2nd May 2019 – Football is cruel, at least if you’re a
Liverpool fan.
To be honest, it’s getting me down a bit now.
This side are brilliant - the best I have seen in 25 years of
supporting the Reds - and yet they are now heavily odds-on to win nothing
this season. People will mock it, articles will be written labelling Jurgen
Klopp and his player ‘bottlers’ and it will all be deeply unjust. This lot
deserve to be remembered for years to come. I can stomach Liverpool falling
short because of true greatness up against them, however, which is what has
happened to the Reds this season, as their timing has proved typically
unlucky.
I sat and watched my team outplay Barcelona at the Nou Camp for large
periods on Wednesday night - when does that ever happen? But they somehow
lost 3-0. Why? Well, some questionable finishing certainly played a part, but
Liverpool also happened to come up against the greatest person to have ever
kicked a football. Lionel Messi was the difference yet again and that
free-kick was a moment of pure artistry by comfortably the best there has
ever been.
Call me rude, or a know-it-all, but if you don’t think he is the
so-called GOAT, I fail to respect your opinion on football.
If Liverpool had Messi and Barca had Mohamed Salah - you’re great too
Mo, don’t get me wrong - they would have annihilated the newly crowned La
Liga champions. But we don’t, though, and it looks set to be the difference
between European glory and no European glory for another year.
I’m a bit cranky, can you tell?
Anyway, let’s talk about City, because that’s what I’m primarily here
to do.
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Where Liverpool's luck ran out? |
If Liverpool are up against a footballing genius in Europe, they find
themselves tussling with English football’s most dominant team ever in City,
in my opinion. Perhaps they need to do this for a few more years and win at least one
Champions League crown, to officially merit that title, but I’ve never seen a
team be so dominant in domestic matches. That last time we spoke, the
Manchester derby was fast approaching: one that I correctly predicted would end in a City victory.
While United gave it a go for a little while, they are so vastly
inferior to their local rivals that I was genuinely questioning the mental
state of those predicting anything other than an away win in the days leading
up the game. And there was that man Bernardo Silva again making the
difference - a man I have waxed lyrical about all season, and someone I am
starting to dislike as much as I admire. That’s a compliment, because the
best players for your rivals should leave you tearing your hair out and
finding reasons to loathe them. He’s an absolute nark and I’d love him in the
Liverpool team.
A special thanks to David de Gea for deciding to stop being a
goalkeeper just as City come to town, by the way. I couldn’t possibly have
seen that coming!
The Reds, meanwhile, had seen off Cardiff by the time the derby
started, and then thrashed a hapless Huddersfield side two days later,
returning to the Premier League summit. It was pressure back on City, but as
the weeks have ticked by and it has become increasingly clear that Pep
Guardiola’s side are performing like men possessed in the league, a trip to
Burnley was another guaranteed three points. Those are the words of a footballing
pessimist, of course, and there were many tipping the trip to Turf Moor to be
the day that City came up short.
I was sat in the pub with mates on Saturday night - one United fan,
one Tottenham fan - as they told me all about what a tough ask it was going
to be for City and how they thought this was still going to be Liverpool’s
year.
You’re not kidding me lads, I’ve seen this all before. The football
Gods have no time for Liverpool and it’s something I must accept. I sat
watching the Burnley game with a truly sickening hangover and my hazy mindset
probably helped me endure it, in truth. Not for a single second did I expect
anything other than City to triumph, and if Sergio Aguero’s goal hadn’t
crossed the line, they would only have scored soon after. Their level of
dominance after the break was ridiculous, but I can’t blame Burnley for that, who did
their best.
It was all very predictable. Of course, the current narrative is now
surrounding balls and goal lines, with Liverpool agonisingly deprived of a
goal at the Etihad in January and Aguero benefiting at Turf Moor.
That will now apparently be the reason Liverpool don’t win the league,
or potentially those draws against Everton and United. Either way they’ve
blown it, right? Good one. The fact of the matter is that the only reason
they won’t be crowned champions is because of City. Without their remarkable
feats, the Reds would have sealed glory weeks ago.
Summing up the true immature tribalism that exists among fans in the
modern game, this Liverpool outfit will suffer more mocking for missing out
on the final day than if they had tailed off in February. I have no doubt
that Guardiola is staggered that Klopp and his players have lasted the course
of the entire season, keeping up with a truly relentless force. They are the
second-best team in Europe, regardless of the Barcelona result. Fellow
Liverpool supporters can whinge at me for uttering this next line, or accuse
me of not being a ‘proper fan’ and saying I ‘don’t deserve’ this team, but the title
race is done in my eyes.
I simply don’t see where City slip-up from this point on, and if
anything, the Reds’ trip to Newcastle on Saturday looks like the game where
the dream could officially die. That Barcelona defeat will have hit the
players hard and I would not be shocked to see them struggle to pick
themselves up at St James’ Park.
If they do, securing three more points in the process, I won’t be
holding out much hope of Leicester doing Liverpool a favour. The Foxes are a
good team, with good players and talented, if slightly odd, manager, but
their style will play into City’s hands. Brendan Rodgers will attack, the
space afforded to City will be laughable and they will probably win handsomely
in the end. That’s life.
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An in-form Jamie Vardy: reasons for Liverpool optimism? |
We will reconvene before the final day of the season next week -
here’s hoping the title race is actually still alive at that point, because
the Champions League is looking like a lost cause I don’t feel angry and
heartbroken by Liverpool likely falling short in both competitions, but my
god it all feels desperately unfair.
We used up all our luck in Istanbul.
-
Henry Jackson
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