Liverpool-Fans

To all Liverpool fans,

To say this season has been a frustrating one for yourselves is something of an understatement, but the last thing the football club needs is to buy into the terrible media reports who from an outsider looking in is doing its level best to drive a wedge between the club and supporters whilst looking to drive Rafa Benitez to the verge of breaking point. It seems relentless, but the last thing supporters must do is put more pressure on what is a fragile situation.

This year has been poor for Liverpool and you have failed to see your team live up to the pre-season hype, where many considered it to be your year. Obviously there are reasons for it, with injury and key players losing form at the centre of it, but Alonso’s sale aside that is the same squad that pushed United so close and it is the same group that can ensure that you make the top four again this season. Results have picked up in the Premier League of late and let’s be honest that should have been three PL wins on the spin today.

You may ask why a Gooner like myself should take an interest in Liverpool’s plight, but it is because I see a lot of parallels with you and what we suffered last season. We like you through away a great chance to land a title back in 2008 and while expectation was we would take the title last year we flopped miserably and threw away so many points and lost a lot of games to poor opposition. The media were heaping pressure on us and Arsene Wenger and at one point they were winning and a lot of supporters did start to turn and question the manager. We were told, like you are now, that we had fallen out of the top four and on the decline (even though months before we were being touted as future champions); it wasn’t until the start of March that we relinquished our place back in the top four, a feat that I fully expect Liverpool to follow as well.

I am personally amazed at the amount of people suggesting this week that it is time for Rafa Benitez to quit. That would be a total knee-jerk reaction, the easy option, however a lot has to be said, as we are showing this season, in retaining faith in a manager and realising that a few bad results and a poor season doesn’t disguise what they have already achieved at the football club in the past, and what they will do again in the future. You don’t hear many pundits writing us off this season in the race for the title; it just shows how quickly the pendulum can swing the other way.

My message to all of you really is to stay strong, back your manager and remember that Rafa was one that took you to the brink of a title last season and not to mention two Champions League finals. As we found with Arsene a few bad results shouldn’t cloud your judgment of a man and what he has brought a lot to your football club and who has already proved his worth. It may not feel like it at the moment, but you will benefit in the long run from this season’s setback and believe me, you, as well as Benitez will return the stronger for it.

Keep the faith

Written By James Marsh