A 2020 Liverpool Guide To Rising Above The Fume

Boy, 2019 was fun, wasn’t it?

• 37 league matches: 31 wins, 5 draws, 1 loss (on January 3rd, the first match of the year, no less)
• Beat Bayern Munich 3-1 in their gaff
• 4-0 against Barcelona
• Let’s Talk About Six, Baby
• Super Cup Winners
• Contract extension for Jurgen Klopp
• Club World Cup Winners
• 13-points clear, with a game in hand, at the top of the league.

Get. In.

We’re still waiting on that Divock Origi statue, but otherwise it was a banner year for the boys in Red.

Rival fans (and even many non-rival fans) are not taking it well. If you’ve not seen on The Twitters or other sites, opposition fans are losing their shit about the prospect of Liverpool finally ending their 30-year title drought, and remaining well in contention to repeat in the Champions League.

While we’ve had to suffer decades of waiting—all while watching our records broken and status eclipsed by other clubs—the thought of the Reds winning a single trophy is apparently too much to bear for other fans.

Whereas the likes of Manchesters City and United, as well as Chelsea, have all more or less pissed the league without much fuss in recent years, Liverpool’s success is somehow seen as illegitimate. Even Leicester City got pass, with most of the footballing world standing back in awe of their accomplishment.

Liverpool, on the other hand? No, no one is prepared to see the Reds break that title drought. Indeed, many have busted out the tin foil, fashioned themselves very nice hats, and have taken to the Interwebz to spout their conspiracy theories.

My favorite, by far, is the VAR conspiracies. The thing that we were all assured would never allow Liverpool to lift the big trophy at the end of the year became the thing that is definitely helping Liverpool lift the big trophy at the end of the year!

The VAR stuff is tied closely with conspiracy #2, that the English FA are desperate for Liverpool to win the league. This is the same English FA, mind you, that has recently banned Anfield from hosting England national team matches, because of our refusal to let “reporters” from a certain shit rag “news”paper anywhere near our sacred ground. It’s the same FA that refused to move around the fixture list to accommodate Liverpool’s qualification for the Club World Cup, forcing two senior matches on two continents in under 24 hours. And the same FA that refuses to let Liverpool celebrate being World Champions by allowing them to don the FIFA badge across their chests.

Oh, and where, exactly, was the FA during the last fruitless 30 years? Where were our FA Sugar Daddies when we lost the title by one of the worst offside calls ever in 2013/14? Or for a red card worthy challenge on Mohamed Salah by Vincent Kompany last year? Why are they suddenly so generous to Liverpool? Why are they intentionally creating one of the most boring title chases in history?

Like many conspiracy theories, the whole thing falls apart with just a few, simple questions.

Another prominent argument is that Liverpool’s title will be tainted by all this VAR-related controversy.

Hate to break it to you, but we were also winners of the first Champions League with VAR. No one is taking away our Numero Seis, and if we bring home #19, no one will take that away from us either.

We also hear how the Premier League is down this year. This is the same league that had all four finalists in the Champions League and Europa League last year. And, more or less, the same league that City walked in 2017/18, without a hint of it being a “down year.” It is perhaps a down year for Arsenal and Manchester United, but no one was raising this argument when Liverpool were perpetually midtable. But sure, why not? It’s down this year. Just like when Leicester City won it on 81 points, 10 clear of second placed Arsenal.

No one could, or should, take away Leicester’s accomplishment. They were the best team in England, and won the league fair and square.

So why all the fume and boiled piss for Liverpool and not others?

Neil Atkinson of The Anfield Wrap is fond of saying, “they’re afraid if we win one, we’ll win three.”

This probably gets to the heart of the matter. Liverpool are, and have always been, a special club. Time and again, when this club gets rolling, they’re hard to stop. The fanbase is as passionate as you’ll find. And we believe our club is the best in the world, even when it is objectively not. Now we can claim that we’re the best in the world, and no one can raise objective, legitimate reasons why we’re not.

So other fans conjure up bullshit to try to discredit our success.

That’s fine. Let them have their fun.

My suggestion? Soak up and enjoy every moment of our success, and rise above the fume coming from miserable bastards whose football teams aren’t as good as ours.

We might not even win the big thing this year. Finishing second or worse is an unlikely outcome at the moment, but it’s possible. But try to enjoy each win anyway, the way that we enjoyed our surprise run to the Champions League final in 2017/18. I said at the time that Liverpool fans enjoyed losing that final more than City enjoyed walking the league. I still believe that to be true.

If we do win the league, we might drop off next year or the year after.

At one point in the mid-2000’s Mourinho’s Chelsea seemed just as unstoppable as Pep’s 100-point City team. And right now, others must be looking at what Klopp’s built and think “these are unstoppable.”

But it will come to an end. All good things do.

If rival fans get in your head with their bullshit, they’re taking away the joy you should be feeling right now. They’re effectively ending the party when the evening is young, there’s plenty to drink, and everyone is having fun.

You just got to watch a team go nearly a calendar year without tasting defeat in the league. Hell, with a few more results, you might get to watch Liverpool make a legitimate run at Arsenal’s record 49-match unbeaten streak. That would be something, huh?

Whether we walk the league in style, do so in a record-breaking fashion, or just get to watch the best Liverpool side you’ll ever get to see not win another thing, enjoy it. Life is too short, and there’s not nearly enough joy to go around. But Jurgen Klopp and these Reds? Pure joy. At least for us.

Happy New Year, y’all.