Opinion: Liverpool need to acknowledge their failures to better themselves
It is a bitter pill to swallow. The fact that this club, this colossal footballing Goliath, or to be brutally honest, this former colossal footballing Goliath, does your head in if you are a supporter.
Why, why on earth do the club and the people associated with it behave in this manner? This is a thought that comes to mind so often, gets you so visibly upset that people close to you are justifiably concerned and question the very need of your perseverance for the sport. “Oh, it’s just a game, go out and do something else!”
Well, what do you know, you just can’t shake off the bug; once you’ve caught it, you’ve caught it. You can be angry for a while, maybe skip a few matches, fume and ponder over that stupid goal conceded because of an unnecessary free kick at the centre circle, rage about the stubbornness of the management to not spend that extra bit of cash to improve the squad, the hypocrisy of journalists and supporters, hell, even the club, that is so grandly on display on innumerable occasions. But you just can’t give it all up. The worst part of all is that you are resigned to the fact that things will not change. You know it won’t. You just have to deal with it.
When you stop and piece together the subtle and often, not-so-subtle clues, you begin to see the big picture, stare the cold, stoic truth right in its face; that the club and the multitude associated with it is not as extraordinary it has been portrayed. Recent and past events have unequivocally proved what many suspected, but did not want to believe; what many chose to ignore and tried fooling themselves into thinking that it is only their imagination when in reality, it is their myopia. It is time that we discussed certain facets of the club that are glossed over by the majority, which if you try to bring up are met with accusations of being a pessimistic prat.
The list goes on. Like the fact that the club’s transfer policies is and has been a mess. Well, relatively better presently as compared to the horror shows that we witnessed in the years gone by, but still a mess. Another aspect that we love to proudly boast about, the feeling of togetherness, the “You’ll Never Walk Alone” mantra, is merely a catchphrase for many after all.
Knives are out against the foreign supporters, the day trippers, who might never get the chance to visit the stadium again, by a certain faction of the local supporters who were merely fortunate to be born near the club. It does not stop there, of course. The abuse towards the supporters who live on the other side of the globe and the blatant xenophobia and racism displayed at times is incredulous. Favouritism is the norm amongst the majority of our supporters with blind, unrelenting support or hatred for certain players present.
The place to start is the club’s operations during the transfer windows. We always fall short at the final step, a peak Liverpool trait. The Virgil van Dijk’s saga was a prime example of that, as was Philippe Coutinho’s, as were countless others before those.
It’s the same story every summer. By this point, there are sure to be many who’d close this tab, annoyed, cursing in their minds for wasting their time, about the negative outlook of this article, right after a series of comfortable wins, both in the league as well as the last 16 stage of Champions League (let’s pretend the game at Old Trafford never happened, shall we?).
But the point remains that while we are far better than how we were two years back, we still are not good enough to challenge for the league, when it was quite within our potential to do so, even before Klopp’s arrival, given the availability of resources. We failed. Every season. The mediocre excuse of “rebuilding takes time/patience is key” only goes so far to mask the gross negligence and non-performance of those who are responsible for building the squad. The willingness to wait for a year for our preferred player kills our chances for the season. Big clubs are ruthless in this matter, but as is often said and repeated, it has always been one step forward, two steps back when it comes to Liverpool. It cannot happen this summer.
The “why” of the perpetual state of rebuilding that we always seem to find ourselves in, is the loss of that one crucial player every summer. Even as we are enjoying this incredible run of form, rumours of interest from Real Madrid in Mohamed Salah is widespread and believed by many to be authentic, given their rapid decline this season.
It appears all but inevitable that Emre Can will leave for Juventus or Bayern. This needs to stop. It is the club’s duty to hold on to a vital player, instead of giving in to his demands. It should be the norm to reward our top performers with lucrative deals that match their importance/worth to the team. Given our healthy financial status, as declared earlier by the club, the priority should be to invest in player contracts and transfer fees, even if it means we have to overspend. These are words which have been repeated time and again, but for good reasons.
Another notable aspect of every transfer window is the unrelenting attempts by many of the journalists associated with the club to try and divert the attention off the obvious miscalculations made by the club; try and engage the supporters in stories that range from odd to downright ridiculous. It is not only the mainstream media that participates in mass brainwashing; there are a multitude of fan sites, bloggers, podcasters that engage in these activities.
The sole purpose seems to be to deflect the anger and disappointment felt right after a botched attempt by the club to sign a good player or when a crucial player leaves, highlight using all the incorrect stats to prove that the team would not need those players and add a final positive twist in the narrative about the improvements witnessed during the FSG era, thereby asking the masses to “trust in the process”, “be patient”, “focus on the positives” and whatnot.
It does not end there; favouritism is so deeply ingrained, an objective take on any issue is nigh impossible. This is aided by the aforementioned entities for the most part, who bend the public opinion towards the highly inaccurate and most absurd of misinformed narratives.
Innumerable excuses for dreadful performances of certain players, which is not afforded to certain other members of the squad is a constant for these “experts”, these “super fans”, the “match-goers”. Sure, backing players no matter what is admirable and touching. But if one is going down that senseless route, it needs to be absolute. The same standards should be used for judging all players. But rarely does that happen with cognitive biases in full flow, a soft corner for the seemingly “hard-working”, “down-to-earth” players and an obvious lack of tactical understanding of the sport.
Raheem Sterling is still abused by a majority. Daniel Sturridge is still perceived by many to be weak-minded and lazy. Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana and James Milner are still championed as the second coming of the great midfielders of the yesteryears, their average performances overlooked consistently.
But the biggest blind spot of all is when it comes to Dejan Lovren, whose belief in bypasses arrogance, who constantly feels the need to big himself up and appeal to the mob. What many fail to recognise is that they are professionals who do not require mollycoddling.
The worst part of this unwavering backing is the hypocrisy of those that engage in it; certain other players are not afforded the same support and patience. We have seen the treatment, the abuse that Alberto Moreno and Loris Karius received. Jumping on every single one of their mistakes was a hobby for the same crowd who’d let our captain, club spokesperson (who else but Adam Lallana) and the mighty Croat walk away with murder.
On the other hand, those three players, especially Lovren, have also seen a fair share of insults and well deserved too. But lines have been crossed repeatedly with the criticism handed out to them all. Incredulously, knives were out too for the man, for the striker who helped us mount our title challenge of 2013/14, who did more for us than many of these ever have or ever will, simply because he got injured often.
Sturridge was subjected to endless vile insults and calls to have his contract terminated right away, for the only reason that his body was no longer fit enough to bear the rigours of the Premier League and particularly, Klopp’s style. This is the worst of Liverpool supporters. Objectivity and a measure of control with our criticism is needed.
Lastly, the behaviour of supporters towards each other online, be it on Twitter or forums, is dire at times. No, not talking about the lack of mutual respect for each other’s opinions; that ship had sailed long back. Although one thing that needs to be mentioned here is the superiority with which many of the supporters who get to go to the games carry themselves online, looking down at the opinions of people who live abroad, who lose sleep and stay up till the crack of dawn to watch games.
We are a beautiful club. There is plenty to appreciate about us, about the city and supporters. But all that has been repeatedly said and done.
It is time we faced facts and tried cutting off our cancerous side. Honesty is first and foremost the only way we move forward, better ourselves. We, as supporters, have been downright disgraceful on many occasions. There needs to be an acknowledgement of those mistakes and attempts to improve ourselves, the club included.