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| Dalglish's expression similar to many frustrated Liverpool fans. |
When Liverpool last lifted the league title at the end of 1989/90 season, Wigan finished 3 points above the drop zone in Division 3 (League 1). They finished 18th, one place below Swansea, and two places above Fulham, who avoided the drop to Division 4 by 1 point. Bolton also played in the same division that year, finishing in the play-offs which were won by Notts County. Fulham, Wigan and Bolton have all beaten Liverpool this year, while The Swans took a very credible point from Anfield which could have easily been three. Furthermore, Liverpool's Carling Cup final opponents Cardiff City were relegated to Division 4 mustering 50 points from 46 games, yet took Liverpool all the way to penalties at Wembley. The same season Wigan played their first game in the Premier League, Liverpool lifted the Champions League trophy in Istanbul, you get what I'm trying to say.
My timeline on social media has seen an influx of people having a pop at Kenny Dalglish, and you can understand why considering the results. But there have been various reasons why Liverpool are languishing this season. When Dalglish took over the Anfield hot seat, the club was a wreck. The fans were angry with performances on the field, which were uninspiring and incredibly boring, there was a new ownership in place which had yet to settle down, and everyone was just getting over the Hick and Gillette fiasco. What the club needed was to get to settle down and get some structure back to what was a club without a trophy since 2006. The new owners said all the right things, and got the fans on board with what was going on. Fans wanted signings, and Dalglish was handed over £100m to build the team he wanted. Things looked optimistic in August, new signings and we were playing attractive football.
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| Charlie Adam hasn't looked great since his move. |
The obvious criticism is the players Kenny has brought in, Henderson, Adam, Carroll, Downing (at times) have not been far from good enough to pull on the Liverpool shirt. Aquilani cost £20m and hasn't been given a chance, yet he looks like he can play the ball around in the same sort of way Xabi Alonso did.
The stats show that Liverpool have one of, if not the worst conversion rate of chances created to goals. Which would suggest that scoring goals has been the problem, and Liverpool do have one of the lowest goal tallies among the top flight. However, look at the games we've drawn at home, Sunderland, Norwich, Blackburn, Man Utd and Man City. If you keep a clean sheet, you win 1-0. Given, you'd expect Utd or City to score, but should the other three teams be scoring at Anfield? If them three teams went to Old Trafford, you'd expect a clean sheet. Individual errors in the defensive third have been crucial to giving goals away, and that's not just the back four, it's the four in front of them too. People letting men run past them and into the box, not closing down the cross, not winning the ball in the air first time, the list could go on.
The loss of Lucas Leiva has also not helped the mistakes noted above. As shown against Man City, he does that job all the way across the midfield line, that Jay Spearing doesn't seem to have. Spearing works incredibly hard, but he doesn't get outside the width of the box as well as Lucas does. His positioning is slightly off in comparison with Lucas too, there has been gaping holes in front of the back four far too often this year.
Add up the points you'd expect at home, and things might be looking a bit brighter in the quest for the 4th place. 2 points each against Sunderland, Swansea, Stoke, Norwich and Blackburn and 3 against Wigan, I make it 13 points. Add 13 points to what we've got now and it makes 55, the same as Spurs. That's without asking anything major, just beat the teams down the bottom at home, surely that should be nailed on?
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| Sterling: If his goal scoring is as prolific as his sperm, he's one to watch. (Two girls pregnant at 17, if you didn't know!) |
While players have picked and chosen which games they were going to bother with this year, the Carling Cup run, and subsequent FA Cup run has seen players look uninterested, with half an eye on the up coming cup tie. The fact Liverpool have won the Carling Cup, and got some silverware in the bag, is a good thing, something that was badly needed, and as Kenny keeps saying, an improvement on previous seasons. The fact he hasn't gone trophy-less after spending a lot of money will help him buy some time, papering over the poor league performances, for now. So realistically, this season is over. Surely it's time to bring in players Dalglish identified in the youth set up during his years there. Shelvey, Sterling, Adorjan, Ecclestone, Suso and Adam Morgan all look like good prospects, and might as well get a crack while there isn't much to play for in the Premiership.
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| The Carling Cup has certainly bought King Kenny some time. |
Let's get one thing straight here, I'm suggesting the following, and something that's open to debate, not my opinion, just a theoretical possibility! So, based on league performances, and without a Carling Cup which nobody else is too bothered about, Kenny would be looking straight down the barrel. hard to say for someone who is undoubtedly a club legend, and will remain so, but true. It's hard to imagine, after giving the club the club would the new owners sack King Kenny? Surely that would rile the fans and turn the situation back to chaos, which reigned supreme when Hicks and Gillett had the club. Then we are back to square one again!
So is it time for Kenny to say he's taken the club as far as he can, through the rebuilding stage, and leave the rest to someone else? Given the type of bloke he seems to be, personally I can't see him stepping down after just 18 months. He's spent a lot of money and I'm sure he'd want to prove himself right with those players. If he did step down, who would you bring in? Mourinho wouldn't leave Real for Liverpool, despite wanting to return to England, no Champions League football being a key factor. We've seen what happens with someone who may be a good coach but has no real persona (see Hodgeson) so who could you bring in? The fans would want someone who would continue the progress and has the right persona for LFC.
One man has made it clear he wants to return to the Premier League, he also has the respect of LFC fans and players. His altercations with the previous ownership lead to his lack of belief which undoubtedly passed on to his players and affected performances. It also wouldn't rock the boat too much...Rafa anyone?
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| Rafa with Big Ears, looking very much like Nasser Hussain! |
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