Liverpool have not been good enough this season, plainly put. A myriad of reasons have been offered as to why — Defense! No proper DM! Luis Suarez!!! — but regardless of the source(s) of the problem, Liverpool's performances have been lacklustre and their haul of points in the league dismal. A win at Bournemouth that propelled the club in to the League Cup semi-finals on Wednesday was a much needed boost, and ahead of an important game against Arsenal, it might just be what the team need.
“It’s been tough of late, I can’t deny that,” said Steven Gerrard. “It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster so to get a good win at Bournemouth is a big lift and a lift that is very welcome. We did well as an attacking unit at Old Trafford. The difference was we made mistakes there and got punished by world-class players. At Bournemouth we cut the mistakes out and the first half was a very pleasing performance, probably as close as we’ve come to last season’s standards. But we need to keep going, keep winning.
“We have a tough game at the weekend against Arsenal and then we have a run of fixtures which are a bit more kind to us. If we can get a big result against Arsenal and build on this, we can turn it around. It’s been very hard. I’ve experienced it a few times during my career at Liverpool when it gets tough under certain managers and, from the outside, people are trying to kill you. It’s normal. We’re at a big club, we’ve got to take that responsibility."
Armchair psychologists will have noted that although Gerrard might have been through major disappointment in the past, the tragic double of losing the league with Liverpool and a poor World Cup showing with England has sapped some of the captain's joie de vivre. Still, if he's gotten out of it once in the past, he can certainly do so again.
“We can’t have players hiding and feeling sorry for ourselves," the captain continued. "Everyone knows if we perform back to how we have done of late against Arsenal we’ll get beat. We need men out there and, on Wednesday, I thought we all turned up. That’s why the result came.”
It's unclear what Brendan Rodgers has been sending out onto the pitch each match if not men — Boys? Alpacas? The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future? — but if men are getting the positive results, then send out the men against Arsene Wenger's boys on Sunday.