Liverpoool fans Special – Some Random Thoughts

I’ll be as simple, straightforward and to the point as I can be. The crucial month of October changed many things. Injuries, inconsistency in form, shock defeats against weak oppositions, protests, and what not that could derail any club (especially the one who is under a league title drought for two decades now) from it’s ambitions to fight for the league.

With the defeat against Fullham, the fight for the league title seems a lost cause: five defeats in eleven games made even the strongest of reds fans go ‘it’s over’ ‘we’re out of it’.

I say no, it’s not over. Hell, its not even nearly over yet. The fun has just started!

Why? A few simple facts which I want to list:

Fact 1: Last league title (1989-90) came to Anfield with Liverpool loosing five games and drawing ten with total points 79. (Fun fact: Last season, Liverpool drew just 1 more and lost three less and got 86 points but didn’t win the league).
Point to be noted: Five league defeats (even if the come in the first eleven games) in no way means a title shot is over.

Fact 2: 2000-01 season saw Liverpool slump to six defeats and eight draws, gathering 80 points and finishing the season runners up. (Sub-fact: Arsenal, who won the league that season, lost two and drew nine games, more than what Liverpool did last season(Liverpool didn’t win))
Point to be noticed: Analysts said last season, being the team who plays the best football (no argument on who played the best football last season, it was Liverpool F.C.) doesn’t guarantee it a league title, points guarantee that. Surely, Liverpool can get the points (and still) play the best to win the league as for the current situation in the league table.

I can list a few more of statistics here but I won’t. Bottom line: Nothing is over yet, neither the title hopes, nor the overall season (contrary to what the WHOLE media is saying about Liverpool F.C.).

Now, a few positives which I see currently for Liverpool F.C as a club, as a football team and especially for us, the fans:

1. Liverpool are yet to draw a game in the league. Put it this way: Liverpool are yet to come across the phenomenon which proved to be the bane of their title hopes last season.

2. Of the five defeats, how many defeats were there in which Liverpool got out played by the opposition? Opening game against Tottenham may be, against Aston Villa? The game against Chelsea was not at all a bad game, infact Liverpool were the better team for more than three quarters of the game. Sunderland and Fullham defeats are just what I call ‘came at the wrong place, and at the wrong time’. One can debate at this point, but if you look as a Liverpool fan (be biased) you’ll surely be able to get some positives out of these games: Liverpool didn’t played ‘badly’, nor did they oppositions ‘over powered’ Liverpool, it was just ’something’s missing’ which caused the team to slump.

3. We have a better squad than we had last season. Surely its not as good as what is required by a team who’s challenging the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal (and this season, Tottenham, Manchester City too). Lucas Leiva (tell me one Liverpool fan who didn’t hate him last season?) has improved by leaps and bounds, Benayoun is much better than last time, Torres is available most of the time to last atleast 45 minutes or so a game and is in fiery form. Mascherano is doing his job well and with the addition of Aquilani, surely things are to improve even further (read: I’m not saying Liverpool will go on a winning streak with Aquilani leading them to a win every match). Defense is still somewhat behind and needs working but things are much much better than last season: Liverpool haven’t conceded from set pieces (something they did, ALOT last season).

4. Benitez is calm, quite and focused this season. Something he wasn’t last season. Last time this was the case, Liverpool won the Champions League, the FA Cup, and reached the Champions League final.

Now this is what I think we fans should be thinking. I’ll give you people my own example:

Why did I become the fan of Liverpool? Summarized answer to this is that I appreciated the traditions associated with the club, it’s history, culture and heritage. Now I add one more thing to this: I call it “The Liverpool Mentality”.

Liverpool F.C. is a football club that has a somewhat different culture, which is centered around a very important word ‘belief’. Not many clubs in the world rely on this attribute, and all of us know, Liverpool F.C. owes its entire history and record to this word. I’ll quote a few lines of our anthem here for all to read once and remember what we rely on the most:

When you walk through a storm hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho’ your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone,
You’ll never, ever walk alone.

This anthem portrays and urges everyone associated to the club to never stop believing. No matter how tough the circumstances! We all know the club and the team has been in far more worse conditions than those that surround us today, and we’ve come out of them bigger, better and confident.
Example: UEFA Champions League 2005, FA Cup 2001 etc.

The team ranked 15th out of 16 in bids to win the Champions League defeated the favorites (remember the final and the Gerrard celebration after his first goal? That’s belief) and came out champions, with the squad not even remotely close in quality of what it is now.

I can go on and on with this, but Liverpool fans are special. Yes we are, because we’re different from others. We didn’t became fans to count the millions invested in clubs by owners, nor did we become fans in the love of players like Lampard, or Beckham, or Henry. We’ve associated ourselves for the club, it’s history, the belief, mentality, style. Nor did we got attracted to the shining ‘triplets’ and ‘quintuples’ to become fans. yes trophies, awards and records are important, but they never make or break a Liverpool fan!

Lastly, I would just say, please don’t loose hope. Being sad doesn’t means one has lost hope. Everyone gets sad to see our boys work so hard and then loose, but then again,

Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on walk on with hope in your heart

That was what was in my heart, now I’ve shared it with you all. Kindly join in because we’re different, we’re special and our club is, still, the best! And we are still the loudest!

You’ll Never Walk Alone!
Liverpool F.C. for Life.