I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure how I feel about Liverpool’s recent performances. Having had a couple of days to ruminate, I do wonder whether there are warning signs that we need to be paying attention to. It is difficult to be too upset about either result, considering the fact that we defeated West Ham and we made it through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Three points in the Premier League and progression in Europe is nothing to be sniffed at, but a more clinical side than the Hammers might well have taken those three points off us last weekend. I always felt as though Inter Milan were ‘pesky’ more than ‘problematic’, constantly running around but without much to show for their endeavours. It is not as though Alisson Becker emerged as a Man Of The Match contender, after all. Some of West Ham’s attacks were definitely offside, but not all of them were. There is no doubt that Pep Guardiola will be considering how to beat our offside trap as easily as they did.
What a tie then.
5-0 to Liverpool on clear-cut chances but the Reds missed the lot.
No shots on target in the box for Inter yet they only fell one goal short.
Liverpool didn’t play that well in either game and have knocked out the Serie A champs.
In short: Up the Reds.— Andrew Beasley 💙 (@BassTunedToRed) March 8, 2022
Manchester City are the toughest side we have left to face in the Premier League, but I hope that our loss to Inter serves as a warning not to be complacent about the other teams that we’ve got to face. On a different day, of course, Mo Salah scores both of the chances that he had that ended up hitting the post and Joel Matip’s heading goes in instead of striking the bar. That is to say nothing of the fact that few teams will have a player as determined to stop Luis Diaz scoring as Arturo Vidal was. Even so, Graham Potter’s Brighton & Hove Albion side seem to have had our number in recent times and we all know that Jürgen Klopp hates ‘morning kick-offs’. All of this matters because I am dreaming of seeing Liverpool lift four trophies by the time the season reaches its conclusion. There will be plenty of people reading this baulking at the very idea of me saying it, but why on earth should supporters dare to dream of the impossible?
The Point Of Supporting Is Dreaming
I will never understand the mindset of football fans that refuse to get excited about the possibility of winning something just in case that means that it won’t happen. For starters, none of us is so powerful that we have the ability to control the outcome of something just by thinking it. Believe me, if that was a thing that I was able to do then I’d have manifested myself a lot more money than I currently have in my bank account. Indeed, there are those that believe in the power of positive thinking that would tell you that by refusing to think about us winning all four trophies, it’s actually your fault if it doesn’t happen. The idea of winning a quadruple is something that Manchester City have talked about repeatedly over the past few years. I never laughed at them for dreaming, I was just relieved when it didn’t happen. Given the manner in which the Abu Dhabi-owned club have bought their success since the takeover by the Abu Dhabi Royal Family, them winning it all wouldn’t feel right.
Win the Quadruple.
Everton Relegated.
ManUtd in the mud.
Chelsea finished as a club.2022 might be it- the absolute pinnacle of football, for us #LFC fans.
— Rahul Prasad (@thisisrahul_) March 10, 2022
Through there are plenty of supporters of clubs likes Everton and Manchester United that would hate to see us have any sort of success, the job of Liverpool fans is always to dream of better. During the 2019-2020 campaign, few people would have imagined that there would be no parade for the first title-winning side for 31 years. The arrival of the Coronavirus put paid to that, of course. For those the refused to celebrate the Reds that season ‘until it was mathematically done’, there was virtually no public joy in what that side achieved. With nuclear war a not insignificant threat right now, who knows what might happen before the season reaches its conclusion? The job of a football supporter is to dream of what might be possible, not to constantly fear the possible going wrong. If we end up finishing the season with only the League Cup to show for it then so be it, but it won’t be because you decided to sit on your hands and not dare to dream of what might be.
For Liverpool Football Club, Impossible Is Nothing
Let me be absolutely clear: I think the quadruple is impossible. Against Inter Milan, I thought a number of players looked absolutely shattered. Despite the manager’s squad rotation, there still seems to be a degree of tiredness creeping into legs and minds. The idea that such players could go on and play the best of the best of the FA Cup and Champions League and come out on top seems fanciful right now. When we were 3-0 down to AC Milan at half-time of the Champions League final in 2005, winning the trophy seemed fanciful. Even the most optimistic of supporter felt that coming back from 3-0 down against Barcelona in the same competition in 2018-2019 was fanciful. If there is one thing I’ve learnt over the years, it is that Liverpool Football Club laughs at the idea of something being ‘fanciful’. Where other teams seem impossible, the Reds seem to see an opportunity to prove everyone wrong, which is something that we’ve been doing repeatedly for years.
Jurgen Klopp only needs one more trophy to complete club football at Liverpool:
Premier League 🏆
Champions League 🏆
Super Cup 🏆
Club World Cup 🏆
League Cup 🏆
FA Cup ⏳ pic.twitter.com/CMGGo1rgnh— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) February 27, 2022
Which of the three competitions that we’re still in do you think that Jürgen Klopp is ready to abandon? Whilst the FA Cup will clearly be the lowest of his priorities, drawing a Championship side in the quarter-finals means that we face a decent chance of making it though to the last four. We won’t find out out fate in the Champions League until a week tomorrow, but when it does happen we’ll also know what our path to the final could be. As for the Premier League, we’ll have a much clearer picture of how the land lies by this time next week, having played both Brighton and Arsenal in that time. It is entirely possible that we are out of the FA Cup and requiring a miracle in the title race within the next month. Right now, though, the possibilities are endless. Why allow yourself to suppose that something being impossible means that it can’t happen? If the players acted like that, we wouldn’t have won half the trophies that we have, or half the trophies that we will in the future.
