I was born in 1982. Although I went to matches before this, my first real memory of big game was when the Reds lost to Manchester United in the 1996 FA Cup final. It would become infamous thanks to the ‘Men in White Suits’ label that got put on the Liverpool players, even though they looked quite cool and would’ve been remembered fondly if they’d won. Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s, Liverpool supporters had to put up with seeing the Red Devils win everything that there was to win, season after season. Alex Ferguson was a genius of a manager, aided and abetted by referees terrified of making a call against him and a structure at the club that allowed them to make huge sums of money thanks to the advent of Sky Sports and the development of Old Trafford, all whilst the Reds eschewed commercialisation and Anfield went largely untouched. For me and those of my age and older, United were the scourge of our youth, constantly successful at our expense and rapidly catching up with our league title wins seemingly every year.
People like Gary Neville and Roy Keane are the reason I enjoy Manchester United losses, I know I can’t be the only one pic.twitter.com/3LbVqhr7wA
— Triple M (@Tripple____M) September 29, 2024
At the time I dreamed of them slipping up just for one season. Sadly, the worst that they did under the Scot was to finish third. It is why I am absolutely revelling in the terrible state of Manchester United Football Club as it is nowadays. Old Trafford, the once great fortress that Anfield stood in the shadow of, metaphorically speaking, is falling apart. The Red Devils have under-performed season upon season since Ferguson departed, having to watch Liverpool or Manchester City battle it out for titles all whilst they have sacked managers, failed to impress and be on the receiving end of numerous spankings. If you think that I’m going to do anything but enjoy every single minute of it then you’re sorely mistaken. Even during our darkest days under Roy Hodgson, we weren’t as bad as they have been for a prolonged period of time. We never lost 5-0 to them. We never lost 7-0 to them. We never lost 3-0 in the sort of humiliating fashion that they did earlier in the season. Sack Erik Ten Hag and the next fella will likely be just as bad. It’s glorious and I am very much here for it.
Not Playing Well & Winning is the Sign of…?
Even the most passionate of Liverpool supporters will admit that we didn’t play particularly well against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the weekend. The Reds struggled to get going, giving up some chances at the same time as failing to create anything all that much going forwards. It is worth pointing out that we haven’t really performed well at Molineux at any point, it being one of those grounds that we just don’t do all that well at. It isn’t the first time that we’ve looked at bit rough this season, with the Nottingham Forest game being the standout candidate for one not to write home about. That, though, is the only blot on our copy book so far under Arne Slot, with five wins on the board seeing us sit at the top of the table. To be able to win when you’re not playing well always used to be put forward as a sign of champions, yet Liverpool are being curious ignored during any such conversation by many members of the press. Instead, either Arsenal or 115 Charges FC are being talked about as the champions elect, allowing us to fly under the radar.
The narrative is gas isn’t it, Arsenal are brilliant and definitely title contenders, Liverpool with more points, more wins, better defence are not tho
— Jimbowe off twitt3r * (@justanotherwool) September 28, 2024
The fact that we’ve not really hit our stride yet, other than when we humiliated Manchester United in their own backyard, means that more is to come from Slot’s players. The more that they understand what it is that the manager’s asking of them, the more likely it is that they’ll be able to take the fight to the Gunners and Pep Guardiola’s men. I remain convinced that City will be hit with a points deduction at the very least when the investigation into the charges reaches its conclusion, which means that whoever finishes above Arsenal wins the league. They have already had to put a huge amount of emotional energy into matches, as well as play with ten men for quite a long period in two different games, all of which might well take its toll by the end of the season. Liverpool, meanwhile, have not been playing well but have won all but one game, all whilst posting underlying numbers that suggest that our success is entirely sustainable. Luck plays a part in any league title win, unless you’ve been cooking the books, so if we can get a little then this could be a great season.
Post-International Break Could be Season Defining
As things currently stand, everyone who talks about football and isn’t associated with Liverpool in some way is acting as though the Reds being at the top of the table is one of those early season anomalies that will soon shake itself out. They might well be right, considering the fact that we haven’t yet faced a genuinely tricky opponent and lost to Forest when all they did was sit deep. When football resumes after the international break, however, we have a series of fixtures that will give us a real sense of where the Reds are at. We host Chelsea at Anfield, with the London club doing surprisingly well considering where they’ve been in recent years. That is the first match back after the break and we are notoriously slow to get going when players have been away on international duty. That is in no small part thanks to the fact that players have to fly to the likes of Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina, all for entirely pointless matches that we often see at least one injury as a result of. If we can hit the ground running, though, it will set us up well.
12:30 KO off next week at Palace.
International break.
Chelsea at home then Arsenal away.
Really huge test over October.
— Matt (@LegendEskimoBoy) September 29, 2024
After Chelsea, in the league at least, is one of the most important games of the season. We let ourselves down at the Emirates last season, having begun to control the game before a cock-up between Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk allowed the Gunners to claim a win that they scarcely deserved. A pre-season win against them under Slot might well have got into Arteta’s head, meaning that he might well overthink things this time around. We have to travel to RB Leipzig in the midweek Champions League game on the Wednesday night, whilst Arsenal have a much easier home match against Shakhtar Donetsk on the Tuesday, giving them more time to recover. If we can get a win against them, or even leave North London with a draw, we’ll be well-placed considering they have away games against Saudi Arabia FC, Inter and Chelsea in the weeks that follow, whilst we have Brighton & Hove Albion, Leverkusen and Aston Villa at Anfield. Our games so far might not have been the toughest, but October will tell us exactly what this time could achieve.
