A couple of weeks ago we'd just put in two very good away performances against two of the best sides in the country, 2-2 draws at both Arsenal and Man City in the space of a few days that should really have been six points and not just the couple we brought home. I, like many other Liverpool fans, felt a great sense of optimism about not just the rest of the season, but the future as a whole.
Since then we've lost 2-0 at home to West Brom and 2-0 away at Zenit St Petersburg, meaning our aims of finishing in the top four and winning the Europa League both look to have vanished in four days, not a great week really.
So how have we (and our manager) gone from being the next best thing to a complete flop in a fortnight?
Simple really, we haven't. It's typical of not just the press but football fans in general to build a team up on the strength of one or two games and then knock them down over the same type of period. It's often said that 'you're only as good as your last performance' and, while that's a convenient, snappy statement to make, it's not exactly truthful is it?
The two performances against Arsenal and Man City were good, they showed we can attack well against decent teams and we can defend well, though errors creep in due to a combination of not having enough numbers back and concentration not being good enough.
The two performances against West Brom and Zenit showed we can attack well but need to be more clinical as missing chances will come back and haunt us. We could have quite feasibly been two or three nil up in both games before we conceded late strikes and with just a few shots going a foot to the side of where they ended up the exact same performances would have fitted in nicely alongside the previous two. The errors in defence and struggles with concentration were equally as evident in both of our recent defeats as they had been in our draws.
Football is a game of fine margins and there is a tendency to equate results with performances, which isn't entirely false as you get nothing at all for playing well and losing, but it also doesn't tell the full story. The excuse that we're losing games now as we're getting used to a new method of playing which will bring us greater rewards in the long run is valid, though it won't remain so for too much longer.
I don't know of any serious, intelligent Reds fans who aren't supportive of the current management set up and methods, though we know what we're watching and you can only tell us the signs are there if we can actually see them. Which at the moment we can. But the improvement must carry on at a decent pace and we cannot get into a habit of accepting defeat - 'we lost today but.....' is not something the players or manager should be allowed to use. If we go a goal down in a game our focus must be solely on rescuing the scoreline rather than having in the back of your mind that 'it's okay to lose because.....'.
We're not the best team in the world, but we're not the worst. We've got two home games coming up in quick succession that could effectively end our season if we don't get two positive results, but we have to go into the games with the right attitude, nothing is acceptable other than victory. The promising performances in games where we haven't won have been accepted by fans because failing to win hasn't really cost us anything on the day, but these next two games are different. Lose to Swansea and there's no way we'll finish in the European places, lose to Zenit and we miss out on our last chance of a trophy.
It's possible these are our two biggest games of the season, we've already seen evidence at times that the team has the ability to win them, now we need evidence of the attitude required to play for LFC. It's time for Brendan Rodgers and his side to step up and deliver.
Rip lfc
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