What happens with every David and Goliath story? The “David” is either globally celebrated, or the so-called “big boys” find every way to belittle David’s success as a fluke.
Liverpool made their own version of the classic story last season, spending pennies compared to big-spending Manchester City or Chelsea, and almost besting both teams in the Premier League table. However, the reaction to their fairytale story was the former of the David vs. Goliath reactions.
None of the others could stand Liverpool’s success. They just didn’t want to believe that against all odds, Liverpool actually strung together their strongest season in recent years. So they boiled it down to a Uruguayan who scored thirty-one goals. The voices of criticism cried that without Suarez, Liverpool’s success would never have happened; that’s like me saying that without Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa, Chelsea would be nowhere.
What these jealous individuals forgot about was the fashion in which this team played together, and players such as Jordan Henderson, Philippe Coutinho, Raheem Sterling, Daniel Sturridge, who were all key pieces in this well-oiled machine which is Liverpool.
However, Liverpool’s talisman was sold off to Barcelona, and the same voices who’d been pointing out the Reds’s reliance on Suarez took to this story like rats to cheese (if that’s a common simile): the newspapers were filled with talk of Liverpool being in crisis. Scores of individuals in the entire nation took this story and ran, and when Brendan Rodgers announced the enigmatic signing of Mario Balotelli, the already polarizing figure left rivals salivating at the prospect of ridiculing the Anfield faithful.
Fast-forward to the torrid stretch that Liverpool endured last month, and these individuals were having an absolute field day. It was like free candy at a local kindergarten. “Liverpool signings can’t score”, “Southampton are better off than Liverpool”, “Balotelli struggling”, they were endless.
These individuals believed what they wanted to believe; the bigger picture didn’t interest them. Nobody mentioned the fact that attacking players (who were the prominent part of the attack) Lazar Markovic, Adam Lallana, and Mario Balotelli were only practising for two weeks before they were burdened with leading the front line in the world’s most competitive league. Lallana and Markovic missed much of pre-season due to injury. Even better, everyone conveniently left out the information that Alberto Moreno, Dejan Lovren, Mamadou Sakho, and Javier Manquillo was a newly formed back-line, and had been practising for no more than two weeks together (Sakho missing preseason as well due to injury). All of a sudden, familiarity and chemistry apparently didn’t matter in a football team.
Furthermore, Balotelli started approximately five matches in two weeks; displaying strength, an abundance of shots, confidence, and hard work, but everyone just decided to focus on his “abysmal” performances. As soon as he was given a rest, the tabloids jumped on it, calling him ‘dropped’ to the bench.
In professional sports, a team either ‘clicks’ right away and newly formed teams develop chemistry like magic (Southampton), or teams struggle for a period of time before finally ‘clicking’ (Tottenham, sort of). I fully expect Liverpool to be stringing wins together this month after spending most of last month developing familiarity with each other.
When you’re struggling for seasons and not being able to even qualify for the Europa League, no one cares. When you become one of the best in just eight months, the others take notice and try their best to knock you down, it’s part of the inferiority complex that these small teams have.
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