Liverpool 2013-14: A defining season for a team in transition

Brendan Rodgers

You can simply call it an addiction, but that wouldn’t tell half the story. Extreme fandom is in no way a rarity in football but it defies the banality of getting lost in the crowd. The excitement rises as the season approaches, your heart pines for that sweet glory and your body physically aches for release in the form of your club attaining the pinnacle.

Yes, it is almost like a drug, minus the health hazards. That is, if you do not count the perils of rising blood pressures, rapid mood swings and blinding pain of utter frustration. But all that has been part of the job description for a Liverpool supporter; at least in the last four years or so.

So we stand at the brink of another dawn, or at least what seems like a dawn. The customary this-year-is-our-year chant has been brandished like a war cry. But this year does feel different. We have a manager who seems to know what he is doing. The handling of the Suarez affair has been nothing short of brilliant. There has been a desirable ruthlessness in the transfer decisions.

The dross has been removed while the incoming targets have been chosen keeping in mind the long-term team building. More than individual player quality, Liverpool has lacked a certain self-belief and coherence as a unit in the past few seasons, something that definitely seems to be a focus for Brendan Rodgers.

They seem to have gone for undervalued players with a potentially high ceiling, players who at their best are brilliant. A lack of marquee signings might be a cause of concern for a section of fans and a regularly used attack on FSG to prove their corporate evilness, but I disagree.

However hard it might be to accept, the primary reason Liverpool are missing the signings is their inability to offer European football this season and virtually zero prospect of a title charge in the next two years. It is surprising how a club that was a hair’s breadth from winning the title in mid-2009 degenerated to the lows of near administration due to the incompetent owners.

Anyhow, all this brings us to the one undeniable fact: a transfer window is just the beginning. What matters is how you build upon it. It is a long standing caveat that positive results of pre-season games should be taken with a pinch of salt. But Liverpool surely have impressed this summer. 17 goals scored in seven games, six wins and a solitary goal scored past the new guard in the net.

After seven years, the club will have a fresh first choice goalkeeper defending the red goal. Simon Mignolet has impressed so far in the pre-season with Jamie Carragher already praising the young lad’s contribution. The pre-season has shown he can be vocal and can command the last line of defence.