WORSE than a defeat. Come here Luis. Talk to me.
Worse than a defeat.
But.
Blaming the centre-halves is basic. Beyond basic. A deflection. A break. And then Skrtel pushes out because no one is holding mid. Why is no one holding mid?
Martin Skrtel was brilliant tonight.
(Fucking jump on his back Coutinho. Jump on his fucking back.)
That said, no one has let anyone down. If anyone has let anyone down, no one has let anyone down. Look at those Reds. The Trickiest Reds you’ve seen. Say that to my face. Say that to anyone’s face. This is the first time since Liverpool last won the league they go into the last day of the season with the league either won or able to be won.
Bleating about the manner of the play that brought Liverpool here is:
a) Wrong
b) Plain fucking inaccurate in this instance. Soz abar the facts.
It was, till 80, a faultless second half. Johnson, Allen and Sturridge in the second 45 were terrific. The business.
If there’s a criticism, a weakness, put a block in when it goes 1-3. The lads are there to do it. The lads to put that block in are there themselves.
Such a shame when the performance had been what it was. Such a shame.
But put Luis Suarez in my arms. And I’ll say this. 2-3, we need a favour. 12-0 wouldn’t be enough. 3-3, we need a slightly bigger favour.
Come here Luis. 2-3 is closer to 3-3 than it was to 0-6. I promise you that. You went and caught the ball because you know that gorgeous. And you were a wave, an endless wave, because you all know that.
You all know that.
This weekend at Sound City Married To The Sea sang a song and it made me think of all this. It goes:
Come on, I wanna dance to the music in your head
Viva! Viva!
A hopeless romance.
The issue is we’ve made the music in City’s head easier. Smooth.
There’s only one romance in these parts. And nothing is easy. Nothing. Is it hopeless, is it brilliant?
Come here Luis. It hurts. Christ knows it hurts. You think it hurts? I was nine since we last won the league. Nine. Walk around the pain.
The quantative difference is, in real terms, this – a draw vs a defeat for City. It is minute. 2-3 vs 3-3. Minute.
This is a brilliant romance. I’ve seen brilliant romances. At the cinema. Some end up with the woman getting on the plane and you ending up with Claude Rains. Some end up with a Jim Carrey shrug and an acceptance of brilliant defeat.
And in some, you get the girl. You neck her. You neck her.
Sound City I told the people I left with these words:
“We meet again as Champions. We meet again as Champions.”
A kiss. A cuddle.
We meet again as Champions.
Come here you. Come here Luis. We meet again as Champions.
Come and dance to the music in my head.
Viva! Viva!
Pics: David Rawcliffe / Propaganda
watch that 10 minutes over, we look knackered. too deep, giving them too much space, not following players. in all honesty it’s nowhere good enough. we don’t know how to take the sting out of games.
but we rolled the dice and we played for goal difference. that was the risk, they get us on the counter and take the momentum away from us. you could argue glen needs to come out quicker but a deflection never feels fair.
city can still lose. they could stroll out and get stung by a great counter attacking side, but we haven’t kept up the pressure. if we lose the league, it’s hard to feel hard done by. goal difference would’ve never felt fair. heartbreaking isn’t the word.
Eh glasses, we’re all pissed but that drivel is no excuse…
Rodgers: “Coutinho has a sight problem” – no shit !
So does his fecking barber !!!
Oh Bob… You so crazy…
I hope the lads read TAW… You’re quicker with a chin up than Buck himself – upon retreating from the Selhurst pitch tail between their legs Buck should order them to grab for their smartphones that can instantly translate from scouse to English French Spanish Portuguese Slovak (no phone yet smart enough to translate to Welsh!). Good job Neil the point keeps our amazing tilt alive until the final day WOW… that’s how come the tears and i know how you/he/we all feel but we go again.
Yes and No.
I’m upset. At 3-0 we sit and we kill the game. We do what Chelsea did to us. We do not try and score 10 goals. We take the win and hope for a City draw in the last two games. Now we need one City loss or two draws. Brendan Rodgers should know better; he should be the calm head.
We didn’t need to win the Chelsea game and we got caught. We didn’t need to win today by more than 3 goals and we got caught.
Yes, it’s a mad ride and yes, Brendan Rodgers is a big part of the reason we are riding madly… but it doesn’t absolve him of those times when he should know better.
Know better next time.
Won’t win it now and we let palace back in by doing what we have done all season. Score for fun but let in shed loads. We are the neutrals favourite this year – 6-3, 5-3, 3-3, 5-1, 3-2 etc etc to name a few scores from our games! However its definitely a great season. Have said all year top four and I didn’t really think we would win league until we beat city. But hey ho champions league to look forward to!
Dont like the crying and shit !!!!
Call me crazy but it’s still on, so stand up and fight !
Erm……. Sorry but you call yourself crazy!!
Oh right! Making fun of mental illness !?
Like i said to her indoors, ‘Mai Woo, you can go back to vietnam when LFC players all have sensible haircuts”!
Neil,
A few thoughts;
1. Disappointed
2. I still believe
3. We were naive – should have taken the 3 points at three-one
4. Can’t be mad – the team has given me more entertainment/hope/dreams in the league than the last 24 put together.
5. I still believe
I’m failing to see the lessons we learned from Chelsea……..
It’s crazy….I would have happily accepted this at the start of the season but now we are here I am so deflated.
I preferred it when we chased and just didn’t quite get there. To have it and lose it (I have little faith) is absolutely gutting.
The irony that this is what City normally do.
Best league campaign of my life time (and I don’t say that lightly; soz Yossi Benayoun). Chin up Kristian Walsh, you boss lad. This isn’t an ’09 now or never type situation. We’re healthy off the pitch this time and we’ll kick on on it next season.
Plus Carroll and Agbonlahor have got chances this next week to claim World Cup places they’ll never get, so you never know.
Well woy boy said no late entries in world cup squad so they already in or more likely not in. Not changing regardless of what they do this week.
You’re not wrong but allow me some straws to clutch, for Fowler’s sake :)
Ahh how nice, you still think the Owl is picking his own squad, the big man scores 2 or 3 against City and the clamour from the London press – we need to be able to hoof long balls into the box, when we are losing with 10 minutes left- and the big man is Rio Bound.
Been listening to TAW for 2 years now and I’m following you like I’m following this team of tricky reds – religiously, with pride and belief. Cheers man
I think (it’s a bit abstract) I said the same in a tweet just now.
We needed man city to slip up anyway – we were never going to catch up (at least) 11 goals in goal difference in two games had city won both their games. We needed them to slip once. To draw a game. Now, we need them to slip once, just a little bit more. One more goal for villa or west ham. one less goal for man city. That’s all it is – just one slip. We’re still in it, we’ll still be in it, regardless, on the final day. Indeed, if we’d beaten chelsea, AND won tonight, it’d STILL be going to the final day anyway (assuming, etc).
So that’s all we are. One goal worse off. We conceded one more than we’d have like to. Now we just need city to do the same in one of their remaining games…
If nothing else, we, city and chelsea have shown over the last few weeks there are no certs. no easy wins, no guaranteed results. It’s a little less likely, but it’s still not over.
Great point by tom, too. We’re a healthy club, and with a young team, in good shape on and off the pitch, with CL football and lots of money coming in, with responsible owners.
It’s temping, with it having been so long, to see this as our “one chance” but I really don’t think it was. This is why no-one goes from 7th to 1st – they just don;t have the experience to close it out. Next year, this will stand us in good stead, and the team should be better. We’ll be back, even if we don’t do it next year.
Neil, the passion’s there, we all know it is. But 300 words of unhinged emotion and all I hear is the Brown Bottle’s defiant war cry: Caaaam on, I’ll teeeek yerz alll oannn.
Calm down, son, then start writing.
Numb rather than upset. What just happened?
Well, we just scored 99 goals in a season with one game left and we go into the last day with a mathematical chance of winning our first title in 24 years. Last year we were seventh. Seventh!
I’m not having all this “the defence is bollocks” stuff; it’s more a team set-up/mentality thing and I’m a bit disappointed with some of Carra’s analysis on Sky (although he is obviously trying to “analyse” whilst wanting to scream “FUUUCCCKKK!!!” at the top of his voice). The point about the defence falling to deep and not pushing out is well-made, but look again at goals 2 and 3 and we’re pretty much man-for-man at the back in a game we are winning at last knockings. That is not the defence’s fault. And if Suarez hadn’t been booked earlier, he takes Bolasie out before he gets within 20 yards of the half-way line (not being wise after the event, but I called out Bolasie as someone we should buy at the end of last season when MUFC went with Saha). Circumstances conspired, and all that. I think this season is the season you take the rough with the smooth. No bitterness, no recriminations.
I’ve had a feeling for West Ham doing a number on Citeh from 5 or 6 games out. I think City will beat Villa and go into the last game just needing a draw. When we put the Newcastle game to bed early doors, City’s anxiety at 60mins will be tangible. A Carroll header from a Downing set-piece later and we are celebrating our most unlikely triumph.
You heard it here first.
Lastly, where is all the “this is LFC’s best chance to win the league as it will all be downhill for them from here” bullshit coming from? Sterling and Sturridge with breakout seasons under their belt; Suarez available for the first 6 weeks; Rodgers one year older and wiser; a fully-developed Susso; and the attraction of CL football that means we’re not having to sign the crumbs from Chelsea’s/MUFC’s table. Best chance gone?
We haven’t even started yet.
I love it Brownie, well said. Nothing is over yet, we build, we build, we build! The bench will be so much stronger next season, and again the season after that, this is no holiday romance it’s an epic drama.
I hope the rest of the league do look at us in August and assume 2013-14 was a flash in the pan. Best thing that could happen.
Thank you Brownie, your comment put a smile on my face for the first time since Palace scored their first. That is my mantra for the summer – ‘We haven’t even started yet’.
As the numbness and shock wears off there is a sense of pride developing. Sure we were naive yesterday but I won’t let that taint what has been the best adventure of my life time. I firmly believe this will stand to us next season and the season after and…
What a ride it has been but there is also that little bit of hope I can see when I shut my eyes. Stranger things have happened, stranger things have happened this season, so why not?
Honestly, it just seems daft trying to dissect the maddest football team of all time, so I won’t even bother.
Let’s all just bask in their utter lunacy one last time next weekend, and look forward to next season with more confidence than we’ve done in many a year.
I love you Tricky Reds!
What’s all this about? Raw emotion?I can do that!
Step back a minute though.Who would ever have thought this 12 months ago?
Come on.It’s just getting better.And will get better and better!
“Why is no one holding mid?” And that my friend is the right question. Where is the captain? Why is the captain not in his position? We are up 3-2 still, keep it up, close it down, take the points. Why does it have to fall on Martin? O captain my captain, how many more will take the fall for you? The greatest and purest of intentions yet, the biggest mistakes come to him. Your earlier discussions on the pod that were purely about Stevie in the holding role are the smartest discussions you have had all season. It is not about the goals, we have plenty. It’s about the defense, it’s about managing and captaining the mid. Our captain is special, our captain is passionate, our captain is still a big boy in a man’s role. We missed HENDO with passion these past three games. The young lad who plays like a MAN in the mid and makes everything click. It is not over yet. Big Andy, please do us a favor and show BR he was wrong(and right) to sell you off.
Brilliant “Gonzo” as usual Neil, “A savage journey to the heart…”
It was fucking horrible….end of.
However, in the cold light of day, what difference does this result make? We now depend on City either drawing their last two or losing one (plus, of course, we have to beat the Toon at our place). We can’t rely on City getting a draw in one of their two….that’s the difference.
Do we shut up shop then and go on our hols. Errr don’t think so.
Who wouldn’t want this chance we have when the season kicked off last August?
We are Liverpool 2014. We do not hold the game at 0-3. We will not be satisfied with a solid win. We go again and again and again. We fight to regain control of the League on our own terms and if we go down, we go down fighting our own way. Screw the media, screw the pundits. We are Liverpool 2014. You in?
It’s the pain. Oh the pain. Because it was (and still is) the hope. And what hope?! The size and scale of the hope is bonkers. It’s the size of the hope, the possible joy, that makes the low so shittingly low. Surely not from 12 games out. Surely not after losing to Chelsea. Surely not after throwing away 3 at Palace. Probably not after throwing 3 away at Palace. But maybe. Because we are Liverpool, we don’t do things by halves. Imagine supporting another team, with their drab narratives, forgettable journeys, their infinite bank rolls, their lack of hope. We are Liverpool, we don’t do things by halves. This journey is glorious. We are balls deep in this season and it’s ace. And the best bit, like Brownie said, we haven’t even started yet.
N.B. I acknowledge we do, like the rest, play football by two halves.
Sometimes it feels like Zdeněk Zeman tactics we’re playing. It’s enjoyable to watch that kind of football, but in the end you will always end up on the losing side with a broken heart. It’s football romanticism in its purest form.
Brendan Rodgers isn’t Zeman though, and I’m sure he will learn by his/our defensive shortcomings and improve these aspects in the future. He is a man who learns from his mistakes.
At the kickoff of the last game of the season we will still have a chance of winning the league, no matter how small that chance may prove now. We’ve taken a massive leap from last season to reach this position. I started supporting Liverpool around 1994-95. I’ve never experienced winning the league. In my 20 years as a Liverpool supporter, this is my favorite season as a whole, even if it ends on a low without silverware.
Brendan Rodgers made this happen. Brendan Rodgers made us proud. We’re a team that is a lot about scoring goals, a lot less about defending well. The balance hasn’t been there. Hindsight and all, but I always had a feeling the lack of balance would punish us in the end.
I feel ill
Well I rem in my mid teens bawling because of Michael Thomas winning a league with the last kick off the season so I’m Fucked if I’m giving up now,
This is football, anything can happen.
Not seeing much chat about the guts it took to look for more goals to reduce deficit when 3 up. Big decision that.
Left us with tired legs
when we needed to defend against fresh legs. Focus on what that decision means folks. Means we got a manager who went for it. Manager with guts who went for broke, put it all on the table to give us a chance to win league even on GD. Defenders attacking hard for 70 mins + meant
legs weren’t up to the challenge of fresh ones coming on for Palace. Me. I think it was the right decision to go for it. To squeeze City by winning big. At Palace. Let them stew on that as they prepare for next game. So it didn’t come off. Doesn’t diminish the bravery
of the act. In sporting terms one of the gutsiest decisions I’ve witnessed. That it went wrong is just…ah well, that’s footie
This.
nonsense.
We ran ourselves into the ground and it was naive. Glenjo was up and down the wing like a yo yo. He was knackered, as was the invisible midfield. Stevie and Lucas just can’t control the midfield anymore, especially together.
Instead of controlling the game and taking a break and keeping the ball while we rested before going again, we just went hell for leather and ran out of legs.
Glen didn’t push out, Flanno is young and makes mistakes and wasn’t tight and Martin pushed out when there was danger behind him and Glen just watched. A little less knackered and Glen might have reacted better.
We need to control the game and hit them when they think we’ve stopped playing. Keep changing the tempo up and down.
Somehow we have to deal with lobbed balls too. A constant problem for us, though we’re much much better on set pieces now.
Could have kicked my dog after the game, but I luv my dog, my dog is my connection to nature. The mighty Reds are my connection to my people. It is and was a magnificent roller coaster ride, Barkleys goal, three nil up at Palace, and that was just in the last four days! Loads more to come, I can’t bare to see any of these lads leave us, even Moses, poor sod going back to the nutter. Kin ‘ell, this season, who’d a thunk it.
Been listening to TAW all season and, if nothing else, it’s made me philosophical. After the horror turned to numb turned to sweet silver songs, I was reminded of a Roddy Doyle line from the end of The Commitments. None other than Joey “The Lips” Fagan himself:
“You’re missin’ the point. The success of the band was irrelevant – you raised their expectations of life, you lifted their horizons. Sure we could have been famous and made albums and stuff, but that would have been predictable. This way it’s poetry.”