This column is called “We Go Again”, after the three words Steven Gerrard roared at his teammates when Liverpool beat Manchester City in their battle for the Premiership title in 2014.
Two points ahead of Chelsea, who were second, four clear of Manchester City in third, four games left in the season. Gerrard pulled his teammates into a huddle and exhorted them: “We do not let this f**king slip. We do not let this f***ing slip. We go again!”
Then he slipped against Chelsea at Anfield, Liverpool lost 2-0 and, for Liverpool, it was more of “here we go again”. Another year without a league title. Another year of wondering when luck, fate, magic would come our way and we would find our way.
The great teams and players find a way to go again. Liverpool have this season. They did on Tuesday on a stormy night at Estadio de la Cerámica against Villarreal. They did in the Carabao Cup against Chelsea. They did in the FA Cup semifinal against City. They will, no doubt, look to go again against Spurs in the league this weekend, then Aston Villa, Southampton and, finally, Wolves.
Real Madrid were a “we go again” team over the two legs of the Champions League semifinal, never finished, never giving up, squeezing City, leading them into, in the words of the Times, an “ambush” at the Bernabéu.
City played well, but Real pushed, pulled and kicked their way through the game, unsettling the visitors on their home patch. Now they have to go again against Newcastle on Sunday, then Wolves, West Ham and, finally, Gerrard’s Aston Villa.
Pep Guardiola will need to dig deep into his bag of magic dust to lift a team distraught at missing the title his Abu Dhabi owners want more than any other, the one that continues to elude them.
What happened? City did not reckon with the power of the Bernabéu, Barney Ronay wrote in the Guardian: “There has been a great deal of mythmaking around the Bernabéu on this run. This is a magical place. A terrifying place. An enchanted canyon. A place where witches skirl about in the skies above casting dark magic.”
Or perhaps they forgot that Real, who have seemed vulnerable this year more than any other time in the recent past, are never done.
“Because the comeback is Real’s speciality,” Oliver Holt wrote in The Times. “It was the same comeback that helped them to thunder back past PSG in the round of 16, past Chelsea in the quarterfinals too. Even City know all about it because they witnessed it last week.”
In rugby the Stormers have overcome the nonsense swirling around their administration to find a way to win when it has looked as though they shouldn’t. Bath’s rugby team should have “we go again” on their changing room wall if they are to overcome yet another horror season. They lost 64-0 to Gloucester last week. That came six months after Bath lost 71-10 to the same opponents.
That is why they have called for an SA rescue squad, led by Ed Griffiths, to revive a team of which it was written more than a quarter of a decade ago: “It’s fair to say that Bath are to rugby what Liverpool were to soccer in the era of Bob Paisley.”
They were that good. They were that feted. They were that duped into believing their own hype, and fell into disrepair. Now Bath have called in Johann van Graan as head coach from next season on what they call a “long-term” contract, which implies the club is aware of the size of the fix required and the length of time it will need.
“We go again” is a call of bravery and a depth of belief. It is going in 2-0 down in a small town in Spain and knowing your players, your teammates are not yet done. It’s about being behind in Manchester and on aggregate in Madrid, and finding the energy to take the game as deep as you needed to for a famous victory.
“We go again.” You will hear this over and over for the rest of the month as City seek compensation, Madrid dream of the unexpected and Liverpool chase an incredible achievement. We go again. And again. And again.
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