It happens to the best of them in the end. The training routines become a little tedious, the team talks a little predictable, the belief around the place that we've "got the right man in charge" ebbs away. Those on the fringes and not in the team find that their whispers of discontentment get listened to even by those actually in the starting eleven, some of whom bemoan the lack of pattern or the position they are asked to play in. There are phone calls at night between members of the squad who bemoan the lack of quality in some of their teammates, the lack of quality in the coach, and they finish by urging each other to keep their chin up as "something will have to give" soon.
People call it "losing the dressing room" but in reality everyone who has ever worked for a living and has had a line manager will have seen the same scenario. It doesn't have to be a "dressing room" as such, it could be a factory floor or even a political party where a leader is doomed. It's normally fairly easy to spot, probably even easier to smell, and the stench of discontent emanating out of the TV last night was enough to turn the stomach. The little giveaways are in the body language, the reaction to mistakes by teammates, the signs of little cliques whereby certain players are more prone to pass to particular others, in rolls of the eyes and knowing looks when the ball doesn't come in time.
When the sh!t hits the fan as it is doing in increasing mass every week at Anfield, people look after themselves. They vow not to be the one to make a mistake, not to put themselves out to encourage others, to concentrate "on their own game" so that when the dust settles there'll still be a place in the squad for them. They play with a safety first policy at the front of their minds (for most of us it translates to fear), they are loathe to take a risk with a first time pass, a dribble or even to dwell a fraction longer on the ball to wait for a door to open. In fear they play two touch, one to control it and one to roll it along to the next potential f*cker upper. Like an inverted game of pass the parcel, the ball is treated like a bomb which is about to go off at any moment and all touches are delicate, slow and deliberate so as not to agitate the explosive consequences.
I'm loathe to criticise the players too much, or to judge them. Players such as young Jordan Ibe have shown me that he has the potential to be very good, but that he is currently very bad is neither beyond dispute nor in all probability his fault. Emre Can is another young player with vast potential, but as he wrestles with his natural inclination to play in midfield and the instructions to play "in a back three" you can see his game unravelling, sadly so can he and he gets progressively worse by the week.
It's all a bit of a mess really and something needs to happen soon. For the long term good of the football club Danny Sturridge has come back at the worst time possible. Superb player that he is he will win us matches on his own (as he did on Saturday where we certainly wouldn't have won without him). He will be a sticking plaster while he stays fit though, scoring heavily and concealing the cancer which lies beneath. Should he have a good day on Sunday, he may even do enough to secure a result at Goodison, and as I said so good is he that he will in all probability score at least once. That won't change things though even if he does perform heroics, even though it will represent "five games unbeaten" or whatever it'll be. We are lost as a club, and now sadly lost as a team too.
My guess is the new manager if/when Brendan gets the push won't be Klopp or Ancellotti, not under these owners. It'll be someone already employed by the club, step forward Gary McAllister. He wouldn't be my choice either, but at least he'll put the mythical "smile back on the face" of the players. He might play 4-4-2 and actually employ a system which the players can work with and understand, and at least we'll "go for it" a bit more than we do currently. Seeing young Joe Gomez and Koulo Toure pass it to each other six or seven times straight from the kick off yesterday, without a willing teammate to give it to was a sad sight to see. Perhaps you have to be a Liverpool supporter to see it, or even at the very least a football fan, which is why the owners can't or won't see it. Ayre and Gordon won't see it obviously, because if they do they may as well tell the owners that they've had a hand in the waste of a huge sum of money (which they have).
Even if you're not a football fan though, even if you know nothing about the game, just as a human being there must surely be enough perception in everyone, enough empathy to recognise a group of people who are floundering under the pressure, led by a man who is drowning under it. It's time for a change, it probably was earlier, but it certainly is now.
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