Ready, steady, go!

Well, this today it started all over again. The best league on the world, greatest show on Earth, whatever you call it, it is what it is. The Premier League. The World Cup is over, players’ holiday photos are all posted, strings of pointless pre-season friendlies are finished, though bags of gossip and transfer speculation will only increase the closer we get to the end of transfer window. Anyway, the most important thing in football fans’ lives is back. And, according to Brendan Rodgers, LFC are going for it.

Personally, I like this stance. I’ve never been a fan of the downplay of expectations and never-ending talks of ‘philosophies’ and ‘projects’. Fancy words, used to cover weaknesses and lack of self-belief. Sheepish. So for me it was the first time Rodgers said the truth about the Club’s ambitions without hiding behind excuses or keeping expectations low. This is Liverpool for God’s sake and not, with all due respect, some Swansea!

Though I can understand why he did it. His first 6 months were an absolute disaster with the worst start for a century and mid-table position at Christmas with the same amount of points as Roy Hodgson had when he was sacked. He would be mad to do anything other than downplay the expectations. It has steadily got better since then, with Liverpool having a real chance for the first title since Kenny Dalglish was in charge for the first time and Sir Alex Ferguson hadn’t won a single title for Manchester United.

Rodgers knew that he had a great attack, limited players in midfield, awful defence and an average keeper, so he tried to outscore every opponent and came as close as he could. But put emotions aside as well as love and support for the Club. History remembers only winners, so all Liverpool did was qualifying for the Champions League, which really should be a bare minimum given no European football and early exits in both cups.

So this is the season for Brendan to really prove himself. He’s lost half of last season’s goals in Luis Suarez and so far hasn’t replaced him. He added a couple of defensive players, though massively overpaid for Lovren, who is good but never a 20 million pound player. He has Champions League to entertain and no midweek breaks, which were key to last season’s success. And in my opinion, he has to really go for one of the cups as the only trophy LFC won since 2006 was the League Cup under King Kenny. For the greatest club in the world anything less is never good enough.