The Two Faces of Liverpool Cast a Smile over the Red Half of Merseyside

What a difference a day makes, well three in this instance.  After a woeful display on Saturday from both players and tacticians, tonight, Liverpool ensured bragging rights across the City with a 3-0 victory against bitter rivals Everton.

Within the first couple of minutes those inside Anfield could see Liverpool had the bit between their teeth, they had the desire and passion to right the wrongs of the past weeks. 

Prior to kick off Baines and Pienaar had been touted as a potential game winning left side, Martin Kelly dealt with both easily, in fact the young defender has to give thanks to Adidas who provided him with big enough shorts to pocket both players. If it wasn’t for a Steven Gerrard hat-trick then Kelly would have easily scooped the Man of the Match award, exceptionally unlucky not to be on the score sheet himself (twice), the young defender now must be a serious contender for the permanent right back position.

The midfield pairing of Spearing and Gerrard looked comfortable at all times.  Spearing’s defensive qualities and crisp passing allowed Gerrard to penetrate into the Everton half at will, something which has been lacking when the latter has been paired with Charlie Adam this season.

Special praise must be given to Andy Carroll, who had his best game in a red shirt tonight. Carroll showed the level of desire needed to wear the Liverpool number nine shirt, putting himself around the field, winning almost all the aerial battles he contested and holding the ball up well, supplying Suarez at every opportunity. Carroll looked hungry, going close in the second half as he tried to bend the ball with the outside of his boot into the right hand corner of the Kop end net.  More impressively though was his desire to win, late on Everton had a free kick just inside the Liverpool half and Carroll sprinted back to the Liverpool defensive line and made sure he won the header and cleared the danger. Tonight his desire to win was evident.

Luis Suarez, free of the shackles of being the only playmaker on the field, looked relaxed and played with a style that has been missing of late. His interlinking play with Carroll looked sharp as did his that with Gerrard, selfishly setting up the captain’s third goal when faced with a goal scoring opportunity himself.  Suarez terrorised the Everton left all evening, weaving and cutting inside, he gave the kind of performance Liverpool fans came to expect before his nine game enforced break.

Finally we come to Steven Gerrard who tonight personified everything about his ‘Mr Liverpool’ mantra.  Pre-match the talk was of improving the standard of play, how performances of late hadn’t been of the Liverpool calibre, Gerrard not only talked a good game, tonight he played a good game. The right place at the right time for the opening two goals, the first a delectable loft into an unguarded Everton net, the second a power blaster after some excellent work by Suarez on the right. He was rewarded with his hat-trick after pressurising the Everton midfield into a slip, one touch to Suarez who in turn tore at the Everton defence before casually releasing the ball to the waiting Gerrard to fire into the roof of the net. 

Kenny Dalglish may still not yet know his strongest eleven, but on tonight’s performance he must be 99% of the way there. The Anfield faithful can now only pray that this Liverpool side turns up on Sunday to bring a second Wembley date in as many months.

Generalisations are OK – So long as it’s in one direction ONLY

Well, it’s been a while since I wrote, and once again it seems to be not about the football but about the crowd inside Anfield.

Before I go any further let’s remember, contrary to what the Daily Mirror published 30 minutes after the final whistle, no arrests or charges have been made by Merseyside Police in connection with racial abuse.  Granted, like anyone who watched the match last night, the scenes involving young Tom Adeyemi, look at first glance to be racially related.  The fact his friends came out on Twitter almost instantly after speaking to him seems to underline this.

Also though, let us remember Tom had his back to the crowd and heard something shouted at him from 30 yards away from a fan sat in the Kop, who were in full voice at the time. 

Now, I’m not saying it didn’t happen, far from it, but what I am saying is that my wife told me, only half an hour ago (from 5 feet) that her friend was coming over for a cup of tea.  When she left and the door shut, it was only then after I asked her out the window where she was going that she said she was going out to her friends.  I had mistakenly heard what she said.  It happens all the time (not just to me).

The fact is Liverpool FC in its defence of Luis Suarez has gained a ‘racist reputation’ from the media and when a young black lad heard someone shout at him from the Kop then maybe because of this media tag he misconstrued “You Manc bastard” to be “You black bastard”.  Or maybe on the other hand one lone dickhead in the Kop did shout “You black bastard”.  Whatever happened it was obvious it visibly upset Tom and he was right to report it to Merseyside Police, who in conjunction with Liverpool FC will investigate the matter seriously and I have no doubt, if found that this one fan did shout something racial, then he will receive a football banning order at the minimum as a result of his actions.

However, contrary to any investigation being started or finished, it seems that ALL Liverpool FC fans are now construed as racist and that it is an abhorrent problem that runs deep in the very veins of the club.   

Although before Patrice Evra claimed Suarez called him a “Nigg*r” 10 times, which was rescinded to 5 then upped to 7 and changed to “Black” no racial problem has been seen at Anfield for many, many, many years. 

The way the media are banging on it would appear that all Liverpool fans are inherently racist; something I’m sure players from Gayle to Babel would have heard and come out in protest at many times.

I deplore racism, as a father I have brought my children up not to see colour but the person beneath, the very children I take to the match at Anfield.  I have also brought them up to not judge a society by the actions of one person.

It seems that those in the public eye, most associated to racial harmony are now prejudging all Liverpool fans also. This afternoon Piara Power, the head of European footballs anti racism group openly stated on Twitter:

 “Are LFC fans going to do this at every game support the mistakes made by their own man by abusing others? 25% of PL players are black.”

This sort of generalisation against a group of people only this week landed Diane Abbott in mildly warm water.  I would hate to think what would happen to me if I generalised on groups of people from one section of society based on the actions of one