New year. New beginning. That was my initial thought as Liverpool escaped 2010, and snatched the win against Bolton. Torres and Gerrard were back at their best, Joe Cole scored, and Liverpool won. Relief seemed to have thrown itself on Liverpool and Roy Hodgson. Turns out I was dreaming. On to Blackburn, and we were rightfully thrashed. Liverpool failed to show up yet again on the road, and the fans look to have run out of patience. And as most of the fans anger is aimed at Roy Hodgson, I for one am going to level things and point a finger at the players as well.
The fans are neglecting to point the finger at the players for the same reason I am having a hard time writing this. It hurts. We pay good money to watch these players perform week in, week out. But that’s what the players are failing to do. PERFORM. I agree with many articles I’ve read; apart from Reina, Carragher, Gerrard and (he’s proved me wrong) Lucas, no one is playing with heart. Listening to the Blackburn game online one line caught my attention and inspired me to write this blog. The commentator said that Blackburn were beating Liverpool because they had honest players. Players who were playing for the shirt. WHERE HAS THAT GONE!
When I say I’m pointing the finger at players as well for our slump this season, this is what I’m talking about. Some of the players we have don’t look interested. I understand it’s frustrating to be in the position that Liverpool is in, but that should give you all the more reason to shell out 150 percent every game to get yourselves back to the top. Instead we have a few players that show up, step on the pitch, have a little kickabout, get their paycheck, and walk out the door without caring about the crest upon their hearts. I think I know where we can find that heart. Look no further than our youth.
Sure, I’m probably out of my mind thinking we will turn things around by playing our reserves, but maybe not. Here is what it could do. Bench Torres (yea, I said it). He’s hardly scoring goals isn’t he? Play Dani Pacheco and Suso. Young, quick-witted, CREATIVE. How are they going to be ready if you don’t throw them into the frying pan early? Going back to an earlier blog, was Macheda ready when he essentially won the title for Manchester United two seasons ago? I am sick of hearing about our young lads scoring goals galore in the reserves and not even being given a look at so much as the bench of the first team. If you sit Torres and play someone ahead of him, when Torres knows he is fully fit, but also knows he isn’t scoring, yea, he’ll be upset. But it will put the fire back in him to score and never be benched again. The same with Glen Johnson. I’m sorry, but his defending is lackluster. He’s great going forward. Keep him there, put him on the right of midfield and play Martin Kelly. And what about Danny Wilson and Jonjo Shelvey. Two so-called prodigies that have barely seen the pitch. We need lads with heart, and we have it. We need to play it.
If we fans expect a quick fix we can forget about it. We can’t expect anyone to come in this January and make us push for the league. We need confidence. What happened to sheer fan-power spurring on the lads? The owners know we want Hodgson out. And, without naming players, I hope they see some of them need to see the exit door as well. But the Hodgson issue is a dead case. It’s high-time we shifted our attention to our players. They need us now more than ever. Manchester United in the FA Cup. Is now really the best time to turn on your manager, your team? No. I best here 9,000 Scousers singing You’ll Never Walk Alone at Old Trafford on Sunday. I want to hear Liverpool’s songs sung all match long. Can we beat United? Of course we can. Will we beat United? That’s up to the players. We inspire them to inspire us. We are Liverpool till we die, and Liverpool will not die.
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