We’ll ease you in with a semi-simple one. Why have Liverpool been so inconsistent this season? At times they’ve looked like world beaters but at other times, awful. What are your thoughts on why Liverpool have been reminiscent of a 90s yo-yo?
Kay – Simple: because not only are they a team in transition but they are a team who are exciting going forward but whose commitment to attack leaves them vulnerable and brittle in defence. They have the quality to tear opponents to pieces on their good days, as they have done, but they don’t have the knack of grinding out a performance, never mind a result, when the opposition makes it difficult. I know there have been a few 1-0s, but they have mostly been games that should have finished 4-0. Liverpool haven’t yet shown an ability to grind out wins on their off-days.
Macintosh – Liverpool have performed exactly as I expected they would. They have a new manager and a new style of play and it always going to take at least one season for them to settle into their groove. There have been lots of green shoots to lift the heart, even if there have been just as many stinkingly awful performances to upset you. Such is the nature of the transitional season. If it’s not improved by Christmas, then perhaps there’s a problem, but as it stands, they’ve done fine.
Steven Gerrard recently said if Liverpool had signed Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho at the start of the season rather than in January then they’d have been “right up there among the top four.” Do you agree with him?And do you think, with them, Liverpool might have a crack at it next season?
Kay – Hypothetical, obviously, but I would suggest they would have been around the top six, making a challenge for the top four, rather than in the top four. Obviously if you’re challenging for the top four, you’ve got a chance of getting in there, but if you’re asking me whether I think that, with Sturridge and Coutinho, Liverpool are a top-four team, equipped to finish above three of Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and Everton, I’ll say no. They need to add more quality – and more different qualities – this summer. And they need to be mindful that Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea will be doing the same and that, while the Coutinho signing inspire confidence, those clubs know the market better and are probably in a position to outbid Liverpool.
Macintosh – I think they would have been closer, but I’m not sure that they would have been 15 points closer. They’re both excellent players, particularly Coutinho and his tiny, magic feet, but there was so much upheaval in the squad at that time that there’s no guarantee they would have settled as quickly as they did in January when the club was far more stable. It could also be argued that the relative lack of pressure in the second half of the season has helped them out. Next season may be a different story though.
Jamie Carragher started the season on the bench and in Liverpool’s Europa League squad but has ended the season as a regular in the first team, having decided to retire somewhere in the middle. Knowing that Jamie was retiring, do you think Rodgers should have used Martin Skrtel more?
Kay – This is because Skrtel would be the immediate replacement if he wasn’t to leave.
I’d say it’s more an indication that Rodgers has made his mind up about Skrtel, who has had a poor season. I don’t know how many central defenders Liverpool will sign this summer – at least two, possibly more – but I don’t think Skrtel is prominent in next season’s plans.
Macintosh – No, I think Rodgers was right to stick with Carragher. He may be a fading force, and I think he’s retiring at the right time, but the effect that he will have had on the younger players around him wouldn’t have been replicated by Skrtel. I’m not sure that Skrtel is a Rodgers player anyway.
Do you think Luis Suarez would have won the FWA Player of the Year if he didn’t mistake Branislav Ivanovic’s arm for a baguette – and, less importantly, what have you made of his performances this year? Will he be in Liverpool red next season?
Kay – I don’t think he would have won it, but he would have picked a lot more than two votes. I had been considering him, along with Van Persie and Bale, but, after the bite, I, like a lot of people, drew a line through his name.
I know this offends some people, but the Footballer of the Year award is supposed to be about “precept and example” as well as performance. Diving is so widespread, sadly, that I wasn’t going to overlook Suarez or Bale simply because they dive every now and then – both have cleaned up their act as the season has gone, actually – but if you’ve got three fairly equal candidates, you start to look at other factors. And when you’re trying to narrow it down, I’d say it’s quite natural to rule out the guy who has just bitten an opponent … .
And his performances? Brilliant. I love watching him and I hope he is still at Liverpool next season. But if Bayern are interested, as many believe, it might be difficult.
Macintosh – No, I don’t. The Football Writers Association make a clear distinction between on-pitch ability and off-pitch conduct. It’s in the criteria for voting and they take it all very seriously. Suarez never had a chance, even before he went all ‘World War Z’ on Ivanovic.
It’s a shame really, not least for those of us who had penned numerous articles saluting Suarez for his improved behaviour. He’d been brilliant on the pitch all the season and then he let Liverpool down again. That said, I think six games would have been a fair punishment. The FA should have taken into account the fact that it was very, very funny.
Finally, how do you think Brendan Rodgers has done in his first season as Liverpool manager? Any major positives or negatives, and what do you think he will have learned that’ll help him in the future?
Kay – I like him, I like his approach and I think he has had a good first season. I’m not saying seventh place is “good” for Liverpool – clearly it isn’t – but there’s a difference between a team finishing seventh when they’re rebuilding and improving, like this season, and a team finishing seventh when things are unravelling, as was the case in Benitez’s final season. I don’t know if Rodgers will be able to get Liverpool into the top four next season – unless there’s significant investment, I suspect not – but you have to see his appointment in the context of a drive to lower the average age of the squad, lower the wage bill and find a “new” way of making the club competitive again in the long term. That was his brief for this season and he has done that. He has improved players and improved the team, but there’s a limit to how much a manager can do. The club need to invest significantly – and cleverly – if they’re going to challenge strongly for the top four next season. They can’t afford just to think that, because they’ve improved, they’ll end up in the top four. Other teams will invest and improve too. I rate Rodgers, but getting into the top four has never looked so tough for a Liverpool manager.
Macintosh – I think he’s done well. He’s got them playing good football, they always look like they’ve got goals in them, he’s using the young players and giving them a chance and he’s had a clear effect on the performances of players who looked doomed, most notably Jordan Henderson. That’s about as much as you can hope for in a transitional season. I think Liverpool will improve next season and, if they don’t get a top four finish, I think they’ll certainly be pushing for one all the way to the end. Unless FSG are prepared to dump another £100m into the transfer kitty, the only way Liverpool are going to return to the top is slowly and within a structure of intelligent, ambitious football at all levels. I’d say that they’re on course.
