AS 3pm drew closer on Saturday, the excitement, expectation and the good feeling of a new era for Liverpool Football Club was in full swing.
At 5pm, the harsh reality of another long, daunting and inconsistent campaign was on the mind of even the biggest optimist.
Pundits and fans alike predicted an ‘easy win’ against a West Bromwich Albion side that have always proven difficult to get a result against.
Many will have dismissed or simply forgotten that it was only in April that a Peter Odemwingie goal at Anfield gifted all 3 points to the Baggies.
Since the Gerard Houllier years it seems that we have found it difficult to get the results that everybody in the footballing world would expect. I often find myself wondering if this is complacency, lack of motivation, or just sheer lack of respect for the opposition that is placed in front of us, by both us as supporters and also the players.
I think a combination of all three plays a major part to our shortcomings. Match day, at Anfield in particular, has a totally different feel to it depending on the opposition. Against the top clubs, the atmosphere can be described as electric, vibrant and the only place to be for all our fans. On the other hand, against the ‘lesser’ opposition, Anfield suddenly becomes a dull place to be, with the general feeling that it is more of a chore to be inside the ground rather than a pleasurable experience.
I firmly believe that a lack of motivation in the stands filters down to the players as kick-off approaches. Against the ‘lesser’ sides the tempo is slow, the passing is poor, the creativity is non-existent with none or very little movement off the ball. This is where complacency begins to creep in. Simple passes become misplaced, and the harmony of the team seems completely out of tune.
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People have often suggested that Liverpool sides only need to turn up and that the opposition will crumble and succumb to defeat at the sight of the famous Liverbird. This may well be true when speaking about Liverpool sides of the 70’s and 80’s. We are now in 2012 and we no longer have that impact on our opposition. We are coming up against sides who respect our history but realise it is exactly that. The last time we won a league title, the majority of players both for and against are either too young to remember, or were not even born.
As fans I feel it is our duty to make sure we get behind and support our team. Many players have openly talked about how we can act as the 12th man and help ‘suck’ the ball into the net. Rather than us just having this affect against the big teams why can we not do this against the so called ‘lesser’ teams?
I feel we should all change our mentality regarding the lesser teams. We need to stop taking for granted that we are going to come away with a comfortable victory. As fans we need to vocally back our team and in return our players need to dig deep, show character and resilience.
It is all well playing for a club that has a glittering history, it means nothing if you do not write your own name into that history. The glorious images that decorate the walls behind the scenes at Anfield only exist due to players putting their bodies on the line, shedding their last ounce of energy and going into each and every game with the same mentality. It is 11 men vs 11 men, the hungrier set of men will prevail and be on the winning side come the full time whistle.
No game is an easy game in the Premier League, every team needs to be treated with the same respect, be it our closest rivals or a newly promoted side. The sooner we as fans and also the players adapt this mentality, then just maybe will we be able to reach the heights that we all so desperately want to get to.
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Simple, there are a core of ‘senior’ players at Liverpool who have too much influence and are spineless chokers and serial letdown merchants, they are ALL talk and will build your hopes up and knock them down again and again and again.
Its not Rodgers, its the players!.
Couldnt agree more. When Gerard comes out saying that Liverpool have better players than other clubs and top 4 is a definite it shows the arrogance and blindness. He’s finished over the hill well past it. Could be used as an impact player to motivate the team but that’s it. Reina is past it too. Doesn’t matter about his age he’s been crap for 2 seasons. He’s good at organising the back four but his saving has seriously slipped. A new goalie would find it hard at first like De Gea but would be a better option long term. Johnson doesn’t want to defend. It’s not he can’t hes just lost the desire. Skertel is immobile. Get rid of them and get in some new blood. We might only be the same as last season but at least next season they’d be more experienced. The team at the moment just look clueless like they did last season. None of them comfortable on the ball. Easily give it away when under pressure or pass sideways at best. It looks like 11 individual rather than a team. Even team GB looked like the had a better structure than Liverpool. I think Allen and a fully fit Lucas are solid. Not sure about Borini looks a bit flimsy and get bullied too easily. Suarez is great at dribbling but unless he’s with a quality striker next to him it’s pointless…like Downing.
What a complete load of bull; surely the blame lands with the players not the supporters. As we all know liverpool have the habbit for turning up on the big occasions and feel as its beneath them to play against the lesser teams.
If the supporters didnt want to be there they wouldnt have paid the £50 ticket in the first place!!!
We keep on fielding the wrong type of midfielders, too defensive, too deep sitting, with little flair, and little ability and intention to link up and support the offensive. lucas is the prime examble.
I think as long as we keep on playing him, we will keep on failing overall. IT started with him and it’s gonna end with him. Truth hurts and it seem too many lfc fans are too afraid to handle the truth.
Hosh! Lucas had 92.6% pass accuracy! Who is the fool that saw how Suarez created chances for others to score in the last pre-season friendly but decided to play him as chief scorer? Lucas?
Who refused to notice that WBA players were asked to pass us higher in the second half but told the player to continue where they left? Lucas?
Who is he that fails to see that the team needs 2 or 3 more player makers and game changers to help Suarez out as with all big teams? Lucas?
another Lucas hater and someone who thinks understands the game better than the last 3 managers and probably most other people. We finished worse off last year than we should have and ONE of the reasons is that Lucas got injured and missed the rest of the season and if you are too dumb to see that then maybe you should switch to watching tennis or some other sport
We`re 1 game in ffs,have you noticed how many times Skrtl heads out of defence straight to an opposition defender who comes back to score an usually a screamer???,to me we can`t shake off the bad luck be it referees,bad shots on goal or 1 lapse at the back but we always suffer??my own thoughts are i`m glad its happened now and hopefully BR will look at the match vid and put it right. YNWA
Hang on I think Messi has just arrived at Liverpool airport = I am sure we can DREAM – losen up folks – Brendan will have us playing proper football soon
You forgot to mention. Or are we simply not good enough to beat teams like WBA.
The team we have is in my view not good enough, and we should count ourselves lucky if we end up in the top 10.
Out of all our players, which would the top 6 puck up? I can only think of 3 possibly 4.
Thought we were a bit unlucky and at the same time we made a few tactically mistakes:
1) Playing people out of position (Johnson)
2) Even though Allen played well I would have rather seen Jonjo start as he have played a big part to pre season
3) We should have started with Suarez Carroll and Downing up front.
On top of that we have to take the chances we get – period. Along with Steven Gerrard playing a bit like Christian Poulsen (Sorry Stevie but you were rather poor by your own standards). The cherry on top has got to be the referee – not impressed!!!!
True mate. The liverpool team as a whole was clueless. I just hope this was just one bad day by their standards and not a continous display of lacklustre performance and ill luck. Hope to see them bounce back up though. YNWA…
I agree and have said this before that if the team gets support it can lift them and they can play better. I watched the game again today and to be honest we didn’t play that badly yes we did miss that deadly pass and a clever finisher maybe, but we certainly sis not deserve a 3-0 trashing and the ref was a little bias as well, although I think by the rule of the law dagger was right to be sent off, soft one as it may be. But it’s one game lets reserve judgement for the first 10.
I agree completely. I’m a scouser working down south and almost always work weekends so I get up when I can, usually about 5 times a year. I sing my bollocks off, bite my tongue when another pass goes astray and applaud everything good. Gets on my tits when people moan their arse off. I know if you’ve “paid your money” you can “do what you want” but just know that there are people who want to go and not be miserable bellends that you’re stopping from going who’d get behind the team more. Get rid of season tickets apart from people who want to go in the singing section, make it a membership scheme so people actually make an effort to get a ticket rather than go on a ticket that they’ve not waited or made and effort for, but got it off their granddad/dad/mate who can’t go or doesn’t want to go for whatever reason.
P.S. Anyone who’s ever told me to be quiet in the ground when I’ve been getting behind the team – f**k off.
I think the problem against West Brom was quite simple. We just didn’t take our chances. Nothing to do with the fans, lack of atmosphere etc. For the first 40 minutes we were the better side and should have been well in front. As great as Luis Suarez is, it is frustrating at times to see the many chances he misses. On the positive side, many of his chances are self-made so he has great creative qualities. Didn’t Suarez have 8 shots/headers himself? That is probably as many, if not more, than the whole WBA side themselves.
In short, ultimately it has to come down to the players doesn’t it? After all didn’t we lose a lot of games last season against the so called “lesser” teams like West Brom. Wasn’t Steve Clarke part of the management team that couldn’t beat the “lesser” teams. He gets sacked, moves onto one of the “lesser” teams and there we go, we still lose. So if Dalglish and Clarke were to blame for those defeats (they must have been in the eyes of the owners because they sacked them), then who is to blame for Saturday when Clarke was manager of West Brom? Surely not Rodgers or the fans?
Not enough players do it when it matters. Fair do’s as well, Dowd had yet another stinker. Where he saw 2 penalties is a mystery. How did he send Agger off, but not Richardson last season in our opening game versus Sunderland. He didn’t send Vidic off either in the League Final versus Aston Villa when Vidic brought Agbonlahor down for a nailed-on penalty and red card for himself.
In short the players need to contribute more when it matters. It is hard to be critical of Luis, but other than him who else looks a goal threat? No-one really. With Suarez creating many of his own chances, who else is creating? Not many others really and some not at all.
We are meant to be supporters not spectators. The silence in the ground when we play “lesser” teams is obvious, we need to get behind the team and sing/shout/stamp/make whatever noise to show our support. Blaming the players is easy but the oise in Anfield during a Man U or Everton game is tremendous but not there when we play WBA at home. This however cannot be leveled at our away supporters who, in my experience, constantly make noise supporting the team.
Good shout Frank, totally agree. Silence is deafening at times at Anfield and this has grown more evident over the Premier League era. Away’s are always buoyant though!