anfield. I know it’s been said many times before but it came into sharp focus for me today. Whistling for half time……really? No doubt the same clowns who were chanting “oo are yer?” to Arsenal a fortnight ago. And where was the noise today. As you said, it was only when Chico Flores decided to try and steal Luis’ pantomime villain crown that it really got going. For fcuks sake, we’re mounting a challenge here. A proper one. I honestly believe our players have the mentality to win the league, I think our fans need to learn how we play our part. Sing, sing some more, celebrate like a nut job when we score and them sing some more……
Second thing was our magnificent manager. 95% Genius. 5% Moyes. What the f@@@ were the substitutions about today? Joe Allen…..spot on. We needed his relentlessness with and without the ball, but at the expense of Sterling? Then Moses…….for Sturridge?? We don’t need to rest players now. It’s one game per week. I live Coutinho, but today was an awful performance from him. How he played 90 mins and RS / DS got the hook……..ask me one on sport.
Must stop being negative. This is a mental season. I hope it stays that way. Bedlam is a joyous place. Let’s hope we get to visit there 11 more times before the end of May.
Cheers Steve.
Everyone knows we’re well ahead of schedule, hence Rogers trying to keep a lid on things for as long as possible.
But every time we stick another 3pts on the board it’s one less time I have to tell my ever shrinking utd colleagues that we’re coming up the hill…and that my friends is football gold right there because they are not loving life at the moment!! Regardless of how it all pans out, we’ve given the utd, chavs and citeh fans something to worry about.
Some may say I’m a dreamer…but I’m not the only one..
Liverpool FC.. If it was a character in a movie it would be Begbie!
I like mad. Mad is normally fun. But that was a little too mad. Should have felt ecstatic after a 4-3 win but it was almost a numbness, not even knowing what the feeling was I was experiencing. This team is completely bananas and we haven’t seen the last of it that’s for sure
Genius neil, I thought I was going to have a heart attack when they got the pen, it is mad, just mad enough for us to win it. See you at 5.30 Saturday!! Get the ambulance on stand by.
We are Begbie….quality that Ste!
Or are we the school geek having risqué sex in public places with the prom queen? No one can quite believe what’s happening but people just can’t stop watching this crazy shit!
Everyone is waiting to see if he gets a battering from one of her many admirers who have rich daddies and lots of expensive cars…or if he can manage to keep up this hilariously compelling charade long enough to give her a screaming orgasm in the assembly hall in front of everyone on the last day of term…
As for the geek, he doesn’t care one bit if he shoots his load too soon, he’s having the time of his life.
Thanks for great post-match note. Can’t wait for the podcast.
Echoing Jonathan W., this crowd doesn’t know (any longer?) how to win the league. Fine. We can all forget or be too young to know what that is like, and with that what role the supporters need to play to make it happen. As it stands, we’re leaving it to a very young team and manager to figure out how to become champions themselves. This crowd is so timid and concerned with the possibility of dropping out of the title race that we fail to: 1) sing and create the noise of champions and 2) support the team through ups and downs in the game. Instead, the crowd is about itself, its own fears and expectations.
Time to man up, get over our timidness and help our team towards becoming champions.It is time to become the supporters of champions (again)!
Podcast titles:
1. The Gods Must be Crazy.
2. Come back Djimi Traore, all is forgiven.
3. From my padded cell.
Suitable sound tracks for this team: Tommy, the Rock Opera.
Neil, great piece. I kept reminding myself of your observation on the podcast a few weeks back – that this is the maddest of seasons and the maddest conclusion would be for a team that finished 7th last year to win the league, it’s that observation that keeps gnawing at the back of my mind. Each passing week, with its sprinkling of shocks and surprises, takes me back to those comments. It might just be the maddest season of them all.
Yesterday’s game, as a single performance, has been sneered at by the pundits; “too many errors”, “defensively weak” yadda, yadda, yadda, yet we sit 4th, poised, waiting for any slip from the three above. How do you explain that to someone who hasn’t been on board the roller coaster? If yesterday was your only point of reference, you’d struggle to comprehend. But for those of us on the journey, it helps validate Neil’s point, because we’re writing the most intriguing narrative, the one that Sky Sports are already building an emotion-by-numbers montage, complete with pathos-laden musical accompaniment for.
In the build up to each game, my ability to dream and speculate is quelled by 30+ years of supporting and remembering the shortcomings, the defensive frailty and watching our rivals move past us and away from us with each passing season. But this season, I watch us play and it feels different. The frailties haven’t gone, they’re just harder to exploit. And we have belief. Pure belief. It’s like the team has come of age and realised how good it can be. We don’t panic when we go behind, there’s a spirit that I don’t see in some of our rivals.
For a few hours after each match, I can dream, that this is “the maddest of seasons” and I begin to ponder the possible favourable results elsewhere and how we could be involved in the photo finish.
No team has won the league playing this style of football…we couldn’t, could we?
In the cold light of Monday, I’m back to reality. The Jose machine is finally rumbling up to full steam in its predictable way. City are stuttering but will go the distance. And Arsenal. A thin squad that might be too battered and bruised for a final push after meeting Bayern, City, Spurs and Chelsea, but they can play a major role in determining the outcome.
The pundits are all opting for one of the current top three to win it, but how many of those fans are having more fun than us right now? We have a player in Suarez who has scored one goal in his last six games yet, is playing football from another planet. Sturridge is scoring at a better rate than Ronaldo, Messi or Ibrahimovic. Sterling is running at defences that visible wilt at the sight of his pace. This is what we are doing now. This is Liverpool. We attack.
As Lee said above, there are five lads being towed in a caravan….and I bet they’re praying the Ferrari goes even faster over the last 11 matches. It’s mad, right?