Liverpool’s season.
What on Earth has happened?
If last year was the ride of our lives then this year can be classed as an old wooden rollercoaster, always destined to become derailed. You can blame whoever or whatever you like, as most people have, but there must be some kind of acceptance there. It’s all gone awry. The Liverpool of the first half of 2014, the slick, sharp outfit that blew teams away was quickly replaced by a Liverpool lacking confidence and containing a few younger, less proven players.
Take away Luis Suarez and it all seemed to look a little jaded. We were not a one-man team last year, but we did have one man who helped our team more than others; Suarez. With his departure came the cries of “this team just isn’t the same without Suarez” – as if stating the obvious brought financial and social rewards. Yet, that will happen. That’s what people do. State the obvious. Although we will, we probably shouldn’t blame people for that. As Liverpool fans, we are so close to the team, we sometimes forget that other people aren’t as obsessive as we are to the finer details, so they will always draw upon the easiest common denominator of reasoning.
Yet, maybe this isn’t such a bad thing? Maybe it isn’t too bad an idea to step back and just calm down? Even if just for a couple of hours. Calm down and then come back to it. So the aim of this article isn’t to decide what the cause of this strange slump is, but more so to offer a better bird’s eye view of things. Personally, I think as Liverpool fans, people who love the club, live and bleed the club, water and feed in the club, we are often too distorted in our views. So sit back, relax, and let’s start with the manager.
Brendan Rodgers. For some, he’s the reason for high taxes. The reason that it rains too much and the reason Monday’s are crap (this could sometimes be true) but on the other hand there are other fans who love him. Blindly. They see him in a way that is devoid of critique. I am guilty for this. I’ll just put that out on the table for starters. If you follow me on Twitter (what do you mean you literally don’t care who I am and what I ate for tea?) you will notice that my views of him have been somewhat distorted by last year. It’s hard to dislike a manager who helped dismantle an Arsenal team in 20 minutes. I saw grown men looking at each other in a pub like the moon has just given birth to a lion. Utter confusion mixed with pure joy. But again, during this help-myself-help-others intervention I do admit that last year shouldn’t negate any criticism. So what is the actual reality of the situation? Well..
In his first year, he almost started off by completely lowering expectations. A 0-3 loss to West Brom on day one tempered illation of the ‘new era’ better than throwing water over a BBQ ever could. And as time went on, things never got better. Until January. The obvious need for a forward and creative player brought in Phillipe Coutinho (God’s gift to passing balls in directions you didn’t know existed) and Daniel Sturridge (God’s gift to scoring shed-loads of goals and probably owning his own treatment table). Once these lads signed up, things looked up. Our second half of the season was great that year. Whoever made the signings, things looked good after starting so bad. Let’s say this season was 6/10 for Rodgers. Good, but could do better. Fast forward to the end of last year and we had done fantastically well. Finishing second was huge. It was beautiful. Yet, we did this with minimum fixtures and the same team most weeks. And, of course, Suarez. Who earlier that year had been basically forced to stay in spite of wanting to move to Arsenal. Handing this situation well, plus guiding us to a brilliant season, Brendan gets an 8/10. Well done, let’s push on.
Yet, last summer was an odd one. Tasked with improving the squad with over £100million, this should be, in theory, an easier job than was done. We bought a lot of young players, mixed with two forwards who just don’t suit our style of play. What was this about? Again, fast forward this 7 months and most of them signings have failed. But most have also shown glimpses. I must say though, this isn’t a reason to avoid telling it like it is; this isn’t good enough.
This season has also shown a side to Rodgers that no-one wanted to see; a cautious Brendan, that looks like, at times, like he isn’t having fun. When I’m writing, I write better when I’m having fun, with no pressure. When I feel the need to produce, I don’t do as well. This may have happened to Rodgers, as he tries to find out his best team, mixed with the pressure of getting into the top 4. Again, this also shouldn’t be an excuse. This is his job. And at Liverpool, pressure to do well should never be a reason to buckle. Just like with Sunday and the FA Cup, I don’t want to hear about nerves and precious players, I want to see results despite of this. This year; 6/10 again. A slight problem for Rodgers is that he has done things the wrong way round. Had last year come this year, the plan would have worked. But we’re talking about records, not averages. Not ifs-and-buts.
My verdict is that, however much I like him, he hasn’t done well enough for what we as fans would want at Liverpool. Yet, under King Kenny, Woy and the end of Rafa things were a lot worse. Christian Poulsen, Fernando Torres moving to Chelsea, Finishing 7th. It was all much worse than under Rodgers, so over time we are definitely better now than the day Rodgers took over. Yes, we won a cup with Kenny but everyone would have given that up for top 4, which Rodgers delivered with his marvellous Reds last year. Everyone would have given the cup up for top 4. Including the owners.
Speaking of which, the next topic; The owners.
John Henry. FSG. You don’t escape this long, over-egged analysis of the club I love more than 80% of my family. So make sure you’re listening (they’re totally listening).
Like Brendan himself, you started by managing our beautiful expectations. We wanted a new stadium. Or at least more seats. And we wanted it quickly. Well, for all of the right reasons you told us that you wouldn’t be giving that to us. Not quickly anyway. Fair enough, I welcomed that, I’d rather be told to shut up than be told what I wanted to hear and for that to fall through. So, as the years went by finally, we got what we all really wanted. Operation Anfield revamp. Stay at home, save some money, get a bigger stadium. Help us compete. Slightly. Well played John. The new stand is even taking shape. A decent 7/10 for that. Took a while but God only knows you’re delivering.
Now, I’d like to move onto something which has not been mentioned. I literally haven’t heard anyone mention it. Brendan Rodgers; he was their choice. He was the choice of FSG. So, to put it bluntly, if he fails them, then they have failed us. As fans, as a club and as owners, they have failed. In part, anyway. If you choose a manager for a company with great credentials and he doesn’t deliver the results you wanted that’s one thing. But they knew Rodgers’ CV previously. They knew his record, or lack of, in winning titles and cups. Is that his fault? Some may argue yes, but at the same time; he is who he is. He didn’t choose Liverpool. He didn’t choose FSG. Not really. They chose him. They invested money, time and effort and decided “yes, this man is bonza, let’s get on that train” and hired him up. If I buy a car that isn’t built for off-road driving yet take it through a quarry, knowing it wasn’t meant to be driven there, it’s my fault when it doesn’t live up to expectations and I end up having to take the long walk of shame past all of the beautiful Land Rovers and end up muddy as hell and crying into a gin at a pub down the road. Just because I believed that the car would work doesn’t mean I don’t take the blame if it breaks. It means I do take the blame. Because I’ve been a fool. I really hope to God you understand the point I’m making there, because I’m really not going to explain it. Literally, I’m not. My word count is too high already. For hiring Rodgers, I’ll give the owners a 5/10 for possibly being idiots. Harsh, coming from a guy who loves Brendan Rodgers.
Finally on the FSG list is the transfer committee. This needs very little discussion. The committee has been crap. Not the players themselves are crap, as such. That is another conversation. But the types of players they have signed. Alberto Moreno would have been fine if a proper, first choice LB has been signed. Rickie Lambert would have been just fine as joint 3rd/4th forward with Fabio Borini if they hadn’t signed Mario Balotelli as our 2nd choice forward. It is unbelievably obvious that he isn’t the player to play our style. You can’t blame him for coming to Liverpool if he was been offered a load of money to play for one of the world’s greatest clubs. The problem is that he was offered the chance to play for us, not that he accepted it. I am of the opinion that one person should have the hold over a team’s transfers (be that a Director of Football or manager, it doesn’t matter right now) not a group of people. No matter how much you say you’re on the same page, someone will always disagree with another, and that’s where you have problems. One man should be held responsible then he can live and die by his choices. Right now Rodgers cannot, because we don’t know exactly how much say he has in the procedure. 3/10 for this idea. Unlucky FSG, you’ve stunk the gaff out with this decision.
Finally, I want to take a look at our players. These are the bread and butter of our season, really. And how have they done? If we’re discussing our players this year, then that comes with a caveat that some people may simply not agree with. Yet, it can’t be ignored. Last year, they lost out on the title. To quote Eminem “I am so close to my goals I could pole-vault over the goal posts” – and that is exactly how we could describe last year. We came so close, we were favourites. We were the best. Yet, we fucked it. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. But as fans, we got over it. Like I said before, because of distance. We didn’t lose to Chelsea and draw to Palace. We witnessed it, it encompassed us, but they lost. In their job, their place of work, they lost. That must hurt like hell. I didn’t complete a health and safety presentation in time in work once and nearly cried for about a fortnight. I dread to think how they feel. So that would affect them. It affected me; I now hate health and safety. I’m always propping doors open with fire extinguishers and leaving boxes on the stairs. How must they feel? For a little while, it would be justifiable if they hated football. They deserve a little bit of leeway. But a year’s worth of leeway, especially the way we’ve played? No, I don’t think so. Coutinho has been great. Raheem Sterling, for a young player, has been good. But even these have had parts of the season when they have been crap. Everyone else has been average. Simon Mignolet has come back from the brink to be a nice little positive, but Dejan Lovren, Lambert, Moreno at times? All been poor. Sometimes with lack of trying. Not the above in general, but everyone. Is this a hangover? It’s more like alcohol poisoning than a hangover.
Amongst all of this, we also lost Suarez and have had no Sturridge. This together was the best strike force in world football. Take that away from a team, and it will take its toll. Mentally and physically. Knowing that these players can get you out of trouble allows younger players to take risks and make mistakes. In a way it covered up for a lot of our issues. Absolutely. But last year Steven Gerrard was great, Martin Skrtel was solid (much like this year to be fair) and both Jon Flanagan and Sterling were great (for the second half of the year anyway) – so we were not a one man team, we were a squad full of players reaching their potential. Confidence always helps, and they had it. This year, they clearly haven’t. This is something our manager should be helping with. Our captain, who hasn’t looked too bothered all year should be helping with this too. Skrtel and Lucas should help with it. You don’t need to be loud to help your mates out, just say the right things. Tell someone who’s shit that they’re actually really boss. Senior players have let us down this year. Don’t blame the youngsters, because they still have chance to get better, and that was probably always the plan. Buy young, buy cheaper and coach them up. That plan is obvious, but you should be blaming the older lads because they should know better. 5/10 for this year. OK, but no-where near perfect.
So, as I bring this to a close, I say this: have your opinion, absolutely. We all love the club and that’s the common ground we hold. Yet there are two sides to every story, sometimes more, and analysing just one part of the story is no help to anyone.
