I cannot help it; I’m gutted and I’m pissed off. UEFA has another $10 of mine which entitled me to spending two hours of my Thursday afternoon watching Liverpool play Braga on a bad internet feed, and playing pathetically. Had the boys in Red walked away victorious, propelling us into the next round of the Europa League, then it would have been well worth all the investment. Hell, who am I fooling? If we had gone down fighting, with a sense of urgency and understanding of the importance of the moment, I would have been heart-broken but I would have considered it another modern miracle and blessing that I was able to watch my beloved Reds in European competition, live, from the comfort of my home in middle Alabama, and playing for the shirt. But, alas, it was not to be.
And if I could figure out WHY we were so bad, then maybe things wouldn’t be so bad but the honest-to-goodness-answer is that I can’t. This is a poor team, with little quality. And thanks to our exit from the Europa League and the fact that it is highly unlikely we’ll catch Tottenham for 5th place, all Reds fans must soon start recognizing the ugly truth…..we will be without European competition for the foreseeable future---at least through the 11/12 season. That means it will be August of the 12/13 season before we can get excited about any form of European football at the earliest!
Are you okay with that? I’m not, but there are lots of blogs, articles and internet site comments out there from lots of Liverpool “fans” who claim they gladly traded this season’s successful for the guaranteed exit of the Evil Twins. Well, do you mean that? Will you honestly accept not being in Europe for that long and ALL of the consequences of the void? Think about it? Are those fans ready to lose out on the viable talents that might have otherwise graced Anfield in our colors but will now chose other paths in order to get into European competitions? Will they gladly accept the loss of revenue that will come from the gates, television, expanded market presence, etc.? I won’t! See, when we do accept those conditions then people like the Evil Twins win. Under these conditions unless we start producing from within we will fall further and further behind the growing number of teams who threaten the very existence of our legacy unless John Henry is willing to pay above the odds for money-hungry “stars” who will serve the club well as long as they’re receiving fat paychecks. Maybe then we will get back to a prominent position in the league again. Even if he is willing and able to do that, after all, it was confirmed that he has re-entered the billionaires club recently, where does that money come from? Something has to give. And that giving will likely happen at the expense of the stadium---whether we’re talking about re-development of Anfield or something new, with or without Everton, across Stanley Park. And if that doesn’t happen then we continue to fall further and further behind the likes of Scum United, City, Tottenham and the likes of Chelsea—as long as the Great Russian Tycoon is willing to open his checkbook.
Yes, all of these thoughts popped into my head as I watched Braga out-hustle us and show bigger heart over the course of the last 90 minutes. I had concerning observations throughout, both on the field and on the bench. Though Danny Wilson showed more positively there were moments of absolute horror at some of his decisions. Lucas was invisible again, as was Maxi. Meireles showed none of the magic that has been his calling-card since King Kenny’s arrival. More concerning was that we created nothing and tried nothing new throughout the entire match, even when it was obvious that Andy Carroll having the ball pumped to him over and over was not working. It seemed like we latched onto that one mechanism even at our own detriment; sort of like we used to back in the day when Michael Owen could run by anyone and we would just pump the ball into open field and let him run onto it. I rarely got excited by anything I saw Thursday; it was horribly reminiscent of Uncle Woy days, almost as though we never left them. In addition to the players on the field, what King Kenny did scared me. He didn’t adjust to an obviously failing plan and he stubbornly waited way too long to change things up with fresh players who could have brought something different to the game. Additionally, Joe Cole is shit; let’s just face it. He should never wear our colors again…ever, yet he starts in a vitally important European survival game!! What?! Or how about something even more elementary like lining up with just one striker in a game where we needed a goal? It was almost as if King Kenny set out to win 1-0 and go to penalties. That’s not the Liverpool way. Taking a step further back, we have only scored 16 times in King Kenny’s 14 games in charge, and only 10 goals in the last 10 games. This with the likes of Suarez, Meireles, Gerrard and Carroll you’d think we could do more than a goal per game. What started out so promising, with a change of formation and a flowing football, has mutated recently and I have to wonder if that is because King Kenny is trying to secure that contract and is taking that well-trodden path of “playing it safe”. I, for one, hate that kind of football.
And before we look too far ahead we have a tricky game at the Stadium of Light and Tottenham still has a game in hand. We cannot slip up again this season; that’s a fact. If we do, my hope is that King Kenny does the right thing and sits some of the over-paid, under-achieving players. Maxi, Lucas, Cole, Carragher, Skrtel all need to step aside for the younger guys to come up and get some experience in hopes that they can help us for the long road ahead. It might sound like sacrilege but it is what needs to happen for the future health of the club.
But I still haven’t given up hope. There’s a part of me that thinks we could recreate the miracle of Istanbul over the course of 9 games and I believe it….until I look at what lays ahead. All Reds fans would be best served to realize what we’re faced with and prepare for a bleak time to come. I dearly hope I am wrong about this but unless the likes of Pacheco, Suso, Sterling, Ayala, Wilson, Kelly can lay a solid foundation for the imported superstars and Henry can get focused on the task at hand, I just don’t see much light ahead.
Until we meet again,
The Red Yank
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