The fine line between success & failure

Before you start reading this nonsense, please check out this link to my Just Giving page.

Guess what kids - it's another - what's gone wrong at Liverpool post. Well it is and it isn't.. I'm just going to start and see what gets churned out at the end.

The last few games have not gone well - that's apparent for all to see. But it could all have been very different  if this new found tendency to switch off in games hadn't raised it's head.

In 4 of the last 5 games we have let our season unravel by conceding two quick goals, which as tendencies go is a a pretty fatal one when it comes to playing games of football.

Oldham was where it started to go wrong. Where the wheels started coming off our season. Now I know the defence got changed around a bit that game, but it also got beaten up as well. To go from 1-1 to 3-1 in the space of a few minutes (either side of half-time) is unforgivable and even more so in an away cup-tie, where the locals will go deservedly bat-shit mental. But Skrtel didn't shower himself in glory and I think this may be where the rot set in.

Then the game at Arsenal, we did actually have the foresight to actually get a couple of goals up before the collapse - but at 2-0 up you have to be closing the game out. I watched that game, initially not expecting too much, but when you get the goal your expectations rise and you suddenly have something to lose. I was nervous until Henderson popped up with the second and then I relaxed because I thought it was game over. The trouble is so did we. 2-2 - a point would have been a decent result at Arsenal, but a point is never a good result from 2-0 up.

The City game.. we played well, better than against Arsenal. We got our noses in front, something not many teams do at City but we couldn't close it out and an individual error (Ferguson short-hand for not my fault) let us down. Same as the City game at Anfield actually. 2-1 up and drop a couple of points due to fuck ups.

Then it in turned to shit.. that's the thing with draws, however respectable they may be. Two defeats in quick succession and we're suddenly talking about no wins in 5 games rather than unbeaten in 4.

West Brom - we controlled, but didn't take our chances. Even missed an admittedly soft penalty, but that was very damaging. We could and should have been looking at moving up into 6th (above Everton) with a win against Swansea tomorrow. But Foster saves the pen, we take our eye off the ball and we are back in 9th.

I saw it - I don't believe it.

That was a vital game.. all the confidence gained from respectable performances away, on the back of a few hammerings of sides at Anfield, has taken a hit. West Brom have been on a downward spiral for a while and personally I made the mistake of actually presuming we were going to batter them. This is usually when the alarm bells start ringing - I am naturally pessimistic when it comes to Liverpool - didn't always used to be that way but these things do have a habit of grinding you down over the years. I thought we'd batter West Brom and head off to Russia full of confidence.

Instead we went scared that the slightest fuck-up will get punished. Now we did well enough, we were controlling the game in the second half without looking too dangerous - although Suarez did miss several chances which is something we don't like to see.

But Hulk scored a screamer, which you can't really legislate for, but again we switched off and conceded 2 quick goals. We have seen what happens if you start doing on a regular basis. You get what you deserve frankly.

Now the defence has chopped around a bit during these games.. Agger and Skrtel have dipped. Carragher has come in and done, well better than expected considering, but if your defence isn't settled then you can start to have problems. The recent evidence for this is pretty damning.

So where does this leave us going into the Swansea game.

Well there is a likelihood that the squad will be tired, but having said that we went from the away game in Moscow to another respectable draw at Chelsea in November, but we have also played on Monday and Thursday so there is a chance we will start to look a bit tired by the end of it.

The one plus point we do have is that Sturridge is back fit again.. now frankly we should have been able to dispatch West Brom without his help (and he was ineligible in Europe) but we missed him.. almost as if we are some kind of one man team. There's some lazy ass journalism right there... always pisses me off. If they could just decide who the "one man" was we might be able to do something about it.

I did read the take on Spurs one-man team situation in the paper. Rather than criticism the headline went "Is Gareth Bale the new Ronaldo" - Now I don't want to go on about bias in papers but WTF.

Back to more relevant issues. Swansea do have a cup final to look forward to next week and that be helpful to us as although they are playing for places, players who are scared of getting injured or picking up suspensions tend to take their eye off the ball and performances can dip - well put it this way, I fucking hope so, because if they are up for it then we are going to have a very serious fight on our hands.

And we need to start winning again.. If wouldn't have taken much more in each one of those 3 league games to be looking at 9 points rather than 2. And we'd be in 6th looking at moving to within spitting distance of 4th place.. but like I said, it's a fine line.

We just need to make sure we're the right side of it against Swansea.