By Dave Martinez
IF you want to pick the bones out of it, by all means feel free to do so. Me? I haven’t got the heart to watch that game ever again, let alone to try and make sense of it. Things went tits up. Anything said on top of that is irrelevant nitpicking to my mind. Agger instead of Moses? Shut the game down at 3-1? Go to five at the back? Yeah, sound, whatever. We lived by the sword, and last night we all but died by it.
But I defy anyone to tell me that when Luis Suarez got that third goal you weren”t believing.
There was no celebrating when the masterful Uruguayan netted. Sod three nil. It was all about getting that ball back in play and winning by five or six or more. Only this Liverpool side would have believed they could still win the title on goal difference and have had the brass balls to go for it like that. Brendan might have called it ‘Roy of the Rovers football’ and lamented the fact that his boys weren”t more measured, but I say ‘fuck that’. ‘Roy of the Rovers football’ has got us this far. Despite all of our flaws (and we have plenty of them), it’s got us 81 points, 99 goals and to the summit of the table after 37 games.
At three nil up this ridiculous team had me expecting the impossible. Not even Melchester Rovers would have had the moxie to attempt what the Reds did last night. I was anticipating a fourth, a fifth, a sixth. I didn”t want a three nil win. No other team in the country would have been racing back to half way when they held such a lead over a team as awkward and resilient as Crystal Palace. No other top side would have left themselves wide open and thrown two points away, either.
Only Liverpool.
The defensive capitulation was horrendous. At 3-2 the equaliser was inevitable. It was painful to watch and the only solace I can take is that I can now turn to my father (an Italian who supports a certain team we played in Istanbul once) and say ‘I understand a bit better. That must have killed you’.
The lack of resilience, the absence of a leader at the back, the inability to stem the tide, they’re all discussions for the summer. This team have lots to improve upon and improve they will, but right now I”m not ready to think about any of that. This season still hasn”t finished and with one game remaining, Liverpool Football Club will take to the field on Sunday knowing that they could still be crowned champions of England. Forget Newcastle. The Geordies are going to be eviscerated at Anfield this weekend. It’s all about Villa and big Andy now. We’re at their mercy.
Is there likely to be a happy ending to all of this? In short, no. Last night’s implosion made that already slim possibility slimmer still, but how exhilarating were those second half minutes when we genuinely dared to do the impossible? They went down swinging. You can’t ask for This page is school-delays.com viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. more. Shut up shop with a 3-0 lead? When thousands of lads and girls in the stands are screaming ‘ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK’ and believing in the impossible? Believing in those players? Nah, not likely. Those boys might well have fallen at the last, but my goodness they took us on one hell of a ride.
This isn”t intended to be some mad, overly optimistic call to arms. People have the right to be pissed off and devastated. They don’t have to tweet the word ‘BELIEVE’ or applaud the lads for a great season, because last night was the most bitter of pills to swallow and will need time to be digested. We all get over these things in different ways and over varying periods of time. Some will be looking on the bright side already while others will be far too deflated to even contemplate cracking a smile or raising a glass for what looks destined to be glorious failure. That’s fine. Rant to your hearts content. Cry away if you must. Everyone has earned the right to shed a tear or two this season.
So here we are. One game left and this is Manchester City’s title to throw away. Everyone is preparing for their coronation, and rightly so. They are an excellent side and Manuel Pellegrini has eight fingers on the Premier League trophy. Four points from six and they will have done it. Four from six. It”s probably going to happen. But if it doesn”t?
What team could possibly raise themselves to snatch this title from City should they slip up?
Only Liverpool.
Pics: David Rawcliffe / Propaganda
I’m with you. What an exhilarating ride it’s been! We didn’t expect to come so close but if I’d been offered top 3 and Champion’s League last August, hell even at Christmas, I’d have ripped your hand off!
Correct! Part of me never wants this season to end because this is the maddest Liverpool team ever and they’ve made it fun again and another part of me is emotionally exhausted and just wants City to get it done because the waiting around is killing me. I’m sure I’ll miss this when I’m consuming football dispassionately everyday during the World Cup.
I might be in a massive minority here, but I found it hard to stay depressed too long after the game last night. I started looking at the squad we’ve had this year, and concluded that we had 13 players that I would say had a season that could be qualified as good. We were in the title race with no more than 13 players, that is insane! Then I started looking back, and remembering how I in August was praying that this team could once again qualify for the Champions League, those prayers was answered, and then some. Remember our third game this year? Against Manchester United, we won that game, but was in no shape or form the best side, as they dominiated us for much of the game at Anfield. Now, we have put them so far behind us, we find it hard to even spot them in the rear-view mirror. I can add that I am a Norwegian, and as far as Norwegians go, it seems that we have been so good this year that we have turned every Manchester United fan a Manchester City fan.
This season was some rollercoaster, and it is still not over, still we are technically in it, and we will technically be in it this weekend as well, the closing weekend of the campaing. Who would’ve thought that? Not even the most optimistic Liverpool fan.
Brendan Rodgers has shown us that, if anything, he is adaptable. This team is adaptable. Some success in the transfer market this summer and we will be back, fighting both in Europe and in England. This season has unquestionably been a success.
YNVA!
I could not sleep, whenever I close my eyes, those CP goals flashed against my brain…
I just could not believe my eyes man..i just could not believe what happened n the last 12 min…
My heart is bleeding..my eyes are tearful..my sole is broken..
I am praying for the football gods to take it easy with my beloved LFC, and give them a hand in their peruse f this title..
I will go and cry alone, as I do not want anyone to see me or speak to me about what happened in those last 12 min.
I am really really hurt in my hear and sole…
YNWA…
I thought it was hugely disrespectful to
be grabbing the ball out of the Palace net
& running back to midfield after our goals.
BR talking about City’s games as if our
results were a foregone conclusion also
smacked of hubris.
Dress it up any way you like, 1st is 1st
2nd is nothing.
Granted, there is a fine line between hubris and belief, but it wasn’t about Palace … it was a crazy, idiotic, wonderful, courageous belief that we could eat away the goal difference. BR believed the fairy tale just like us fans, and yes, it cost us in those crazy twelve minutes, but that’s why I love the guy. And by the way, why everyone I know who doesn’t support Liverpool likes the guy too. If a manager doesn’t ooze belief in a title race to the finish, he shouldn’t be managing the Reds. Mourinho is case in point. His “we won’t win the league” dismantled his own team’s mindset.
Oh, and two things.
First … believe, we might still finish first.
Second … second isn’t nothing, it’s a hellavu lot better than seventh. And gives us a far better platform to challenge for first.
Remember as a kid watching the arsenal game at anfield, that Michael Thomas late run, then the goal was a feeling that will live with me forever! Never thought (or wanted) to have that feeling again. Fast forward 20 odd years ( it’s been that long my memory for dates is going) to last night, and I sat there with the same feeling again, like an old enemy, after a long stretch in jug, come out to torment me! It’s hard at the minute, trying to be positive, and rightly so, as we’ve never considered 2nd, 3rd or fourth for that matter a achievement, so I will console myself with this! Whiskey nose has gone! Mourinho,s lost the plot, and we have the best young manager in Europe, and owners who are savvy business people, and are winners! Let’s take this on the chin, and look forward to next season, we WILL be back on that perch! YNWA!
So-called ‘fans’ who imagine themselves ‘bleeding’ Red — this is what it really means. It’s what many life-long LFC supporters have done quietly for 24 years — through thick and thin, through almost seeing the Club destroyed by the previous owners.
Stop moaning and feeling sorry for yourself. Crystal Palace wasn’t even a Loss; it was a Draw! The values of Liverpool Football Club are dignity and humility, not bitter self-pity and whining. You’ve had your few hours to feel gutted. Now get behind your team and bleed Red with Brendan, Stevie, and the rest of the team to the last drop of this amazing season.
We need a defensive coach to come in. Rodgers loves to attack, but he clearly doesn’t do the rudimentary parts of defending on the training ground.
I also think Mignolet’s failure to dominate his area and roar at his defence means we need better.
I don’t necessariy agree with you there. I don’t think we need a new defensive coach, what we need is a defensive leader. We haven’t had that since it was vlear that Jamie Carragher was over the top. Martin Skrtel has in many ways been a fantastic player for us this year, but his performance last night proved that he is no leader.
stianolini, I agree, I think that the absence of Carragher has had a massive impact although I believe that Skrtel has been a phenomenal player this season and he has worked his nads off! Rogers has been fantastic. I think yes, the decision to bring Moses on was wrong but at the end of it all, he knows more than we do! Imagine if Suarez played the first games of the season? The goal difference situation would have been very different. All in all, I’m massively proud of Liverpool, they’re a year ahead of schedule, have given us the most entertaining season we’ve had in ages and have shown amazing passion and dedication. A couple of highlights from this season so far: The sign in the crowd stating “Suarez could nutmeg a mermaid”! and the fans singing the ‘Gerrard’ song after he slipped. True fans, amazing support for the team and the optimism of the vast majority makes me even prouder to be a scouser on the red side!
The thing is, we could just so easily have made the same mistakes that we did against Chelsea and Palace earlier during our 11 (ELEVEN) win streak in the league and the complexion of the situation now would be entirely different. If we had lost against Arsenal and drawn vs Fulham, then beaten Chelsea and Palace, we would have the same number of points but everyone would be talking about us snapping at the heels of City during an unbelievable run in.
Perspective is everything in this situation and I will be disappointed IF we don’t win the league, but that disappointment will be tempered by an overwhelming sense of pride that we have played the most exciting football in my memory, scored a ridiculous amount of goals, got back into the Champions League where we belong, and climbed right back on our perch. Good times to be an LFC fan & long may it continue!
Only Liverpool? You haven’t watched Arsenal for the last 8 years then?
I honestly think we would have won if our players all had sensible hair cuts.
Now we’re reliant on a bloke with the shittest hair cut in the league!
Life hates me….
My first thought when we lost was also ‘capitulation’. On reflection however it was actually simply blind panic assisted by nobody in defence getting a grip and calming the situation down.
The key thing is that the team, including Brendan, have to learn from this match and the Chelsea game. Brendan was a bit too “We’re Liverpool we attack, that’s what we do.” after the Chelsea match, probably wanting to be seen as a direct opposite to Mourinho’s ‘shut them down’ tactics. That’s all well and good if it’s just after match chat but I cannot believe that Brendan is so naive as to simply stick with a ‘we’ll just outscore you’ mentality.
The defence needs bolstering and that’s putting it mildly. Gerrard needs a good World Cup to put this all behind him. Should Brendan take on the lessons of the past few weeks we’ll eventually have the best manager bar none.
5th / 6th would have been progress this season – we’ve smashed that. We’ve got European Championship football next season and teams are once again looking at us and feeling fear.
Next season we go again.
No point saying Rodgers got it wrong or Mignolet is shit or Johnsons shite or we’ve missed Henderson. No point whatsoever. We got caught out trying to score more goals, once they got the first they were gonna get another, you could see it coming. Lets just say we’re top of the league after 37 games. When could we last say that? Regardless of what happens to city tomorrow, we go into the game on sunday with a small chance of winning the league. It’s in city’s hands and thats the hardest position to be in. The banner asked this liverpool team to make us dream, and I for one am still doing just that! This has been the best league campaign I have ever seen, and my dream doesn’t end until 5 o’clock on sunday!
When the Konoplyanka- or whatever his name is – transfer fell through in Jan I honestly thought we had blown our shot at champions league qualification. From is point of view finishing second is a massive massive positive.
However, I’m still gutted!
Hard to imagine that LFC defence improving when they haven’t managed it all season.
It is what it is. 20 to go and we had 7 players practically in the final third.
Whilst i was utterly apoplectic last night I now see the error of my ways and accept we have a side and manager utterly incapable of closing a game out defensively.
Whatever happens on Sunday i am already looking forward to next season.
It won’t be dull!
Excellent article! The amount of negativity I’ve heard & read since the game is astounding, considering all of those same people were probably expecting us to be fighting for 4th or 5th with one game to go before the season started. Barring Kenny’s first two managerial seasons, this is the most exciting football I’ve seen from LFC in 30+ years of supporting this club.
I’m not saying don’t be disappointed, but keep some perspective for crying out loud. I was the only one I knew who was crazy enough to predict 3rd for us this season, so all of you who never expected us to do this well, don’t get on the guys’ backs now – just say thanks that we’re still in a position where we’re mathematically in with a shout with 1 game to go!
Besides, the way I felt today is the exact same way I felt at half-time in 2005. I’ve not downgraded to “hoping”, I KNOW that we’re still gonna win the league. I used the words “Ï KNOW” in March 2005, and again in March 2014 (the only 2 times I’ve done so since Kenny left the first time, i.e. when we fell)…& I’m still saying I KNOW!
Great article…….The worse feeling since Michael Thomas 25 years ago this month. I remember that night someone saying on the way out of the ground – ‘worse things happen you know’. There are good things coming our way, it’s just hard being patient some times!
It was a fluke Liverpool got so close because of all the problems elsewhere – Man Utf and Moyes, Chelsea not firing on all cylinders, Arsenal being Arsenal, and City making uncharacteristic slip ups.
The stars will never align like it again and sorry to say Liverpool have blown it. It’ll be another generation before they get so close again.