A Season Of Uncertainty For Liverpool

A Season Of Uncertainty For Liverpool ?

Going into last season Liverpool was full of high hopes with the return of Dalglish in January, and an encouraging end to the season results wise, which took Liverpool close to European qualification.

Dalglish’s summer spending spree on the like of Downing, Adam, Henderson, Doni and Coates, gave the Anfield faithful even more encouragement for the season ahead.

Dalglish brought back the Carling Cup, the clubs’ first trophy in a number of years, before losing in the final of the FA Cup to Chelsea. But finishing 8th in the League, a whopping 37 points behind Champions Manchester City was ultimately Kenny’s undoing as Liverpool’s American owners relieved the Legend of his services to the club soon after Liverpool’s final match of the season.

Dalglish was told at the start of the season that Liverpool must qualify for the Champions League, and he failed, and he paid the price for his failure.

Now the American’s have installed former Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers as manager, a man who has not managed a club of Liverpool’s stature before.

Rodgers does seem to be a man of strong character, with an encouraging approach to how football should be played, with his possession football, which was always a principle of Liverpool’s style of play in their dominant years.

But it can take time for any new manager to implement his ideas, and unlike last season’s demands by Liverpool’s owners to Dalglish, Rodgers has been told he will get time and that qualifying for the Champions League is not a priority.

Rodgers has lost a couple of good players in the summer with Dirk Kuyt and Maxi Rodriguez deciding to leave the club for a new challenge, but the new manager has brought in first signing in the form of Roma’s Borini.

But at this time of year there is so much transfer speculation, with talk of Skrtel, Suarez, Adam etc leaving. But also talk of Walcott, Dempsey and Allen of Swansea maybe arriving to Anfield.

But the biggest story has been about Andy Carroll, who seems to be on his way out, with suspicion that Rodgers doesn’t think he will fit into his style of play.

Rodgers highlighted when he arrived that every player would get a chance to prove themselves at the club, so it seems strange about all this Carroll speculation when he will only join up with the squad for the first time this week in North America on their tour.

Liverpool will lose a lot of money on Carroll if they sell him, but then Rodgers may need to bring money into the club before he can buy his type of player.

With most of the senior players arriving back from their holidays this week, Rodgers does not have much time before the season starts to work with them and implement his style of play.

This season will be a season of transition for Liverpool, but the club can’t afford to fall further behind the top clubs as the gap will widen and Liverpool will struggle to compete for the best players in the transfer market.

But there are encouraging signs for Liverpool who have a young and very highly rated manager to take them forward, with a footballing approach that will suit the supporters. But a manager is ultimately judged on results, and Rodgers will have to get positive results along the way to correspond with his footballing philosophy.

Liverpool will go into this new season at the beginning of a new era under Brendan Rodgers, but also with a sense of uncertainty regarding the future of this new season.