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Shanks Was Wrong, For Once..

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No-one at LFC readily admits that the great Bill Shankly got anything wrong. And we all know what he meant when he said: “Some people think football’s a matter of life and death. It’s more important than that.” We’ve all felt like that on occasions.

But, since Hillsborough, we’ve known that he was exaggerating. It’s the life and death issues of Hillsborough which have really filled the hearts of Liverpool supporters for the last 23 years.

No doubt many of us feared, as the independent Hillsborough report approached last week’s publication date, that they might find yet another way of fudging the issues and protecting the Establishment. But respect: nothing was fudged, no-one was beyond criticism. Everything we’ve been saying since 1989 has been endorsed by an independent report, and again by a Conservative Prime Minister.

It was good to have our first match after the Hillsborough report away at Sunderland. Sunderland fans have been magnificently supportive of the Justice For the 96 campaign, and it was great to be able to join forces with them in singing The Anthem. The rest of the Premiership have been largely impressive as well, with YNWA ringing out across various stands, and the lovely gesture from Everton in sending out two mascots before the Newcastle match – a blue one wearing 9 and a red one wearing 6 – showed how an attack on football fans in general (any team could have been playing in the 1989 Cup semi-final) can be met by dignified solidarity among those very football fans, irrespective of allegiance.

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So Everton passed the humanity test with honours – we can only hope that Man United can do the same. The omens weren’t good on Saturday, but Sir Alex has given the right lead and maybe it was just a moronic minority. It would lift hearts all round the country if both sets of Reds could join in a rousing chorus of YNWA on Sunday – but I’m not holding my breath. However, there should be no pre-judgement – we’ll see what they’re made of. (And it goes without saying that anyone singing Munich songs at Anfield should be named, shamed and banned.)

And so things around Anfield – and on what used to be called the terraces – are looking good; what about on the pitch? Well, there we’ll just have to show patience as well. It still looks as though it could be coming good some time soon, if we keep developing our ball-holding, our combinations and our young players, we’re going to get there in the end.

On reflection, we should have realised that Brendan Rodgers’ clear announcement that he wanted to develop a coherent system, rather than patching up the old approach, was probably going to mean no short-term solution to the problem in front of goal; the ejection of Carroll with no replacement demonstrated that clearly enough, especially as West Ham look as though they might be able to get real value out of him.

No, we’re just going to have to wait for Brendan’s seedlings to bear fruit. For possession statistics to translate onto the scoresheet. For the new young guns – Sahin, Assaidi, Yesil – to find their niche. Essentially, we’ll have to wait until we’ve got a settled team who can play the boss’s system.

For now, the Sunderland match showed quite clearly where we stand right now. It wasn’t much of a game, and we’ve now schlepped ourselves to two points from four games, with Manchester United next up. Just like much of last season, we’re always looking the better team and still losing or drawing. It’s clearly a long, dark tunnel we’re going to have to go through, and there aren’t any quick fixes.

So, let’s just banish all thoughts of what our league position in May is likely to be (it doesn’t bear thinking about) and take it one game at a time, greeting the green shoots of recovery every time they appear and keep on whispering “Raheem Sterling, Raheem Sterling, Raheem Sterling..”

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2 comments

  • Davidoff burnofski says:

    He actually said “Some people think football’s a matter of life and death TO ME. But It’s more important than that.” he was talking about himself and not in general. So hes still not wrong!!!!! Ha

  • KAY says:

    For him it was merely an expression of his passion,let’s not get it twisted

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