Anfield Until The End 16/17

January Blues, Not Season Blues

Okay, you've seen the photo, now answer my question:

Do you believe we are mediocre?

Don't just mull it over, weigh the options and keep it to yourselves. That's what makes an Everton fan a Bitter. We aren't Bitters, we're Scousers! (Which, to be honest, can be a confusing thing to explain.) 

Now tell me after you've thought it over, are we mediocre?

We've lost that pretty unbeaten home streak. Lost it to Swansea and are continuing to lose it even to the likes of the Wolves, who have such an odd name they beat us in the old British weird name game before the ball was kicked. 

But are we mediocre?

Are we United?

Are we . . . dare I say it . . . the Red Everton?

If you snickered as I said that, good for you, you understand that this month will end. And the month after. And even the month after. And after a while, the season will be over and the one thing we can count on is that we're learned more from ourselves this month than we could have in any of the past months.

Now if you didn't snicker at that and started to believe that United and Everton can finish ahead of us this season, the rest of this chapter is for you. It really is.

How many points do we have? 

45, yeah? We ended off last season with 60. Even if we draw the next 16 matches, we'll end with one point higher. And even then, I find it highly impossible that we'll consistently drop points that badly for the next 16 matches. Because that will be the last 16 matches of the season.

No more matches because of many small mistakes leading to bigger mistakes and then getting knocked out of the EFL and FA Cup in the same week. 

(Don't worry, I'm getting somewhere with this.)

Does this month define our season, though?

Certainly not. 

We still have scored the most goals of the season. Our goal difference is still something to boast about. We still have players that other teams quietly envy but would never say out loud. Something about it being weird that Liverpool has good players. They should have expected it.

Our matches have been explosive, beautiful, poetry in motion all in 90 minutes if Shankly himself ever called it. Recently, not so much.

Does that suddenly make us a bad team, and the on, a bad club?

Are we suddenly struggling to convince even ourselves of our very obvious quality?

We need to dust ourselves off. 

Stop calling for Klopp's head. He already blames himself enough, don't add to the misery he probably gives himself after a loss. It's only technically been a season with him. Who calls for a manager to be fired after such a period like that? Especially after a portion that made us dream some pretty daring dreams. The honeymoon season may be starting to fade away, but that doesn't mean divorce should come immediately after. Or hopefully ever. 

Stop asking for players you yourself know we can't get. You're helping no one and especially yourself if you ask for the likes of Payet, Lacazette and others when they have their own problems and would only further bog us down. It isn't bad to wonder aloud for Promes, but to see this as the reason Liverpool would never win anything is covering up an existing problem with another that was never needed.

Stop waiting for a reason to moan. Waiting for failure only makes failure appear all the more. 

Really, January has been a bad month for Liverpool. Lucky for us, it hasn't been a bad season. Bad thoughts beget bad feelings which beget negative responses and so forth. 

It has been bad. It really has been. But we can't make it out as if the whole season has been this bad.

We can't forget the feeling of being top of the table. Or beating Hull City and others in a flurry and a bang. 

You can't do that when the season has been so great so far. 

It wouldn't be fair to the players or yourself. 

So dust yourself off and try to be optimistic for the Chelsea match. 

See, I said try. Not be. I know January wasn't great.

But you can't be stuck forever. 

We've come too far too quickly to let it go that be the way the season goes.

Great high, even greater low. That's not the way it should go.

We can't just do that to ourselves so easily when it so nicely and took so much to get there.

We must try for the boys and they'll try for us, simple as that.

Let's show Chelsea that there is still a fire and there is still hope for a better way to end the season. It cannot end here. 

We mustn't let this go.