When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark
At the end of a storm
There’s a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a 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
YNWA
How did goal.com describe Liverpool’s recent victory in the FA Cup against Shrewsbury Town?
‘These kids. These crazy, heroic kids’
That sums up the spirit that is at work at Anfield this season. Liverpool is on course to match Arsenal’s invincibles of old and is primed to do it in even grander style; recording more or less a 98% win rate in the league. They have only dropped 2 points and that was against Manchester United earlier in the season. Currently dubbed as the best team in the world after their Club World Cup triumph, the team and their coach came under quite some attack when Klopp decided not to field any senior team players for the FA Cup replay against Shrewsbury Town and would have received much more criticism if their under 23-side lost. But here’s why no one can touch Liverpool this season; even against the odds, they win.
Opponents might huff and puff and might even blow a bit of their structure away, but what we are seeing is refined resilience and stubbornness not to go down regardless of the situation in the eyes of these players. They are not playing for themselves anymore, and yes, Salah usually comes under fire for being selfish but ultimately, everyone is playing for everyone in the club now – even down to the bench which isn’t the most expensive or most famed of players, but still they get unto the pitch and immediately fit into the system. It is telepathic synchrony at its peak. This is painful for all other opponents watching, knowing that they could play them in any competition, but it’s particularly dreadful now in the camp of the League holders, Manchester City.
The truth is there is only so much one man can do. Pep Guardiola is a top manager in his own right and a lot of debates have been tabled about he needing Lionel Messi to take the UCL and that his other teams aside Barcelona have had a strong backing financially, but we’ve seen his philosophies played out even when they took some time to become apparent, last 2 years they created their history by the number of goals scored and the number of points accumulated.
Last year they swept all the English trophies which dubbed them the ‘fourmidables’. But there is only so much one man can do. It isn’t the fall of City, but just the change of seasons. Just take a look at the PL table now. 22 points away from the leaders, at this point, Liverpool can forfeit a couple of their matches just because and no one would still be able to catch up. Why?
Because the truth is they aren’t walking alone. The football gods, the officials, the VAR technology all together have aligned themselves like the stars in the constellations on the universe’s canvas, and they are cheering the Premier League Champions-in-waiting on. Never have we seen football domination like this, which bar their defeat to Napoli FC in the UCL and their elimination in the Carabao Cup, would have made it total football domination. And this Liverpool side is doing it without the top 2 players of world football in their team. Never shall we witness such a rise in power, dominion, and prominence of not one, not two but a whole team and I mean a whole team to this level of winning.
Their mantra doesn’t sound so cliche now does it? When they say ‘We Never Walk Alone’ nowadays, they mean it. Every. Single. Word.