\t\t\t\t\tFury & Sadness: There have been many mixed emotions during a strange season, but the bottom line is Liverpool are not playing well enough\u2026<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
CONFLICTING EMOTIONS<\/b>, frankly.<\/p>\n
Joy for the first half hour. I remember this. Mo Salah giving the excellent Williams and Anderson a proper run out, the Reds hunting in packs. It looked like Villa again.<\/p>\n
Then fury.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oh, that\u2019s not offside now? It was a fortnight ago and now it\u2019s not? Got that. Great. Will it be the same at West Ham or does it depend on who scored it? (I hate conspiracy theories like that, but it does make you wonder) then they get another, but he chalks it off because \u2026 well, I don\u2019t even know anymore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t even matter. Howard Webb will still stand up and argue that black is white before talking about respecting the ref. You crack on, lads. Maybe just let us know what the West Ham score\u2019s going to be before we travel, and we can all save some time.<\/p>\n
Ibou Konate can have a bit of fury too. He\u2019ll still get picked next week so if you\u2019re passing the manager, Ibou\u2026<\/p>\n
So, Joe Gomez doesn\u2019t get on because he\u2019s hardly played any footy. Is 35 minutes too much for him too? I get that he didn\u2019t train all week but 35 minutes? Come on, eh?<\/p>\n
Is that enough fury? No, because that was just the first-half. The second and third goals aren\u2019t unlucky. Nor are they anything to do with \u2018that just happens sometimes.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second and third goals are down to a sheer lack of professionalism. A lack of professionalism that is an anathema to everything that club expects. There should be repercussions for that. There should be teacups lashed against walls.<\/p>\n
On top of that I heard that the Sing Fong was shut. Things can\u2019t get much worse.<\/p>\n
And then, sadness. Just a deep sadness. We\u2019re here again. No plan, no passion, no clue. We\u2019re everyone\u2019s favourite opponent. Just score first and you won\u2019t lose. Liverpool won\u2019t have the vitamins to argue. We had decades of this.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s also an elephant in the room. Robbo (and I thought it impossible to love him more) ushered it back in midweek.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s valid. No one\u2019s saying it isn\u2019t valid unless you\u2019re of a boorish persuasion. I\u2019ve heard that too. \u2018When X died, I was in work the next day.\u2019 Good for you. Like your experience is the same as everyone else\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I lost my sister in 2018 and a year later I was still getting off at the wrong Tube stop and forgetting where I was supposed to be in the first place. No one was asking me to be a League champion and go into 50\/50s with Grocks. There\u2019s no time limit to this. No cut off date where it\u2019ll be alright.<\/p>\n
And grief is exhausting. It\u2019s lethargy\u2019s best friend. Even the simplest task seems too much and that\u2019s before you get into the whole \u2018What\u2019s the point of anything anymore?\u2019 thing.<\/p>\n
Mo Salah standing in front of the Kop, tears in his eyes, trying to make sense of it all. That image will never leave me. That\u2019s still every day for him.<\/p>\n
And I wish we\u2019d save Diogo\u2019s song till the end, rather than the 20-minute reminder. I really do.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s valid and it explains a lot, but professionalism is the bottom line. Ibou Konate doesn\u2019t stop running at Brentford because of Diogo and Andre. The manager doesn\u2019t drop our best goalscorer for the majority of the game for that reason either.<\/p>\n
It can be both. Grief is a factor, of course it is, but this isn\u2019t good enough and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s unfair to point that out.<\/p>\n
I agree with Neil\u2019s point on the Post-Match Show, and I\u2019ve been saying the same thing for weeks. I want them to get angry. I want them to right the wrongs of going behind with a merciless attack on the opposition goal.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want to see 11th in the league as a sorry state of affairs, but as a personal insult to this club. I want a reaction, not drooped shoulders at the latest PGMOL gift.<\/p>\n
But none of that\u2019s easy.<\/p>\n
I watched the Kenny documentary at the weekend. Alan Hansen standing in, I think, the old Main Stand car park, telling a reporter that he doesn\u2019t want to play football, in April 1989. He didn\u2019t have to. His demeanour alone let the world know that.<\/p>\n
The whole point of tragedy is that there\u2019s no warning of it. It just becomes something to deal with.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s no playbook for this. It\u2019s Captain Darling giving Blackadder a blank piece of canvas and asking him to fill it in while he\u2019s in No Man\u2019s Land. There\u2019s nothing in the coaching manual.<\/p>\n
I just want to see them challenging fate, not just accepting the cruelty of it.<\/p>\n
But none of this is easy.<\/p>\n
Conflicting emotions. All valid.<\/p>\n
Wear your colours now. Now we\u2019re needed.<\/p>\n