Liam Blake is State of the Game’s new Liverpool columnist

See if you can arrange the following words into a well-known phrase ? ?dawn?, ?another? and ?false?. Liverpool fans will of course be at an advantage here. When describing the Red?s Premiership aspirations at the start of any given season (or should that be regime) since the early nineties, those three words have appeared together with such metronomic regularity that you could almost be forgiven for thinking the phrase was originally coined solely with Liverpool Football Club in mind. The current dawn, however, has been looking just a little less false and just little more rosy with each passing game of late?

That is, of course, with the glaring exception of Saturday 9th September 2006 ? a date which will live long in the minds of one half of Merseyside, whilst the other won?t be able to forget it quickly enough. Indeed a vast number of us Reds, my good self included, may well be struggling to put this particular result into some kind of perspective today simply because we?ve never seen the like of it in our lives. Older supporters and those of a more historical bent, not to mention crowing Evertonians, will be quick to point out that the Bitters haven?t heaped such pain and humiliation upon us since 1964. And whilst cherished memories of the misery we?ve heaped on the Goodison faithful down the years may provide some fleeting comfort in this darkest of hours, it?s a bit of perspective that?s really needed right now.

In the Mersey derby sh*t happens ? it?s a law of physics, and plenty of it happened to Liverpool at lunchtime on Saturday while not nearly enough happened to Everton. Quite a bit of it happened to Gerrard who could just as easily have had two on the score sheet, and a huge bit of it happened to poor Pepe Reina when the contest was already done and dusted, resulting in a score line perhaps a bit more undignified than we deserved on the day. Instead of praising Reina?s quick thinking in preventing the ball from crossing the line, we all had a bit of a laugh at his expense as Johnson did what good strikers do and got himself in the right place at the right time. Incidentally being in the right place at the right time is all well and good, but you have to be the right man too and at the moment Andy Johnson seems to be just that. He seemed hell-bent on earning his place in derby folklore, and looks a potential thorn in the side for Red defences for some time to come.

Still, ?deserve?s got nothing to do with it? as Clint Eastwood once said before shooting someone in the face, and we?d do well not to dwell on bad luck, missed chances, poor refereeing decisions etc., when the truth is that we just weren?t at the races. So where were we? Everton had been talking the talk all week long, as is their wont pre-derby, and any doubts as to whether they could walk the walk as well were well and truly banished come Saturday. Our early season rustiness is there for all to see and the Blues clearly sniffed blood, showing no signs of losing the scent when it mattered. They were first to everything all day long, weathered our storm when they had to, enjoyed the luck you need and took the chances that came their way while we wasted ours. Selection regrets? I had a few, though I doubt that Rafa would concur (and why should he?). Once again the starting eleven seems to have been picked with upcoming fixtures in mind. The much anticipated Kuyt / Bellamy partnership failed to materialise and while Benitez? selections are often a source of surprise, the Welsh forward?s failure to make the squad gives cause for concern. Bellamy is a player with the right type of aggression for the derby and his absence hints at a problem ? speculation of a pre-match tantrum may sadly not be far off the mark. Kuyt meanwhile has done more than enough in his two cameos to date to warrant a regular start ? and that?s putting it mildly. Whether it?s Kowt or Koit (and take it from the horses? mouth ? it ain?t Kite), the pronunciation had better be sorted out quick because his is a name we?re sure to hear a lot of. His hunger for possession, ability to work between the lines, strength on the ball and typically Dutch brand of confidence all suggest he?ll intimidate defences and impose himself on games. More than one comparison to Mark Hughes surfaced in the press following his debut against West Ham and Kuyt can certainly take that as a compliment. Fowler is doing little in the meantime to suggest that last season?s excellent form will continue over into this, despite the benefit of a largely injury-free preseason. The suspicion remains that he lacks the impact required to start matches and may serve us better from the bench, although his cleverly-taken penalty at Bramall Lane suggests that he?s clearly the man for that particular job.

This piece had originally been intended as a look at our prospects for the season until the Bitters? brutal intervention threatened to turn it into an obituary, but any reports of our demise should be proven immature in time. Overall it?s difficult to escape the impression this term is yet to start in earnest for Liverpool. A huge influx of new players to accommodate, Word Cup hangovers and ongoing internationals have not helped and now the neighbours are playing up. Benitez I hope will be familiar with the words of the legendary Vince Lombardi, head coach to the Green Bay Packers teams who bossed the NFL in the mid-sixties, ?It?s not whether you get knocked down, it?s whether you get up?. We got knocked down for the first time in eighteen at the weekend, and knocked down but good. But you can be sure we?ll be getting up again. The thing is, we can?t afford to waste much more time doing it?

Finally a word for the more superstitious among you? Seventeen years have now passed since we were last crowned champions in 1990. In 1964 we reclaimed the title after a gap of? seventeen years. Oh, and we lost 4-0 to Everton (at Anfield). Coincidence? Well, probably? but something to cling to all the same in this our hour of need?

This entry was posted on Monday, September 11th, 2006 at 11:00 am and is filed under Liverpool. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.