Doing what I can to make you feel better about the club.
What can you say at this stage that has not already been said half a dozen times? You can only say, “must win” so many times before it kind of loses it’s luster. In reality, all matches are must wins. A loss or draw, regardless of importance, is still damaging psychologically. So in effect, even when you don’t need to win, you still need to win. Follow? No? Oh, well.
If the stars and planets were to align and make Aston Villa, Manchester City, and Tottenham all lose their remaining matches, then this would be a must win for Liverpool. I am a realist and am resigned to us not making the top four. As to whether or not we will make the Europa League, I could care less. I’d rather not watch any matches at all than have to watch a club like Liverpool take on obscure teams from the hard working country of wherever.1
One club that will be taking this match very seriously is Burnley. The “must win” phrase still holds true for them. If they lose this one, they can pretty much kiss the Premier League goodbye. The Clarets will be forced to attack and will create space that even our horrible tactics will be able to exploit. I’m expecting this to be another match like West Ham was with the Reds winning by a two or three goal margin.
I quit trying to guess at the squad. Just think of who you would not put on the pitch, and that is probably who will be there. Ngog was complaining about his back2 during the match with Atleti so maybe someone more able will get a start up front. If someone like Kuyt can net a goal or two, maybe he will rate a start on Thursday as well and we can make it to the finale of that Europa thingy.
There has been lots of news about transfer rumors of both players and managers. Supposedly, Rafa is lining up his back room staff for a possible move to Juventus3 and Mancini is also causing a stir by publicly saying that Manchester City will be launching a mega bid for Torres. I just don’t see Torres leaving for an English club, but the prospect of Rafa leaving to Italy and taking Torres with him is a little annoying. As with all things football, we will wait and see.
-CSD