Déjà vu

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Anyone who has listened to Brendan Rodgers giving his post match verdicts this season will have noticed a familiar pattern. If any of you have only heard one of these interviews don’t worry, you haven’t missed much. All his interviews are pretty much the same: We played well. We deserved more from the game. If we keep playing like this we’ll climb the table. We aren’t getting decisions from referees. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Well he may be right – a lot of decisions aren’t going in our favour. The fact that we haven’t been awarded a penalty in a league game so far this season speaks volumes. But he can’t keep talking about our style of play regardless of the results. Football is all about results. Yes we’ve played good football at times this season. But we did that last season too. Arsenal have played good football for the last 8 years and not won a trophy. Besides, whilst it’s true we’ve played well, we have hardly been scintillating.

The passing style Rodgers is implementing seems to be all about keeping possession rather than playing cutting edge passes which open up a defence and catch a team on the break. And the stats don’t really back up what Rodgers is saying. Against Tottenham, for example, possession was shared equally. Yes we had one shot more than Spurs but many of our shots were blocked and more of theirs were on target. So you would conclude they went closest to scoring with their shots.

Much of the criticism aimed at Kenny Dalglish last season was that he persisted to start the likes of Downing and Henderson, as well as leaving them on the pitch for too long when they were adding very little. Both these players have started the last two games and only been subbed in the last half hour. Of course, we are in the position where we need to rest players yet we don’t have the quality in depth and this problem goes back to last summer when we failed to add enough players. We let more people go than we brought in and what’s more, in Downing, Henderson and Joe Cole we kept three who should have been allowed to leave. On top of that we didn’t add the proven, prolific striker that we so obviously needed, instead opting to take a gamble on the potential of Fabio Borini.

We are being told there isn’t a lot of money yet we continue to waste it, regularly getting our fingers burnt in the transfer market. If rumours of us buying Tom Ince for £6m just 18 months after we sold him for £250,000 are true, and it’s worth noting they are only rumours at the moment, this would be a prime example. Nobody in any other business would sell something and then buy it back for 24 times the value they sold it. That’s sheer madness.

Another criticism aimed at Kenny is that he wasted much of the money he was given. And whilst it’s true the players brought in during his reign haven’t been anywhere near good enough, this problem existed long before he was managing the club. In the late 90s, Barcelona wanted to buy McManaman for £12m. We kept him and he left on a free transfer a year later. In 2004, Owen was valued at £30m yet he was allowed to run his contract down and we had to cash in on him or lose him for nothing. We got a paltry £8m plus Nunez, which is the equivalent of receiving £8.1m. And I’m being complimentary to Nunez when I say that.

These kinds of awful dealings in the transfer market have been an ongoing problem at the club for around fifteen years now and they show no sign of being rectified. We refuse to pay enough for top quality players, overpay for mediocre ones and lose money when we sell players on. Last summer we lost on all the players who left. Kuyt, Bellamy and Rodriguez went for nothing, Adam left for almost half what we had paid a year earlier and we are never going to recoup what we paid for Carroll.

Obviously it’s not all the manager’s fault. He inherited a squad that wasn’t good enough and has not been given the financial backing that he needs to change things. However, I can’t help feeling that he was only given the job because the owners see him as a patsy, someone who won’t demand the transfer funds. Can you imagine if they had decided to reinstate Benitez as manager and let him down so badly by not backing him? His reaction would have been very different.

Personally I hate the way money is ruining the game. Players are paid far too much and the fees they go for mean some clubs simply cannot keep up. But sadly, there also lies the solution. In order to challenge for trophies, clubs need to compete in the transfer market, which means they have to spend money. Occasionally managers will find hidden gems and buy players for small transfer fees. However, if they can’t then pay them top wages, they will lose those players. Again Arsenal can be used as an example. They might have continually made money over the years by selling players rather than breaking their wage structure but they don’t then reinvest that money on top players, which means as soon as the ones already at the club reach their peak they decide to leave so they can win things and earn more money. If that’s the model FSG are following it’s a big mistake. I’m not saying Liverpool should get into hundreds of millions of pounds worth of debt like we were a few years ago but we either have to compete or face the reality that we are a mid table team.

16 Comments

  1. Rodgers and the owners are an absolute DISGRACE and an EMBARRASSMENT!! lets stop accepting mediocrity! they have to GO! all of them!!.

  2. Rodgers made two statements that would make past great managers turn in their graves.
    1.’we will consider diving’
    2.’finishing above 8th would be fantastic’
    I just don’t rate Rodgers as a man.

  3. We have done a huge mistake by appointing BR. If the owners were looking for the young gun then frank raikard was there and we have not approached him.

  4. All very true sadly and as someone pointed out elsewhere the new owners actually haven´t invested anything into the playing squad at all. Having sold the best player for 50m they have sold all the players on expensive contracts and redirected that into buying new players on cheaper contracts. Even Brendan If the stadium improvements were underway, then great, I would have some understanding of the desire not to invest piles of cash into the squad right now but when is work going to begin.
    I have a serious fear the owners are wishing on a star that we make Champions League and that that will line their pockets (and probably pay for some development of the team). Their disappointment at the ineptitude of the Financial Fair Play rules has left them high and dry of ideas.. I hold hope for January to make up for summer´s transfer disaster but in reality?…..

      1. fair opinion, probably best to support Chelsea, their fans love the club and hate their current manager! ;-)

  5. I had hope that Henry and Werner would repair the club. But after the fiasco of the summer transfer window where we had three months to buy players and waited until the last day not to buy anyone, and hearing the noises now of having little money to buy players, I have to say that Americans have destroyed our club. We let kuyt, Rodriguez and bellamy go and brought no one in. Sheer madness considering they were all worth goals. It is true we should be sitting on 26 points. Some of the refereeing has been sheer FA driven biased in the pocket refereeing. But in all honesty we only have one world class striker in Suarez and that is it. We need 5 or 6 world class players. What Rafa did with what he had was astounding compared to what has happened since he left. I use to get up and watch all the games all these years until Rafa left and I live in Sydney where games are shown at 2am usually. But since Rafa left the football has been rubbish most games. All good playing pretty football, but with no creative flair in the final third it usually ends in disappointment. Americans have destroyed LFC wanting to make a quick buck while spending little. And hiring coaches such as Hodgson, and Kenny god love him, has sent us here. We need real owners with real money who can buy world class players and hire world class coaches.

  6. Our players are mediocre – FACT

    Suarez is the only one with true quality. Gerrard was good, but now he is mediocre. Our fan favourite, Sterling, sadly is mediocre as well. He only has his age to boast about. BR is doing good work with a mediocre team, but the results don’t show for it.

    We could have gotten something out of the game against Spurs despite our defensive lapses and decisions. Case in point, Henderson should have scored. Suarez almost did.

    You can’t blame BR for being like a broken record. It is a fact that decisions haven’t been going for us.

    And we shouldn’t expect too much and just support BR. Why would a big name sponsor buy our team. If I had loads of cash, I would rather be the hero of a lesser name club and bring it to glory rather than pick a history-filled troubled team that has alot of expectations to fulfil.

    And which world class coach would come to us at this point of time unless we gave them a buttload of cash? No sheik owners, not buttload of cash.

    World class players? We should be happy and pray that Suarez stays to attract good strikers on the persuading point that Suarez is a pretty fun guy to link up with.

    So, fans, stop dreaming and support BR to do what he does and hope we get some rub of the green.

    1. Sean,

      Enough of blaming the King…All you fickle fans …who when Kenny came back just thought he will immediately win every single game and cup…. Wake-up he is also just a human too who lives and bleeds Liverpool.

      Since the day he was removed from the job, till today there has never been a negative remark from him. A true gentleman unlike some fans here.

      Was he given enough time to implement his ideas? No. The people that he brought with him Steve Clark and Kevin are doing a great job at WBA. So what went wrong for them at Liverpool. It was just plain bad luck. The amount of times we hit the post and bar if it ended up at in the back of the net would have rought us a 4th place.

      Enough of blaming Kenny for the way the team is.

      How long do you intend to carry on blaming him.
      Probably if BR doesn’t do any better than Kenny you will turn on him as well????

      BR made a huge error to allow Andy go on loan without ensuring that he got the player he wanted.

      Some of you think that Steve G is past his prime but did you think that it could be that BR wants him to play in a certain way rather than to Steve G’s strength….

      Steve G has no choice but to play to BR’s orders as he does not want to cause a players revolt like what happened to AVB.

      When Rafa played players out of position, it was not ok… but when BR does the same it is ok???

      So what we have 99% of the possession but lose the game?

      We simply are playing too slow allowing the opponent to get back into their half and wait for us to keep making back passes and passes sideways.

      BR needs time to implement his style and hopefully given more time than what FSG gave Kenny.

      I hope you will stop blaming Kenny everytime somthing goes wrong but be grateful for the gret things he has done for the club as a Player and as a Manager.

      1. Sean,

        FSG gave him about 40mil to spend the rest is from the sale of the other playes including Torres.

        BR has spent 26mil and how many of those players including Sahin are playing in the first 11 week in week out.

        So did he buy for Sahin, Assaidi(forgive my spelling) as back-up. Even Borini when he was playing was lost in the game many a time.

        The one who is playing Allen has suddenly lost his form and is giving me a heart attack evrytime he concedes a free kick outside our 18 yard box.

        Enough said.

        What I wanted to say is that we just have to keep supporting the team and be the 12th man and hope things turn around sooner rather than later.

        I am sick and tired of fans bad mouthing our Kenny.

        Nothing personnel mate.

        Hope we win this weekend and turn the season around.
        Even if it doesn’t happen, I will be backing my team.

        Cheers

        1. To be honest, after 26 million by BR, we aren’t doing much better than Kenny’s reign. Yes, Kenny’s buys, namely Henderson and Downing aren’t very good, but similarly, we dominated games. Kenny gave us young players to be excited about. I still think we played more fluidly under Kenny.

          I do not consider Kenny to be a failure. If anyone who was a failure, it was Hodgson. But if any manager was to blame for our decline, it is Rafa for selling Alonso after we almost won the league. I only wish he was given more time to patch things up. Arsenal have been losing their best players all these years and have been in and out of rough patches, BECAUSE Arsene was given time.

          And G_mann, your comment on them playing too slow was spot on. I watch other games, and at times, any other team would be playing a better passing game than us. While we try to be Barca by holding possession, we seem to have forgotten than Barca plays alot of through balls on the other half of the field.

          Like you say, Gerrard’s form could be attributed to him playing out of position, but one can’t deny he isn’t the man he used to be. He was a player who can run, beat defenders, defend, and make amazing passes. But now that stamina isn’t on his side, his only weapons are his passes and crosses. This weapon of his complements well with a poacher or a fast all out striker, like Torres. We don’t have one right now and we gotta get one soon for Gerrard is only going to get worse from here.

  7. I keep saying this. FSG have more than invested in Liverpool. They gave Dalglish & Comolli £113 million. Who bought average players for silly money. They still gave Rodgers £26 million. Do we realy want to end up like Rangers?

    FSG have done there part. Rodgers has been left with a below par squad. You want to start pointing fingers “our king kenny” has set Liverpool back years.

  8. Sean………Mr Ayre and his pals (Parry, Broughton & Purslow broke this club by getting rid of Rafa Benitez Fact…….Look where Rafa Had us and look at us now. The demise of Liverpool since Rafa left are there for all to see. Rafa always had to balance the books and we still had class players……..Where is Rafa now at one of our biggest rivals……..Thankyou Mr Ayre for Giving us a mediocre manager and a mediocre team. The demise of Stevie G since Rafa left has hurt us as well. just look at the stats since season 2008/09 and up until now. Rafa new how to get the best out of all the players. Rant over Thanks.

  9. Give Brendan at least 1-2 seasons to review his method. I still believe in his philosophy of play but unfortunately, he inherit a team that not fit to his style of play and not fully backup by the owner.

    We need several areas of improvement like left back, striker to accompany Suarez, Gerrard’s and Carragher’s successor and Reina understudy

  10. Some of you fans are just atrocious. you ask for heads to be rolled when we lose a game, yet boast endlessly to the high heaven when we win.
    support club through and through guys – iI would hate to be like Chelsea and have a new coach every 260 days…
    give BR the time and support
    or go support a plastic or band wagon team!

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