Liverpool Must “Keep Calm and Carry On”

This has been Liverpool’s best league season for 24 years. Even in the seasons under Houllier and Rafa when we finished 2nd, we were not as close to winning it as we are now.

Still top with just 4 games to go. With Man City surprisingly drawing versus Sunderland, and our superior goal difference to Chelsea, 3 wins and a draw would make us Champions!

We’re all incredibly excited, but, truth be told, also very nervous. The emotion is getting to fans, and you can hear it in the voices at Anfield. We’re roaring the team on, and it isn’t difficult when they excel so often, but it’s also hard not to be extra tense when things, during the normal ebb and flow of a game, aren’t quite going our way.

Fortunately this doesn’t seem to be affecting the players too much. 10 wins in a row is testament to that. Challenges and obstacles aplenty have been overcome during our unbeaten 2014 in the league. Conceding after our keeper was punched in the head against West Ham and recovering momentum after relinquishing a 2 goal lead against Mega bucks Man City were just two difficult moments that the team dealt with fantastically well.

Perhaps the most emotional player has been Steven Gerrard. Stevie, even in his many great heroic moments, has rarely let his emotions go as when the tears flowed after an exhausting game against the Sky Blues just a few days before the 25th Anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster. First trying to hide and wipe his tears, he refocused quickly and delivered a celebrated pep talk to his young team, urging them to “Not let it slip” and “To go again” against Norwich on Sunday as if they are playing AC Milan.

Perhaps one of the remarkable aspects of our great win against City, was that the nerves and the emotions that have gotten the better of fans, and indeed players in years gone by, was overcome in such a dominant first half. The key to this was not just the experience of Gerrard, Skrtel or Suarez but in fact the free flowing confidence of the younger players. The two best players in the game were Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling.

The little Brazilian set the tone for the game with some excellent tackles and interceptions early in the game and continued weaving his magic with the ball for most of the first half. He capped off an excellent showing with the decisive goal, showing that earlier misses when well placed had not affected him. He left the stage late in the game to a standing ovation.

One hopes that the Brazilian coaches who had seen Coutinho replaced at half time in the game against West Ham, watched his imperious showing against City. Man City may have lost Yaya Toure after 20 minutes, but it was a 20 minutes in which Liverpool had already dominated, and Coutinho was at the heart of it.

A lot has been said about Raheem’s great performances since coming back into the side and he is now a certainty to go to the World Cup. His flexibility and movement, added to his pace and trickery, is causing every defence untold nightmares. He was a big reason that Vincent Kompany, arguably the best central defender in the League, had possibly his worst game in City colours.

The composure Sterling showed to score the first goal was another sign of the improvements he’s quickly making to his game. Last season on a number of occasions he rushed opportunities, snatching at chances when well placed. He’s now calmer, taking a fraction of a second longer to make the right decision, which is also helping him in creating opportunities for others.

Through all this excitement and raising of expectations and temperatures our manager is steadfastly staying focused. Brendan Rodgers, whose name is sung regularly around Anfield these days, doesn’t get too critical of his side when things go wrong but also won’t jump at the hype surrounding the brilliant attacking team he has developed.

Rather than succumb to the repeated badgering about whether Liverpool can deal with the pressure of being favourites, Brendan calmly restates his mantra of focusing on the next game and approaching it by trying to play good football. If we play good football, the results will come. No doubt Steve Peters, who has had praise from Rodgers, Gerrard, Henderson, Johnson and Sturridge for helping them since his arrival, is having a positive effect in keeping the players calm but also to allow them to embrace the pressure that has so often in the past been stifling.

Back in 1939 the British Government, several months before the start of World War 2, released a now famous and much imitated poster to help the nation focus on the everyday when under stress. In bold letters on a deep Red background the words “Keep Calm and Carry On” could be seen all around the country.

When the war broke the populace continued to take inspiration from these words as they fought against many challenges and hardships to win battle after battle and, eventually, win the war. Liverpool have 4 more battles to fight, and if we keep calm and carry on doing what we’ve done all season, we just might win the Premier League.

You can catch more from me on my own blog: http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/