Allen Remains Confident Despite Struggles

Following Saturday's disappointing draw at Sunderland, midfielder Joe Allen talked about wanting to get a result for the supporters and his belief that Liverpool are inching ever closer to making things click on the pitch under new manager Brendan Rodgers. Though of course, Allen wasn't around for the 2011-12 campaign when the same could have been said—and was said—through almost the entirety of the first half of the season before it all went wrong in the new year.

"It’s been a tough week for everyone and it’s unfortunate we couldn’t give the fans the three points," said the club's early-season standout. "They gave us fantastic support until the end and they kept us going.

"It’s disappointing we only got a point. It was a soft goal for us to give away and it’s always tough to chase the game, especially away from home. But having said that, there were enough chances for us to have won the game. Nine times out of 10, you show spirit and commitment like that and you won’t go too far wrong.

"We don’t want to start making excuses and putting too much down to luck," he conceded, "but there’s definitely an element of that at the moment, you can’t deny it. It seems to take the opposition one chance to get a goal. We keep plugging away and do everything right and it hasn’t quite clicked at times."

For Liverpool fans who spent much of last year talking about bad luck and missed chances while Kenny Dalglish's side regularly controlled the run of play, struggled to put away their chances, and then saw the opposition score on their first threatening attack there's like to be some amount of skepticism and resistance to Allen's optimism. Still, as long as the players believe as Allen does, at least there's always the chance that results could soon improve.

"It will click. I’m confident it will and we’re really looking forward to it happening."

So is every Liverpool fan watching, even if most are likely less confident of it happening than Allen is.