So what was Liverpool’s real problem under Roy Hodgson? Was it that we were a poor squad with too many players that couldn’t cut it in the Premier League or was it that Liverpool was a club in dire need of a Lucozade bar?
Against Birmingham we were without Daniel Agger, Glen Johnson, Fabio Aurelio, Steven Gerrard and Andy Carroll. These 5 players you could argue would all start if 100% fit. Their replacements? John Flanagan, Jack Robinson, Jay Spearing and Maxi Rodriguez. To me today wasn’t about being the best team (although we were quite comfortably) it was much more to do with how we play when we have that installed belief that we’ll win.
We were constantly being told by journalists, pundits and fans red or not that Liverpool Football Club was in terrible shape with terrible players and needed investment to make sure we wouldn’t move into middle table obscurity. After today’s game and games gone by I’d provide the case against that with confidence we are everything we weren’t suppose to be. ‘Jay Leiva’ were at it again, Lucas played and looked like a captain, tall and proud to be part of the ‘Red Revolution’, almost everything positive started with him or Jay.
I would say though that we need quality in depth but the joy of being able to rely on our youth to come in and do a job equal to their seniors is the most refreshing thing about Kenny’s return. We haven’t panicked, we haven’t played players out of position, Daniel Agger when fit was treated as a commanding centre back, not a second rate left back and Jamie Carragher hasn’t been shipped out to the right side of the defence to compensate for a disfigured back line. The belief around the club is incredible, every decision made by the front of house on the pitch is logical and correct and every move made in the boardroom is considered and productive. We’ve spent far to long having to create excuses as fans about why we haven’t claimed a Premier League title. I now look at our manager, and look at the way we set up each week with belief we can do something. The club hasn’t just reinstalled this belief into the players it’s reinstalled it into me!
I wouldn’t consider myself to be a fan that looks at our situation through red tinted spectacles, I like to be objective and comment on how I truly see it. We’re a club clearly on the rise. We can look at next season with new confidence of a decent campaign. We’ve been told money shall be spent to make improvements where needs be and stadium talk is fresh in the minds of the board. Everything I’ve mentioned is keeping me excited for the next game, for next season. How do you feel about the future of the club?
YNWA
Ben Carr
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amazing article
good to see kenny is giving the youngsters a go and have been very very impressed with young flanaghan a player out of the carragher mould
Serious lack of ‘fit’ with Roy. Who has proved before and is proving again now that he is a good manager. Just not for us. So delighted to see the products of years of behind the ‘Front office’efforts, youth teams and reserves emerging. Remember Shankley said the two best teams in England are Liverpool and Liverpool reserves. Let us rise again and make that once again the case. YNWA!
Moving Jamie to right back rather than try a youngster showed lack of confidence from Roy. Kenny definitely has given them all belief in themselves
wat is annoying is that king kenny was,nt giving the job last summer if he was who know,s wat would happened this season.i reckon if we sign young,sanchez,adam,baines,cahil and another striker we,ll win da prem nxt year
Woy was extraordinary in a bad way. I said it before, i will say it again. He screw us. He anally raped a straight Lfc. So fuck u Woy. I cant believe u waited to be sacked, u didnt want to just retire.
At least we ave passed the worst parts. We can nw be hopeful as we look foward to the future.
Waraqah08 u are veryy very spot on on roy uv jst spoken a lot of tins av wanted to say about roy..he actually did screw us baddddddly and he den waited to b sacked wat a tosser i dnt care wat ppl say about roy being nice well because of him and his influence tactics press conferences is wat pisses me d’ most so embarassiin well hes our worst ever ever manager..so fk u again roy 2tymbecuz of u millions of lfc fans hav bin hurting for months until d’ king finally returned thnk God
How then do you explain the away performances? If you look at the match against Arsenal, we defended for our dear life and hardly look like a Top 4 team with that sort of performance. Your observations seem to be based only on home form which may look good but true quality will prevail regardless of the venue.
We’ve won 3 away games under Kenny that’s more than under Roy. There’s no doubt we need better players and against arsenal at home with the injuries we played they way we did to not loose the game and ended with the same number of shots on target as Arsenal.
i believe we need to buy 4-5 quality players and play a 4-3-3 system, i’d look to buy forlan who is still quality for under 8-9m due to his age .which will free up funds for a top winger e.g hazard/sanchez/turan then i’d look to a deep lying/ defensive midfielder banega/mvila/alonso(i can dream).in defense we need a cb and lb, centre back i’d look at richards/sahko and enrique/coentrao
team
reina
johnson carragher sahko enrique
gerrard alonso(lol)
meireles
suarez hazard/sanchez/turan
carroll
subs- goalie,kelly,lucas,maxi,kuyt, forlan….. bring in the youngsters when there are any injuries
meireles needs to be in the middle as we all witness is goal when he played there , its madness sticking him out on the wing
in fact i dream too about a xabi come back :) never say never
sorry jim but if we wanna win the PL and the Champions we need to acquire top level players, young, cahill and adam are perfect players for middle-high level team like Tottenham, but since we’ll have the cash let’s splash it for 2 or 3 top players, first of all a playmaker, than a offensive wing and a left back, in fact we have already good young players like flanagan, sterling, lucas, pacheco and suso that can form a nice bench with a couple of old players…i love gerrard and kuyt but if there’s a chance to sell them go for it (expecially kuyt), they’re 30…sell joe cole, maxi, poulsen, sotirios, (end of career) and even insua and spearing (not enough athletic and talent skills for their roles)
REINA
GLEN JOHNSON CARRA AGGER BALE/COENTRAO
GERRARD/MEIRELES M’VILA SCHWEINSTEIGER/HERNANES
TEVEZ/NEYMAR CARROL SUAREZ
i forgot Vargas from Fiorentina for the left back role, for who doesn’t know the player, he’s very similar to Riise, great fisic, good personality and amazing powerfull left shot, in my opinion a perfect player for the Premier League
Once again from comments I am seeing the same nonsense. We don’t need to actually buy any defenders.. We have 2 amazing young fullbacks and Johnson. Kelly, Carra, Skrtel and Agger. We don’t need charlie adam. We need 2 wingers and a 3rd striker.
Agreed. Too many football manager players with no common sense.
i think the matches we lost especially away from home since Kenny took over coupled with the injury to key senior players had prompted King kenny to give the youngsters a chance and they have stepped up to the plate deservedly,i really salute King kenny for giving the youngsters a chance unlike our previous managers whom would have been crying out in the media we need investment.I would like us to snap up Forlan especially with media reports he had fell out with his manager Forlan would form a deadly partnership with his country man Suarez but i hope he comes because of the Manchester United factor having played for them previously..the best way to get the best out of youngsters is no better than this especially when the team is on a good run of result it would boost their morale to play without no pressure mounted on them..Credit and Kudos to our King kenny i cant wait till next season but we still need at least 4 top class acquisition of players left back,a commanding fearless midfielder,a left winger and a striker and get rid of some dead woods lol
Forlan is a great player but he’s 33 years old next season and you need 10 milions to acquire him and you have to give him a 4 milion contract for year so you’ll spend 15 milions for a central striker when we need a offensive winger or a striker with speed and talent like Tevez, Neymar or Sanchez from Udinese to play large in our offense and create space for Suarez and obiuvsly Carroll…and with those 15 milions we can buy a much more important player like Coentrao or M’vila…
It’s been a lack of belief in our youth thats hurt us over the last 10 years, yet everytime they are called upon they don’t let us down. Come the summer the cry will be sign loads of players because we lack depth, these players will then stop our own from developing and the cycle will begin over again. Another 10 years with people moaning we never produce for the first team.
btw lee says: April 24, 2011 at 4:23 pm; sahko enrique
alonso(lol) hazard/sanchez/turan goalie forlan
and then says bring in the youngsters when there are any injuries
how about bring in the youngsters and don’t buy 6 to 10 players, just a thought like!
Friend this is an awesome article and i was thinking the same while i was watching Liverpool trash Birmingham with a 5-0..ok Maxi Rodriguez aint Messi and there might be a lot of center midfielders better than Spearing but what i saw is a team full of confidence and always trying to play better and better.i mean look at the last 3 performances.3-0 EASY win against Manchester City,1-1 with a DESERVED draw as the so called “great and fast” Arsenal couldnt make any good chances and a 5-0 against Birmingham.these results are results for a title-winning team and really i dont get too cocky or blind that we’re good now but we’re surely better.What i can say about RAUL MEIRELES??i love this guy..he’s come to a bad situation at Liverpool at summer where the ownership,managerial,…etc problems existed and fights every day harder and harder.What can i say about LUIS SUAREZ??he’s come from Eredivisie where premierleague is miles better and still he tries harder and harder to understand the english game.what can i say about ANDY CARROLL??he was bought for 35million and only this thing is a huge burden to have but he’s been playing like a fighter fighting for every header or shot in his game.Gerrard really hurts watching the team playing so well and not being able to be part of it.and i cant stand people criticising Gerrard..Come on Guys it is STEVEN GERRARD one of the greatest captains ever to play in the world.even Barcelona would do everything to have him in their squad.whatever i say about Steven is too little to what he’s offered so many years.Sorry i got a bit off-topic and i gotta say that i’m proud and hopeful that King Kenny will get the job.You’ve obviously gotta be blind if FSG dont keep him as from his 1st day at the club(2-1 loss at Blackpool)he’s given his heart and everything to get the club where it should be.players like Poulsen,Jovanovic,Kyrgiakos,Konchesky,Jones should be sold immediately.i’d give N’Gog a chance on loan if we sign a better back-up center forward as i wont like to see another “Anelka” situation.as for Maxi and Joe Cole they gotta play for what they’re paid as they’re both get paid for a hell of a money.
FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT
Sorry if i got you in your nerves with so many things i wrote!!!
YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE
i said in my first post before that in my opinion, if there’ll be a great money chance we must think about the possibility to sell Gerrard, i still like him very much, he’s the best midfielder of the world in the last 10 years in my opinion but, he’s 31 next season so if we’ll receive an offer like 30 millions from a club like those big time losers of real madrid, onestly i can even think about selling him, if is good for him too obiuvsly, or we can just keep him, still a very good player but if you’ve seen, in the last two years, multiple injuries and no more the same amazing quality of two years ago, i think that now, when he’s not injured, he’s at 80/85% of his best years…
Yes … nice message to send the players and every other kid in the academy … we want your loyalty, we want you to play hard and we want you to tackle hard … but if you get injured, you’re out of here.
Lovely.
You can’t seek loyalty from players and act like a car dealer.
remember what gary mcallister did with us at the age of 35 (2000-2001), not mention present evergreen like giggs. sometime we need this kind of player. and gerrard calibre is irreplaceable at least for next 3 season.
80-85% of his best is good for a player like Gerrard! it means maybe 90% of some average midfielder… after all that hes done, i would not sell him.. unless he wants to go, and i dont see it happening…
i’ve not said that we must sell him…i know who he is and what he rapresents for us, i’ve just sad that if he want’s to go in the occasion that we’ll receive a great ammount of money we must think about that since he’s 31, that said i’m very happy to keep him with us, no need to say this…i hope
In my opinion, Caroll-big mistake! a lot of money for someone that is already injured! We were fine yesterday without him! We should have waited and gave the # 9 shirt to someone that is BETTER and worth it- sorry this is my humble opinion. And after seeing the TORRES goal, why did we sell him! why? are we a selling club? we wont spend this money to buy all the players we need, we need to be realistic. You will see, we will get players from France with commolli in charge and players we are not so sure of in EPL. As KK said himself, if we are to WIN and not just be top 4, we need to get to the levels other clubs have set… we were the trend setters, now.. we have to follow trends… that sucks! I am not pro spending obscene amount of money on players, i believe in developing your own, but sometimes, if you want to give players and fans a sense of going forward you need to invest. I hate to point the obvious, if what the media says is true and management tried to convince torres to stay saying that they will spend in the summer, and he left, its bad publicity for the club that we cant seem to retain our best and give them the faith that we can win and we will invest… then we will only get middle class players, develop them and then ship them off… as we so often do!because they too wont believe we as a club mean business…
I am sorry, some days i have faith other days i just dont see it happening… We are only wining because kenny has given them a wining mentality, take that away and its gone… I need to believe, and so far we havent heard anything, its all rumors… and K.kenny hasnt been given the job next year yet! As a manager in any given company, i retain my best because they produce… if as an employee, i feel that i cant go far with this company I leave! this is what i am worried about, we never keep our players long enough and they dont seem to believe we can win! AND if they dont then we wont! thats y i dont understand why kenny hasnt been given the job! he is the only reason we are winning… he gave the players this belief! and if a certain player had stuck till the end of the year, we could even already be top 4 maybe!but again… the club does not give them the sense that it is going forward… how should i believe?! Again… some days i wake up and its ya we are going forward, and others i become the devils advocate!
who the fuck wants to sell gerrard, liverpool r not in debt any more… 30 million may snd gd bussiness… but liva now want commited playrs, who wanna win something for the club… if u sell an inspirational captain, its a step backwards… it”ll be lik alonso situation, wer we unable to fill the gap for a few yrs till we found a committed lad named lucas….