Miracles do happen. Honestly, they do. But this whole season doesn’t need saving, it needs repairing. Nobody expected us to do anything with regards to challenging for the title when Roy came in, and if you did then you were deluding yourselves I’m afraid. As for those of you/us that expected things to change immediately when Dalglish came back in,well we were right to an extent. Things against Blackpool were much different to what we have been used to under Roy this season. Alright Lucas, Kelly and Reina apart we fell to pieces in the second half, but on the whole there were some encouraging signs, not to mention some decent passing on the floor. Both goals we conceded were the result of some shocking lapses in defence, something that Agger and Skrtel have to sort out because it was alarming at times. But overall, there were some signs of change. What really annoyed me after the match were people (not LFC fans necessarily) complaining that Roy should have got more time, and that the Liverpool fans would never turn on Kenny and of course the notion that we always seek someone to blame. Those of you on Twitter would have no doubt seen the ‘#DalglishOut’ hash-tag that was doing the rounds, spread by fans of other clubs and some journalists who no doubt smugly considered themselves the height of wittiness.
Firstly, the idea that Roy was not given time is absurd. He was given plenty of time, which is indicative of his time in management at Liverpool that ‘plenty of time’ equated to half a season. Liverpool and Roy could not continue. Secondly, the appointment of Dalglish, people should remember that he is a Care-Taker Manager. Ergo his appointment is not permanent (not yet anyway). Barring relegation, is a win-win scenario for NESV. If Dalglish does well, great. If he doesn’t, then they’ll thank him for his commitment to taking the job at a very tricky time of the season, and appoint someone else without having to sack him. That and the fact that there will be more of a feel-good factor around the club. As for the notion that Liverpool fans are forever playing the blame game, well, that has some truth in it. Unfortunately fans will always want someone to vent their anger at. But who is there to blame? NESV so far have said all the right stuff, and been shown to be progressive in appointing Comolli and Clarke, and they gave Hodgson enough time to ‘make his mark’ on the squad. You can’t even blame Hodgson really, because if you did so, the counter-argument would be ‘well LFC should have seen whether he could turn it around’, in other words we should have given him time to see if he could make the club finish anything above or below 12th place. The only real thing you could point at Hodgson was for signing Konchesky, Poulsen (who had a decent game on Wednesday) and turning us into Fulham-on-Mersey. Then of course there is Rafa for leaving us a squad that was capable of finishing 7th/2nd and leaving a squad with hopeless duds/talented individuals like Skrtel, Agger, Lucas, Rodriguez etc.
My point is what use is blaming people? All our problems right now is on the pitch, and not in the corridors of Anfield like it has been before this season. Like Kenny eluded to in the press conference, nothing that happened in the Blackpool cannot be ironed out in training. Likewise, anything that happened in the first half of the season is not something that is going to linger and can be erased, and reset, and I think that is Kenny’s main job in the eyes of NESV at the moment, to smooth things out, get the mindset of the team back on their feet, and get them playing, and enjoy doing so, so that whoever comes in during the summer truly has a clean slate and won’t have to deal with any of the emotional debris that might be left behind.