“My name is Mikey, and I’m a Liverpool supporter. It has been three days since I last watched a game. I get up at four or five in the morning to watch matches because I now live in Australia. There have been times I have woken up the entire family with my screaming at the TV. I force my son to wear Liverpool pyjamas and sleep beneath a Liverpool bedspread every time Liverpool play. I blamed my wife for a defeat once because she put the duvet on his bed the wrong way around. I have a kid’s football shirt in a frame on the wall because I believe it made Liverpool unbeatable whenever my baby son wore it. I even got my wife to wake him up and put it on when we were 2-0 down to Portsmouth. He got back to sleep eventually. We won.” Tomkins Times

“A tearful Luis Suarez was led away from the scene of the accident with his face hidden inside his white Liverpool shirt, first by captain Steven Gerrard waving away an intrusive television camera, then by unused substitute Kolo Toure. Gerrard had been on his haunches, as had several of Liverpool’s players, while others sat in utter misery on the Selhurst Park turf before manager Brendan Rodgers emerged into the media suite and spoke of his squad being ‘devastated’. Never has going top of the Premier League with one game to play been greeted by such an outpouring of grief, despair and disappointment – but this was a thunderous night in south London that turned all logic on its head.” BBC (Video)

Istanbul in reverse signals death of Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool dream
“It was the expression of shock on those in the visiting contingent, from Brendan Rodgers in the technical area to Luis Suárez out on the pitch, which told the story. At least the Uruguayan had mustered a smile of disbelief while the game was still in progress before disintegrating into floods of tears, hiding his face in his shirt. Steven Gerrard was just as inconsolable before recovering some level of composure to hoist his team-mate from his haunches and push away the intrusion of a television camera.” Guardian

Liverpool Lost the Premier League Title Just Like They Almost Won It
“They finished last season in seventh place and came into this year with something like 33-1 odds of winning the Premier League. After back-to-back losses to Manchester City and Chelsea to end 2013, they found themselves in fifth place. But since the beginning of 2014 they’ve won 14 games, tied three, and lost one. They’ve clinched a spot in the Champions League group stages, and they’re atop the table with one game left in their season. Or: Humans exist as cast members in the blackest comedy, directed by some cruel, faceless, string-pulling auteur we will never see. Everything is a disappointment. And any success is just seemingly self-prescribed medication against the bleak, hopeless, ultimately hollow reality that nothing will ever work out the way we want it to.” Grantland

“Brendan Rodgers says Daniel Sturridge is in with a chance of returning to Liverpool’s starting lineup at Crystal Palace on Monday night. The England international, 24, is recovering from a hamstring injury sustained during the 3-2 win over Manchester City on April 13. The striker missed the following Sunday’s 3-2 victory at Norwich, but returned to action as a substitute seven days after that off the bench as Chelsea won 2-0 at Anfield.” ESPN

“Last summer, I said I thought Liverpool should sell Luis Suarez. There were a lot of reasons behind it, but most of it boiled down to the fact that Suarez was one of the worst high volume shooters in Europe when it came to converting shots into goals. A non-penalty conversion rate of 8.7% in his first season in the league, followed by another of 12.3% in his second season weren’t impressive enough for me to think his dribbling (also inefficient) and ability to create his own shot were enough. Liverpool were already near the limit in how often teams can generally shoot in a game (19.4 in 2012-13), and in my opinion, Suarez’ inefficiency was keeping Liverpool from taking the next step and competing for a Champions League place.” Stats Bomb

“I grew up in the dark yet magical Liverpool of the 1980s, a time when Liverpool FC won so many trophies that the team seemed to be on a permanent victory parade through the city’s streets, showing off their latest piece of silverware (watch the Super 8 footage here.) As a third-generation Everton fan in his formative years, witnessing Liverpool’s stars perpetually cruise by aboard an open-top bus was a searing sight. The players lolling casually around the cup on the front of the upper deck, a pose that suggested winning had really been no sweat at all.” ESPN (Video)

“Liverpool stand three steps from Premier League heaven after all the qualities required to win titles were put to the test by Norwich City at Carrow Road. Brendan Rodgers’s side – it is still just too early to call them champions-elect – showed their attacking brilliance, resilience and enjoyed a little good fortune to hold out for a win that at one stage looked a formality. Early goals from Raheem Sterling and Luis Suarez were examples of the fluidity and brilliance that have become Liverpool’s trademark this season, but those other factors were at work as they dug in to go five points clear at the top of the table with a 3-2 victory.” BBC