Ever get that feeling of things never going your way, ever though you’ve tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, and tried?
It is definitely an unorthodox method of pulling it off, but I realise that by not trying at all too hard, things do seem to fall into place at times. NOTE: ‘at times’.
Is it because when you come across as someone who tries very hard, trying to be persuasive, even annoying at times, people get turned off? I know I would definitely love to shove my palm into the face of someone who is nagging and pecking at my neck consistently, nitpicking at things and wanting them to be his or her way, except that I don’t shove my palms most time because I’m just too nice and it would totally be unnecessarily disrespectful and I wouldn’t want others to shove their palms into my face anyway.
Of late Liverpool’s woeful form have undergone major operating procedures under the tables of makeshift footballing surgeons, from uncles whose only concern of the outcome of a football match is how much money they make from their bets to veteran pundits on tv, web and the daily papers.
The same time last season I remember that much of the knives were being used to disect the American owners, and much were being said of how they should vacate the positions to some entity worthy of the Red’s proud traditions and ambitions.
But they didn’t go, and in fact they’re here to stay much longer than expected, after any talks of alien takeovers, were alienated indeed.
Now that the skin of the American owners have toughen up against the knives, a new scapegoat is found, recklessly being put onto the operating table at every sign of despair. From Lucas Leiva, to Rafa Benitez, it seems that the knives are sharper than ever and the operational cuts are deeper than ever.
Why the negative sentiments? I often ask when I read them. What is so wrong about Rafa’s selection or tactics that warrants such petulant criticism, like I wonder if these critics were placed in Rafa’s shoes and put on the shoes that Rafa dons, how could they have done it better?
Should Rafa and the Liverpool lads work even harder? I doubt so. Working harder only tires the body and deflates the soul. I believe a marathon work ethic is the key to any successful long-term campaign and at this point of time, after much loss and dissapointment, they (Liverpool) should take things easy — but of course any demanding fans and critics would argue otherwise.
Still I applaud the way Rafa has tackled this issue, by not berating at his players or at match officials, unlike his much illustrious counterpart from Manchester, who seem to deflect the injury of a loss to his team by attacking referees — so that critics write about these attacks more than his team’s loss.
This managerial tactic reminded me so much of how Mourinho used to work, always deflecting losses to his team away, and these are ruthless, single minded managers who will only gladly do anything to get their team back on track.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) Rafa takes it all in, and keeps assuring everyone that it’s just a blip, just a minor hiccup, just an unfortunate series of events, like how Cameron Jerome scored the wonder goal against the run of play this morning. You can’t predict these things.
Amazing match stats right? You’d be forgiven for thinking how cruel the referee was for not abandoning the one-sided match — but that’s how it goes in football, and it’s this beauty of ‘anything-goes’ that eencapsulates why I love the game so much.
Unfortunately, Rafa’s boys drew and lost points yet again, but I won’t be in grief about it, and I won’t brood much, because I know, it’s a marathon baby, and at marathons you don’t go at it 100% all the way, you pace yourself and we all know that in marathons, the winner is never the fastest runner.
Liverpool 2 – Birmingham 2. The marathon continues.
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