Nerves of Steel!

Recently I’ve argued with many friends around the title credentials of the Mighty Reds. I’ve gone from nervous, to cocky, to confident, to arrogant and back down to cocky. Right now I’m back at the nerves phase.

The loss to Hull brought me back to earth. Then the fight back was good in the games after that and then I started to believe again. Then the back-to-back losses to Chelsea and City, which I met with quiet optimism as we played without Daniel Sturridge and Captain Fantastic.

In reality, we should’ve actually got at least a point and the way in which we lost wasn’t taken by fans as a loss, but rather a great performance by an injury hit team with an unlucky result. Yes we lost, but the signs were there that we would be more than a match for anyone at full strength.

So fast forward to the present and we are almost full strength, we have beaten everyone we came up against since that last defeat in December of 2013. We have a potential title-decider against the only team who has scored anywhere near as many goals as we have. We are the better form team but, on paper, you have to say the upper hand is with City. Playing at Anfield though, you have to say the upper hand is back with the Reds.

I am sure that many fans around the world have come up with the various permutations should LFC win, lose or draw. What if we win and Chelsea lose to Swansea? What if we lose and Chelsea win? What if we draw and Everton beat City on the penultimate match of the season? The permutations are endless and I have gone through the lot. And almost every single result I test, it all goes down to the wire, to the very last game of the season.

In our last 5 games we play 3 at home and 2 away. All we really have to do is make sure we win the away games and the home games should sort themselves out, the way we’ve been playing at home. The reception the team got at Anfield, and on the way to the ground was so electric. I could feel the nerves settle all the way in the sports bar I was sitting in, in Cape Town, South Africa.

I’ve been super nervous at the thought of playing against City and Chelsea, so much so, that I’ve gone back into my shell, kept quiet the whole time, and avoided talks of a potential title decider in and around the office (filled with disgruntled Man United fans, intent on making Facebook pages dedicated to the sacking of David Moyes).

Then I watched a replay of the game we played against Spurs, heard the fans singing, chanting, turning up in their numbers and I realised that I had nothing to be nervous about: this is Liverpool.

We are enthralled by our boys week in and week out. We were devastating in all the big games at Anfield and Everton, Arsenal, Spurs and the likes can attest to this. This is already a successful season – we achieved our objective weeks ago and now, to quote Mr Rodgers, ‘it’s up to the players now to go out and enjoy themselves, and enjoy the occasion’.

I’m not nervous anymore, I now have nerves of steel because City has to come play at Anfield and they will do well to keep the Reds down to 3 goals!