Liverpool FC Forum

[The Ace1983]

When this season started, we were tipped for the top, and, in fairness, we are in fourth and the gap isn't unassailable. But, since we returned from the last international break, we've had, to say the very least, problems. The defeat against Marseille was probably the worst of our results, but the draws against Birmingham, Portsmouth and Spurs were all games that we should probably have won. Any excuses? Well, not really. Except to say that, if you look back over the years, French teams, Marseille in particular, have often caused us problems in Europe, Birmingham have a little bit of a hoodoo over us and everyone's having problems going to Fratton Park this season, even the other big boys. Porto away was probably the toughest tie of our CL group and Spurs, despite what the league table says, are a very good team.

However, this season, we were supposed to show something extra against these sort of clubs, and we have failed to do so. But this is not the end. Man Utd suffered similar results in the first few games of their campaign, and Chelsea didn't score a goal in September. The league is getting tougher, and we are still fourth with a game in hand that will take us into third with just a couple of points between us and Man Utd. All is not yet lost.

And now we have arrived at yet another international break. Well, think of it like this. If there is some sort of psychological implication taken from these hiatuses, perhaps the players ought to think of this lapse like this:

We were doing well -- International break begins -- limbo period between breaks -- international break ends -- season starts again.

By this, I mean that we should count everything, from the beginning of the last international break to the end of the break that we are just entering as a single period. A period where things went wrong, be they injuries or results, that finishes when the players next pull on a red shirt. In short, this brief allotment of time that will end in two weeks or so, should not be treated as an end, nor a beginning, but both.

It's the end of the rubbish and the beginning of the true Liverpool, the Liverpool we all expected to see emerge from the Anfield tunnel this season. They've had a blip, but now we draw a line under it. It's finished, it's gone. No point in crying over spilt milk, etc. Now we start again, in a manner more befitting our status.

When they return for us, don't think abut the spurs game, nor the Marseille result. None of that matters. It's time to move on. Keep the moans and groans to forums like this. They need a clean slate so that they can drop their baggage and press on, unfettered by frustration, anger and sorrow. They need a bit of belief and a sense that they are good enough. No expectations would be nice, but I can't see that happening, and no excuses. Any set of 11 players that we put out should be able to win, end of. But pressure got to them I think. In scrambled attempts to right some wrongs they dug themselves in further to their follys. Like kicking in quicksand. This needs to end, and we need to give them a new beginning.

Of course, we still expect, they still excuse, we all bare our little foibles. But let's use this international break to give us a rebirth. We always think of them as negative things, these holidays from the season, but that's just a state of mind issue. We need to see this as a time to take stock, break free of reputations and recriminations, and have another go. A bit like a "do-over".

We'll never get back the points that we lost, so why b1tch and moan about it? They're gone, bye-bye, they're never coming back. Fin, finished, done. It's time to move on, look forward and work with what's left which, by the way, is a great deal. The season is not over, for us, it has not yet begun!

[bigmick]

Well at least we can be safe in the knowledge that just about whichever way we decide to go about approaching the next period of league games after this International break, we can't get it quite as wrong as last time. Although we haven't lost, we've dropped six points in four games of which we should have been looking to win at least two.

Maybe it's time to approach it differently, be less concerned about "fatigue", air miles and the like and take a bit of a punt on our team. Arsenal made one change from their startingline up from an Away trip in Europe to a game in the Premierhship at the weekend and they didn't look too tired to me. They handled it OK so lets give our lads a go.

My money is that if you pulled Torres, Gerrard and Carra to one side and said "listen lads, I've fecked it up and I need you three to help me pull us out of the sh!te." they'd be with you all the way. Lets become a team again, if we do we can still win the title.

[puroresu]

The International break cannot be blamed for the recent poor run of form.  We aint the only club who have players on duty.  Its the same for all the top clubs.

[The Ace1983]

The International break cannot be blamed for the recent poor run of form.  We aint the only club who have players on duty.  Its the same for all the top clubs.

Of course every team has to deal with it, but how we deal with it has perhaps been questional. Rafa made a big deal about it even before we had one this season. He filed that dossier about how we always kick off at midday (another thing that no-one else has to deal with), which was probably some sort of retaliation after the Heinze thing. But, by highkighting it, he may have built some sort of psychological wall in front of the players. In fact, when he submitted the file he said that he didn't want to give the players an excuse, but that was exactly what he was doing. And when you're losing, sometimes it's very difficult to change things for the better.

Anyway, this thread is about looking forward, not back. It happened, it sucked, it's over. Time to look to the way we take ourselves forward after the international break that we are currently involved in. We need to approach the next game like we approached the Villa game and push for a win at all costs. If we get back in the groove, wins will come naturally. And I can't think of a better game to start a new winning run than our next one.