Onwards and Upwards

Well I’m still basking in the glory of our victory over the chavs last weekend. Normally when you are hanging on to a 1-0 lead it can get nervy towards the end as the opposition pile on the pressure but in truth I thought we were comfortable winners and never really looked like conceding.

The victory was made all the sweeter by the fact that it was Torres’s first game for the chavs since he turned his back on Liverpool and I think we are well rid of him. Now that he’s gone any anti-Torres talk seems like sour grapes but I honestly believe we are far better off without him. I was getting fed up with the sideshow when he was here and I’m even more fed up with it now that he’s gone.

While he was here it seemed that almost all of our games over the past 12 months or so had become part of the Torres circus. Regardless of the result of our games we would hear the same questions over and over again. How did he play? Did he look interested? What was his body language like? Did he look happy? Does he want to leave? Has the real Fernando Torres been abducted by aliens and replaced by a clone with the wrong coloured hair, a face like a slapped arse and a couple of dodgy hamstrings?

Ok, that last question was one of mine but the vast change in Torres both as a player and a person since his “supposed” surgery ahead of the World Cup last year is very strange and I don’t think we can rule out alien involvement. Alien abduction has long been a problem in football and particularly at Anfield but the authorities refuses to acknowledge it exists and brush it off with lame excuses about loss of form and confidence. I think there is clear evidence to suggest there is a bug-eyed alien behind this but so far David Moyes has denied any involvement!

Anyway enough from the parallel universe my mind sometimes drifts into, my point is that the circus that has been following the Torres clone around for the last year or so has been a distraction and taken the limelight off the team. Granted our results over the last year have been pretty poor but there have been some good performances within the team that have been largely ignored due to the spotlight been constantly on Fernando Tortoise.

For example, it’s good to see Lucas getting a little bit of recognition for his performances since Dalglish took over but the truth is the lad has been playing his heart out and has been our most consistent performer for the last two years. There have been other players as well who have put in good performances in some games that have gone unnoticed due to the media circus surrounding Torres.

I’ve also got a pain in my ass hearing a lot of the crap that has gone on since he left. First he said Chelsea are a bigger club, then he said that actually Liverpool are a bigger club and now he’s saying that Liverpool are a bigger club but Chelsea have been a bigger club over the last 10 years, or something like that. He’s also now said that he had lost his enthusiasm at Liverpool. This is a guy who was earning £110k a week at Anfield and had the adoration of Liverpool fans worldwide and yet he claims to have lost his motivation?

He also claims his move was for sporting reasons and nothing to do with money, so clearly the chavs making him their highest paid player on £175k a week is just an accounting error! I don’t know what he is looking to achieve with all of this crap he is spouting to the media but whatever it is, it’s not working. Torres’s actions have spoken louder than his words and those actions show that he is nothing but a traitor, a two-faced liar and just another petulant and greedy footballer. That’s not just sour grapes from a Liverpool fan, I think most neutrals are also coming around to this point of view.

So at this stage I’m sick of hearing about bloody Torres. As far as I’m concerned the matter is closed and if he wants to sell his soul and sign for a team with an average age that’s increasing faster than the State of Florida, that’s very much his loss and we will continue onwards and upwards without him.

Of far greater importance then Fernando Footnote is the way the team is playing and we are playing some great stuff at the moment. Kenny has the team playing as a team and they all seem to be enjoying their football which has made a huge difference to our performances and it’s terrific to watch. All of the players are playing their part. In defence, I thought it was a strange decision to move Glen Johnson to left back but I don’t think he’s ever played better for us and Kelly is playing some great stuff on the right, and with four clean sheets in our last four games our centre backs are also looking solid.

In midfield, Lucas is doing his best Ronnie Whelan impression, Gerrard is slowly getting back to his best and Raul the Merciless is playing some great stuff and just can’t stop scoring. In attack, Kuyt has been moved back to our forward line and it seems to have given him a new lease of life. Deadly Dirk may not have scored recently but he’s reminded us what it’s like to have a forward who constantly harries defenders, actually knows how to hold the ball up and has the ability to pass the ball to somebody in the same coloured shirt. I’m also looking forward to seeing Suarez. He looked very good when he came on against Stoke and it will be interesting to see what he can do when he plays from the start. All this and Andy Carroll still to come, life is good!

Whether we can keep this run going and claw our way a bit further up the table remains to be seen but at least we can now see some progress being made with the side and a style of play that we can develop and build on for next season. I’m really enjoying the football we are playing and I’m looking forward to our games with an enthusiasm I haven’t known in years.

Next up we’ve got Wigan at Anfield on Saturday. They are not having the best of times at the moment but they are one of those sides that is capable of springing a surprise if you give them half a chance. They will provide us with a different type of challenge but if we continue the form we’ve been showing lately I can’t see anything but a home win. I think Kenny might revert back to 4-4-2 and play Suarez and Kuyt upfront for this one and I’ll put my money on a 3-0 Reds win.

Keep the Faith

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