I am breaking silence here for the first time in a while to let you all know that the 12th Man is not dead! I have not stopped writing, I have simply moved location. You can find my articles at http://www.oleole.com/blogs/the-kop-end along with those of my colleague.
You will notice that the blog is very much focussed on happenings at Liverpool FC but fear not, I will continue to stick my nose into any territory of interest.
This time last season Liverpool were enjoying an emphatic start to the Premier League campaign which would culminate in us topping the table for the first time under Rafa Benitez, thus stating our intentions as serious challengers for the most coveted prize. Manchester City, however, were just happy to be mixing it with clubs like Liverpool and anything they could take from us would of been regarded as a bonus as they pursued a place in the second tier of European football. Now, though, the playing field has been more than levelled by the injection of cash into Man City that now makes them the richest club in the world, bar none.
All our prestigious history and honours, then, will count for nothing on Saturday as we line up against a probable future superpower of the game. Could this match be the catalyst for change in the forces of the English game? Could we finally realise our biggest fear and be left behind by those who simply flex bigger financial muscles? Or will this finally be the game in which we bounce back (again) without crashing back down to earth with a thud in the very next game? We will all be hoping for the latter but given that our recent form has seen us blowing hot and cold more so than a Travelodge shower, few will be seeing 3 points as a certainty.
For all our woes this season, it has to be said that Manchester City haven't exactly covered themselves in glory either. The age old problem of getting a team to gel seems to have held back City's superstars thus far and although they have enjoyed some very positive results, like Liverpool, they have been unable to string them together. Even at such an early stage, then, this game is of huge importance to both sides. Although nothing will be decided in November, there is certainly an underlying narrative of the chase for European football next year being closely contested between the two clubs that will step out at Anfield on Saturday.
This early battle for the rights to the big stage next season is a far cry from hopes we harboured at the start of the campaign of battling it out for the title all year long. However, circumstances dictate that we must set our sites on realistic goals and take things one step at a time, starting with the 3 points that are up for grabs tomorrow.
You don't need me to tell you of the repercussions that injuries have had upon our performances of late; it is clear for all to see that we lack the quality in depth to replace our key men. It is welcome news, then, that we will be able to recall some of the big guns on Saturday. And we will need them, too, as Manchester City have some rather explosive firepower of their own.
We are all set to welcome back Steven Gerrard to the fray but, as seems to be the trend, when one big player returns another is lost. Yossi Benayoun will join Fernando Torres on the sidelines meaning Ryan Babel is likely to get a chance to stake his claims for still being here next season.
Manchester City have some injury problems of their own. But perhaps problems is the wrong word in the context of their squad. Inconveniences, perhaps, is a more suitable term. While being without the services of such talented players as Craig Bellamy and Robinho would cause major headaches for most sides, Man City enjoy the luxury of being able to call upon the likes of Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor, no less.
Here's what we think the Liverpool team could look like:
------------------Reina-----------------
Johnson----Carra----Agger-----Insua
------------Masch---------Lucas-------------
Kuyt-------------Gerrard-------------Babel
-------------------N'Gog----------------------
Dominic is going for a 2-1 home win. Undoubtedly, we both make our predictions with rose-tinted spectacles firmly on face and as a result of my inability to admit inferiority, I am going for a blindly optimistic 3-1 win for ourselves.
While I am under no illusions about the quality of the Manchester City side who sit a point above us in the table, I just refuse to accept that we are destined to take their place as the perpetual underachievers of English football.
I am so sick and tired of hearing about how we will bounce back from our current troubles and finally kick start our campaign. So far it has been all talk and no product as despite showing our ability to bounce back, like in the game against Manchester Utd, we have also shown a distinct inability to build on it, the obvious example of this being the game against Fulham, amongst many others.
Let's be clear about one thing; being an historic and decorated club gives us no divine right to future successes. We have to fight tooth and nail for honours just as the Liverpool of the 1970's and 80's did. If we don't start to string some good results together there is absolutely no reason why a team of Man City's quality can't step in and take our position at dizzying heights of English and European football's elite.
While the the 3 points at stake in this game is not the be all and end all of the season, there is certainly a feeling of the old master in red lying stricken, and the young apprentice in blue smelling blood and sensing an opportunity to go for the jugular. It is up to those men in red on Saturday to put the pretenders in their place and show them that all the money in the world can't buy you a Steven Gerrard, or such strong team spirit or such unwavering and inspriational support.
With their infinite resources, Man City will undoubtedly go on to make history in the game. It is up to those with a Liverbird on their chest to ensure that they do not do it at our expense. We, too, are a club with ambitions of going on to make history for many years to come. However, if we do not do something to stop the rot soon, then we we won't be making history at all. We will, instead, be confined to it.
As the large, grey cloud of underachievement continues to loom ominously overhead, I thought I'd try to locate that elusive silver lining in an attempt to bring some light to your lives after what has so far been, by our own very high standards, a complete car crash of a season.
For a number of reasons, which I really don't have the will to go into, we find ourselves facing a gargantuan challenge to end the season on a high. No matter what fashion we finish up in, though, the future of this club is as bright as it's ever been.
Cast your mind back, if you will, to the Houllier days. After a succession of big money flop signings, Liverpool were teetering on the brink of losing their status as an established top 4 side. As fond as we all were of Houllier, we knew that if the club was to move forwards then a fresh approach was needed.
I remember the excitement I felt when Rafa took over. This was the man responsible for smashing through the Real Madrid / Barcelona stronghold in La Liga with his all crushing Valencia side. This was a man in demand and it was we, Liverpool, who were getting him. In my opinion, Rafa is probably the best signing this club has made in the last ten years.
Now every pundit, journalist, blogger and bin man seems to have their opinion on Rafa's transfer record. Figures are plucked out of the sky and regurgitated in pubs all across the country. Luckily, however, there are a few people with half a brain of their own who are charged with the responsibility of educating these would-be football managers on the real facts of the matter.
I'm not going to go into the stats and figures but let's just look at the difference between the team Rafa was to inherit when Houllier departed.
Liverpool squad 2003-04
Goalkeepers Jerzy Dudek, Chris Kirkland, Patrice Luzi
Defenders Carl Medjani, Stephane Henchoz, Jon Otsemobor, Steve Finnan, John Welsh, Djimi Traore, Sami Hyypia, Salif Diao, Jamie Carragher
Midfielders Dietmar Hamann, John Arne Riise, Danny Murphy, Bruno Cheyrou, Steven Gerrard, Igor Biscan, Vladimir Smicer
Forwards Michael Owen, El Hadji Diouf, Anthony Le Tallec, Milan Baros, Florent Sinama Pongolle, Harry Kewell, Emile Heskey, Richie Partridge
And here's what the current 2009-10 squad looks like:
Goalkeepers Jose Manuel Reina, Diego Cavalieri, Martin Hansen, Peter Gulacsi, Dean Bouzanis
Defenders Glen Johnson, Daniel Agger, Fabio Aurelio, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Emiliano Insua, Jamie Carragher, Philipp Degen, Stephen Darby, Martin Kelly, Steven Irwin, Martin Skrtel, Andrea Dossena, Daniel Sanchez Ayala
Midfielders Alberto Aquilani, Steven Gerrard, Albert Riera, Yossi Benayoun, Javier Mascherano, Lucas Leiva, Jay Spearing, Damien Plessis, Nabil El Zhar
Forwards Fernando Torres, Andriy Voronin, Dirk Kuyt, Ryan Babel, David N'Gog, Nathan Eccleston
So say what you will about the mans transfers, but he has got rid of a hell of a lot of deadwood and replaced it with true quality.
It's easy to forget amidst the current injury crisis that we now have an exceptionally strong squad in comparison to what it was 5 years ago. The exciting thing for us is that a lot of our best players are still relatively young.
Reina, Agger, Mascherano, Aquilani and Torres in particular look like they could form the spine of the team in years to come and looking at that, you can't help but think that the future is safe in their hands.
Rafa has been given big money on 4 occasions quite recently, and has used it to bring in Javier Mascherano, Fernando Torres, Glen Johnson and Alberto Aquilani. If these are the kind of players he brings in for around £20m, then there are few managers I'd trust more with Chelsea and Man City style backing.
Then there's the matter of the way he operates on a budget.
Pepe Reina, Daniel Agger, Emiliano Insua, Yossi Benayoun, Dirk Kuyt and David N'Gog are just a few examples of players that Rafa has brought in relatively cheaply and got them performing way above most peoples expectations. I would of liked to of added Xabi Alonso to that list but unfortunately he's moved on. Still, getting £30m for him is fantastic business if nothing else.
Benitez, then, has an uncanny ability to pluck players from mediocrity, throw them in at the highest level and get them performing. If they don't prove their worth he is also ruthelessly efficient in shipping them off right away. This is a far cry from the Houllier days where even the biggest of flops were continually entrusted with our fate as the manager let his stubborn ways get in the way of what was best for the team.
In the time he has been here, then, Rafa has taken a Liverpool squad with gaping holes throughout, and plugged them with world class talent that will ensure that the future of this club is safe for years to come. The man has already proved he can operate on a budget and given the recent big money signings has also proved he can be trusted with more significant sums.
The manager is under contract here until 2014 and I have absolute faith that he will bring home the Premier League title in that time, with many more trophies along the way. Granted, there are better squads out there than our own but that is just something a club in our financial situation has to deal with. In my opinion, our emphatic title charge last term just goes to prove that Rafa has done just about as well as anyone could do in his position, and will undoubtedly continue to do so.
The simple facts of the matter are that we have a world class manager nurturing a world class team. With a little bit of luck, we might soon get some world class investment. Whatever the outcome of this season, though, if we look at the bigger picture there is no doubt that progress is continually being made.
Today, then, I am choosing not to be overshadowed by the gloomy clouds. Today I'm letting a little sunshine into my life and I hope you will all do the same. After all, the future's bright. The future's red. Sorry, couldn't resist.
As I awoke this morning, just for the briefest of moments, I was blissfully unaware of last nights events. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before I started recalling what had happened. Flashbacks of Babel's brilliant goal were quickly erased by haunting images of Lopez's last-minute heart breaker. And for some reason I just cannot seem to get the image of the Group E Table out of my head. 4 points...really?
As a football writer, you come to love and loath the job in equal measure. While there is no pleasure quite like writing an article whilst still basking in the glory of a magnificent win, there is also no low quite like having to put pen to paper after a damaging defeat.
As I write this, every fibre in my body is urging me to shut off from all things football and go and bury my head in the sand. However, as I have a duty to review the Lyon game, I suppose I'd better get on with it!
As much as I'm sick of saying this after not winning, we did play well. In the first half alone we created more than enough chances to put the game to bed. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few burning effigies of Andriy Voronin across Merseyside tonight, the Ukranian did not cover himself in glory when he spurned a glorious opportunity to give us the lead. Pepe Reina's reaction mirrored those of Liverpool fans everywhere, who are rapidly losing patience with their second choice striker.
Going in level at half time flattered a Lyon team who were yet to have any real say in the game. It was almost as though they had dangled the bait in front of us knowing we were incapable of taking it. With the words of Claude Peul ringing in their ears, though, the home team started the second half with a bit more purpose. Yet for all their their new found desire, it was Liverpool who continued to dominate. As has been the story of our season though, we failed to take our chances and nearly paid the ultimate price when, with just 17 minutes left to play, Lisandro Lopez intercepted Kyriagos's suicidal back pass to force a point-blank save from an alert Pepe Reina.
It was starting to look like another one of those games in which we wouldn't score even if we were offered another 90 minutes of play. As time ticked away and our Champions League hopes began to fade, there was a cue for a hero to take the game by the scruff of the neck, and drag us kicking and screaming into the next round.
83 minutes in and substitute Ryan Babel stepped up to produce an Olympiakos moment. His stunning strike was worthy of winning any game and should of been a goal that was fondly remembered as the one that saved our Champions League campaign. However, our inability to see out a game meant we were to pay the ultimate price after all.
Lisandro Lopez had threatened on more than one occasion and he was on hand late on to chip past a helpless Pepe Reina with one of the last kicks of the game.
I cannot remember the last time I felt such euphoria, followed so quickly by such crushing disappointment. This just wasn't in the script. Ryan Babel and the rest of the lads should of been celebrating the goal that turned the tide once and for all. However, his sublime goal will now be forgotten just as quickly as it was scored.
Let me start by saying that I'm not surprised. I've seen all of our games this season, and I understand the limitations of a squad that is thin and devoid of quality in some areas. Despite this, however, I never thought that Champions League qualification would be out of our hands this year.
OK, we weren't handed the easiest of groups, but it was by no means the toughest either. I was expecting us to top the group with relative ease. I could never of envisaged us battling it out with minnows Debrecen for a Europa League spot.
In truth, if we're not going to qualify for the Champions League I think I'd almost rather we finished fourth. At least that way it would be forgotten about and we wouldn't have to endure the humiliation of wasting our resources on a second rate competition.
In recent years Liverpool have enjoyed a reputation of being one of the most feared forces in European football. We were the team nobody wanted to draw, and we feared absolutely nobody. However, with great success comes great expectation and for a club like ours not to qualify for the Champions League is just surreal.
As circumstances dictate we are left praying that Lyon can beat Fiorentina in a few weeks time. Given Lyons lacklustre performance against us, though, few will feel the French team are capable of taking anything off an Italian team who are particularly useful at home. Add that to the fact that Lyon are already qualified, and the scrap of hope that we are clinging to becomes even smaller.
So when the time comes that we must face our inevitable fate, I will not be surprised, but I will certainly be hugely disappointed. Although we are all but out of the competition now, it still won't feel real until the 2 teams at the top of the Group E table are highlighted in yellow. Then the reality will really set in and we will have to start contemplating life in the second tier of European football.
I remember when Manchester Utd failed to qualify for the knock-out stages in the 2005-06 season. Their season, like ours this term, was also dealt cruel blows with injuries to key players such as Gabriel Heinze, Alan Smith, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. Utd went on to finish 2nd in the Premier League that season, as well as bringing home the League Cup. After a start to the season as turbulent as ours has been, most Liverpool fans would rip your arm off if you offered them a similar finish right now.
So while we know from Manchester Utd's dominance over the last few years that going out of this competition at this stage would not be catastrophic in the long term, it would certainly do nothing to stop the rot of a season that is rapidly falling apart at the seams.
The repercussions would hit us hardest in the pocket, as we'd lose out on the revenue that comes with playing in Europe's premier competition. A club in our financial situation can scarcely afford such a cutback and it would be a real body blow to any ambitions we had of strengthening the squad in January.
Now, then, we must start to plan for the unthinkable reality of life outside of Europe's elite. Granted, it is not over until the fat lady sing, but she is surely clearing her throat now.
To be honest, I'm not sure I could endure the embarrassment of watching the team brush shoulders with footballs perpetual underachievers. I'll have to find something else to do of a midweek. Maybe I'll take up pottery classes...
Anyway, I digress.
I shall leave you with a piece of advice that a Liverpool fan once gave me after our Champions League final defeat in 2007.
When I told him of how utterly broken I was that we had failed to bring home our 6th European Cup, his advice to me was simple:
"Live a little longer, you'll experience much worse!"
How true this was.
As we teeter on the brink of falling out of the competition this season, I'm just grateful we were in that final in the first place.
What happens this season will not define our future in the long term. No matter what lows we experience now, there will always be highs along the way. It's all in a days work as a supporter of the roller-coaster football club that is Liverpool F.C.
Heroes are best separated from villains by what they do in the face of adversity. While the bad guys will go missing and take the easy way out, heroes will stand up and fight with every fibre in their bodies until there is just nothing more to give.
For those Liverpool players who step out at the Stade de Gerland on Wednesday night, then, there is a chance to be a hero. The question is will they take this opportunity and run with it, or will they accept defeat and be considered villains.
You would be forgiven for thinking that the furore surrounding this game would be more suited to the Champions League final, not a game in the group stages. However, such are the circumstances the Reds find themselves in, this match will define their hopes of European glory this season and, in fact, their season as a whole. For a club with so much history in the competition, it is unthinkable that they are just 90 minutes away from such a catastrophic fall from grace.
In the build up to this decisive match Rafa Benitez has been rocked by the news of a potentially crippling list of absentees. While Alberto Aquilani should be fit to travel, Steven Gerrard (groin) Albert Riera (hamstring), Martin Kelly (ankle) and Martin Skrtel (muscle) are all staying in Liverpool for treatment.
Late fitness tests will be given to Daniel Agger (back), Glen Johnson (calf), Fabio Aurelio (calf) and David Ngog (ankle) to determine if they are fit enough to take part. Liverpool fans everywhere will be praying they are all fit for selection after last weekends horror show at Craven Cottage.
Lyon themselves have no such problems and are seeking to secure qualification to the knock-out stages with a victory on home turf. Liverpool will have to hope Debrecen can take something from Fiorentina to give to give us the best possible chance of qualifying.
This could be another occasion, then, like the one against Fulham last weekend, where some of the fringe players can step out of the shadows and prove exactly why it was that Rafa brought them to the club in the first place.
Unfortunately, things didn't exactly go to plan at last time around but if there's one thing we know about Liverpool it's that when all hope seems lost they are always capable of finding something extra within to propel them to glory.
Olympiakos and Istanbul may be nothing but distant memories now, but that does not mean Benitez's men can't take inspiration from them. Time and time again they have proved that they can rise up from the jaws of defeat to clinch victory, no matter how unlikely it may seem.
Liverpool players and fans alike must ignore the taunts of those around them who are revelling in their woes and concentrate on their own game. Let those people say what they will, it is they who will look foolish should Liverpool turn their fortunes around.Forgive me for stating the obvious here but It is not over until it is over.
So instead of being roped into any such unproductive nonsense, then, Reds fans should concentrate their efforts on getting behind them team and allow the lads to do the talking on the pitch.
Those who are travelling to Lyon must do their utmost to create an electric atmosphere and make the Stade de Gerland feel like a home from home. Once the players know that the fans believe in them, they may begin to believe in themselves.
I am breaking silence here for the first time in a while to let you all know that the 12th Man is not dead! I have not stopped writing, I have simply moved location. You can find my articles at http://www.oleole.com/blogs/the-kop-end along with those of my colleague.
