“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.” Those were the words of the great Bill Shankly, and while said with tongue firmly in cheek there is a resonance of truth in the statement.
Well, dreams of an incredible double will have to be put on hold for another season. The defence of our Champions League crown came to a bizarre end against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night in a 13 minute spell in which Liverpool completely unravelled.
Crisis, what crisis? It’s amazing how quickly so-called desperation can be extinguished with a simple win in football, especially when other results go your way and you can, in theory, secure the Premier League title with weeks to spare.
Three defeats in the space of a fortnight is absolutely far from ideal. But anybody predicting the downfall of Liverpool FC based upon this spell of 14 days does so rather prematurely – there really is no reason for Reds fans to panic.
It was almost inevitably going to happen, wasn’t it? Any hopes of the perfect ‘invincibles’ season came to an end as Liverpool were downed by red-hot Watford on Saturday evening. Given the Hornets’ recent form to say their 3-0 victory was a surprise would be something of an understatement, but Nigel Pearson rallied his troops and they delivered an epic display.