If the Fans Believe It, So Will We
* * *
At half-time at the Ataturk Stadium we were despondent in the dressing room but we could hear the strains of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ being sung by the Liverpool supporters outside. On the way back to the half-way line after my goal, I waved my hands towards the fans to show that the players were with them and that we hadn’t given up either. They had descended on Istanbul in their thousands and the very least they deserved was for us to keep going. They responded to my gesture by creating even more of a din, but that’s the Liverpool fans for you. The best in the world.
Turning Point
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Vladimir Smicer had just scored from distance and the momentum was now with us when I screamed at Milan Baros to nudge the ball into my path as I looked to burst into the area. His touch was perfect and Gennaro Gattuso put a hand on my back, pushed me off balance and sent me crashing to the floor. Penalty. I wanted to take the spot-kick and for a large part of that season I was our designated penalty taker. But Rafa had a thing where he named a different penalty taker for different games and he would go off his head – shouting and fining players – if someone disobeyed his orders. He named Xabi as the penalty taker for the final before the game and while I was personally gutted, I knew Xabi was deadly. OK, Dida saved his first attempt but when he fired the rebound into the roof of the net our comeback was complete. 3–3. Amazing.
I’ve Done It For You
* * *
Here I’m blowing a kiss to my family who were in the crowd. My dad and brother were among a gang of friends who had travelled to Turkey for the game and this was for them. The drama of our penalty shoot-out win gave way to the best celebrations I have ever known and I wanted my family to be a part of it. I owe everything to them, for the support they have given me over the years and the belief they have always had in me. I’m proud to have given them something back. The red wristband I am wearing is in support of the Hillsborough Family Support Group.
Champions at Last
* * *
The scene still takes my breath away. Sometimes I sit and think: ‘How did that team win that trophy?’ We had six or seven players who were up there with the best in Europe, but without being disrespectful to anyone else, there were others who were not quite as good. I knew straight away what a massive achievement this was. It was the best night of my life and I doubt it will ever be bettered. With the amount of money that is in football now with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City, Paris St Germain and Real Madrid, it is going to get a lot harder for Liverpool to win this trophy again. Not least because it is a lot harder for Liverpool to even qualify for the Champions League nowadays.
Happy Scousers
* * *
I have grown close to Jamie Carragher in recent years, probably since Michael Owen and Danny Murphy both left the club in the summer of 2004. We share a room together on away trips and as captain and vice-captain we feel a lot of responsibility on us. He was magnificent in Istanbul, defying cramp, putting his body on the line, repelling wave after wave of attacks from Milan after we had come back to 3–3. For two homegrown lads to stand shoulder to shoulder on one of the best nights in the club’s history is special. Carra is a Liverpool legend and a good friend.
Planting a Smacker on the Trophy
* * *
Alex, my wife, says I kissed that Cup more than her. After the joy came relief. I had grown up knowing what European football meant to Liverpool Football Club. I had seen the tapes of Emlyn Hughes, Phil Thompson and Graeme Souness lifting the European Cup and I wanted that for myself. I wanted to deliver that trophy for all the Liverpool fans out there.
The Red Sea
* * *
You could feel the bus literally rocking as we snaked our way through Liverpool City Centre the night after Istanbul. Police horses were banging into the bus as they tried to hold the fans back. It was mayhem, but glorious, brilliant mayhem. I just don’t think you would see this scene anywhere else in the world. When have you ever seen that before? It is a majestic sight. Wow. Mind-blowing. We crawled through the streets of Liverpool and every player on that bus took away memories that they will never ever forget. Afterwards, we had a party in town. That was a late night!
UP FOR THE CUP AGAIN
Just 49 days after our season had gloriously ended, and with the miracle of Istanbul still uppermost in everyone’s thoughts, we stepped back out onto a football pitch again.
No one at Liverpool could complain too much. UEFA had ripped up their own rule book to allow us to defend our Champions League trophy because we had finished fifth in the Premier League and outside of the criteria for entry into Europe’s élite. Not allowing the Champions League winners back into the competition would have defied logic and the morning after our win over AC Milan, the pressure began to snowball on the authorities until they had no option but to cave in. So stepping out against Welsh part-timers Total Network Solutions (TNS) at Anfield on 13 July did not seem like a hardship.
On a personal note, I started the campaign as I meant to go on. I grabbed a hat-trick against TNS that night and in total scored seven goals in my first four games of the season.
I was up and running, my confidence pepped by what had happened in Istanbul, and I finished the campaign with 23 goals, which was by far the best goals return of my career up to that point.
Collectively, Liverpool were much more competitive as well. Our Champions League success had masked what had been a disappointing Premier League campaign and we couldn’t rely on conquering Europe every season. Something had to change.
One of Rafa’s great strengths around this time was that he would never make the same mistake twice.
Liverpool weren’t physically strong enough the season before so he rectified that in the transfer market. The revolving door at Anfield spun faster than I had known. In came Pepe Reina, Momo Sissoko, Peter Crouch and Bolo Zenden along with others. Out went Milan Baros, Antonio Nunez and Mauricio Pellegrino. It didn’t matter that Jerzy Dudek had been one of the heroes of Istanbul. Rafa felt the goalkeeping position needed strengthening and even before the Champions League Final he had lined up a deal for Reina. You have to say that was one of his best transfers. Baros, too, had played his part in one of the greatest nights in Liverpool’s history. But there is no sentiment in football. He left to make room for Crouch.
The pressure to perform at Liverpool is always intense. We drew four of our first five Premier League games, and then lost 4–1 at home to Chelsea, and you could sense people were sharpening their knives to plunge into Rafa. The criticism lingered on the assumption that he couldn’t get to grips with the unique features of English football, the pace, intensity and physical nature of the game here.
Rubbish. And we soon exposed that myth. When we beat West Ham at home on 29 October, the win didn’t feel out of the ordinary. It was routine. Yet it acted as a springboard for us to go on an exceptional run of form. We won 10 straight games in the league and when James Beattie scored a consolation for Everton in a 3–1 win at Goodison Park in December, it was the first time Pepe had conceded a goal in the league for almost two months.
There are times when, as a team, you play almost on auto-pilot. That stems from the trust you have in your team-mates. We had the best goalkeeper in the world in Pepe and two of the best defenders in the world in Carra and Sami. I was being given licence to roam from the right of midfield and we had Xabi and Momo who were ruthlessly efficient. Plus, we had lots of players who could chip in with goals: Riise, Fernando Morientes, Crouchy, Luis Garcia, Zenden and Harry Kewell.
We weren’t the finished article by any stretch of the imagination, but we weren’t the pushovers we had been on too many occasions the previous season, that was for sure. Football is all about making progress.
There was a disappointment during that purple patch, but it came on foreign soil. We had travelled to Japan just before Christmas for the World Club Championship by virtue of our Cham
pions League success.
To be crowned the best team on the planet was a huge incentive for us, more so because the great Liverpool teams of the past had always failed to get their hands on the trophy. How we came up short I don’t know. We battered Brazilian side Sao Paulo in the final, seeing goals dubiously disallowed, but still lost 1–0. Rafa was fuming afterwards, but the season would contain a silver lining.
We had gone out of the Carling Cup in a shock defeat to Crystal Palace and been dumped out of the Champions League by Benfica, losing both legs, but the FA Cup provided us with a great source of satisfaction. En route to the final we beat Manchester United in the fifth round and Chelsea in the semi-finals, so no one could accuse us of having an easy draw. Of course, the final itself turned into a drama with the penalty shoot-out win over West Ham, but there was a sense of accomplishment at the end of that season.
We were never going to leap from fifth to first in the table, but finishing third with 82 points, one point behind Manchester United and nine points adrift of champions Chelsea showed we were making strides. Making that final step is the most difficult, but there were clues as to how we should go about trying to get there. Of the six games we lost in the league that season, two were against Chelsea and one was against Manchester United.
If we could correct that imbalance, Liverpool would become genuine contenders. I finished the season positive about the future. I believed that under Rafa, Liverpool were becoming a force again.
* * *
“The pressure to perform at Liverpool is always intense.”
* * *
An Unsung Hero
* * *
Pako Ayesteran’s role in the success Liverpool enjoyed under Rafa Benitez often gets overlooked. He was Rafa’s assistant, the link between the players and the manager, as well as being an innovative coach.
All the trophies we won in that period came while Pako was alongside Rafa in the dug-out and I often wonder what he could have achieved had he stayed, instead of leaving at the start of the 2007–08 season.
In Rafa We Trust
* * *
Rafa Benitez pushed me more than any other manager I have had in my career and, at the time he came to Liverpool, I needed that. He didn’t ever give out any credit, but he made me a better, more rounded player who could play in a variety of positions and appreciate what being a team player was all about. At times we didn’t always see eye-to-eye, and I will never forgive him for substituting me against Everton at Goodison Park in 2007. Lucas, who replaced me, earned the penalty that enabled us to win 2–1, but I felt the decision was disrespectful because I was playing well.
On the Spot
* * *
I always fancy my chances from the penalty spot. Over the years I think I have a good record. Up to the end of last season, I had taken 34 and scored 27. Five have been saved and twice I have missed the target. The key is to know exactly where you are going to put the ball. If the goalkeeper pulls off a great save then sometimes there is nothing you can do about it other than to say, ‘well done’. The worst thing is changing your mind in your run-up and that has cost me in the past. Nowdays I go for placement rather than power. But if I miss, I’ll be back ready to take the next one.
The Best Fans in Football
* * *
Having stood on the Kop as a kid, I know what the supporters think, how they feel and what they expect from someone in a red shirt. They want 100% commitment first of all and if you offer that you find they’ll support you through anything. The first time they sung my name, I was taken aback – they can’t really be singing about me, can they? It remains one of the best experiences I’ve had as a player: the fans chanting my name and being totally behind me.
Best Seat in the House
* * *
Being able to put a smile on the faces of these supporters is one of the reasons I play football. It is an amazing feeling to know that you are only ever a couple of seconds away from lighting up the stadium and transforming the mood among 40,000 fans. Supporters can feel alienated in this day and age, but I’ll always try to do as much as I can for them. If celebrating a goal in front of them makes them feel good then that is great.
He’s Giving Me Twisted Blood
* * *
There are a handful of players who I have played with or against who are on a different planet from the majority of players in the Premier League. Cristiano Ronaldo is one of them. He is a freak (I mean that as a compliment!); he is unique. He has raised the bar in terms of skill, constantly pushing himself to stay one step ahead of the defenders who gang up on him, trying to stop him. There are not many players that you genuinely worry about facing, but Ronaldo is one of them because he can win a game on his own. He showed that at Manchester United and is now doing it game in and game out at Real Madrid. I love watching him. He takes my breath away.
Precision Placement
* * *
Set-pieces have a huge part to play in the modern game and that is why getting the delivery right is so important. There is nothing more frustrating than seeing a corner hit the first defender or fly over the head of everyone in the penalty area. Having said that, you can have great delivery but if you haven’t got the players in the team who are prepared to finish the job off then that is no use either. This is where you need your team-mates to be brave. If you haven’t got players who are prepared to break their nose or their jaw, or get their face mangled, in order to smash a header into the back of the net, then there is no point in putting the ball on a sixpence.
What Will They Ask Me Next?
* * *
Dealing with the media and attending press conferences is part of a player’s job. I understand how important the media is in the modern game and I try to be as honest as I can when I am answering questions. Sometimes it has got me into trouble in the past and people have said I am too honest, but that is hardly a fault is it? The manager has a weekly press conference at Melwood in the build-up to games, and the players are asked to stop and talk to the press after matches. I am in the papers and on TV quite a lot so I tend to limit what I do during the season, but it is a responsibility I take seriously.
Losing Never Gets Any Easier
* * *
There is a common misconception about my career that it has always been on an upward curve. There have been plenty of highs, but several lows as well, which act as a kick in the stomach and never get any easier to take. I once read Ryan Giggs say that he lingers on the defeats in his career longer than the triumphs and I know what he means. Losing the FIFA Club World Championship to Brazilian side Sao Paulo 1–0 in Yokohama in 2005 was a major blow that often gets overlooked now. How we didn’t win, I don’t know. We had three goals disallowed and it felt as if the officials were against us. We would have made history had we won because no Liverpool team had ever lifted that trophy. When the moment passed by, I was left alone with my thoughts. The only consolation is that not many players get the chance to play in a game like this.
A Huge Honour
* * *
I would like to think that over the years I have proved myself to be a team player. Liverpool comes first, my team-mates come first. Individual awards, of course, are nice, the icing on the cake. To be voted PFA Players’ Player of the Year in 2006 was a great honour because it meant I had the respect of not just my team-mates, but players up and down the country. I scored 23 goals that season for Liverpool and felt as good as I have ever felt walking onto a pitch. Give me the Premier League title that season, however, and I would have gladly handed the Player of the Year trophy back.
It’s There!
* * *
Complacency undermines everything you do as a footballer and makes life harder. We almost found that to our cost in the FA Cup Final in 2006 against West Ham. To be honest, I thought we just had to turn up and wipe the floor with them, winning two, three, four-nil. We were the favourites, the pitch at the Millennium Stadium was huge, surely we would make our superiority tell? Any
thought of that was soon banished as they grabbed a two-goal lead to leave Liverpool staring humiliation in the face. Djibril Cisse halved the deficit before the break and I scored the first of my two goals afterwards following a knock-down from Peter Crouch. The ball just sat up nicely for me and I was in the right place at the right time to smash it into the roof of the net. Typically, the drama didn’t end there.
Steven Gerrard: My Liverpool Story Page 9
