Vanliga hava vit bert greinar á føroyskum á liverpool.fo, men hetta er ein dagur har hugurin at siga nakað ikki er so stórur. Á heimasíðuni hjá Liverpool FC er sera áhugaðverd grein skriva av Poul Tomkins, sum her verður endurgivin á.
It's interesting how many lessons on life exist within the annals of Liverpool football club. Perhaps unlike any other, this club really has seen it all: the biggest triumphs and the greatest amount of disaster.
Rudyard Kipling famously said "it's about treating those two imposters just the same". Perhaps that's true because, for the most part, life exists somewhere between those two extremes. Just as you have to come back following disaster, you also have to come down from a triumph. Be it in the 'real world' meaning of those words, or just their sporting variants.When the Carling Cup game against Arsenal ended my first thought was "thank God I don't have to write about that", given I'm supposed to be taking it easy. But then I thought of the massive backlash that will undoubtedly follow the result and, as usual, how that backlash will grow out of all perspective and proportion. It's been a bad week, but it's not even the end of the season, let alone the world.
While I'm not going to condone certain aspects of the performance (notably the defending and goalkeeping, given every attack led to a goal), nor ignore how difficult it makes winning a trophy this season, I thought I should at least make the extra effort to do my part this week in particular, to redress a little of the balance in the face of the ensuing hysteria. You'll have no doubt read the negatives, so I'm offering something to counter that, even if, to be frank, I'm not exactly dancing on the ceiling here. (Even had the Reds won, dancing on the ceiling is against medical advice.)
For me, the biggest losses were of yet two more midfielders, with nasty-looking injuries. In trying to protect his players after an insane festive programme, which concluded with a tough FA Cup third round tie just three days earlier, Benítez saw two wide men stretchered off. In the same competition, Momo Sissoko, one of the senior players put out against Birmingham, dislocated his shoulder.
The Kop has rarely been more impressive than on Truth Day, a massively important occasion for the fans. It still retains its ability to inspire. Reclaiming the spirit of the Kop is very much underway, but there have also been plenty of times in recent years when its risen to the challenge of its own accord. It ended the Carling Cup tie singing You'll Never Walk Alone, as the team trailed 6-3 in what had been one of the most surreal games ever played on the hallowed turf.
Maybe Liverpool fans are no different to any other cross-section of the population. After all, as Sting sang back in 1985, "Even Manchester United fans love their children too". But with an obvious bias, I'd say Liverpool fans are unique.
Having outlined my own challenges last week, with a dip in my health in the last couple of months, hundreds of fans of the club took time to email me, some reminding me of Istanbul. So it would be remiss of me not to respond with a piece about how right they are, and that you keep going, in hope of that chink of light; that golden sky.
When I have setbacks in life, my first response is to retreat into my shell; but pretty quickly, unlike in my younger years, I get a determination to fight back. With an illness (M.E.) that is exacerbated by physical and mental overexertion, and worsened by stress, I can be my own worst enemy. Maybe I'm doing that again now, by sitting at my computer when I should be relaxing (i.e. lying down and meditating with thoughts of kicking – gently, of course – an imaginary Buddhist cat.)
You can argue about the team selection being too weak, but the injuries to Luis Garcia and Mark Gonzalez are there to counter that. There's a league game on Saturday, and if that was lost following Benítez naming a strong side last night, people would talk about the 'Mickey Mouse Cup' and moan at jeopardising the chance of finishing in the top four. I'm not saying Rafa was wrong or right to name that side; the manager is the one who has to take the long-term view.
We've been here before, such as two years ago, when the Reds fell at the first hurdle of the FA Cup to Burnley. There was talk of 'crisis', and the Reds won the Champions League four months later, beating teams of Barcelona's stature along the way.
But while it's been a grim week, it's also time to look at the larger picture. Rafa Benítez was the first manager in Liverpool's history to land silverware in his first two seasons; and, having topped the group in the Champions League, the Reds are still very much in that competition, even if people already have Barcelona's name in the next round.
And it's also worth noting that Benítez has achieved as much after two years than had Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson in their first half-decades at their current clubs.
Wenger's double of 1998 was the only success in his first five seasons; Ferguson, famously, was even less successful in his. It's not an easy job, and unlike back when those two started, there are now four really strong teams, all of whom were good enough to top their groups in Europe. Competition is fierce.
It was only last season that Benítez led the Reds to 82 points in the league, the highest total since 1988. This season has been disappointing by comparison; my wish is not to disguise that disappointment, but to keep it in perspective. It's okay to be disappointed. But this is not a disaster – it's a setback. It's important to make that distinction.
Benítez hasn't had anywhere near the time spent by Wenger or Ferguson – 31 years combined – to hone every last aspect of his club, nor has he come close to the vast fortunes spent by Chelsea, the other club in the 'big four'.
In terms of money, Benítez has had a budget way behind Chelsea and Manchester United, although similar to Arsenal; but Wenger has had the advantage of setting up his own youth system in order to begin scouting players a decade ago. It has enabled him to fill his entire squad from top to bottom with a certain kind of player, in the mould of what he, as top man, is looking for: all are quick, strong athletes.
So in terms of time and money, Rafa is behind his rivals. And yet still he's had the club achieve a lot in his time at Anfield.
As revealed last week, I have been having my own setback lately; but it is not in any way a disaster. Feeling ill, I asked to be relived of my writing duties on this site. The editor, Paul Rogers, reminded me of how both Bill Shankly and Kenny Dalglish walked away from the jobs they loved when not feeling too good, only to later regret it. And, to be fair, he had a bloody good point. After a result like this, when the last thing I want to be doing is fixating on the game of football, it actually seems the time when I should make that extra effort, irrespective of how I'm feeling.
The emails I've received in the last week have made me realise that even if people don't agree with everything I say, a section of the support wants (indeed, needs) to read something that isn't all doom and gloom. So I feel I owe those people who took the time to contact me a few crumbs of comfort.
Just as Wenger has his type of player, there are players Benítez has bought who underline his philosophy, and make me believe in the long-term future of this team. And one of those I admire most is Dirk Kuyt.
Against Arsenal in the FA Cup, there was a ball on the touchline in front of the Centenary Stand that he somehow managed to keep in. His control might not, by his own admission, be up there with Robin van Persie's, his friend and countryman, but I'm not sure even Maradona would have kept that ball in (and yes, that includes using his hand). I've watched it several times, and I still don't know how Kuyt did it, but putting in every damn ounce of effort was certainly involved.
If Kuyt hasn't got the silkiest touch, it's still rare for him to mis-control the ball. I'm guessing he just concentrates so hard, in the opposite way to how players with great skill can often get slack in their play by switching off.
When Benítez has been able to get the players he really wanted – the ones he's monitored for years – you can see a real sense of the manager's ethos.
And it's not workrate and commitment at the expense of skill. Daniel Agger has a great attitude for a young player, but is also the most cultured centre-back in the league. Xabi Alonso works incredibly hard, both in closing down the opposition to make so many tackles and in order to find space to receive the ball, but he's still a flair player. And Momo Sissoko is a much more talented footballer than he's given credit for; his problem, in possession, is calming down enough to pick the right option, which will come with experience.
The fact is that Xabi Alonso and Dirk Kuyt, two players Benítez has added to the spine of the team, care passionately about the sport, and therefore give their all out of professional pride. We want players who love Liverpool FC, and these two clearly do – but they also wouldn't slack off if playing Sunday League football. Jamie Carragher is the same, as is Steven Gerrard –epitomised by the way he kept going at 5-1 last night when other world 'superstars' would have gone home and tried to take the ball with them.
These are football obsessives. They share their manager's passion. The way Pepe Reina reacted in his post-FA Cup final interview last May tells me he's the same. He's another hungry, young perfectionist the manager has brought in. He could barely celebrate, he was so angry with himself.
The spine of this side bodes incredibly well for the future. That might sound like clutching at straws, but to me it's a very realistic hope to cling to.
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