What a win against Udinese could bring

So here we are, 5 hours to kick off in a game which, if we dont win would see us eliminated from a competition that many people didn’t want us to be in in the first place.


Things have changed since we first qualified for the competition. Most Liverpool fans I have spoken to want us to qualify from our group and make it to the knock out phase of the competition. The first time I noticed the shift in how people felt about this competiton was walking out of Anfield after we had allowed Young Boys a share of the spoils in a game where we had been sitting comfortably. The disappointment and in some cases anger on the faces of the Kopites showed that suddenly, this competition mattered.

The Europa League, to put it bluntly, is not a pretty competition. It is the uglier, slightly plumpier sister of the beautiful, slinky Champion League. It cant offer us prestige, it cant offer us vast amounts of money hell even if we win the thing we will have made significantly less than a team who made it through the group stages of the Champions League. It does have its uses though. It can offer us experience. Our younger players are getting a crash course in life as a professional footballer this season. They are experiencing highs and lows, games you are expected to win and games you find impossible to win. This will make us, and the players themselves, all the more stronger next season and even the season after that. the Europa league is something else though., it is European competition. Our young lads are going to experience something most of them have not had before, a do or die 90 minutes on foreign soil. Its not just the players either, when it comes to European experience our young manager is also operating at novice level. To win games like this breeds confidence and teaches players how to win. Its not just for this years competition that we need to win, it could be for the experience our players can bring into next seasons Champions League....

Liverpool 1 - 0 Southampton (Talking Points)

Liverpool got back to winning ways with a decent win over a struggling Southampton at Anfield on Saturday. It is a difficult game to some up, we played very well at times, should have put the game beyond the struggling Saints, didn't manage to score the 2nd goal and so ended the game with a nervousness which was not becoming of our stylish play throughout the game. There there were plenty of positives to take from the game not least of which being the simple fact of getting 3 PRemier League points at Anfield for only the 5th time in 2012. As ever there were some negatives too but overall i felt a lot more positive about how we may go forward from here after the game.

Now we fu*kin' love him:    
The return of Lucas to the starting line up was the most welcome surprise I got that day, (until later Saturday evening when I walked into my own surprise 30th birthday party arranged by my beautiful wife and nearly jumped through the roof) We had known of course that Lucas was in contention for a place in the squad but I think most presumed that he would be entering the fray from the bench. While we all have to be careful not to expect that the return of the great Brazilian stopper would be the end to all of our troubles, it was nice to see that some of the things I felt he would help us achieve were clearly evident in his 86 minutes on the pitch. Not only did he perform impeccably himself even though it is simply not possible that he is fully match fit after only 45 minutes for the U21 side, his return immediately lifted the performance of others who had had to temper their own games to make up for his absence. Joe Allen and Steven Gerrard were able to take up much more advanced positions which came much more naturally to them than the roles they had been asked to fill over the last few weeks. In fact the shape of the entire team looked a whole lot more balanced with Jose Enrique returned to his preferred full back position, and Glen Johnson returned to his natural spot at right full, it was clear to see that both felt much more comfortable travelling forward to support attacks, safe in the knowledge that should the ball be lost there would be some cover making its way to fill in. Lucas is quite simply the best defensive midfielder in the league and while it's clear that he will never be the man to score the goals that win the headlines, his very presence on the pitch can be enough to provide an attacking impetus to the side.

Its only Southampton:
Of course this is true, but at this stage of our development these are exactly the kind of games we have to be winning. In fairness, to give it your all and beat one of the top 4 gives you a great feeling and it can lift the optimism of fans and players not to mention the luxury of the bragging rights but until we can consistently beat the teams we are expected to beat, once off wins against the big boys will not make that much difference to our final league positions. The hard fact is that the fixture computer did not give too much leeway to Brendan Rogers at the beginning of the season. We had a run of games which meant it was clearly going to be difficult to put together a huge amount of points unless everything clicked immediately. We all know that that did not happen, although we can also accept that had it not been for some tough decisions and some bad luck without doing too much more, we could easily be 5/6 points better off from even the most difficult of those games. As we approach Christmas, and its run of games which comes thick and fast we have a number of games from which we can realistically hope for a high number of points. And with this in mind, Southampton was a great dress rehearsal and a great result to start off with. whisper it quietly but if we can manage to rack up a number of wins in succession it could feasibly become realistic to start targeting top 4. As of right now we are only 7 points behind Tottenham, which is certainly not an insurmountable gap.

When he scores a volley or when he............. uses his hand:     
OK, so its a pity that the 5th yellow card which leads to a one match ban for our favourite Uruguayan was received in such a silly and utterly avoidable fashion but what is done is done. For what its worth, I honestly think that this was a simple reflex action which was driven by the insatiable desire to win we all know he possesses, much like the other hand ball he is famous for was. Its difficult to know what BR is going to do in this situation, it could be an opportunity for a youngster to come in and stake a claim, but from watching the Europa League it doesn't seem like there are any of the deputy strikers which BR deems ready. If he had his eye on any of them I think they would have started more games in that competition so i think its unlikely they will come in. It's a pity because I've liked things i have seen in both Yesil and Morgan but to be fair to BR he has shown that he is to be trusted completely when it comes to the progress and the state of readiness where the youngsters are concerned so I would not questions his decisions there.. One Europa League experiment could be given another try however with Jonjo moving into the striker position as he did against Young Boys at Anfield. It seems that BR likes him in this advanced position although I am not totally convinced just yet. Although I am pretty sure it won't happen I would really like to see Steven Gerrard get the nod up top. Although I’m sure iI don't need to describe how good of a finisher he is, to me it makes perfect sense. Perhaps BR see's a forward role for Jonjo as something which will be more frequent in his future and if thats the case this provides a perfect opportunity to familiarise him further. For my money though, if someone is going to be on the end of a chance I would much prefer it to be Stevie rather than Jonjo.

You're either with us or against us

Its kind of hard judging Liverpool at the moment. In fairness if you asked me right now what i think about how we're doing my answer would be much the same as it would have been at the start of the season, basically we'll have to see how it pans out.

Where Spurs supporters, whose manager has been in place for a similar timeframe as Brendan Rogers, have seen fit to boo their team off their home pitch at least 3 times this season our own manager has seen his name sung by the anfield faithful a number of times. Just to put that into perspective, spurs currently sit in 5th place joint on points with Everton where Liverpool are currently in 12th 6 points of the champions league qualification.

Its not simply blind faith by fans either. if we look at things realistically there is no hiding the fact that after 10 league games under Hodgson we had more points than at the same juncture under Rogers and after those 10 games fans discontent with Hodgon was made widely known at most available opportunities, granted this was somewhat by his own doing in that (fabulous orator that he is) he specifically asked to be judged after 10 games. I have heard some Liverpool fans wondering why we should keep faith with Rogers when Hodgson was so readily cast away by supporters (an belatedly the owners). it is pretty simple really. What we have been able to see so far from Rogers is forward thinking where the only thing Hodgson could look to was the past. There is something to buy into under Rogers where all the Hodge could offer was a face scratch.

The problem Rogers has right now, is that unlike Rafa Benitez for example, he has nothing to point to on his CV to convince you that he can turn this situation around. There is no track record on which to lean. Using Rafa as the example, when struggling in the league in his first season we could look to his 2 La Liga titles for reassurance. With Rogers it is promotion to the PL with Swansea and one season where they performed better against expectations in the PL. Its not exactly reassuring. What is tangible though is what we can see on the field. We have seen our side dominate possession in most games this season. We have seen the blooding of youngsters, some as young as 17 slotting seamlessly into the side. I know full well that at times last season under Kenny we saw some beautiful passing football but it was rarely alongside the type of control we have seen so far this season.Its not much to cling too but its something. Whether that domination can start to turn itself into points is another story, if we are to take this as a starting point then its a good position to start from. If we can win the control of games, it can't take that much to turn winning control into winning matches.

A major problem at the moment is scoring goals. At the moment we have only Suarez who looks likely to score in any game, we really need to start sharing the goals throughout the team. Gerrard, Shelvey and Sterling have all had big opportunities over the last few weeks but  many for whatever reason the confidence to just stick it in the back of the net is lacking. Whether that will simply come with time or it is a more chronic problem time will tell but if we can make an astute signing in January to help out in this respect then i’m sure that things will improve quickly.

To break things down, it seems we have a side who cannot score, but can dominate possession. In this situation we wouldn't be in too bad of a state if we were solid at the back, but unfortunately it seems we are prone to shipping weak goals. The funny thing is our Centre Back partnership still looks like one of the best in the business on paper. I honestly think our first priority MUST be to sort out our defence and stop shipping goals. If we're not conceding so many we could maybe get by, even with our poor scoring record.  I think the re-introduction of Lucas can instantly improve our shape and make us stronger defensively while also improving out attack by moving the likes of Allen to his more natural advanced position.

As for Rogers I can honestly only say that i'm not making any judgements just yet. I've seen enough to mean that i still believe in what he is trying to achieve, but i can't honestly say that he definitely WILL achieve this. I don't subscribe to this idea that everything is black and white. Its not as simple as simply being for or against the manager, its not as simple as saying we are a shit team or a great team. Right now we are in transition. We’re not sure what we are going to get out of this season, and we are not sure what we are going to get out of this team. Performance wise we have seen improvements, even if they have not been accompanied by an improvement in points tally. I still support what this manager is trying to achieve, but it is too early to judge how successful we have been, or even can be.

At what point does the result become more important than the performance?

Liverpool are currently in the middle of their worst start to a league season for 10,000 years.... or something, maybe its not that long but its BAD, Sky Sports told me so! We opened the season with a poor 3-0 defeat away to West Brom, got a battling draw at home to the defending Champions, suffered defeat to an impressive Arsenal and had another battling draw at Sunderland. These results were poor but worse was to come with a home defeat to fierce rivals Man Utd. This run of league form has left us with a points haul which is paltry in any man’s language, except a German man, in his language its “dürftig”. The total is 2 points from a possible 15. I can hear you say it, “this is Liverpool?”. Surely the fans have had enough of this manager already. Surely they are booing the team off the park and a baying mob is gathering outside Anfield every night with pitch forks and flaming sticks demanding the player’s head on a plate? Well the thing is, they are not..... and dont call me Shirley! The reason they are not is because, through this haze of poor results, there has been a level of improvement. There have been bumps of course, its not been a complete incline. Against City we looked strong, but we lost a little something going into the Arsenal game. We battled at Sunderland but didn’t set the world alight. 

           Then came the international break, which was immediately followed by our first “proper” Europa League game against Young Boys of Berne. Going into this game I had passed comment that I had yet to see a proper show of Rodger’s influence. There had been glimpses but nothing tangible enough to convince me that we were on a steady path. Then Rodger’s made the decision which most fans agreed with by throwing our Young Boys into the game against Berne’s Young... (yeah you’ve all heard the joke by now, I’ll spare you). What followed was an exhibition. Again it wasn’t infallible, we conceded 3 goals, but we came back twice to win a game away from home and we dominated the game for the most part. Its a competition few care about (I do, but we’ll speak about that again) and we put out a junior team, not even a reserve team, this was a team of mostly youth players. With that in mind, it shouldn’t have bothered most fans what we managed to do. The win and performance by a team far removed from our first 11 in a devalued competition shouldn’t have meant anything. It did though. It struck a chord. It showed us what was possible. It showed us this manager has a plan, and when its followed, this is what can happen.

The main men returned for the next game, the big one, the home tie versus ManU. From the first minute, Liverpool looked up for this one. The immediate effort and commitment maybe owes some credit to the magnitude of the game following the Truth about the 96 deaths at Hillsborough finally being released to the wider public, but the quality of the performance does not. The quality could only have come from the mentality preached by the manager and the talent of the players. We even went down to 10 men after 20 minutes or so but still the performance levels remained and we held control of the game for the most part, even taking the lead at the start of the second half. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be in the end, the numerical advantage took its toll in the long run and a more than dubious penalty decision offered the 3 points to ManU and they took them without a question. At the end of the game, fans were understandably disappointed but few were downhearted. The only frustrations which were spoken were those against the referee.

The kids returned, along with a significant new face to beat a strong West Brom side at the Hawthorns in the Carling Cup. The significant new face is another reason for the optimism of the fans as Jerome Sinclair became the new holder of the record for youngest ever Liverpool player in a competitive game, in a funny twist of fate Sinclair was on the pitch at the same time as the previous record holder Jack Robinson. This was another strong performance and another new face Nuri Sahin managed to score his first goals for the club.

From what I have written above I think its pretty clear to see why Liverpool fans are keeping their chins up right now and why optimism is trumping pessimism at the moment. But that is exactly what brings us up to here and the question which opened this article, at what point does the result become more important than the performance? Up to now we’ve been able to acknowledge the fact that our opening to the season was particularly difficult in itself, when you put on top of that the new manager and the forming of a new team plus implementation of a new mentality certain allowances were always going to be made. The way the team has been improving over that difficult start has made the allowances last a little longer, but that difficult start is past us now. What we are facing into is a run of 3 very winnable games. First up comes Norwich away and while we have been able to take good performances up to now, and we will expect a good performance on Saturday too, will that be enough or would the fans forgo a performance at this point for the sake of 3 points? I mean, of course, in an ideal world we would have both but as we have learned over the last few season, just because we should, or could, win doesn’t mean we will. If that turns out to that we do not win but keep our performance levels will the patience of the fans be extended or will the pressure suddenly be heaped upon the manager? I’d be interested to see people post their own opinions in the comments section below to know what people think. Lets hope this is a question which doesn’t have to be answered just yet. There is plenty to be optimistic about, if we can get our first league win under Rodgers on Saturday the fans will have something tangible to hang their belief on and will help him prove himself to the players and encourage them to keep working with them. If not..... well, we’ll have to look at that next week.

The Truth.... Finally

THE TRUTH..... Finally. The survivors, the families of the 96 who lost their lives, the loved ones, the friends, the people of the city of Liverpool and all supporters of Liverpool FC saw the Truth finally made public to the rest of the world. Finally there has been acknowledgment from the government of the cover up and finally the names of the 96 victims as well as all Liverpool supporters who attended Hillsborough on April 15th 1989 have been cleared of ANY wrong doing whatsoever. David Cameron said “On behalf of the Government – and indeed our country – I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long.” It is a travesty that it has taken this long for the truth to come out, but finally, FINALLY, it has come out. 

People who have watched any decent documentary, the TV dramatization by Jimmy McGovern or read any of the true stories of what happened that day will have already been fully aware that there was injustice to fight against. Those who asked the question of "why will they not just let it go" will hopefully have finally received their answer today too. I can only hope that small minded idiots who let petty club, city or personal rivalries make excuses for their disgusting chants of "Murderers" or "You killed your own fans" will take a long, hard look at themselves today. I am aware that this is only a minority in any club but I wont need to remind Liverpool fans that it was only this year that fans of a certain blue London club interrupted the anniversary's minute silence with their disgusting chants. The mind-set for people outside of Liverpool to believe the un-true version events was orchestrated by the Police Service and facilitated by the media in particular The S*n. The report has shown that there was a conscious police effort “to develop and publicise a version of events that focused on…allegations of drunkenness, ticketlessness and violence.” This clearly shows exactly what has lead to the widely accepted myth that it was the Liverpool supporters themselves to blame. Many media outlets reported the lies, however, The S*n (which was the most read newspaper in England at the time sensationalized this further with a banner headline "The Truth" which lead a story containing nothing but lies. It is known that this headline was written by Kelvin McKenzie, the rag's editor at the time. McKenzie today issued an apology which was described by leader of the HFSG as "too little too late". Hopefully, the fact that the report has proven and the Prime minister himself has stated that these stories are complete lies will force people to forget the lies they were fed back then and adjust their minds to the actual truth. 

This report is of course only the start. The reports findings have proven that the verdict of Accidental Death in all cases is a farce and a thundering disgrace. The 3.15 cut off point robbed a number of the families of justice and meant that any evidence after this time has never been considered by any court. Speaking at the vigil this evening, Anne Williams made clear that she will now be submitting the evidence she has collected to the Attorney General, for the 6th time and the 6th Attorney General, in the hope that the verdict in relation to her own son will be reversed and a new inquest can begin.

The Truth has finally come out, but this is just the beginning. The fight for justice will continue...

I've put some of the reaction from some of the important people from today below as well as links to the full report and access to the fully disclosed documents.

Sheila Coleman, spokeswoman for the Hillsborough Justice Campaign: "Of course [the apology] is welcome, because it is an acknowledgement that Liverpool, the bereaved families and the fans have been telling the truth for years and yet have been considered liars. Without doubt the inquest verdicts have to be quashed. David Cameron batted this back to the attorney general. The attorney general needs to surely, with the evidence presented to him today and the evidence previously presented to him, must quash the inquest verdicts in all cases. With the clear evidence that fans could have been saved - and the evidence is there - he needs to give all of those 96 victims their right under law, the right to a fair hearing. It needs a full inquiry into how they died."

Margaret Aspinall, chairwoman of the Hillsborough Families Support Group, whose son James died, told the AP news agency: "This is what the families and the fans have been fighting for 23 years. Without the truth, you cannot grieve and where there is deceit, you get no justice."

Trevor Hicks, who lost two daughters in the disaster: "The truth is out today, justice starts tomorrow." He added that the families will pursue "any avenue" in their search for "accountability". Mr Hicks said that three people fainted when relatives saw the report. During a press conference with victims' relatives, he said the families "knew nothing about the incompetencies of the ambulance service until today", and that while they had been "staggered" by the level of incompetencies, he did not blame "the guys on the shop floor". Mr Hicks also rejected former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie's apology over the newspaper's coverage of the disaster as "too little, too late".

Anne Williams lost her son Kevin at Hillsborough. She has campaigned tirelessly for justice, forming the Hope for Hillsborough campaign. Previous requests for a second inquest into her son's death have been refused. Speaking at a vigil on Wednesday in Liverpool, Mrs Williams said that her lawyers would be submitting papers to the attorney general demanding a second inquest into the death of Kevin and insisted "they can't refuse me this time". She warned the establishment she "will never go away", adding: "I want justice for the 96."

The Right Reverend James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool and chairman of the panel: "The documents disclosed to and analysed by the panel show that the tragedy should never have happened. There were clear operational failures in response to the disaster and in its aftermath their were strenuous attempts to deflect the blame on to the fans. The panel's detailed report shows how vulnerable victims, survivors and their families are when transparency and accountability are compromised. My colleagues and I were from the start of our work impressed by the dignified determination of the families."

Tom Werne, Liverpool FC chairman said: "On behalf of myself, John (Henry, club owner) and everyone at the club, I would like to extend our thoughts and prayers on this hugely significant and deeply emotional day to everyone affected by the Hillsborough disaster. Today, the world has heard the real truth about what happened at Hillsborough. As a football club, we will continue to remember those who died and support the families who lost loved ones on that terrible day. We hope that today's findings will give some comfort to the families and survivors, and go some way to addressing some of the key questions that have hung over the Hillsborough tragedy for the last 23 years."

Liverpool Football Club said in a statement: "Liverpool commends the Hillsborough Independent Panel report which acknowledges the avoidable catastrophic failures before, during and after the disaster. The club also welcomes the prime minister's apology to the families and survivors on behalf of the government and await the attorney general's pending review of the report. After 23 long and painful years, our fans have finally been fully exonerated of all blame. Today, the world knows what we have always known, that Liverpool fans were not just innocent on that terrible day, but that there was reprehensible and hurtful misrepresentation of the truth. Liverpool Football Club would like to thank the Hillsborough Independent Panel for its rigorous work over the past two-and-a-half years and for publishing a comprehensive report based on the in-depth research and analysis into hundreds of thousands of documents."

LINK TO THE PANELS FULL REPORT 

(to download a copy, right click and choose "Save As")