Where Do We Go From Here?

Much has been said about Liverpool Football Club’s record 18 league titles won during its 119-year history. The undeniable fact had always been that those titles in addition to our 7 FA Cups and record 7 League Cups (known for now as the Carling Cup) has established us as English football’s most successful club of all time. It’s given us unending pride as fans of the club, and has been the biggest consolation throughout the last 20 years of not winning the title. The ability to say that no other club in England had been able to overtake us despite being unable to win it for 20 years had inspired such strong feelings of great self-esteem and comfort in us, that it was almost intoxicating.

However, the time soon approaches where we can no longer roost proudly on this lofty pedestal. Manchester United - fiercest rivals for the longest time, fellow Lancashire residents and perennial claimants to being the most famous club in the world - will overtake Liverpool’s glorious tally of 18 league titles for the first time in history this season, if they secure at least a draw against Blackburn this weekend. I won’t need to go into much detail as to how this makes me feel - losing the right to claim be England’s most successful football club is heartbreaking, especially since we have taunted United for decades about our superiority thus far. United supporters now love to point out how Liverpool fans had told them in 1994, to come back when they had won 18 titles too. Now they have, and are almost about to overtake us. To think that in 21 years we have never made the feat any harder for them is a hard pill to swallow and a tougher thing to swallow in the days ahead will be our considerable and decades-old pride. That Man United can win twelve titles in the years since our last title is an appalling fact that surely rankles with the most die-hard of Reds.

In a way, this is a small test of supporters’ faith in the club. United winning their 19th title ahead of us tests the foundations of our faith in the club in each of our hearts. Having faith and belief in a football club is like constructing and expanding a building - the stronger the foundations, the more unshakeable the faith; the older the architecture, the more valuable and cherished it is. As such, those of us whose hearts have buildings that are proud monuments with well-placed foundations that have been strengthened over time, will suffer little from this earthquake; whereas the weaker architectures in some fans’ hearts will make them question their allegiance to Dalglish’s army. But one of the few advantages to dark times is that the faint of heart can be separated from the strong-willed, with greater ease. Personally, I prefer to have fewer of these yellow bellied fans supporting our club and it helps ensure the “purity” of our fan base. Liverpool fans are the best in the world - it’s been said before by the likes of Maradona and Cruyff - and the best fans must have the best spirit. One true measure of a fan is how much they would support the club during its fruitless times, not just the glory days. And in the days ahead where United could have more titles than us, we must stand by the club and uphold its values as much as we have for the decades past where we have been the emperors of English football. If our fans were to consist of glory hunters alone, we’d have been defunct as a club by now. The fact that we haven’t won a title in 21 years but are still one of the most followed clubs in the world means that while we won’t have as many fans as Man United (whose incredible number of glory hunting fans continues to appals me), we can be confident of the fact that the many million fans we do have are proud to walk on through the wind and the rain though their dreams be tossed and blown.

It’s time to look ahead. Nothing can be done about United overtaking us. The past is set in stone - unchangeable and undeniable. We have relied on this deniability to throw our brilliance of days gone by into the faces of our rivals; and we must similarly utilise it to help us realise that while we cannot change the past, we can definitely add on to the past’s triumphs. And the future, right now, looks bright. As I started writing this article, news broke out that the Anfield boardroom have (FINALLY!!!!) signed Kenny Dalglish to a 3-year deal as manager of the squad. The King has returned to the throne, in a fashion as dramatic as Viggo Mortensen in The Return Of The King. Dalglish’s second kick at the management ball has been talked about and discussed at great length - and the reason for this, is that is has been an incredibly successful one, with only Chelsea picking up more points in the league since Dalglish took charge in the first weekend of January. This run has seen us hand Man United their most convincing defeat of the season, beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, beat Man City more comprehensively than when they beat us under Hodgson, thrash our bogey team Birmingham by a resounding 5-0 score line and end the season unbeaten against Arsenal. That’s positive results obtained against each of the top 4 and if we beat Tottenham on Sunday, we will have gotten points off each of the 5 teams above us in the table - four of which were unquestionable victories.

Results aside, what is exciting the Kop more than these aforementioned results (if that is possible) is the swashbuckling style in which Dalglish has had us obtaining them. We have been scoring goals for fun, keeping clean-sheets with ease, and we seem to be able to bring players in and take some out without affecting our final results. Additionally, we’ve flirted with different formations - and within each formation, every offensive player has been given a freedom to express themselves and rotate positions in a way that hasn’t been seen at Liverpool since the days of John Barnes, Steve Heighway, John Aldridge and Ian Rush. And most importantly, the players seem much more motivated to perform well and there is a deliberation and intensity to their approach that had been missing under Roy Hodgson and (sadly) the last few months of Rafael Benitez’s reign. Credit must go to Steve Clarke here as much as it does to Kenny Dalglish. The former Mourinho right hand man at Chelsea was signed by Dalglish as a first team head coach immediately after Kenny himself had signed on. In all my years as a fan, I’ve never seen Liverpool players mention in interviews a coach’s contribution to training as much as they have done for Clarke. Dalglish himself was eager to give as much credit to Clarke as himself, in the press conference made to announce the 3-year deals (which Clarke had signed as well). Clearly, Steve Clarke has been instrumental in the breathtaking football Liverpool have been playing lately.

A truly wonderful thing to see lately has been Dalglish’s introduction of the club’s youngsters into the first team this season. Martin Kelly, Jay Spearing, Jonjo Shelvey, John Flanagan and Jack Robinson have all been great beneficiaries of Dalglish’s placement of faith in the Academy players. It is worthy to note that they are all English players, with all but one of them from Merseyside. Jay has featured in nearly all of Dalglish’s games for which he had been fit and has looked a brilliant player alongside Lucas at the heart of the midfield. Jonjo, Flanno and Robbo are the younger of the set; but whenever Jonjo has been called to action he has shown desire, commitment and quality passing.  Flanno has been composed and slotted in well on the right side of defence, and has even shown quality at left back in the last two games. And Robbo has done at least as good a job as Flanno has in his two appearances for the club this season. In fact, the impact made by Robbo and Flanno in defence has made us almost forget about the best one of them all, Martin Kelly. To be fair, it was Rafael Benitez and Roy Hodgson who gave Kells his first true opportunities in the first team, against Lyon and Chelsea at Anfield - but it can also be said that Kelly’s best showings came under Dalglish, most particularly at Stamford Bridge when he played a bit further forward. But all in all, these 5 youngsters have been a strong testament to the work being done at the Academy, and we can all look forward to seeing them and hopefully a few others (Conor Coady, Raheem Sterling, Suso, Brad Smith and hit-man Adam Morgan come to mind) in the first team in the near future.

Another positive sign for the future is Andy Carroll. The big Geordie has played only 4 league games for the club, but the 2 goals he scored for us in that time have demonstrated the sheer quality and potential we now have at Anfield. His first goal was a sublime strike which is fast becoming a trademark of his and he has scored similar goals for England and Newcastle (remember his goal against us on December 11th?), and his second goal was a clear indication of the impressive aerial threat his physique provides. We haven’t had an aerial threat that imposing since Peter Crouch (Kyrgiakos aside, as he’s a defender). The fact that Big Andy is only 22 years old this year makes him a signing of such immense potential that the prospects are mouth watering. Another aspect of signing Carroll has been the size of his transfer fee. Big Andy is now our record signing at 35 million pounds, and this is important because it shows that the new owners John W. Henry and FSG were willing to break the bank to sign quality players for the club - which is what every Liverpool supporter had wanted to see from the Americans. Whether they will do it again this summer, we shall see.

Saving the best for last, the best thing to look forward to next season (now that Dalglish has signed on for the long term) is the astute, speedy, hard working and simply incredible Luis Suarez. I will not spend any time talking about his controversies with Ajax and the Uruguay national side, because the only controversy he’s caused at Liverpool thus far has been about why he was not signed earlier. If ever the word “selfless” could be used to define an international-level world class striker, it would be used to define Luis Suarez. Hat-tricks for Dirk Kuyt and Maxi Rodriguez (2) came about largely because of Suarez’s assists and efforts, and the scorers themselves credited Suarez for his set-ups. No better example of this exists than when he set up Kuyt’s opener against United; in a series of moves, dribbles and sidesteps that flummoxed the entire United defence and goalkeeper for Kuyt to simply just tap it in. When Suarez sets off, nothing can stop him except a petulant foul or a poor finish. His pace is electrifying (ask Fulham’s defence), his movements dumbfounding (ask Manchester United’s defence), his work rate tireless (ask Newcastle’s defence) and his selflessness heart-warming (ask any Liverpool fan). Purists would hate to admit it, but Suarez was bought as a replacement for Fernando Torres. How unfair has that been to Luis? For instead of replacing him, he’s gone and outshone him completely. Torres was never selfish, but he was not selfless like Suarez; Torres’ work rate does not compare to Suarez’s; Torres’ ball control and sharp movements are lethal, but still inferior to Suarez’s; and Suarez is most definitely faster than Torres ever was. Torres moved to another club within the league and scored just one goal in 12 league appearances, whereas Suarez came in from a far inferior league to notch up 4 goals in his first 11 appearances and neutrals everywhere will agree that Luis deserved plenty more. Many people said that replacing Kevin Keegan had seemed impossible, but it had been done immediately with Kenny Dalglish in a manner that made Kopites forget about Keegan. It seems like Liverpool Football Club have managed to do that again with Luis Suarez. Fernando who?

So where do we go from here? Onward. We have a bright future ahead of us, but we must remember that it is a bright potential future. We must grab the bull by the horns and take the initiative like never before to finally win ourselves the title again or at least secure a Champions League spot. We must tap that burgeoning potential. We have plenty of encouraging signs and good omens, but we must compound that with effective football and positive results. If we do, then with the resources already at our disposal (and a few more class signings), we shall be back amongst the silverware soon enough.

Written by Govind Nayar, who blog at http://govindnayar.tumblr.com/