Many managed to find comfort in Man Utd trashing this weekend at the hands of merciless Man City, however the debate on the Reds’ performance against Norwich remains vivid and actual, and I thought that writing some considerations would not harm anyone. There is no intent to lynch; there is no intent to slam. The intent is to look at things from a different perspective!
Before I proceed further, allow me to make one thing perfectly clear. I firmly believe and am entirely convinced that Kenny Dalglish, at this moment in history, is the perfect manager for the Club hands down. I also believe that post-Dalglish, the Club should look at continuing the legacy. It’s a different age, and it’s a different game today, but I am not for another foreign manager whose prime aim would be to bring a hoard of players from his country because they are the only players he knows. We’ve been through this twice in our recent history and hopefully we will not go through it again. This does not mean that we should by local talent ‘at any price’. We should, and we will, make sure that our Academy produces the kind of talent and quality without having the necessity to always look elsewhere.
Now let’s get back to the reason behind the article. After Saturday’s game, Kenny said that we have everything in place and that the only thing lacking at the present time is luck! Unfortunately luck is not something you can work on at Melwood, and though good or bad decisions often have an effect on the final result, there is no doubt that luck rewards the brave, and maybe, just maybe, at times we are not being brave enough.
Take Saturday’s game. The first half was almost (I reiterate the ‘almost’) perfect. Having been bold and brave and adventurous, Lady Luck did reward us in the final attempt of that period with Bellamy’s attempt which ricocheted off the opposing keeper and defender before hitting the net. Objectively, we should have put the game to bed and came out with a bigger margin, but we didn’t. Personally I do not think it was bad luck, we just did not convert the multitude of chances we had, period!
The second half proved to be a different animal. It was Lambert’s turn to become ‘bold and brave’, and if one does not consider introducing a second striker against Liverpool at Anfield bold and brave, then I don’t know what is. The move proved to be a winner. Not only did they grab the equalizer, they sent us into a frenzy of panic and we lost the tempo and flow of the first half. We did create chances, but we did not convert, not because of bad luck, but because we lacked the finish. When we were on target, their keeper out-classed himself.
Now I would have expected Kenny to respond by bringing on Carroll immediately, I almost demanded that ‘bold and brave’ reaction. I would have thought that by taking off Downing, he would have moved Johnson up that flank, shifted Carra to right back, and brought on Agger as centre-back. Why bring on Henderson and place him on the right when we all have seen how ineffective he is there? If you want to bring Henderson on take-off Charlie Adam, who was not having a field day anyway and was losing more balls than he was winning, apart from seeming suspiciously out of puff. Even Bellamy’s substitution was unconvincing because although Lambart had taken precautions by double-marking him, he was still being a nuisance and creating chances. It’s very hard to pin down Bellers!
It’s all a matter of opinion of course, and by such claims, no one is offering his candidature to do Kenny’s job, yet it’s useless to imprecate luck when we seem to be wary of taking brave decisions. My hope is that Kenny and Co are not insisting with playing their acquisitions just for the sake of justifying the investments made! It wouldn’t be fair and it wouldn’t be right.
EOTK is a think-tank for Liverpool fans. It’s were we express our joy and vent off our frustrations. We may not all agree on matters, and we probably may be talking more out of passion that outright technical knowledge, but there is no harm in making your point, sharing your views and expressing your concerns. Ultimately, being critical is one thing, being offensive is another: there is zero tolerance for option two in my book!