No sooner had the first whistle sounded, ESPN’s ‘dream team’ of Waddle and Champion were slating Liverpool. Like a broken record, Waddle harped on that English teams need to play with a high tempo in Europe as though this was true of every minute of every European tie involving an English club.
Forget the fact that Rafa has led this Liverpool team to victories over the likes of Juventus, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid by sending out his team to play with a high tempo from the kick off and has an outstanding record in European competition which would suggest he knows when to use a high tempo and when not to. Ignore the fact it is impossible for any team to maintain a high tempo for a full 90 minutes. Overlook the mud bath on which this match was being played. Disregard the fact that Liverpool led from the first leg and therefore did not need to score to progress.
According to Waddle, Liverpool should have immediately played with a high tempo against Unirea because they are an English team and English teams need to play high tempo football.
Tell me, why isn’t Waddle employed as a football manager at one of the top European clubs? Surely with insight like that, he would be a shoe-in for the England manager’s job? High tempo – simple. World Cups and European Championships would undoubtedly follow.
Since when did geography dictate how teams should play? Yes, Liverpool FC comes from England but the starting XI comprised of just two English players plus a Frenchman, two Argentineans, a Brazilian, a Dutchman, an Israeli, a Slovakian, a Dane and a Spaniard.
Between them, Champion and Waddle presented Liverpool’s failure to attack from the first whistle of a game they did not need to win as conclusive evidence that Liverpool and its manager are negative. When Unirea took a shock lead from a corner the criticism went into overdrive. ‘Zonal marking!’ they screamed. Forget the fact that this was the first goal from a set piece Liverpool had conceded in eight games since the equaliser at Stoke. Forget the fact Liverpool have kept six clean sheets in their last seven games conceding just once. Clearly it was a poor goal to concede but to me it came from a combination of an excellent delivery, an excellent finish and the fact that the nearest man to the goal-scorer (who did attempt to clear the ball) was Insua who was simply out-jumped by a player over a foot taller than him.
According to Waddle, Liverpool had “got what they deserved”. Apparently, you deserve to be losing if you don’t play with a high tempo and adopt a supposedly negative style of play regardless of whether the opposition deserve to be in front as a result of decent attacking play, dominating possession or playing with a high tempo themselves. Unirea were the home team and needed to score. Surely if any team should be criticised for not going all out to attack and for not playing with a high tempo, it should have been the Romanians? However, in Waddle’s and Champion’s eyes, Unirea might as well not have been there. This match was all about the failings of this Liverpool team and the ‘commentary’ was solely about the team in red.
“Sam Allardyce will be rubbing his hands with delight watching this!” squealed Champion suggesting that Blackburn – labelled a set-piece specialist team as, like any Allardyce team, it is their only means of attack – will enjoy a field day at Anfield on Sunday. When did Blackburn last win a League game at Anfield? 1993. But Allardyce is English so in the mind of Champion he is a better manager than “lucky” Benitez.
“English teams have to play with a high tempo”, droned Waddle. “But an English team with a Spanish coach?” jeered Champion inferring that Spanish coaches were negative (unlike British managers like Moyes, Hodgson and Allardyce whose sides apparently play expansive attacking football week-in, week-out). Surely this is a racist comment? To stereotype an entire nation’s coaches as negative as Champion did was as crude as it was ignorant. Spain is the country of Real Madrid and Barcelona, not to mention the current European Championship holders. It is the country of Fernando Torres, David Villa, David Silva, Xavi, et al. All of whom are lauded for their attacking brilliance. The truth is this thoughtless moronic jibe was not aimed at Spanish coaches; it was aimed solely at Benitez whom Champion regularly derides as a “lucky general”. Benitez is negative, is a poor manager, blah blah blah.
Well after Liverpool went through the motions to win 3-1 putting in a professional European away performance without really needing to play high tempo football and with one of the goals scored from a set-piece against a team marking man-to-man, I think Champion and Waddle both owe Rafa Benitez an apology. They won’t give him one as they are a pair of classless bores but at least if Rafa ever has the misfortune to listen to the tripe they spouted during the game, he will know his team exposed their ignorance.
EDIT: Paul Tomkins published this piece on his official website "The Tomkins Times" saying "The following post, by Dave Cronin (dcronin), summed up what I wished I’d wrote; once I read it, I didn’t need to continue with my draft."
Friday, 26 February 2010
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
This is what they call the Muppet Show
I just despair at some of the negativity surrounding our club at the moment. Below are real posts from supposed Liverpool fans than were posted onto the Echo’s website in response to an article about the need for Rafa to ease Torres back to first team action after his recurring injury problems:
PeteJ wrote:
Here we go again...!! Protecting a one goal advantage.. Not looking to increase our advantage early as possible..
Negative before a ball is even kicked.
I can't be doing with this warming the bench for Torres , He's either fit to play or NOT fit.
Should we go 2 goals down early on Benitez will have him stripped off.. Too little too late..
For the first time in a long time I am not wasting my money flying out to Romainia for this one..
In the past I would be taking two days of work..
Not this time...
23/2/2010 1:00 PM GMT on liverpoolecho.co.uk
steviebabe wrote:
protect protect and more protect, that is the only system Benitez employs, when he won the title with Valencia he did it with a team that conceded least goals ever and scored the least goals ever, it says it all about a negative, arrogant manager who is not fit to lace Shankly's boots and has brought this club to mocking status. 4th place? Don't make me laugh........
23/2/2010 3:02 PM GMT on liverpoolecho.co.uk
TerryYNWAMercer1 wrote:
This man is so stupid, how many times does he allow players back to early and thenthey are out injured again, he should not be played for another couple of weeks, i agree about him being an arrogant manager, i as PeteJ will not be going to this one as i have had enough of Rafa and his boring football... Sorry shanks
23/2/2010 3:17 PM GMT on liverpoolecho.co.uk
Scouser_Ex_Pat wrote:
Take solace lads. Don't give up hope that Juve will come in and swoop this idiot off to Italy. Only then will this nightmare end.
23/2/2010 6:13 PM GMT on liverpoolecho.co.uk
MallyMcNulty wrote:
I dont like the man, but I was jealous when Alex Ferguson was interviewed at half time in the San Siro last week.... when asked if he was going to hold for the Draw (after being very lucky to still be in the game!) He laughed the remark off and replied "No, No - we'll go for the win...."
Fast forward 2 days - Anfield, and the Reds are struggling to make a decent breakthrough Romanian "Part - Timers." Its enough to make you scream with frustration, especially when you consider the position we were in this time last year and how good the team showed they could be against Man United, Real Madrid, Chelsea etc.
Why does the manager persist with the cautious approach that is not winning us enough points to consolidate an early Champions League spot? How many times do we need to needlessly drop points before he realises he needs to try something else?
Does he not believe the players he has signed and the team he has built is good enough to actually play football to win the game?
23/2/2010 9:40 PM GMT on liverpoolecho.co.uk
I don’t get it. I think we’re on a decent League run at the moment with far more consistent form than our rivals for fourth place. We undeservedly lost at the Emirates but that was our only defeat in our last 9 League games and in those games we have only conceded twice and have taken 10 points from a potential 12 off our supposed rivals for fourth spot (if you include Everton alongside Aston Villa, Tottenham and Man City).
When all is said and done, losing away at Arsenal is no disgrace, unlike losing to Hull as City did recently or Wolves at Spurs did.
People went so over the top about our performance in the City game. The media called it a “dour draw” and even the Echo slated it under the headline “TV lucky to miss out on Eastlands shocker”. I watched the game live and, while I admit to being frustrated at the lack of goal-scoring chances we created, on the whole I was not unhappy with our performance and I certainly wasn’t bored. Apparently the majority of people think the only thing watchable in football is goals. Last season, Liverpool were the League’s top scorers with 77 goals. Ignoring added time, Liverpool played 57 hours of Premiership football. If we generously assume it takes a minute for each goal scored, that means for about 55 and a half hours Liverpool were not scoring and were therefore totally unwatchable by that logic. And they were the most prolific team! Why then would anyone watch football at all?
Contrary to the idiots' view, football is not just about goals. It is about winning. In League football, the objective is to win points. Scoring goals helps to achieve that objective but equally so does not conceding.
What I saw at City was a Liverpool team following a game plan, working hard, defending extremely well and trying its best to play some attacking football but severely lacking confidence, form and its best attacking players in the final third of the pitch.
Far from thinking City were there for the taking, I thought our work rate and defensive resilience made them look extremely ordinary. Unfortunately, as has been the case for some time, we lacked sufficient quality in the final third to turn some potentially promising possession into meaningful attacks. If a team’s final ball is poor, they can be called wasteful but what I see from this Liverpool team at present is that often the final ball before the final ball is poor. That doesn’t make the team or the manager negative; it simply proves the lack of quality of the players entrusted to attack. Why is there a lack of quality? To me, the fact that our most potent goal threat and most individually creative player were only fit for a return to the bench after being injured for over six weeks is a major factor. Put a fully fit Fernando Torres and Yossi Benayoun into that team and immediately its chances of creating and taking goal scoring chances increases. Add a fully fit Glen Johnson at right-back to provide some width to the attack and those chances increase even more. Why don't we have more strength in depth? You'd have to ask the owners about that one as it is they, not Rafa, who refuse to invest in the squad.
In the absence of those key attacking players, to me, the most important objective is to avoid being beaten and to continue to pick up points; not to try to play entertaining attacking football using players who do not naturally play that sort of game. Would you expect Carra to perform as well as Reina if Rafa was forced to put him in goal?
Tommy Smith wrote in his Echo column: “You’ve got to score goals to win games. I’d rather see us win 4-3 than draw nil-nil.” Who wouldn’t? We would all rather win by any score than draw but it’s not as though Rafa was given the choice between a 4-3 win and a 0-0 and chose the 0-0. Had we gone gung-ho and tried to attack at all costs, we would have been far more likely to concede 4 than score 4.
Personally, I applaud the manager for the resilience he has restored to the team in the absence of the best attackers. I felt in pre-Christmas games such as Fulham away and Portsmouth away that we were still trying to play the same way as we would if our strongest XI was playing but with vastly inferior understudies such as Degen in the team. The result was that we were dominating possession and creating a few chances that we weren’t able to take but on the whole we struggled creatively and crucially we lost those games.
Compare the results at Stoke and Wolves by contrast to those games. Without our better attacking options, we were strong at the back and came away from potentially tricky away games unbeaten. To respond to Tommy Smith, I would rather draw 0-0 than lose 1-3.
Saying “I’d rather see us win 4-3 than draw nil-nil” is like saying “I’d rather see Ronnie Corbett KO Mike Tyson in a boxing match than see both fighters still standing at the end of the round”. If Ronnie went at Tyson with fists flying from the first bell he would find himself flat on his back in seconds. Just as you can’t expect a midget to out-box a former heavy-weight champion, you can’t expect a side missing its best attackers to annihilate a back four and goalkeeper that cost a combined £53.5m when our entire first XI cost just £63.7m.
Why can’t those who claim to be supporters see the bigger picture? The answer is probably obvious from their posts – they are fucking idiots.
Take PeteJ for example who “can't be doing with this warming the bench for Torres , He's either fit to play or NOT fit.” Let me help, PeteJ. Torres is back in the squad ahead of schedule, is not fit enough to play 90 minutes and using him in any way other than sparingly puts him at significant risk of picking up further injuries. I am curious about PeteJ's comment “For the first time in a long time I am not wasting my money flying out to Romainia for this one..” Flying to Romania to watch Liverpool games is a waste of money considering we haven’t played there since the year 2003.
Then there is steviebabe who calls Rafa arrogant and says he is “not fit to lace Shankly’s boots”. As I stated in a recent post, under Shankly we went six seasons without winning the title finishing 5th three times and finishing as high as second just once so Rafa’s record compares pretty well with that of the great man. If 5th was apparently good enough for Shankly, why does 4th place equal “mocking status” under Rafa? Rafa has also won more European Cups than Shanks too. On what basis does steviebabe call Rafa arrogant? Does he know him personally? And even if Rafa was arrogant, does it matter? Is Alex Ferguson not arrogant? Was Jose Mourinho? Has Arsene Wenger never come across as arrogant? Rafa could drive round shooting puppies for all I care as long as he is helping us towards success.
TerryYNWAMercer1 calls Rafa stupid yet he can’t even use punctuation correctly. Then there is MallyMcNulty who thinks Unirea are “Part-Timers”. Clearly he is unaware that Romania has its own professional League and that Unirea, like Liverpool, dropped into the Europa League from the Champions League where they hammered Rangers 4-1 at Ibrox. Now if we were playing Rangers, would anyone expect us to hammer them? Unirea also drew with Stuttgart and beat Sevilla so they are no mugs. But because MallyMcNulty has never heard of them, he thinks it’s OK to label them part-timers and expect us to effortlessly wipe the floor with them.
Of course, without a hint of irony, MallyMcNulty mentions “how good the [Liverpool] team showed they could be against Man United, Real Madrid, Chelsea etc” last season. Notice, in his mind, it was the team that showed how good they could be and not the manager, as though Rafa deserves no credit for last season despite taking all the blame for this. MallyMcNulty also erroneously claims those results came “this time last year” but actually this time last year the team was struggling. When we drew with City on Sunday, exactly one year before to the day we drew with City before going on to lose 2-0 at the Riverside to soon-to-be-relegated Middlesbrough. We weren’t playing well at that time but despite that, we had an upsurge in form and finished the season strongly as we are capable of doing again.
Liverpool fans were once famed for their knowledge of the game. Sadly, in the modern game any moran can attach himself or herself to our great club and start spouting crap. It's such a shame the club can't disown supporters. I do despair!
Friday, 19 February 2010
Message to lazy pundits: Try watching Liverpool before formulating a view on them
The other thing that annoyed me when watching Liverpool v Unirea was yet more examples of lazy punditry. Stan "the man that didn't" Collymore (God knows why anyone thought he would make a good pundit) joined the likes of Redknapp, Gray, Houghton and many others in repeating the cliche that Steven Gerrard cannot be expected to carry the team week-in, week-out.
As someone who has watched every Liverpool game this season, I can say that Steven Gerrard hasn't carried the team in a single game this season. If anything, the team has been carrying Steven Gerrard this season. 11 years of outstanding service should not be dismissed on the back of one lousy season but let's assess players on what they do on the pitch THIS SEASON rather than working from the assumption that Gerrard is amazing and messrs Lucas, Ngog, etc. are all crap. If Gerrard had only joined us in the summer and performed as he has this season, people would be writing him off as a terrible signing just as they have Aquilani. Likewise, if Aquilani had five or six seasons of decent performances for Liverpool in the bank, people would be talking about a loss of form rather than a waste of money.
So far, Aquilani has disappointed and has failed to live up to expectations but so has Gerrard. And it has been the likes of Lucas who has had to carry them this season.
We have suffered as a result of players like Torres, Johnson and Benayoun being missing through injury but Gerrard has simply been missing.
As someone who has watched every Liverpool game this season, I can say that Steven Gerrard hasn't carried the team in a single game this season. If anything, the team has been carrying Steven Gerrard this season. 11 years of outstanding service should not be dismissed on the back of one lousy season but let's assess players on what they do on the pitch THIS SEASON rather than working from the assumption that Gerrard is amazing and messrs Lucas, Ngog, etc. are all crap. If Gerrard had only joined us in the summer and performed as he has this season, people would be writing him off as a terrible signing just as they have Aquilani. Likewise, if Aquilani had five or six seasons of decent performances for Liverpool in the bank, people would be talking about a loss of form rather than a waste of money.
So far, Aquilani has disappointed and has failed to live up to expectations but so has Gerrard. And it has been the likes of Lucas who has had to carry them this season.
We have suffered as a result of players like Torres, Johnson and Benayoun being missing through injury but Gerrard has simply been missing.
Liverpool 1 Unirea 0
You would think from the reaction in some quarters that Liverpool had lost the first leg of this Europa League tie. Like the Lyon away game earlier in the season, the commentary continually stressed Liverpool's need to score up until the point where we did score at which point, according to the commentators we desparately needed a second.
We didn't need anything other than a clean sheet. When you play the first leg of a home tie in Europe, the only necessity is that you prevent your opponent from taking an away goal into the second leg. Any lead you can amass is then a bonus.
That Liverpool struggled to score is irrelevant. The commentators told us Liverpool would face tougher teams than Unirea if we progressed in this competition, implying we would play as well (or badly) against them. In reality, a better team would be less likely to stick 10 men behind the ball and try to grind out a 0-0. A better team would encourage the crowd to be more vocal and the players to give more effort and play with a higher tempo. Against Unirea, we did exactly what we needed.
It might not be considered an great result based on the prestige of our club versus theirs but given the objective is to qualify for the next round of the Europa League, it is an excellent result. Given that on the 12 previous occasions Rafa's team have taken a first leg lead into the return leg of a European knock-out tie, they have progressed, we can be supremely confident we will do enough in Romania to get through.
I just couldn't understand the negativity over only winning 1-0 compared with, say, the praise heaped on Everton for beating Sporting Lisbon 2-1 at home. 1-0 at home is a far better result than 2-1 at home in the first leg.
Technically we now don't need to score in Romania. Unirea would need to score two unanswered goals to knock us out whereas Sporting need to score just once and Everton are out. The Bitters really need an away goal or their chance of progress hinges on whether they can keep a clean sheet.
Regardless of our first leg result, the aim should always be to score an away goal. When we went to the San Siro a couple of seasons ago on the back of a 2-0 home win over Inter, the nerves were only settled when we scored. Without that away goal, 2-0 was not an unassailable lead. One Inter goal would have put us under massive pressure knowing a second could undo all the good work from the first leg. Once the away goal was scored, Inter needed to score FOUR. Game over.
One away goal in Romania and Unirea would need to score THREE to knock us out. Game over.
Yes we would all have liked to travel to Romania on the back of a 3-0 home win but having won at the Bernabeau, the Nou Camp and the San Siro in recent seasons, I'm sure our players possess enough experience and European know-how to finish the job from here.
We didn't need anything other than a clean sheet. When you play the first leg of a home tie in Europe, the only necessity is that you prevent your opponent from taking an away goal into the second leg. Any lead you can amass is then a bonus.
That Liverpool struggled to score is irrelevant. The commentators told us Liverpool would face tougher teams than Unirea if we progressed in this competition, implying we would play as well (or badly) against them. In reality, a better team would be less likely to stick 10 men behind the ball and try to grind out a 0-0. A better team would encourage the crowd to be more vocal and the players to give more effort and play with a higher tempo. Against Unirea, we did exactly what we needed.
It might not be considered an great result based on the prestige of our club versus theirs but given the objective is to qualify for the next round of the Europa League, it is an excellent result. Given that on the 12 previous occasions Rafa's team have taken a first leg lead into the return leg of a European knock-out tie, they have progressed, we can be supremely confident we will do enough in Romania to get through.
I just couldn't understand the negativity over only winning 1-0 compared with, say, the praise heaped on Everton for beating Sporting Lisbon 2-1 at home. 1-0 at home is a far better result than 2-1 at home in the first leg.
Technically we now don't need to score in Romania. Unirea would need to score two unanswered goals to knock us out whereas Sporting need to score just once and Everton are out. The Bitters really need an away goal or their chance of progress hinges on whether they can keep a clean sheet.
Regardless of our first leg result, the aim should always be to score an away goal. When we went to the San Siro a couple of seasons ago on the back of a 2-0 home win over Inter, the nerves were only settled when we scored. Without that away goal, 2-0 was not an unassailable lead. One Inter goal would have put us under massive pressure knowing a second could undo all the good work from the first leg. Once the away goal was scored, Inter needed to score FOUR. Game over.
One away goal in Romania and Unirea would need to score THREE to knock us out. Game over.
Yes we would all have liked to travel to Romania on the back of a 3-0 home win but having won at the Bernabeau, the Nou Camp and the San Siro in recent seasons, I'm sure our players possess enough experience and European know-how to finish the job from here.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
The Doc says it's Unirea
I’m in two minds about how Rafa should approach the Unirea game. On the one hand, I feel that as the only competition we can still win this season, we should go all out to win the Europa League and that means playing a strong XI against the Romanians at Anfield. On the other hand, a Cup tie against a team whose name sounds like a water infection in a competition that has become cast so far adrift of the Champions League is about as appealing as a Sunday morning hangover and we face a League match against City just 3 days later that could define whether or not we ultimately end up back in the competition next year.
Playing in the Europa League is a bit like shopping in Aldi. You can clearly see there are benefits to shopping in there but you feel pretty embarrassed about it none the less – especially when you know your neighbours are shopping at M&S. It’s best to be able to shop than not but it saps the pride none-the-less.
However, in the current Liverpool squad, the following players have collected winners’ medals with our club: Carragher, Gerrard, Reina, Agger and Aurelio. And Agger’s and Aurelio’s were for the Community Shield win over Chelsea in 2006. Since then Kuyt and Mascherano also picked up runner up medals for the 2007 Champions League Final and since then there has been nothing. The only silverware Torres has won in his time at Anfield was the European Championship with Spain. Benayoun has added nothing to the runner up medal from the 2006 FA Cup Final that he brought with him to Anfield. Insua, Babel, Lucas, Skrtel, Riera, Ngog and everyone else who arrived at Anfield after 13/08/2006 has won as many honours as Everton and Newcastle combined during the same period.
Winning trophies is like winning football matches. It becomes a habit if done frequently but the longer times goes since the last one, the harder it becomes to get back into the habit.
We saw with teams like Man Ure and Chelsea that after a few seasons without winning a trophy, winning even a pot as derided as the League Cup can prove to be the catalyst for future successes.
After a trophyless season in 2004-05 in which the dirty Mancs finished outside of the League’s top two for the third time in four years, Fergie’s men pipped the Mighty Wigan Athletic to win the League Cup in 2006 to avoid a second successive trophyless campaign. For the likes of Wayne Rooney, Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Park Ji-Sung and Louis Saha this was their first winners medal at the club. The following season they were League Champions.
Similarly Chelsea had won nothing since the FA Cup in 2000 until Jose Mourinho took them to Cardiff to play us in the Carling Cup Final of 2005. Thanks to Stevie G’s 79th minute own goal, Chelsea went on to win the Cup earning first winners’ medals of some players’ careers (Lampard, Joe Cole, Gallas, Duff, Cech and Glen Johnson) and first winner’s medals at Chelsea for the likes of Makelele, Carvalho and Drogba. They went on to win the Premiership that season and added numerous other honours in the next few seasons bankrolled by Roman Abramovich.
I am not suggesting that had Man Ure not won the Carling Cup in 2006 that they wouldn’t have won the League the following season but I do believe winning it made subsequent successes easier. Had United lost to Wigan, supporters would have been critical of the team and crucially of the manager after two barren campaigns. The talk on the terraces, moan-ins and internet forums would focus on the team’s inability to add to the club’s list of honours. The pressure to win a trophy in the 2006-07 campaign would have been far greater. As it was, that success gave the players the experience of winning something and the belief they could win things together under that manager.
It is a similar story with Chelsea. Had Stevie G not headed the ball into his own net and Liverpool held out to win in the Millenium Stadium, Chelsea probably would still have gone on to win the League but perhaps with more doubts in the minds of their players that could have led to a wobble or two during the run-in.
I certainly would not suggest that winning the Europa League would mean Liverpool will win something next season but I do think it would make it easier for them to do so. For a little while, it would silence the ‘Rafa-out’ brigade and crucially it would enable the likes of Kuyt and Torres to look around them in the dressing room and see players with whom they have shared a success. Perversely, even if we did qualify for next season’s Champions League, how could the players believe we can win it if they couldn’t even win the Europa League?
I can’t believe I am actually saying this but I think it is more important to win the Europa League than to finish in the top four this season and, given the choice, that is what I would choose. Even so, I would prefer not to have to make a choice because I would like to see us go all out to achieve both.
That means playing a strong-ish team at Anfield on Thursday. I say ‘ish’ because I think Rafa should take the opportunity to give certain fringe players a game. Assuming he is fit, Aquilaini has to start this one. I totally understand Rafa’s decisions not to use him against some of the very physical recent opponents such as Stoke and Everton but if he can’t be expected to perform against Unirea then there is literally no point having him in the squad this campaign. Having resisted Birmingham’s offer for Babel, I think the manager needs to use the frustratingly inconsistent moron so I would like to see him feature. Perhaps this game could enable Rafa to play Babel up front but then it might also be worth using Ngog as the lad seriously needs a goal for his confidence right now. This is also an opportunity to blood Dani Pacheco and give him a chance to prove whether he should be in contention for the first team in the remainder of the campaign but whether you could field both Pacheco and Aquilaini is debatable. I would expect Aurelio to start given his lack of recent games while Kyrgiakos may come in for Daniel Agger given that the Greek is suspended for Sunday’s game at City. Carra is definitely out of Thursday’s game so Rafa will have to choose between young Kelly and Degen for the right-back slot. Personally, I would like to see Kelly get the nod. I just hope Rafa keeps Reina in goal and doesn’t give Cavalieri the nod as he has done in most domestic Cup games (in which we have been eliminated).
That means my starting XI would be: Reina; Kelly, Kyrgiakos, Skrtel, Aurelio; Lucas, Mascherano, Maxi, Babel; Aquilaini, Ngog with Pacheco replacing Aqua if he’s not fit or coming on after 60 mins.
On paper, that is clearly not the strongest XI but neither is it a ‘Carling Cup’ side. If it can’t do the job, we still have the second leg to pull the tie back (and it might add a bit of interest to the competition if that were the case) while we can also have the likes of Stevie and Dirk on the bench if needed.
I put Maxi in the team as I think he needs a decent performance and this is the sort of opposition against which he should be able to shine. However, Riera has been kicking his heels of late so I would say it’s an either/or scenario. One should start against Unirea with the other starting against City unless the guy who starts against Unirea makes himself undroppable.
Of course, if Riera started, Babel would not be used on the right and, in any case, I think Rafa is more likely to field Degen on the right of midfield.
Still, Degen apart, it is nice to have some options at last!
Playing in the Europa League is a bit like shopping in Aldi. You can clearly see there are benefits to shopping in there but you feel pretty embarrassed about it none the less – especially when you know your neighbours are shopping at M&S. It’s best to be able to shop than not but it saps the pride none-the-less.
However, in the current Liverpool squad, the following players have collected winners’ medals with our club: Carragher, Gerrard, Reina, Agger and Aurelio. And Agger’s and Aurelio’s were for the Community Shield win over Chelsea in 2006. Since then Kuyt and Mascherano also picked up runner up medals for the 2007 Champions League Final and since then there has been nothing. The only silverware Torres has won in his time at Anfield was the European Championship with Spain. Benayoun has added nothing to the runner up medal from the 2006 FA Cup Final that he brought with him to Anfield. Insua, Babel, Lucas, Skrtel, Riera, Ngog and everyone else who arrived at Anfield after 13/08/2006 has won as many honours as Everton and Newcastle combined during the same period.
Winning trophies is like winning football matches. It becomes a habit if done frequently but the longer times goes since the last one, the harder it becomes to get back into the habit.
We saw with teams like Man Ure and Chelsea that after a few seasons without winning a trophy, winning even a pot as derided as the League Cup can prove to be the catalyst for future successes.
After a trophyless season in 2004-05 in which the dirty Mancs finished outside of the League’s top two for the third time in four years, Fergie’s men pipped the Mighty Wigan Athletic to win the League Cup in 2006 to avoid a second successive trophyless campaign. For the likes of Wayne Rooney, Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Park Ji-Sung and Louis Saha this was their first winners medal at the club. The following season they were League Champions.
Similarly Chelsea had won nothing since the FA Cup in 2000 until Jose Mourinho took them to Cardiff to play us in the Carling Cup Final of 2005. Thanks to Stevie G’s 79th minute own goal, Chelsea went on to win the Cup earning first winners’ medals of some players’ careers (Lampard, Joe Cole, Gallas, Duff, Cech and Glen Johnson) and first winner’s medals at Chelsea for the likes of Makelele, Carvalho and Drogba. They went on to win the Premiership that season and added numerous other honours in the next few seasons bankrolled by Roman Abramovich.
I am not suggesting that had Man Ure not won the Carling Cup in 2006 that they wouldn’t have won the League the following season but I do believe winning it made subsequent successes easier. Had United lost to Wigan, supporters would have been critical of the team and crucially of the manager after two barren campaigns. The talk on the terraces, moan-ins and internet forums would focus on the team’s inability to add to the club’s list of honours. The pressure to win a trophy in the 2006-07 campaign would have been far greater. As it was, that success gave the players the experience of winning something and the belief they could win things together under that manager.
It is a similar story with Chelsea. Had Stevie G not headed the ball into his own net and Liverpool held out to win in the Millenium Stadium, Chelsea probably would still have gone on to win the League but perhaps with more doubts in the minds of their players that could have led to a wobble or two during the run-in.
I certainly would not suggest that winning the Europa League would mean Liverpool will win something next season but I do think it would make it easier for them to do so. For a little while, it would silence the ‘Rafa-out’ brigade and crucially it would enable the likes of Kuyt and Torres to look around them in the dressing room and see players with whom they have shared a success. Perversely, even if we did qualify for next season’s Champions League, how could the players believe we can win it if they couldn’t even win the Europa League?
I can’t believe I am actually saying this but I think it is more important to win the Europa League than to finish in the top four this season and, given the choice, that is what I would choose. Even so, I would prefer not to have to make a choice because I would like to see us go all out to achieve both.
That means playing a strong-ish team at Anfield on Thursday. I say ‘ish’ because I think Rafa should take the opportunity to give certain fringe players a game. Assuming he is fit, Aquilaini has to start this one. I totally understand Rafa’s decisions not to use him against some of the very physical recent opponents such as Stoke and Everton but if he can’t be expected to perform against Unirea then there is literally no point having him in the squad this campaign. Having resisted Birmingham’s offer for Babel, I think the manager needs to use the frustratingly inconsistent moron so I would like to see him feature. Perhaps this game could enable Rafa to play Babel up front but then it might also be worth using Ngog as the lad seriously needs a goal for his confidence right now. This is also an opportunity to blood Dani Pacheco and give him a chance to prove whether he should be in contention for the first team in the remainder of the campaign but whether you could field both Pacheco and Aquilaini is debatable. I would expect Aurelio to start given his lack of recent games while Kyrgiakos may come in for Daniel Agger given that the Greek is suspended for Sunday’s game at City. Carra is definitely out of Thursday’s game so Rafa will have to choose between young Kelly and Degen for the right-back slot. Personally, I would like to see Kelly get the nod. I just hope Rafa keeps Reina in goal and doesn’t give Cavalieri the nod as he has done in most domestic Cup games (in which we have been eliminated).
That means my starting XI would be: Reina; Kelly, Kyrgiakos, Skrtel, Aurelio; Lucas, Mascherano, Maxi, Babel; Aquilaini, Ngog with Pacheco replacing Aqua if he’s not fit or coming on after 60 mins.
On paper, that is clearly not the strongest XI but neither is it a ‘Carling Cup’ side. If it can’t do the job, we still have the second leg to pull the tie back (and it might add a bit of interest to the competition if that were the case) while we can also have the likes of Stevie and Dirk on the bench if needed.
I put Maxi in the team as I think he needs a decent performance and this is the sort of opposition against which he should be able to shine. However, Riera has been kicking his heels of late so I would say it’s an either/or scenario. One should start against Unirea with the other starting against City unless the guy who starts against Unirea makes himself undroppable.
Of course, if Riera started, Babel would not be used on the right and, in any case, I think Rafa is more likely to field Degen on the right of midfield.
Still, Degen apart, it is nice to have some options at last!
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Arsenal and Howard Webb United 1 Liverpool 0
This season has been characterised by three recurring features:
1. Injuries to key players
2. Shocking refereeing decisions and in particular a refusal to award us legitimate penalties
3. Shite corner-kick delivery from Steven Gerrard
All three were in evidence tonight at the Emirates.
Shorn of Torres, Johnson, Benayoun and even Aquilaini, a battling performance had given us a great chance of coming away with at least a point. Then Carra limped off and the game swung Arsenal’s way just long enough for them to nick a winner as Carra’s replacement – the completely ineffective Degen – stood and watched his man score.
Despite that, we battled back and created some clear goal-scoring chances but the players on the ends of them ultimately just lacked the quality of the attackers we were missing.
Finally, with virtually the last kick of the game, Steven Gerrard whipped a ball towards the goal that Cesc Fabregas reached out and punched out of his own penalty area. Surely a penalty and a sending off (particularly given the Spaniard had been booked seconds earlier)?
No fucking chance with Howard Webb around. The man who failed to give us a blatant penalty against the same opposition when Gallas brought down Gerrard in the area at Anfield this season was at his farcical best (or worst).
Had Carra not had to go off, we would never have been beaten. Had Howard Webb not failed to give us a clear penalty, we might have avoided defeat despite Carra’s injury. Had Torres or Benayoun been fit, perhaps we might have taken one or two of the chances we created and, of course, perhaps we might have created more. Had Steven Gerrard not insisted on taking all the corner-kicks and taking them so badly that yet another one went out of play before even reaching the penalty area(!) then perhaps we would have created a goal-scoring chance direct from a corner-kick.
It’s all ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ but that doesn’t mean it is invalid. We have been cheated by referees again and again this season and it has been an absolute joke. Never in all the seasons I have followed has there been a campaign where so many blatant decisions have gone against us. It’s bad enough being handicapped by dickhead owners with no money to spend and with a media and an element of the fan-base who place unrealistic expectations on us, slate our players and call for our manager’s head after every bad result, but to have fortune and referees gang up on us in the way they have this season as well has simply made this campaign impossible.
If we can secure fourth place this season, it would arguably be Rafa’s greatest achievement in the Premiership. As for the old maxim that these things even themselves out over the course of a season... Bull-shit!
P.S. I said in my last post that Degen wasn't useless. I take that back.
1. Injuries to key players
2. Shocking refereeing decisions and in particular a refusal to award us legitimate penalties
3. Shite corner-kick delivery from Steven Gerrard
All three were in evidence tonight at the Emirates.
Shorn of Torres, Johnson, Benayoun and even Aquilaini, a battling performance had given us a great chance of coming away with at least a point. Then Carra limped off and the game swung Arsenal’s way just long enough for them to nick a winner as Carra’s replacement – the completely ineffective Degen – stood and watched his man score.
Despite that, we battled back and created some clear goal-scoring chances but the players on the ends of them ultimately just lacked the quality of the attackers we were missing.
Finally, with virtually the last kick of the game, Steven Gerrard whipped a ball towards the goal that Cesc Fabregas reached out and punched out of his own penalty area. Surely a penalty and a sending off (particularly given the Spaniard had been booked seconds earlier)?
No fucking chance with Howard Webb around. The man who failed to give us a blatant penalty against the same opposition when Gallas brought down Gerrard in the area at Anfield this season was at his farcical best (or worst).
Had Carra not had to go off, we would never have been beaten. Had Howard Webb not failed to give us a clear penalty, we might have avoided defeat despite Carra’s injury. Had Torres or Benayoun been fit, perhaps we might have taken one or two of the chances we created and, of course, perhaps we might have created more. Had Steven Gerrard not insisted on taking all the corner-kicks and taking them so badly that yet another one went out of play before even reaching the penalty area(!) then perhaps we would have created a goal-scoring chance direct from a corner-kick.
It’s all ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ but that doesn’t mean it is invalid. We have been cheated by referees again and again this season and it has been an absolute joke. Never in all the seasons I have followed has there been a campaign where so many blatant decisions have gone against us. It’s bad enough being handicapped by dickhead owners with no money to spend and with a media and an element of the fan-base who place unrealistic expectations on us, slate our players and call for our manager’s head after every bad result, but to have fortune and referees gang up on us in the way they have this season as well has simply made this campaign impossible.
If we can secure fourth place this season, it would arguably be Rafa’s greatest achievement in the Premiership. As for the old maxim that these things even themselves out over the course of a season... Bull-shit!
P.S. I said in my last post that Degen wasn't useless. I take that back.
Monday, 8 February 2010
Liverpool 1 Everton 0: Proving a point
When we suffer disappointing results, Rafa is the first to take stick from frustrated supporters. A common complaint is that Rafa makes baffling decisions in terms of team selection and substitutions during games. We can all think of times when his decisions have baffled us and few of us, if we're honest, can claim never to have argued that he should have started this player instead of that one or should have taken off X instead of Y ('X' being Lucas).
With that in mind, let's give the man credit for getting pretty much everything spot on against the Blueshite on Saturday even though the decisions he took were far from obvious ones and could just as easily have been used to castigate him had the result gone against us.
After conceding just once in the last four games and on the back of three consecutive clean sheets, it was far from an obvious decision to bring Agger back into the side following his recent injury. Having taken that decision, with most people (including myself, I'll be honest enough to admit) having concluded that Kyrgiakos was a waste of space virtually as soon as he was signed, it was not an obvious decision to drop Skrtel rather than the Greek. Agger totally justified Rafa's decision to select him and, despite the red card, I completely agree with Rafa's decision to drop Skrtel rather than Kyrgiakos. Anyone who has watched our recent games will concur that Kyrgiakos has been magnificent while Skrtel has looked uncomfortable (as he has pretty much since his injury at City last season) so I applaud the manager for the decision.
Following the red card, the obvious decision (i.e. the one I thought should be made at the time) would have been to bring on Skrtel for Maxi to replace Kyrgiakos in the back four. Credit to Rafa for instead switching Mascher to right back and pulling Carra back into the middle. Mascher was at his monstrous best and, aside from almost providing an assist for Cahill on the stroke of half-time, was utterly faultless. Meanwhile, Carra and Agger were formiddable in the centre of defence. With Gerrard also dropping deeper to support Lucas in central midfield, the Bitters could not break us down.
When I saw Babel getting stripped to come on, I assumed it would be to replace Maxi. Instead he was brought on to replace Ngog who had been terrific playing as an isolated lone frontman. As a different sort of player, Babel was clearly not going to be as effective at winning possession and holding up the ball in the opposition's half as Ngog had been but despite that, Babel ran his bollocks off (rare I can say that about him) and constantly chased down defenders denying them time on the ball. He was no Didier Drogba but he did a job and contributed towards a hugely satisfying win.
Meanwhile, it would be easy to assume that this game passed Maxi by given the lack of obvious contribution from the Argentine but actually he played with discipline and was positionally excellent whenever we were forced to defend. He was also involved in most of the better footballing moves from our team which, admittedly, were few and far between. The experience will do him good as he adjusts to the English League.
Perhaps if Rafa had made the more obvious changes instead of those he actually made we might still have won - we'll never know. However, it proves that the most obvious decisions are not always the most effective and on this occasion the manager deserves praise for getting it right.
I also want to give praise to a few players who have proven me wrong in recent weeks. A few weeks ago, I thought we'd have been better off having no fourth choice centre-half than having Kyrgiakos but he has proven his worth in recent weeks and has been a key figure driving our revival. Dirk Kuyt has frustrated me no end this season as, for all his obvious workrate, the only quality he has been able to display has been poor quality. However, in recent games, his form has been back to its best and when he plays like he did against the Bitters on Saturday, there is seriously no one else in world football I would rather have in my team. His was a performance of heart, character, determination, bravery and sheer will to win. The man is an absolute hero. Emiliano Insua has also been terrific in recent games suggesting he has come through his poor patch earlier in the season. Even Steven Gerrard has shown signs in recent games of getting back towards his best while other players who have suffered lapses in form this season such as Mascher and Carra have been back on top of their games for a while now. Finally, I want to mention a player who didn't feature on Saturday. I had dismissed Philipp Degen as useless but I will admit that in recent weeks he has proven me wrong. He may not be brilliant. He may be on a par with Antonio Nunez. But he has been of use to the team and is therefore not useless. You can't ask for much more from a player who cost nothing.
With that in mind, let's give the man credit for getting pretty much everything spot on against the Blueshite on Saturday even though the decisions he took were far from obvious ones and could just as easily have been used to castigate him had the result gone against us.
After conceding just once in the last four games and on the back of three consecutive clean sheets, it was far from an obvious decision to bring Agger back into the side following his recent injury. Having taken that decision, with most people (including myself, I'll be honest enough to admit) having concluded that Kyrgiakos was a waste of space virtually as soon as he was signed, it was not an obvious decision to drop Skrtel rather than the Greek. Agger totally justified Rafa's decision to select him and, despite the red card, I completely agree with Rafa's decision to drop Skrtel rather than Kyrgiakos. Anyone who has watched our recent games will concur that Kyrgiakos has been magnificent while Skrtel has looked uncomfortable (as he has pretty much since his injury at City last season) so I applaud the manager for the decision.
Following the red card, the obvious decision (i.e. the one I thought should be made at the time) would have been to bring on Skrtel for Maxi to replace Kyrgiakos in the back four. Credit to Rafa for instead switching Mascher to right back and pulling Carra back into the middle. Mascher was at his monstrous best and, aside from almost providing an assist for Cahill on the stroke of half-time, was utterly faultless. Meanwhile, Carra and Agger were formiddable in the centre of defence. With Gerrard also dropping deeper to support Lucas in central midfield, the Bitters could not break us down.
When I saw Babel getting stripped to come on, I assumed it would be to replace Maxi. Instead he was brought on to replace Ngog who had been terrific playing as an isolated lone frontman. As a different sort of player, Babel was clearly not going to be as effective at winning possession and holding up the ball in the opposition's half as Ngog had been but despite that, Babel ran his bollocks off (rare I can say that about him) and constantly chased down defenders denying them time on the ball. He was no Didier Drogba but he did a job and contributed towards a hugely satisfying win.
Meanwhile, it would be easy to assume that this game passed Maxi by given the lack of obvious contribution from the Argentine but actually he played with discipline and was positionally excellent whenever we were forced to defend. He was also involved in most of the better footballing moves from our team which, admittedly, were few and far between. The experience will do him good as he adjusts to the English League.
Perhaps if Rafa had made the more obvious changes instead of those he actually made we might still have won - we'll never know. However, it proves that the most obvious decisions are not always the most effective and on this occasion the manager deserves praise for getting it right.
I also want to give praise to a few players who have proven me wrong in recent weeks. A few weeks ago, I thought we'd have been better off having no fourth choice centre-half than having Kyrgiakos but he has proven his worth in recent weeks and has been a key figure driving our revival. Dirk Kuyt has frustrated me no end this season as, for all his obvious workrate, the only quality he has been able to display has been poor quality. However, in recent games, his form has been back to its best and when he plays like he did against the Bitters on Saturday, there is seriously no one else in world football I would rather have in my team. His was a performance of heart, character, determination, bravery and sheer will to win. The man is an absolute hero. Emiliano Insua has also been terrific in recent games suggesting he has come through his poor patch earlier in the season. Even Steven Gerrard has shown signs in recent games of getting back towards his best while other players who have suffered lapses in form this season such as Mascher and Carra have been back on top of their games for a while now. Finally, I want to mention a player who didn't feature on Saturday. I had dismissed Philipp Degen as useless but I will admit that in recent weeks he has proven me wrong. He may not be brilliant. He may be on a par with Antonio Nunez. But he has been of use to the team and is therefore not useless. You can't ask for much more from a player who cost nothing.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Sacking managers is not always the solution
Chelsea sacked Avram Grant after they lost the Champions League Final on penalties to Man Ure. They weren’t trounced 4-0, they were one strike of the ball away from winning the Final. Had John Terry not mis-kicked his spot-kick, it would have been Grant and not Ferguson waving that big cup at a load of plastic supporters. Would he have been given the boot then? There was a media-lead perception that Grant was a shit manager but actually he led his team into the final day of the League season with a chance of being Champions if Man Ure failed to win and was just one penalty-kick away from winning the European Cup. Managers perceived as being superior such as ‘Big’ Phil Scolari and Guus Hiddink subsequently achieved nothing more despite essentially inheriting Mourinho’s team just as Grant did. Were Chelsea really any better off for giving Grant his P45? Or for giving Scolari the boot? Or letting Hiddink waltz off back to Russia?
Some managers need to be sacked for the good of the club. Souness (who wasn’t) and Houllier (who was far too late) spring to mind. However, there are too many knee-jerk reaction-sackings in football that ultimately cause more harm than good (this is known as Newcastle United Syndrome). With muppets calling for Rafa’s head, even now when we’re actually on a decent run, I just despair at their inability to look at the bigger picture and realise that perhaps it’s better to build something good over time than cobble up something in a short space of time that isn’t built to last (known as Leeds United syndrome).
Liverpool could have won the Premiership last season. They didn’t but if just one or two more details had gone in their favour – for example if Andre Mariner had not disallowed Stevie G’s perfectly legitimate goal at home against Stoke, or if Howard Webb had not given an indisputably incorrect penalty to United when they trailed Spurs at home 2-0 – we would have been Champions.
Had we gone into this season as Champions, our performance thus far would still have been a massive disappointment but I wonder if Rafa would have taken quite as much stick. Certainly no one would have been able to say “We blew the title last season” or “We’ve gone three seasons without winning anything” or “He’s spent all this money and not won the League”. However, I’m sure people would have been happy enough to dismiss the previous season as a fluke or conveniently forget it entirely as they bombard the moan-ins and internet forums deriding the “worst Liverpool team they have ever seen”.
The impatience shown this season has been staggering. Even The Kop magazine which I have been reading for 10 years has embarrassed itself by making snide remarks about the manager’s transfer record, team selections, zonal marking tactics, etc. and effectively stating he should be sacked if we do not meet the “minimum acceptable target” of fourth place and possibly should be sacked anyway because we went out of the FA Cup to Reading.
Is a manager not allowed one bad season? Yes, it’s horrible to watch but it’s not as though there hasn’t been mitigating circumstances. Have we been awful for the whole of Rafa’s five and a half years in charge? No. We’ve won the Champions League, been to another final, won an FA Cup and achieved our two best League seasons since the Premiership began. We’ve also knocked out Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Arsenal in the Champions League, winning in the Bernabeu, the Nou Camp and the San Siro. Other than the League title itself, what more can you want?
If next season showed no signs of improvement in terms of the quality of performances, as opposed to necessarily the League position which I would only expect to change when investment arrives, then perhaps there would be an argument for parting with Rafa although even then I think he is the best we could get given our off-field problems. However, history is replete with examples of how keeping faith in a manager – even when there seems to be little evidence or hope of a brighter future – can reap untold rewards for a club and its supporters.
It’s often pointed out that it took Alex Ferguson six full seasons before he finally led Man Utd to the title. However, what commonly slips under the radar is the performance of his teams in the five seasons prior to that first title. Having inherited a team that had not finished outside of the top four in the 5 previous seasons, Fergie oversaw the final two months of a campaign that saw the Mancs finish 11th. Impressively, Fergie immediately reversed the team’s fortunes leading them to a 2nd place finish in 1988 but in the seasons that followed United finished 11th, 13th and 6th. Can you imagine a manager of Liverpool keeping his job with that record over three years? No wonder the Mancs wanted him out.
History shows that sticking with Fergie was the best decision in the Mancs’ history. Who would have believed when 13th place followed an 11th place finish that the club were three years away from winning the title? But then, who would have believed that season’s Champions were three years away from 6th place and at least 20 years away from their next League title?
Of course, Fergie wasn’t the first manager to appear to be taking a club backwards before leading the club to success. I was fascinated to discover that in the season after Bill Shankly’s first title, we finished 7th. The following season we regrouped to win the title again but a year later we had dropped to 5th. We then finished 3rd, 2nd, 5th twice and 3rd before finally landing Shankly’s third title. So even the great Bill Shankly went 6 years without winning the title finishing 5th three times and finishing as high as 2nd just once.
As a more recent example, I give you David Moyes. OK, the man has never won anything and probably never will but by Everton’s standards, the man has pulled up trees. Arriving in March 2002, Moyes saved the Blues from relegation steering them to 15th place. In the following campaign, the “People’s Club” spent much of the season in pole position to finish fourth before eventually dropping to 6th. In the eyes of Evertonians, the man could do no wrong – at least until the following campaign when he got pretty much everything wrong when presiding over Everton’s worst ever season in the top flight. Finishing 17th with just 39 points would have seen most managers sacked but Everton showed faith in their manager and got their reward when in the next season they finished fourth and, more importantly for their supporters, above us! Though the next season proved something of a disaster and the club dropped to 11th in the final standings, the club again kept faith in their manager and in the three years since they have finished 6th, 5th and 5th again. Again, by Everton’s standards (and I don’t mean that as a dig) Moyes has done extremely well in recent years but he could easily have been out of a job on numerous occasions if not for an extremely supportive board behind him.
And then there is the example of Valencia. Valencia ended their 31-year wait for a La Liga title in 2002. The following season they had dropped to 5th. There must have been a fair few Valencia fans who thought 5th place was not good enough. There must have been those who dismissed the previous season’s title as a fluke. There must have been plenty of supporters who thought their coach had taken them as far as he could and needed to be replaced. A year later they were Champions again. What was the name of that coach again?
Oh yes, it was the same coach whose name was being sung on the Kop last season by supporters who were also singing "And now you're gonna believe us / And now you're gonna believe us / And now you're gonna believe us / We're gonna win the League!" Fickle?
Some managers need to be sacked for the good of the club. Souness (who wasn’t) and Houllier (who was far too late) spring to mind. However, there are too many knee-jerk reaction-sackings in football that ultimately cause more harm than good (this is known as Newcastle United Syndrome). With muppets calling for Rafa’s head, even now when we’re actually on a decent run, I just despair at their inability to look at the bigger picture and realise that perhaps it’s better to build something good over time than cobble up something in a short space of time that isn’t built to last (known as Leeds United syndrome).
Liverpool could have won the Premiership last season. They didn’t but if just one or two more details had gone in their favour – for example if Andre Mariner had not disallowed Stevie G’s perfectly legitimate goal at home against Stoke, or if Howard Webb had not given an indisputably incorrect penalty to United when they trailed Spurs at home 2-0 – we would have been Champions.
Had we gone into this season as Champions, our performance thus far would still have been a massive disappointment but I wonder if Rafa would have taken quite as much stick. Certainly no one would have been able to say “We blew the title last season” or “We’ve gone three seasons without winning anything” or “He’s spent all this money and not won the League”. However, I’m sure people would have been happy enough to dismiss the previous season as a fluke or conveniently forget it entirely as they bombard the moan-ins and internet forums deriding the “worst Liverpool team they have ever seen”.
The impatience shown this season has been staggering. Even The Kop magazine which I have been reading for 10 years has embarrassed itself by making snide remarks about the manager’s transfer record, team selections, zonal marking tactics, etc. and effectively stating he should be sacked if we do not meet the “minimum acceptable target” of fourth place and possibly should be sacked anyway because we went out of the FA Cup to Reading.
Is a manager not allowed one bad season? Yes, it’s horrible to watch but it’s not as though there hasn’t been mitigating circumstances. Have we been awful for the whole of Rafa’s five and a half years in charge? No. We’ve won the Champions League, been to another final, won an FA Cup and achieved our two best League seasons since the Premiership began. We’ve also knocked out Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Arsenal in the Champions League, winning in the Bernabeu, the Nou Camp and the San Siro. Other than the League title itself, what more can you want?
If next season showed no signs of improvement in terms of the quality of performances, as opposed to necessarily the League position which I would only expect to change when investment arrives, then perhaps there would be an argument for parting with Rafa although even then I think he is the best we could get given our off-field problems. However, history is replete with examples of how keeping faith in a manager – even when there seems to be little evidence or hope of a brighter future – can reap untold rewards for a club and its supporters.
It’s often pointed out that it took Alex Ferguson six full seasons before he finally led Man Utd to the title. However, what commonly slips under the radar is the performance of his teams in the five seasons prior to that first title. Having inherited a team that had not finished outside of the top four in the 5 previous seasons, Fergie oversaw the final two months of a campaign that saw the Mancs finish 11th. Impressively, Fergie immediately reversed the team’s fortunes leading them to a 2nd place finish in 1988 but in the seasons that followed United finished 11th, 13th and 6th. Can you imagine a manager of Liverpool keeping his job with that record over three years? No wonder the Mancs wanted him out.
History shows that sticking with Fergie was the best decision in the Mancs’ history. Who would have believed when 13th place followed an 11th place finish that the club were three years away from winning the title? But then, who would have believed that season’s Champions were three years away from 6th place and at least 20 years away from their next League title?
Of course, Fergie wasn’t the first manager to appear to be taking a club backwards before leading the club to success. I was fascinated to discover that in the season after Bill Shankly’s first title, we finished 7th. The following season we regrouped to win the title again but a year later we had dropped to 5th. We then finished 3rd, 2nd, 5th twice and 3rd before finally landing Shankly’s third title. So even the great Bill Shankly went 6 years without winning the title finishing 5th three times and finishing as high as 2nd just once.
As a more recent example, I give you David Moyes. OK, the man has never won anything and probably never will but by Everton’s standards, the man has pulled up trees. Arriving in March 2002, Moyes saved the Blues from relegation steering them to 15th place. In the following campaign, the “People’s Club” spent much of the season in pole position to finish fourth before eventually dropping to 6th. In the eyes of Evertonians, the man could do no wrong – at least until the following campaign when he got pretty much everything wrong when presiding over Everton’s worst ever season in the top flight. Finishing 17th with just 39 points would have seen most managers sacked but Everton showed faith in their manager and got their reward when in the next season they finished fourth and, more importantly for their supporters, above us! Though the next season proved something of a disaster and the club dropped to 11th in the final standings, the club again kept faith in their manager and in the three years since they have finished 6th, 5th and 5th again. Again, by Everton’s standards (and I don’t mean that as a dig) Moyes has done extremely well in recent years but he could easily have been out of a job on numerous occasions if not for an extremely supportive board behind him.
And then there is the example of Valencia. Valencia ended their 31-year wait for a La Liga title in 2002. The following season they had dropped to 5th. There must have been a fair few Valencia fans who thought 5th place was not good enough. There must have been those who dismissed the previous season’s title as a fluke. There must have been plenty of supporters who thought their coach had taken them as far as he could and needed to be replaced. A year later they were Champions again. What was the name of that coach again?
Oh yes, it was the same coach whose name was being sung on the Kop last season by supporters who were also singing "And now you're gonna believe us / And now you're gonna believe us / And now you're gonna believe us / We're gonna win the League!" Fickle?
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