Blackburn Rovers 0 Liverpool 0

Here are the highlights of the game:

45 mins + 1: The referee blew for half-time.

72 mins: Rafa substituted Albert Riera... Thank God for that!

69 mins: Ngog hit the cross bar.

93 mins: The referee blew for full-time. Both teams took a point that neither deserved.

Having given up 2 hours of my life to watch one of the most wretched excuses for a football match there has been over the years, I feel entitled to complain but I have real sympathy for the poor sods who actually paid and travelled to be there in the stadium.

I don’t give a shit about Blackburn but as a Liverpool fanatic I am not happy with what I’ve seen today. I can appreciate that we have had a rotten run of results of late; that our recent form has been lousy; that we have and still are missing our better players both in terms of fitness and form; that we have been shipping goals with an alarming regularity, and that against this context, a clean sheet and a point away from home is not a disastrous outcome. However, I cannot accept seeing Liverpool Football Club not even trying to win a game of football against an opponent that will deservedly finish in the bottom half of the League table and who on the day gave a performance that was somewhere south of utter shit.

I could question the manager’s decisions. I could ask why after the shockingly out-of-form Kuyt finally put in a decent performance against Everton, Rafa then shifted him from the right of midfield to play him as an isolated front man – a role he is clearly incapable of performing*. I could ask why Rafa brought on two subs costing a combined total of less than £2 million but chose not to bring on a £20 million attacking midfielder when it was clear we were lacking creativity. I could ask why Albert Riera was merely substituted rather than given a lethal injection.
*I think Kuyt can play as a lone front-man but not when as isolated as he was today and I think he is far more effective when playing as one of two strikers.

Ultimately I am knowledgeable enough to know that Rafa’s ability to manage a football club far outstrips mine and therefore for me to question his decisions is the equivalent of a paperboy questioning one of my decisions at work so I will accept that, with his greater insight and tactical acumen, he had his reasons for his team selection, tactics and the changes he made.

The bottom line is, despite a minor improvement after the introductions of Ngog and El Zahr, this was a terrible game to watch and, if that had been an exception to the rule, I would accept it but the truth is this is the third poor performance in a row.

We are having a horrible, horrible season. Football is fantastic when things are going well but this season following Liverpool has been a truly miserable experience.

It is horrible. It is soul-destroying. I am limping from game to game feeling so down about football. I dread our next game and can’t even bring myself to watch other teams – particularly the likes of Chelsea and the Scum who are performing the way I want my team to perform.

I realise now just how spoilt we were during March, April and May when we played the best attacking football seen from a Liverpool side arguably since the 1988 vintage and simply destroying opponents. During that period, we got to see the performances and the results we have always craved but this season has seen a return to the shite we are more accustomed to.

I’m not blaming the manager – if anything I blame the fucking Yanks – but I do despair.

I really became a serious Liverpool fan during the 1995-96 season. That was overall a good season though it ended in the most devastating experience I have ever endured as a supporter (losing an FA Cup Final to the Scum). The 1996-97 season was also a decent though ultimately disappointing season. 1997-98 was not good while 1998-99 was downright atrocious. 1999-2000 was more positive but only because it directly followed the 1998-99 season. 2000-01 put me in heaven as we won the treble while 2001-02 was also a good season that almost delivered the Holy Grail. Then it was back to misery in 2002-03 while 2003-04 was the worst season I’ve ever experienced as a supporter. 2004-05 restored the pleasures of watching the team despite several piercing results but it ultimately gave me the greatest moment of my life as a supporter in Istanbul. 2005-06 was a good season. 2006-07 was disappointing. 2007-08 was mixed and last season was excellent but ultimately delivered nothing. This feels as bad as 2006-07 and 1997-98 though not quite as bad as 1998-99 or 2003-04.

It’s not nice, but it’s nothing new. This is a season where victories will be nice but not expected while defeats and draws will not carry the disappointment they would have in better seasons. I will just do as I have done before. I will hang in there, support the team and wait for the season to end and hope (desperately) for better fortunes next campaign.

When you walk through a storm hold your head up high and don’t be afraid of the dark. At the end of the storm there’s a golden sky and the sweet silver song of the lark. Walk on through the wind. Walk on through the rain though your dreams be tossed and blown. Walk on. Walk on with hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone. You’ll never walk alone.