Another home match and yet another pathetically inept display. Disjointed from start to finish, apart from patches when we manged to raise our heads above the parapet, we were patently not at the races and are beginning to look as though we may well be swallowed up by the chasing pack having lost impetus before the turn of the New Year. The same signature tune for each match is becoming wearing. It begins with slow build-up, a lack of width, an over reliance on Suarez and the only speed that you get to see all day is that of the Virgin train coming up from London.
Suarez and Skrtel stand lone from a critical eye as the positives factors at either end of the pitch. Against Wigan, the manager dropped into the precipice of indetermination as he appeared in a quandary in determining how to change the match, being disappointingly undecisive by the end. Two-one down and needing a whiff of inspiration and dynamism, he plumps for Shelvey with the pace and directness of Sterling and Nathan Eccleston champing at the bit on the side lines.One couldn’t help wondering whether at this juncture Dalglish like so many manager’s before him has seen his decision making powers pushed off kilter by the expectations levels of a great club. Looking across to see him sitting on the advertising hoardings rather than standing in his usual position besides the pitch one hoped the pressure wasn’t getting too much. By the time Sterling entered the fray, greeted by fans rising out of their seats in expectation, the horse had already bolted and glimpses of his electric pace only added to the thinking of what might have been.
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Another season will drift by with a string of unacceptable performances littered over its length. The opportunity to close the gap to Arsenal and Chelsea was there for all to see and it may well be that instead of us its Newcastle who takes up the mantle in the coming season with a place among the top five or six in the offing and Liverpool in a state of flux.
Kop-post Man of the Match: Luis Suarez: The loan wolf amongst a flock of sheep.
In addition to this poor performance for yet another league defeat the worrying thing is that Dalglish has shown a lack of the ability in his second tenure as manager to be able to turn a slump in form around.
ReplyDeleteThey started yesterday with the formation 4-1-4-1 with Downing on the right and Kuyt on the left which again showed a tactical weakness with both players naturally coming inside rather than staying wide therefore condensing the centre of the pitch. After twenty minutes this was changed.
What wasn't changed was the fact that Henderson was playing to close to Gerrard therefore making central midfield too congested and the formation at home to a side like Wigan looking more like a 4-5-1. At home you would expect Suarez to be supported by another striker or attacking midfielder not having to take on three Wigan defenders by himself but this wasn't addressed halftime. No foresight by Dalglish again.
Dalglish continues to persist with his £20m gamble Henderson despite the fact the player's confidence is completely shot. Henderson is currently resembling Bambi shocked by the headlights of the arena of Anfield! For his own sake he needs to be taken out of the team to rebuild his confidence.
The extremely poor handling of Andy Carroll who seems to not be trusted by Dalglish when he has invested £35m in the striker is baffling -Carroll showed recently when played that there is a lot of potential but he can never prove himself when he plays two games then is a sub for the next three games. You also can not keep taking off Downing brought in to the provide the service to Carroll and expect Carroll to be prolific and make an impact from the bench he is not that type of player-he needs games and Dalglish needs to have shown him more faith.
Dalglish needs to also remember the fact that our owners are looking at us as a long term project and if he continues to not get the best out of the players he has heavily invested in -they will see him as not the answer to head the project.
Dalglish has also showed a lack of taking blame at press conferences previously it was bemoaning bad luck of our team, now it's the team being fatigued, I expect our manager to occasionally hold his hands up and admit that we have under-performed but to never ever do that is very embarrassing.
8 points out of the last 11 league games which in everyone's eyes is relegation form will ultimately lead to some very searching decisions for our owners after reviewing our season once it has finished.
5 defeats out of the last six league games only beating Wolves and Everton to my mind is not good enough and that should decide how you are judged legend or not.
Would any other manager survive at our club if he wasn't the legendary King Kenny?
Very surprised to learn of Kenny's post match comments about feeling forced to play Sterling. I wondered whether that was because of what Sterling's mother said or whether its because he felt he needed to spice up the squad, then I don't know. But he should not be picking a player just because of the fans but because he feels that he adds to the diversity of the squad or teams in terms of either skill, speed, finishing, desire - all of which Sterling seems to have in abundance. What he did in 7 minutes was much more than what Downing, Kuyt or Henderson managed in the whole of the game.
DeleteAt times, I thought we were playing against Barcelona - we even made Calderwood look like Lionel Messi in the box.
Many fans at the game, in the hotel and on the train on the way home seemed to resonate with my long held view that Kenny's "best before end date" draws near. Its hard enough trying to get 3 points nowadays without having to try and work with the team selction that Kenny throws up. The problem that Kenny has is that he has spent a lot of money but not used his players to good enough effect. For example, even when he brought on Carrol, it didn't occur to him that it might be worth putting Downing back on the left with an instruction to get some crosses in.
I often don't even think about who the man of the match was when we perform so poorly. If there was a man of the match from our team, I would give it to young Flanagan as its not always easy to come in and do a shift in the first team when you haven't been playing - just look at Jamie Carragher!
The inflexible nature has hindered progression all season. Whether it's been Henderson playing out of position or Downing woefully out of position. His confidence in Carroll is virtually non-existent and the players body language seems to acknowledge this.
DeleteLivi's point about moving Downing to the left is a good one, but he could have uppped anty by bringing on Sterling earlier and playing him on the right, thus have two orthodox wingers to supply the frontmen. I understand his need to protect the youngsters which was probably his rationale for not bringing on Sterling earlier, but this was a game which lacked intensity and Wigan are footballing side rather than Stoke City.
All season he has rotated players, Carroll hasn't even played, Adam who started, the last game is injured, Flanagan started... Unfortunately, the excuses are of beam when what the side is direction.
We have arguably the best back four in the league with Reina, Enrique, Agger, Skrtel and Kelly and with Suarez committing his future to Liverpool with a fit Gerrard, we have the basis of a future if the right players come on board and we move away from this convoluted way of playing. Yesterday Wigan in possession looked as though they could keep the ball all day and it was a wonder we never their supporters shouting Olé in support of their dominance
So is Dalglish now giving us the impression it is a bad thing to win the Carling Cup and get to an FA Cup semi-final as it will hinder our chances in the league? Absolute nonsense!
ReplyDeleteThe sign of a good and potential great side is being able to play well in whatever competition you enter and do well.
No point in moaning when you have under-performed in the league because you had an opportunity to bring in further players in January but chose not to.
Do not blame fatigue it is not a valid excuse in this case.
He is opening us open to ridicule. We have had no European Competition to worry about all season, hence no travel. Chelsea are in the quarter final of the Champions League and the FA Cup semi-final; Stoke had a strong cup run allied to many Europa games and not to far behind us in the league. We have a big enough squad and good enough players to be at 10 points further up the league even with the chances missed. But if you start games, against in many cases opposition which should be beating with one striker upfront we are asking for trouble.
DeleteI watched the match down the pub and it was truly awful. The movement was non-existent, the passing was consistently wayward, players looked like they had one eye on the beach. Then Kenny embarrasses himself talking about tiredness and blaming TV schedules, he’s stating to sound increasingly deperate in his excuses, I’d much rather he just came out and said ‘Yeah we were rubbish today’ rather than trotting out lame excuses. According to Kenny we don’t have a deep enough squad to cope with fatigue but Like Vic says we spent 7 million on Coates, why not play him? Also Shelvey and Maxi were ready to go why not give them a rare start? We’ve got kids like Coady and and Eccelston who could come in and freshen things up and if we need more depth why sell Meirelles? Sorry Kenny, you will always be a legend, but you should stop talking nonsense and admit that we just aren’t good enough.
Deletewe have to accept we are no longer big-time until we can compete on a regular basis not compete one year and then 4-5 years down the line not compete.
DeleteThere has to be a serious re-think of our strategy at the end of the season not just throw away another £100m on average players.
Very disappointed with the whole league campaign this season.
Yes, serious re-think. There is some serious arrogance to our outlook.
DeleteEveryone knows Newcastle have been punching below their weight for years - if they play things right (chairman doesn't muck things up) and given they are the only club in town they could well be in the top six for the foreseeable future. And should they beat us..l
totally Agree, I really though we had something on the ground to compete with when KD took over and the players we brought in, we are no wear near likes of Man U, City, Arsenal.
DeleteFor me the rest is history as the real campaign started with the inception of the Premier League in 1992!
However we still have to give it another season with KD, and the players we have now, a major re-think plan around the table, totally embarrassing
Look at Arsenal, they don't buy heavy cos they have an intelligent manger who can develop players, then go on the run winning 6 games with the same defence line and sitting comfortably 3rd place. Arsenal and Chelsea open doors for us, but we still did not take the chances.
hopefully the FA Cup, will bring some smiles around!
We may have to really invest in a whole number of youth players – (when I say invest I also mean start playing) and look at a more longer term strategy even if it means another 5 years down the line before we get back to where we want to be.
DeleteAt this moment in time with the current crop of players it is not working so we might as well look more to the youth players and hope that we can uncover 5 or 6 quality players through persisting with the youth players like Man Utd did to end their 26 year curse - we are very quickly closing in on that sadly but need to try something different instead of just throwing away crazy money for average British players in the transfer market and not making any progress year in year out.
Sterling, Suso, Coady, Wisdom, Morgan, Silva, Amoo are a very good start but they should be incorporated into the first team thinking from next season rather than being sent on loan or sold – with youth players there will be a greater desire than with some of the overpaid dross we have had to deal with over the past few years.
Liverpool have been crap since they god rid of the back pass rule!!!
DeleteThat is the truth!!!!
DeleteCan KD really put us back in the levels of what is suspected from LFC, we are slipping to a verge of a average football team, no point winning the odd teams here and there, consistency and winning games is the only key.
ReplyDeleteHad the money been spent from another manager, I don’t think they would have gone for some of the players we have brought in.
The players we have brought - in was to rebuild LFC, but we not even opened the cement bag yet!
In what has been has been nothing less than an unmitigated disaster, in terms of transfers in and their less than stellar performances on the pitch, Luis Suarez could hold the key to bringing in top class talent to help change Liverpool's fortunes in the league.
DeleteHis willingness to sign a new contract and profess his happiness, could and should ve used to pull in talent on tbd back of that. We need some marquee signings in tandem with an ability to scout class players as Newcastle has done and Arsene Wenger continues to do in tandem with making sure the undoubted talent with have in the ranks flourishes to help put us back in contention.
Just in case you’ve been sitting wondering what on earth has been going on!!!! Kenny has had a brainwave and offers clarity –
DeleteApparently the reason that we’re not exactly setting the league on fire this year is because “we've got a problem winning games in the league”. Well I’ll be damned! paint me blue and call me Sadie!!! I knew there had to be a good reason for that sudden urge I’ve had to slice my wrists every time I watch us play a league game. If only he’d hit upon this around Christmas time and bought a striker who could hit a friggin’ barn door but I suppose it’s only a run of form like played 6 lost 5 that really sharpens the senses to just how brain achingly average Liverpool FC have become this year.
Here is the Sainted King Kenny showing his keenly honed intuition, managerial acumen and penchant for noticing the bleeding obvious…
Oh yeah and Kenny should note that last year Birmingham won the Carling cup and got to the Quarters of the FA cup just before they got relegated and they were widely accepted as one of the worst bunch of useless cloggers in English football at the time.
The Reds lost 2-1 at home to Wigan on Saturday, their fifth loss in six Premier League matches, and are now eight points adrift of sixth-placed Newcastle.
In contrast, the team have already won the Carling Cup and are set to play in an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley next month.
"I think we've got good players," Dalglish told the Liverpool Echo. "It's a good squad and I have always said we have got that. You don't get to an FA Cup semi-final and win the Carling Cup if you aren't.
"But we've got a problem winning games in the league.
"Maybe there is a lot we have to educate ourselves about and maybe not have to play the lovely football we try and play. Maybe we need to change our philosophies a wee bit."
Very well put Sadie!!! LOL
DeleteNice one Baz... lol
DeleteTake a look at the link below about how costly Liverpool's penalty misses have proven to be this season.
ReplyDeletehttp://5addedminutes.com/2012/03/23/how-costly-are-missed-penalties/
Just shows we can't even score from a spot kick... Crikey!
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