Is Brendan Rodgers the man to take Liverpool back to consistent Champions League football?
Before you can answer that question, you need to look at the bigger picture and ask yourself if they’re set up to be a top-four team, as they were for the previous decade. Liverpool are paying the price for a rapid decline post-2009 and for the improvement of Man City, Tottenham, Everton etc. When you look at their squad as it stands now and their likely future budget, you have to say it’s not going to be easy to get them into the top four once, never mind consistently. I think they should be finishing in the top six or seven, but they don’t currently have a team or a squad that I would good enough to finish in the top four, even if the competition isn’t great.
I’m sure there are other managers who are better qualified to deliver short-term results, but, rightly or wrongly, the approach last summer was about finding a manager who would bring long-term progress, which means going with young players and players who, even if they come with big price tags, are relatively inexpensive in wage terms, i.e. the type of players for whom Liverpool didn’t have to get involved in bidding wars. Whether you like it or not, that’s the direction the club has taken. With that in mind, I think Rodgers is perfect for what they’re trying to do. I like him, I like his approach and I like the way he’s doing it. Whether it’s enough to get back in the top four over the next few years, I don’t know. I don’t think Liverpool can do that, under any manager, without more serious investment in the squad.
Do you think Rodgers’ use of academy players was a forced hand?
I wouldn’t say “forced” is the right word. He likes developing young players and I’m sure he’s much happier having players like Sterling, Wisdom, Suso etc in the team or on the bench than he would be if he was picking senior players who might be unhappy, disillusioned, stale etc. But I’m also sure he would have liked to have had a much stronger squad from the start of the season and to have Sterling as an option from the bench, starting the odd game, rather than starting as regularly as he did in the first few months. To have started with Wisdom, Suso, Sterling as often as he has done tells you three things: 1) He rates them, 2) He doesn’t particularly rate the players they’ve kept out of the team, 3) The squad is weak.
Last season, Liverpool had a good defensive record yet this season the defence has looked susceptible at times. How big of loss has Steve Clarke been?
The way they have played this season is very open, with the full-backs pushed forward, the central defenders moving wider to cover and the deep-lying midfielder almost dropping back to become a third central defender (in theory). It leaves gaps at the back, but the idea is that, by attacking with more players, you score more goals, win more matches. They’ve already scored more league goals than last season. Now they have to try to improve the balance between defence and attack because they’ve been very susceptible they’ve been to (a) the counter-attack and (b) physical strikers. It has looked very easy for opponents, having got the ball, to find a way through Liverpool’s midfield and defence. Lucas’s absence was obviously a big factor early on in the season, but his return hasn’t yet brought Liverpool the solidity they need in midfield. You would look at Reina in-goal, Skrtel and Agger in central defence and Lucas at the base of midfield and say that Liverpool should have a fairly solid core, but none of them has justified that belief this season. Reina hasn’t inspired that sort of confidence for a couple of years now.
Is there space in the midfield for both Joe Allen and Lucas to play together?
It depends what kind of system Rodgers wants to play. People keep talking about 4-3-3, but I’d say it has been more of a 4-2-3-1 a lot of the time. Allen and Lucas could play as a two-man midfield in a 4-2-3-1, but that’s where Gerrard wants to play – and where Rodgers wants Gerrard to play. If Gerrard is in a fixed position there – and he has played very well over the last few months – then I don’t see Allen and Lucas starting too many games together. In any case, I would say that Henderson has played better than either of them over the past few months. He has really come on.
With Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher coming to the end of their illustrious playing days at Anfield, how do Liverpool compensate for the loss of their two ‘go-to’ men? How much of a loss will they be?
They’ll be a huge, huge loss when that time comes. I can never understand fans looking to play down the value of that type of player to their club, whether it’s Carragher and Gerrard at Liverpool, Giggs and Scholes at United or Terry, Cole and Lampard at Chelsea. There’s a Liverpool fan on Twitter who bombards me with criticism of Carragher. It’s bizarre. There must be more to it than not rating him. Carragher will be a huge loss, as will all of those players when they leave their clubs. It’s not just about what they do on the pitch. Chelsea seem desperate to move away from the Terry-Lampard axis, but those two, along with Cole, are still among their best, most reliable players. Look at Chelsea’s results with and without Terry and Lampard over the past 18 months. There’s no comparison. If you have people like Carragher and Gerrard, or Terry and Lampard, or Giggs and Scholes, you try to keep the around for as long as you possibly can. I remember once being asked “Is experience over-rated”? I’d say it’s under-rated, not least in terms of on-pitch know-how.
Luis Suarez has always been part of the media storm, what do you make of the controversy that seems to follow him?
Interesting way of putting it. Does it follow him or does he take it everywhere he goes? A bit of both, I’d say. I felt that the furore over the handball at Mansfield was ridiculous, but anything controversial – even unwitting controversy – is always going to be blown up when it’s a player like Suarez. And it’s not just Suarez. I would add Terry, Rooney, Barton, Balotelli to that. If they step out of line, like the Rooney swearing business a couple of years ago (again an excessive reaction, I felt), then of course the media reaction is going to be stronger than if it was Joe Allen or Gael Clichy. Why? Because there’s a bit of a “bad boy” narrative with them, so anything controversial they do adds to that. Is that “bad boy” narrative justified? Well, yes. His list of past indiscretions is pretty long – I’m not bothered about the handballs — and I’m sure Liverpool fans would loathe him if he played for Manchester United, just like they loathed Cantona.
The thing about the Mansfield incident is that, because of the nature of the game and the non-league opposition, people were so more outraged by it. It was seen as stealing candy from a baby. That’s the context in which it was seen – similar to Uruguay-Ghana in some ways. If he had done it to score a sixth goal at home to Norwich, there would have been little fuss. By the same token, if he had turned around and offered to forfeit the goal against Mansfield, whether the referee took him up on it or not, it would have had a hugely positive effect. But no other player – or very, very few other players – would have done it. Essentially I’m saying that Suarez needs to be squeaky-clean in order to lift the bad-boy image. Realistically, he will never be that. But he’s a bloody good player – one of the top three in this league this season.
Do you think Luis Suarez is in a team and a system that allows him to realise his full potential?
In terms of performance, rather than silverware, I would be inclined to say yes, because the team plays to his strengths. But then I would have been inclined to say the same of Van Persie at Arsenal last season. And Van Persie’s success at United leads you to look at it in a different way. Even if, on an individual basis, Suarez is performing to his potential, in a team that plays to his strengths, he’s playing for a team that isn’t competing for the Premier League and isn’t in the Champions League. That will become a concern for him – and for Liverpool – sooner or later.
Can Brendan Rodgers emulate a successful possession ethos in the Premier League much like Barcelona in La Liga?
Like Barcelona? No. With the greatest respect to Liverpool’s players, they do not have the players to play anything like the type of football Barcelona play. You can definitely have success in the Premier League with a possession game, but it needs to be possession allied to something else. Manchester United’s style has evolved over the years, but generally their possession has been allied with great intensity or tenacity or great quality from wide areas. Arsenal were the one who seemed to go for an extremely possession-based game post-2005 and, in pursuit of that, they neglected certain other important things, like mental and physical toughness and leadership. The current Liverpool team looks to have similar frailties, so the Arsenal experience is a reminder that there always has to be room for the more gritty qualities that you need to get results in English football.
Is renovating Anfield the right move or would a new stadium be more beneficial?
I’m a romantic about the old stadiums. Anfield and Goodison are two of those that I would be most protective of. Obviously you can’t stay purely on romantic grounds, but if there’s a way of developing Anfield, not just as a short-term solution for the long-term, then I would love to see the club go in that direction. I wish they had done that a decade ago. But it has to be done for the right reasons – not just because it’s cheaper or because it’s the best short-term option for whoever happens to be the latest owner of the club.
Looking at foreign ownership in the English game, how do FSG differ and are they doing it the right way, in terms of buying for future?
Well I’m glad people have stopped talking every Liverpool signing as “Moneyball”. FSG came into it convinced, especially with Comolli involved, that they were going to rewrite the book on “soccer trading”. But like everyone else who tries to outsmart the system, they made big blunders – most notably the Carroll deal, which was ridiculously ill-conceived. Since then they’ve been a lot more circumspect – a few £10m to £15m signings, young players, relatively low wages, all bought with a view to fit into the team’s framework. The strategy is a sensible one, but is it ambitious enough to turn Liverpool into a top-four team? We’re back to the first question. They’re only one or two players from a squad that could compete for a top-four place – I don’t think the standard required has been very high over the past few seasons – but they’re a lot further off being a team that can finish top four-year after year, never mind competing for the title, never mind winning the title … .
What are realistic targets for Liverpool for the remainder of the season?
Winning as many matches possible, driving up the points tally, trying to finish as high as possible. But I’d also say that, given the way the objectives have been set out for this season, it’s not going to matter hugely whether they finish fifth, sixth, seven, eighth or ninth. The important thing is to be able to look back on the season and say that progress has been made in terms of the team’s long-term development. I think there has been progress. I’m sure the pace of progress will be too slow for some tastes, but what matters is that the small improvements they have made so far are sustained, leading to a bigger improvement. But top four is unlikely to happen without significant — and wise — investment. The quality of the squad is the issue. I think, once the quality improves, the manager will take the team in the right direction.
