Wednesday 22 October 2014

What Liverpool Did Tonight Was Insulting

Putting the ticket price up to £60, putting the match day programme price up to a fiver, Thomas Cook auctioning off tickets to the highest Norwegian bidder... and we put in a performance like that.

I've seen teams come to Anfield and teach us a lesson down the years, Barcelona in 2001 and Rafael Benitez's Valencia to name a couple. But on them occasions, Liverpool gave their all yet were completely outplayed by brilliant teams.

Real Madrid are a brilliant team, but we didn't ask them to be brilliant tonight to beat us. Tonight, we just rolled over and let them win. That was insulting.

No pressing, no chasing, allowing them to walk through us. At times that match reminded me of when you're playing FIFA and the other persons controller disconnects.

This goes beyond players wagers, football as a business, and everything else people bring up when talking about passion in the modern game. When you're playing for Liverpool there has to be some pride in the shirt, some fight. You can ask any team at any level to put up a fight. To go out swinging.

There's a lot of Liverpool fans like myself who are proud of our team. I'm proud of our history, a history that says we've never lost to Real Madrid, a history that says we've never even conceded a goal to Real Madrid. Our players should be willing to fight to the death to protect that history. But instead we just lay down and allowed Real Madrid to take it from us.

And to hear Brendan Rodgers in his post match interview use words like "outstanding", say we were unlucky to concede three goals, and claim he couldn't ask for any more from his players... I think Brendan has spent too much time over the past few weeks arguing with Roy Hodgson because he's starting to sound like him.

I've refrained from criticising the team so far this season, but sometimes they just need to be told that they're shit. The same way they insult us by putting up the prices but not delivering on the pitch, they insult us by preying on the fact Liverpool fans will always support the team no matter what.

Brendan couldn't ask for any more from his players? I'm afraid he's going to have to start asking for a lot more. It's not the result that angers me, but the manner in which it came. The players need to be doing a lot more. And Rodgers needs to be looking at himself, and he needs to ask a lot more.

Anyway, I'm sure tomorrow when the dust has settled so will my anger, but I thought I would put this out there now. It's very, very rare that you will see me slating Liverpool like this, and I hope I can look back at this at the end of the season and be embarrassed at myself.

@adamheath