As it now appears our "Crisis" is over, perhaps it would be a good moment to suggest that those supporters who unfairly criticised Raffa and the team when they were putting in excellent displays earlier in the season without getting the results deserved. Might want to reflect on this article and hopefully the next "Crisis" ( read tepmorary dip in form) they would instead of criticising the side. Do what supporters are supposed to do when the going gets tough and actually "support" the side when they most need it.
It is easy to be Red when we are lifting trophies but being a Red means getting behind your team when they need you.
Paul Tomkins Column
Some teams are allowed to play badly and win – apparently it means they are a good side. Liverpool, in proving they are currently a good side, receive only criticism.
When I say playing 'badly', I of course mean playing reasonably well without setting the world alight. If you go away from home and limit the opposition to no meaningful attempts at goal, as happened at Manchester City, that has to be defined as 'playing well'. Or is playing well limited only to attacking play?
To read some of the match reports, you'd have thought Liverpool were appalling, and extremely lucky to emerge with three points.
Then again, it was the turn of the Manchester-based journalists to have their say with Liverpool in town. Stuart Pearce, however, felt Rafa's men had too much for his side, and that was a more accurate barometer of the game.
City are an improving side, with a good home record. The Reds have struggled in this fixture in recent seasons. While City had all week to prepare for Liverpool's visit, Rafa and his team were playing a crucial game in the Champions League. We know all about the poor results that followed midweek exertions, until the sequence was broken at Villa Park.
Under those circumstances, it was highly unlikely Liverpool would go there are look to tear into City from the start. In difficult away games it has always been perfectly acceptable to frustrate the home crowd, and as the game unfolds, look to take any chances that come your way. Not every game can be won with effervescent displays of attacking genius.
Liverpool have been playing as well as anyone of late, exhibiting a great degree of balance between keeping it tight at the back and working openings up front. The last two away games haven't been as flowing as those at home, but a fully deserved six points out of six is the main statistic as far as those games were concerned.
The Reds have finally hit some kind of groove, and the league table suddenly has a totally different complexion.That's why comments like Daniel Taylor's, from Monday's Guardian, are utterly ludicrous. "Liverpool do not just win ugly, they border on the grotesque."
Even allowing for the fact that he obviously doesn't like the Reds (no doubt preferring the Manchester variety), it's a laughable suggestion. It may be nice and pithy, but it's also far from accurate, the 'do' in the sentence suggesting winning ugly was in fact a trend and not a one-off at the Eastlands.
Going into last Wednesday's game against Real Betis, Liverpool had scored ten goals in four games, without reply. The Reds could not have been much more entertaining against Betis, having nearly 30 attempts at goal in a game that only the Spaniards had to win.
Of course, the press has no need to praise Liverpool. Nor does it have any desire to be fair, as fair doesn't sell newspapers. Psychologists will tell you that a desire for life to be fair is totally irrational. Maybe that extends to football reporting in newspapers, too.
And yet, irrational or not, I still expect to see credit where it's due.
So, 'crisis' over?
Excuse me for not being surprised at the current good form. During the 'crisis' weeks earlier in the season, I was accused of being unreasonably positive when I claimed that things would pick up very quickly.
On October 26th, the club was under the darkest of clouds - if you believed the weathermen. Just over a month ago, the Reds had been beaten by Fulham and Crystal Palace.
Tomkins on recent games
Liverpool have been playing as well as anyone of late, exhibiting a great degree of balance between keeping it tight at the back and working openings up front. The last two away games haven't been as flowing as those at home, but a fully deserved six points out of six is the main statistic as far as those games were concerned.
The Reds have finally hit some kind of groove, and the league table suddenly has a totally different complexion.
I found no difficulty in remaining positive, just as I had through the great 'crisis' of January 2005, although it led to my inbox being filled with accusations of living on a different planet, and no shortage of ridicule.
It reminded me of the article I wrote before the Juventus game in March, saying how Liverpool would beat the Old Lady of Turin, then face Chelsea, and beat them in a tense encounter, and from that point were more than capable of going on to win the Champions League.
I have mention this article before, but what I haven't said is that the piece was unexpectedly reproduced by all manner of football sites, mostly to laugh at this nutter who was living in some kind of dreamland. Suffice it to say I felt rather happy when the article resurfaced after May 25th.
On the same score, permit me the indulgence of quoting my article from this site on October 26th:
"While I don't yet foresee such greatness this season, I do feel we'll see marked [league] improvement in the coming months. I don't see all the components in place to get within touching distance of Chelsea, but I do see enough top class players to be legitimately optimistic.
"It's worth remembering that the group stages of last season's Champions League were as patchy for the Reds as the league form, with limp away defeats at Olympiakos and Monaco. The doom and gloom was much like it is now, only then it was for both the league and Europe."
My assertion was that the improvement last season in Europe, after a dodgy start, could be replicated this time around in the Premiership. That has undeniably been the case since I wrote that piece: four league wins out of four, and not a single goal conceded.
Tomkins on improvement
This season the organisation behind the scenes is starting to reap dividends. Better players are at the club, and others are fit again after long-term injuries. New dimensions have been added to the play (if people can't see that Crouch offers us something different and useful while he's helping the team win games, they never will), and new players will hopefully arrive in January.
I never wavered from my summer prediction: that this is a team capable of getting over 70 points this season to finish comfortably in the top four, and anything beyond that is in the lap of the gods.
Despite the current feel-good factor, that remains the case. Given the extensive rebuilding work over the summer, and the complications of Champions League qualifying games, it was always going to be difficult for the Reds to start the season in seamless fashion, and maybe that has cost a (long-) shot at Chelsea for the title this time around. But the aim this season has always been to get much closer to them.
This is not the time to be feeling smug (I'll be sure to remind you when that time arrives!), as no one should be complacent. I feel partially vindicated, for calling things correctly up to this point, but it will all come back to haunt me if the Reds go and get hammered by Sunderland tonight. Although even then, that wouldn't spell disaster, just an unwelcome setback.
You have to make opportunities count, and tonight represents a chance to cash in on a game in hand by closing the gap. A win, and you will suddenly see a league table where the cream has risen to form the expected top four. Even if the Reds subsequently slip down again, as will no doubt happen while away in Japan, the aim has to be to set up camp in the Champions League positions, and to stay there.
What I did get wrong last season was that Liverpool would leapfrog Everton for 4th place, having stated that the Blues would fall away. Of course, the Blues did fall away in the New Year, but Liverpool didn't have enough stamina, or depth to the squad, to juggle two important challenges - although ultimately I think most Reds were happy at the end of the season with the way things panned out.
Just as there was no cause to panic at the end of October, there's no benefit in thinking 'that's it, all the hard work is done' at the end of November. This is a side that can be improved, and will be improved.
Much of that improvement will come naturally: a team gelling as they spend more time together, as they mature as individuals (it's still a young side) and as they learn more on the training ground from Rafa and his coaches.
This season the organisation behind the scenes is starting to reap dividends. Better players are at the club, and others are fit again after long-term injuries. New dimensions have been added to the play (if people can't see that Crouch offers us something different and useful while he's helping the team win games, they never will), and new players will hopefully arrive in January.
I still see Chelsea, with all their riches, in a league of their own for the time being, but in my eyes the Reds are now on a par with Arsenal and Manchester United. At the very least we are much closer to them than we have been for quite some time.
It's up to the team to go out there and prove it
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