For every high, there’s a low. For every disappointment, there’s a moment of sheer joy. We Liverpool fans have been through hell. It didn’t kill us. It only made us stronger.
It’s easy to support the club when everything is going smoothly; when we’re getting results, trophies, and honours. The ones who are truly passionate can be found in times of adversity. Success, results, players, managers, and every other facet of he club come and go, but being a Liverpool fan is for life. We are the one constant in the club’s existence. We cause the heart of Anfield to beat. We cause it to pump blood so Red that nothing else compares to it.
Win, lose or draw. Whatever the score sheet says, it doesn’t matter. We are a team. The only thing that does is the Liverbird upon your chest. It doesn’t matter that there’s five stars under it; doesn’t matter that there’s loads of trophies in our cabinet. What does matter? The words underneath the Shankly Gates do. You know, the ones that say “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
It’s an absolute honour to be a part of the greatest and most unique football atmosphere on Earth. We should not turn our backs and abuse that honour. The loss against Braga was a test. Sure, it was a disappointment, but it gave us some valuable information on the definition of a team. I signed onto Twitter immediately after the game and found “fan” after “fan” blaming single players for the loss. Some of them were even slagging off the King, who is a true gift from God after the Roy Hodgson “era.”
Lucas and Kuyt, especially, were being criticised. The criticism wasn’t helpful and constructive – it was filled with pure malice, pure spite. Have we forgotten who these players are? Did Kuyt not score a hat-trick against Manchester United mere weeks ago? Sure, Suarez did most of the dirty work, but our Flying Dutchman deserved credit as well. As for Lucas, he is still young and is getting better every season. This season in particular, he is showing he can offer more offencively, and he is only going to improve. Why not prove his worth by looking at seasonal statistics? You can’t argue against facts. A look at Lucas’ Opta statistics during his 90-minute, plus injury-time, outing against Chelsea demonstrates his improvement. His overall pass completion rate was an incredible 88.89 per cent, 81.82% when in the opponents’ half of the field. These figures are very similar to his contribution for the 2010/11 campaign to date, with an overall pass completion of 84.02% and 81.08% when in the opponents’ section of the field. One goal has been assisted and 14 chances created from a total of 1133 passes. In 2007, Lucas arrived at Anfield as an attacking midfielder, who made late, clumsy runs into the box and somewhat represented a Brazilian version of our Captain Fantastic. Look at what he’s become.
Of course, Lucas is not world-class yet. He still has loads of room for improvement. He can get caught in possession; he can give away clumsy free-kicks. However, he’s come so far from who he used to be. We, as true Kopites, must recognise that. As for the slagging off of our King Kenny, it’s so ridiculous that I’m not even going to address it.
Remember, we win as a team. We lose as a team. But we’ll always be here for Liverpool. It’s times like these that make us stronger than ever. We may not have gotten silverware this season, but we’ve gotten GOLD. It’s in King Kenny’s heart. YNWA.
If you’d like, follow me on Twitter, @AccioMaria.