The FA Cup semi-final; what a great achievement for our club. Yeah, OK, it isn’t quite the final. Yet it seems to have taken us so long to get here this season I think it’s definitely something that I’m going to get excited about. A season that looks to have been embroiled in a load of downs and very few ups seems to have been written off as a practice for next year by some sections of the crowd is in actual fact a season that we’re 4 points off a team in free-fall in the league and in the semi-final of the FA Cup – the best domestic cup competition in the world.
All that has come before can be whatever you want to think, it makes no difference. It really doesn’t. Let’s turn over a new leaf. As a set of supporters, let’s forget how much of a strange season this has been so far and look forward. What is the worst that can happen? The worst that can happen is we can give our all for a football club for the next 6 weeks, like we should shout every week regardless, and get nothing from it. Which means we don’t really lose anything anyway. Yeah, alright, other fans may take the piss because we all got a bit over-the-top about winning the FA Cup and nothing came of it, but I’d much rather feel that than feel like I didn’t shout loud enough when we played a game. Let’s use this semi-final as a moment to be proud of, and a moment that may be able to turn around our season. Feel free to tell me I’m talking absolute drivel if you want, I’ll listen, and then dismiss your comments as complete rhubarb. Being negative does nothing for anyone. The way I like to see things is, where possible, only do things that add value. Being negative adds no value. Liverpool FC get nothing from it. You get nothing from it. Hell, I get absolutely nothing from it, other than the want to see you float away.
So, after that half-arsed rant about people being silly (think of the brilliant Monty Python sketches by Graham Chapman where he tells people off for being too silly – “this is all getting much too silly”) let me bring myself to the matter at hand. The FA Cup semi-final vs Aston Villa. What a cheeky little tie this is. Tim Sherwood, gilet retired for the spring/summer months, is aiming to restore his reputation after doing such a poor job only just failing to get Spurs into the top four (sarcasm should be noticed) and bring cup glory to a club that seemed destined to finish the season limping across the finish-line as either relegation fodder or a tame lower-table finish. Yet, somehow, here they are, playing Liverpool, aiming to restore their reputation after doing such a poor job getting 4 points behind 4th place, season still running, and after being expected to crawl over the finish line with absolutely nothing of note except possibly another lame Europa League place gained.
Well, it’s safe to say that this season could get much better, much quicker than that haters ever thought. Be as ‘sporting’ as you like, anything could happen in this game, for sure, but come on; Liverpool should win this tie. Too confident? Not likely, just a realist. If us as fans of this club can’t be optimistic about playing a Villa side that is just the right side of becoming the new Newcastle, then I don’t know what the hell we’re here for. We may as well just put ourselves in the bin and take up golf because you’re doing it all wrong. Have a little look at each team and then tell me who the better side is. It is undeniably Liverpool. If Liverpool turn up, which I believe they will, then we will win this game. Against Newcastle on Monday, I think we were a couple of final balls off absolutely battering them. Our passing at times was immense. Coutinho was at his beautiful best and Sterling, for the first time in a good while, matched the managers’ praise of being outstanding, with a great finish, some brilliant attacking play and even a standing ovation to boot. Come on lad, you want a song? Get us to Wembley and you will hear one sooner than later. Want a new contract worth six figures? Get us to Wembley and keep performing and you will get one sooner rather than later. Here’s another one for you; Simon Mingolet is our in-form player. Let that sink in for a second. This is a player who inexplicably let the ball run out for a corner for no obvious reason is now smashing it. His goalkeeping has been really very good. At times it has been marvellous. His kicking still needs work, but it is his ability to defend our goal that we should be concentrating on, not his inability to create our goals with his kicking up the other end.
And let’s not forget to mention that our goalkeeper has the most clean sheets in the Premier League this year.
It’s all well and good me telling you we have a team good enough to get to the final, but what could this all mean? Well, obviously, it means we could have a very real chance of obtaining silverware this year. Something each club, each yeah, should be striving for. Without doubt. It is the lifeblood of a football team. And it has been a few years since we’ve tasted that sweet nectar of cup glory. Yet, it could mean so much more than the physical embodiment and representation of success. So much more. For a starter for ten it gives our young team, one of the youngest in the league, the buzz of glory much earlier in their career than a lot of our other players ever got in their time at the club. If you see football as very much a game of opinions and different views (which it is) then there is one common theme throughout all managers’ philosophy. That theme is winning. Keep winning. Win all day, all night. Win on your days off. Win on your days in. But most of all, win a trophy. Get one under the belt. Let’s have a go at the one thing that attracts players to a club more than money. Silverware. If you’re of the opinion that Sterling is thinking of leaving now, let’s win a trophy and see him give that a second thought. Forget Sterling, what about Stevie? He will want to win a cup more than anyone else in the country. Maybe the world. This is why he starts on Sunday, surely. He may not be the quickest across the ground anymore, but he has been in more semi-finals than Tim Sherwood has won games (the facts may need checking on this…)
It could also be a hell of a lot more than just the players that an FA Cup win could affect. It is the culture of the club, the positivity around the place. Both non-playing staff and fans alike, all buzzing and ready to work to try and get this club back the where it belongs, all doing their own little bit for the cause. It would also appease the higher echelons at the club. Last year’s positivity and the qualitative opinions of people like myself doesn’t cut it when the owner of the club comes knocking at the manager’s door. Owners want to see wins, high point scores and trophies, not or trophies. “We’re doing better, I can feel it” means absolutely squat to John Henry, but a cup win and two trips to Wembley can convince him that this team can go very far with some more money in the close season. Which it genuinely can.
I want the players to have the feeling of what it’s like to win a trophy, I want the fans to, too. I love it, it’s like a drug. But I also want to see Brendan Rodgers win the FA Cup. Not just because of the hordes of idiots that want him gone, although that will fill me to the brim with happiness, but because he deserves it. He’s led this club on leaps and bounds since he took over. Some of the best days of my football watching career came last year, and for that I am a massive believer. But also, don’t you think Rodgers is at his best when he is a bit cocky? A bit balls-out? When he is managing as though he knows something everyone else doesn’t? An example of that was last Monday, playing Coutinho as a false 9 when everyone thought that Sterling would play up top. It is this type of managing that can help your players beat teams, which is certainly did on Monday. Newcastle didn’t know what to do with Coutinho. No-one knew how to mark him. In a game of little margins, it is this slight unease amongst opposition players that can be the difference between winning a game and drawing a game. Winning a cup or being runners up. It is this tactical acumen that Rodgers brings to the table. In my opinion, it is the players’ jobs to beat teams lower than you, but it is the manager’s job to show the players how to beat teams above and around you. Other than Chelsea, Rodgers has done this for us. This is why he deserves some credit. And a cup. And time. He deserves a few things, doesn’t he?
So come on, give the lads a break. Forget about what has been, and think about what could be. Walk on, with hope in our hearts.
