Our recent results have been inconsistent. There’s no doubting that. We just don’t score enough goals. Too many players seem to either not be up to playing for Liverpool or they’re taking a lot of time to settle in. Carroll still looks like he’s off the pace. Adam isn’t living up to what people expected of him when he signed for the club and even Enrique has struggled since January, losing the ball in dangerous areas on too many occasions. But we’re already guaranteed a place in Europe thanks to our Carling Cup victory and we have an excellent chance of getting to the final of the FA Cup.
Don’t get me wrong; I’ve been as frustrated as anyone watching us lose games against teams such as Arsenal, despite outplaying them. QPR is the latest example where we have dropped three points. And it isn’t good enough. But why do people keep calling for Kenny to go?
The man’s a legend. As a player, Kenny had more twists and turns than any title race. As a manager he’s experienced, loyal and he commands the respect of every player at the club. Maybe some of his critics are too young to remember Kenny the player. Because I doubt anyone who recalls his sensational first touch, magical runs and delicate chips in a red shirt would be so quick to call for his head.
We aren’t Chelsea. And we shouldn’t get into the habit of sacking managers every year. Unfortunately, it was probably the right time for Benitez to go. He was finding the situation with the previous owners intolerable and had become quite stubborn in some of his decision-making. Letting Alonso leave was a big mistake. Hodgson was out of his depth and should never have been given the job in the first place. But in Kenny we have a manager who has won the league with Liverpool as both a player and a manager. He even won it while managing Blackburn! Yet all I seem to hear is fans on phone-ins calling for him to be sacked.
The fact is, Liverpool’s squad isn’t good enough. I know some people will argue that Kenny, along with Commoli, bought many of the players but it’s hard to attract the best talent when we’re not in the Champions League. This was always going to be a transitional season and our best chance of taking teams by surprise in the league was ironically our lack of European football. Sadly the top four now seems beyond us for another year so we have to do our best, aim to win two cups this season and hope top players see the potential at the club. There have been lots of games during this campaign where the team has played the opposition off the park and we desperately need a goal scorer. Also, Suarez needs to add more goals to his game. A lot of people will jump to the defence of Suarez but I’m not slating him – his strike against Stoke was brilliant. I just think if we want to improve, get back into the Champions League and have a chance of winning the title we need all of the players to step up their game.
Messi has scored 54 goals for Barcelona this season. Now I’m not expecting Suarez to start scoring 50 plus goals a season but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a player of his quality to get 20. Torres (3 in 36) Carroll (5 in 31) and Suarez (10 in 36) have scored as many goals in a combined 103 league games as Messi has in his last 7. That’s phenomenal. Obviously Liverpool have no chance of signing Messi. Carroll is probably never going to be a twenty goal a season man. And I personally wouldn’t want Torres back. So we need Suarez to stay at the club and start scoring more. Thankfully he wants to stay. He’s still young and he will only get better. In him we have a player with similar qualities to Kenny – now we need a player alongside him with the game of Ian Rush. A young Robbie Fowler. That’s the level we need to get back to if we are to be up there challenging for the main trophies.
Some of the other players either have to dramatically improve, settle for being squad players or need to move on. But for me the only place Kenny should go is back to Wembley when he lifts more trophies with us.
Another article full of excuses to do anything but blame Dalglish. Come on guys, be real. Dalglish was a great player, probably our best ever, and then he was a decent manager. But this was twenty years ago.
We have to look after the club now and if that means getting red of a club legend, than that’s the way it’s got to be. He wants what’s best for the club so he’ll eventually understand. He’s just not up to it.
I don’t just blame him though, Comolli’s got to hold equal responsibility as they both work on the signings. I don’t think either should be guaranteed a job next season.
You are forgetting that we won a trophy this year and in a semi-final of winning another.
No Manager who wins trophies gets fired unless you are Real Madrid or Chelsea, we are not.
Do you remember how we won the trophy? We beat a championship side on penalties (like we were playing a Real Madrid or a Barcelona!!!)
The fact is, this is a team without pace, creativity and simply put, without the will to compete & win. The first two were to be solved by KD’s buying, something he failed to do miserably, even after spending the kind of money Rafa was clamoring for (I mean at one go, like he did within one year on Carroll, Henderson, Downing & Adam).
The last depended on new buys as well as manager’s ability to guide the team. Except the Everton match, I do not remember this team looking hungry and up for a match in a long long time!
Every team, even the relegation-threatened ones, must & should be licking their lips at the prospect of playing us.
KD was a great player, but when will we stop living in the past? I find his past heroics being an excuse for his present actions a little strange!
I do not support his sacking right now, but unless in the summer, he looks at this one and a half year in-charge as full of mistakes, particularly in terms of buys, and decides to radically alter his policy, I fear we will not be looking at a Champion’s league place for a long, long time…..we should be a club looking and building for the title, and this is not good enough.
RoyK with a comment like that you are another one of the fickle ones.
I guess beating both Chelsea and Man City on route to the final count for nothing – winning a cup is NOT about winning just one game.
a cup: 7-8 games?!! league: games THROUGHOUT THE SEASON.
true liverpool were the best in 8 games but overall, throughout the year we are seventh. its bassically like aying we won a cuo because we won against a top team. welll frankly i dont care.
I agree with so much of this article. It’s really good to see someone talking sense. I too have seen far too many calling for Kennt to be sacked and yet all you hear the players saying is how much they respect Kenny and think he’s a really good manager. I would like to see all of our players stepping their game up and acting like ths club means something to them. The fans have stuck by this club through and thick and thin, it’s about time the players paid the fans back by being committed and becoming more consistent.
rafa let alonso kenny let raul meireless go aquilani??? Ring a bell?? They signed Carroll 35million? Keeps playing Henderson on the right? Maxi a fox in the box where is he, hardly plays so is kuyt and they might leave. Club aim i hear is to develop and resale, carrol Henderson i bet no club would want downing half the money we paid him. Shelvey made to enjoy the bench whilst he wants to prove a point with his signings. Adam is not worth to where a red shirt? Why do you change a winning team? Kenny is a legend does not make him immune last year Hudson had not had 100million to spend that’s a lot of money. I think poor tactics too are questionable his substitutions???
Kenny is a legend he loves the club no question about that but as a manager he needs to stop being stubborn. We have suso sterling everyone has been calling for them to be given a first team football, because he needs to prove his buys arsenal was had a bad season look at where they are chelsea too and next Season we need to be up there. Curling cup are fine but so is top four we need to be there lucky we not cause the squad we got facing Barcelona? Madrid? And why did we not get a striker in January because we had Carroll???
For me Adam and Carroll should be shipped out come summer and Henderson should be played in his position Stewart he is gaining a bit of confidence but he should have competitions suso and the likes. And no more British players not good enough. Kenny was good for short term long term i don’t think so
liverpool are total shit ,we have got rid of dead wood and gone and bought more dead wood????what the hell daglish see in those players i will never understand,he should have been sacked ages ago,we have won 1 game from six,we were lucky to win the carling cup and with players like Adam,Downing,Henderson,Kuyt,Caroll playing i can only see things getting worse.
Massa no one is going to get sacked, live with it or go support Chelsea who loves to fire their managers.
Yeah! I totally agree, come to think of it we should never of sacked Hodgson, we didn’t even give him any time!(sic)
lost 4 games in last 5. Thats not liverpool way. Some say we are not chelsea or mancity who go out and splash money but we spend a good damn 100mil on mediocre
red.red we didn’t spend 100 million, remember that we offset the high salaries of the likes of Joe Cole and Degen so it was a wash.
we could have capitalised oon it man bought real young talent. Mata for example and we choose downing age wise. Kenny is a legend no question about it but check liverpool team sheet. Can you tell me why henderson keeps being played on the right. If you come up with a good convincing answer i will be supporting kk stay
Red.Red do you know if Mata wanted to play for us? Or that we could afford his salary.
Yes, Mata didnt sign for us because we are not in the champions league. Therefore we signed middle class players for 10000000000000 million. Since they are middle class players not playing in the ucl(competition for big clubs) which is the highest level they cannot improve. SO liverpool dont and we stay outside the top 4 forever!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
see the objective of the club this season was to get to 4th bt we havent done so until that happens the season is a failure. Mickey mouse cups are just lame excuses for blind faith! I knw that so do u!
I would take a Mickey Mouse cup any time over so called supporters like you.
If it is blind faith that so be it, I have supported LFC for over 32 years and will keep supporting LFC until I die.
If I saw Liverpool lift: 7 Division 1 Titles
: 5 FA Cups
: 8 League Cups
: 8 Charity Shields
: 2 UEFA Super Cups
: 1 UEFA Cup
: 1 UEFA Champions League
then my friend, I would be as positive and dedicated as you
If I saw Liverpool lift: 7 Division 1 Titles
: 5 FA Cups
: 8 League Cups
: 8 Charity Shields
: 2 UEFA Super Cups
: 1 UEFA Cup
: 1 UEFA Champions League
then my friend, I would be as positive and dedicated as you, but hey ‘next season’ right?
your right antoine fickle fan we need to sign afew players yet and bring some of the youth through, but we cannot change manager,s like chelsea.
Absolutely. YNWA Antoine. Anyone who thinks the Carling Cup and FA Cup (should we win it) are Mickey Mouse should look at Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea and even Man Utd. Arsenal, without a trophy for 7 years would have loved the Carling Cup to appease their fans. AVB might have held on to his job for a bit longer if Chelsea had won it. Mancini secretly wishes he had the security blanket of a trophy already in the bag in case they don’t win the league and even Ferguson would like to have won it so if City pip them for the league they don’t end the season empty handed.
I think getting rid of him now wouldn’t make any sense anyway. Other than the FA cup, which we have a good shot at, our season is over, and finishing below Newcastle and (probably) teams like Swansea is horribly embarrassing, but doesn’t really mean anything. Sacking Kenny would, in my view, only harm our FA cup chances, and may even leave us in a position similar to Wolves for the rest of the season. However, while I don’t want to see Kenny go right away, I am surprised and upset by the way the team is performing under him, and I don’t think it makes me a plastic saying that. The only thing to do is to wait until the end of the season and take everything into consideration then. My guess is that with a bit of perspective and maybe even the FA cup, we’ll be more than happy to see Kenny take the team forward. YNWA
Good article. Gabriel Marcotti recently said that of our past six managers the only manager with a better record than Dalglish in his first full season is Dalglish himself (during his first stint!)
why can’t we all accept that we are a mid table team. period. we are as good as newcastle but this season they are doing better than us. Im not being negative, im being realistic and i am not even angry. I have accepted it for a while now. Lets not expect much of our players and be happy with what we had. at the end of the day, Liverpool is a mid table team, with a mid table manager (with all respect he isnt a great modern manager), getting mid table results for the past 3 years, with mid table players, except we give the big 5 problems at times. Im afraid everyone is just in denial…
Agree 100%
oh and no club should have a legend as manager, we cant criticise him without being called ‘fickled’ even if we dont insult him! it is extremely frustrating its like, idk stalins russia or something
i am an old school fan, the king must stay…..however, a reality check is a must. yes we have a cup in the bag and potentially another to come (not if we continue like last night!)he has steadied the ship, but he must stop paying stupid money for overrated british players, he must cease playing one up front (qpr are at the bottom for a reason!!). play your strongest side as often as possible, if players are not getting a chance,then it means the first choice are performing to the standards expected. please get another strong centre half, carra is a legend but is now a lesser force. play two up front and forget the lone striker, there are times to do this,but i hate it. lastly, sign jan molby on a short term contract,to show charlie adam how to pass a ball to one of his own players rather than the opposition, and tell him to stop giving stupid free kicks away. maybe i live in dreamland, but having supported us for 40 years,through great and poor times,the modern breed of fan needs to calm down and take stock. we are bleesed to have the history we have, remember,what goes around comes around and with patience and will,it can again. ynwa.
Now is not the time to sack the man that brought a fighting spirit back to Anfield. No question the results have fallen short in a big way. In many ways the fault lies with Kenny, but its still the players who are going brain dead on the pitch while in the heat of battle. Regarding QPR…why didnt Carrol start? Surely he could have got on the end of one of those 14 or 15 corners in the 1st half…why did Adam start? We were begining to get some rythym with him on the bench…please, PLEASE give Coates a run of games. Not as a sub, but as a starter…At this point we can kiss Champions League football behind for next year. But that doesnt mean we cant be successful next season. To start, put Rafa in charge of the academy with an eye on him taking over for Kenny after the 2012/13 season. Let Adam go back to Blackpool in the summer. When signing any players this summer, dont make being Brittish the key objective, make their quality be key! After all, we already have the best English player on the team. And regarding Stevie G, play him in the remaining cup games, but give him a rest. Play some of the youngsters in the remaining fixtures, so we start the season with a healthy and fit Stevie G…YNWA
I just don’t understand why people are so inpatient, we won the Carling Cup, we are going to win the FA Cup and that’s it!! We don’t need to finish forth is not in our reach and the champions league and premier league title is for Manchester United not us or Man City… Under KK and supporters who have blind faith i am not surprised, the days of master tactician Rafa, being Kings of Euoropean Football, challenging for the title, attracting the best players, being feared to is long gone. We had to win the Premier league, we have to win the Champions League.
Its just sickening and embarrassing we are not killing team off we have always struggled wiv lesser teams all season and it is well documented..Maybe KK should give the youth players a chance especially Sterling
I totally agree. Kenny is definitely still the right man for the job.
I think Edinson Cavani could be the strike partner you speak of. It would be simply awesome if we signed him this summer!
Great news for the club with so many great managers in the comments section here they will have no problem finding a replacement for kenny. We will also have signed all the best talent the world has to offer on a million a week contracts… If you think you are sick of bad results, how sick do you thinks fans are of hearing you saying I would have signed player a,b,c and d. Why dont you manage a top club if its that easy? Keep your negative comments to yourselves.