Anfield Red

Alain De Botton’s book of the same Title provides the focus, simply because a devastated fan is scrambling around in the dark for something. Something to ease the pain of defeat. Something to superimpose over the image of those great (ticketed) supporters left stranded at John Lennon’s when equally gutted brothers and sisters, sat outside a Greek football theatre. And ‘some thing,’ anything, to acknowledge the legions who were there, who sang from the soul, when the club needed it most. In defeat.

We gave our all, players, staff and supporters, on the night it wasn’t enough, so we move on. Or more accurately we Walk On. Although it hurts, I was proud of the way everyone conducted themselves post match. Life as with football is all about how you react in the bad times. My already high regard for Rafa was cubed in the aftermath of a string, cruelly cut by the sporting Gods in Athens. Apt then, we look for answers in the cradle of philosophy and the background to so many classical tragedies. Achilles was dipped in the river of strength as a baby but held by his ankle which remained dry, and vulnerable. To many of us this special football club is our weak point. We can fight with the missus, the people we work with and deal with it, but when the club you love is beaten by a deflected free kick, where do you go for that? Sifting through the wreckage the morning after, one image stood out. Inzaghi wheels away after the second goal and nine of our players are on or near the eighteen yard box. Brilliant organisation undone by quality. I feel Rafa will reflect on this and realise that organisational progress is starting to yield diminishing returns. The work ethic and organisation still needs improving but the need for quality (and not just potential quality) is becoming clear to Benitez. This wheel, it appears, is already in motion with reports coming out of Anfield of possible departures. We hope that this newly vacated space in the playing capital is filled by proven, quality players. The club needs a clinical finisher, badly.

It is near impossible to find the positive today as all our energies are consumed in the tactical avoidance of Mancs and every media outlet. So let’s look at the philosophers and how a heart needs to be broken so it can learn the language of humility. Perhaps in tasting bitter defeat in Europe, we have finally stumbled on the missing Premiership ingredients. Perhaps, after all, there’s a Greek God with a Liverpool scarf. Walk On.

Teak (RORY O’CONNOR).