FIFTY Shades of Grey isn’t just a glorified porno to reawaken the lost libido of a million bored housewives – it’s also an accurate phrase for what has taken place at Anfield this season.
Far too many assessments of Liverpool’s progress or lack of under Brendan Rodgers attempt to be definitive; black or white, good or bad. The manager is depicted as a bullshit-espousing chancer or a steely tactical visionary. The team is said to be an exciting blend of youth and experience or a group lacking mental and physical toughness. Stats are mangled to suit the argument, words are amplified or ignored accordingly and predictions of league position and players’ futures stretching three months and more down the line are confidently presented as near fact by those on either side of the fence.
Yet – after 25 league games and seven months – perhaps the fence is the place to sit. It’s no time to shape a football team. A full season will show exactly where Liverpool are, and whether it’s regression or progression.
The 2-2 draw with Manchester City means Liverpool have now won 36 points from 25 league games under Rodgers. At the same point last season, Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool side had won 39 points from the same number of games played.
Now v then, Rodgers’ Liverpool have scored 15 more goals (and conceded nine more) and achieved better league results at Anfield. Dalglish, of course, reached two cup finals. Rodgers has guided the Reds to the last 32 of the Europa League. Kenny didn’t have to contend with games in Europe last season. Black. White. Grey.
This week has been Liverpool’s season and standing in microcosm – from good to bad and back again in a snapshot. Seven days ago crisis talk was rife. Meekly falling to the canvas to predictable and avoidable hay-makers at League One Oldham had some calling time on Rodgers’ reign. The manager’s decision to criticise the young players he selected for the Boundary Park debacle merely handed the pitchforks to the mob.
But a gutsy performance at Arsenal, albeit one that ended in disappointing circumstances, suggested a team prepared to fight, typified by the returning Jamie Carragher. It didn’t feel like the showing of a team that felt wronged by its manager or lacked in belief.
It was a theme that continued at Manchester City. Ultimately, Pepe Reina’s rush of blood accompanied by Sergio Aguero’s astonishing finish took the sheen off it, but this was Liverpool’s best 90-minute performance against one of the league’s top sides.
City – Champions, and a side that had dropped only seven points at home this season – had conceded just nine goals in 12 games before Daniel Sturridge equalised after Edin Dzeko’s opener.
To then go on to dominate the game, to see Steven Gerrard at the very top of his game, and to witness only a very good Joe Hart save deny Sturridge a 90th-minute winner, suggests that something is clicking. The flip side is that Liverpool continue to look a side that is capable of shooting itself in the foot.
So which is it? A late charge for an unlikely top four spot, or a continuation of the three-year trend of flirting with mediocrity? Only time will tell. Anything else is conjecture.
Will Liverpool improve on last season? Definitely. Maybe. It’s still a shade of grey.
I think Rodgers will end this season on more points than last year. We are improving every week. Whereas last season the league form fell off a cliff (admittedly the Suarez ban made a huge impact too)
the team is definately improving. we certainly carry far more of a goal threat than we have over the last 18 months. but in contrast we do not look as solid at the back. i think we will finish in the top 6 but 4th is i believe is out of reach. you never know but it looks unlikely. two wins in the last two games would have seen us level with arsenal, but defensive errors/frailties mean we are 5 points behind them. thats the problem for rodgers to sort out before august. a goalie that can challenge reina for his place, proper cover at left back, a centre back and another striker as cover for sturridge. maybe then we can challenge the top four.
There is no doubt improvement in the way the squad is playing. Our toughest matches are behind us and the beginning of the year was always going to be tough for us. Points on the road at Emirates and Etihad, although they could’ve been more, are extremely valuable. Top 4, very unlikely at this point unless we can go on a run that includes 3 points against Spurs(Ugh, when is the last time that happened?!) Either way, top 6 without a doubt and hopefully push on in Europa.
I am not a fan of Rodgers, and will take a lot of persuading to become one. However, he has done what I believed he would never do, and that is admit, albeit tacitly, that his tactics were wrong.
I expected to lose both of this weeks games, and I would have accepted two one-goal losses as being signs of an awakening. To draw both after more or less dominating is a bit galling, but only in retrospect.
Taking Sturridge off for Allen was a bit worrying – Allen is neither one thing nor the other, really – and Skrtel and Reina are suddenly shaky. But Carra is having a golden spell, Stevie is firing, Downing looks like he can play, and Suarez and Sturridge are going to scare the bejasus out of defenses, increasingly.
I don’t expect 4th spot (although it’s not our inability to beat teams above us that has held us back, it’s our inability to beat the likes of Villa, really) but if we can play like that every week I’ll be happy wherever we finish.
Sturridge had a thigh problem apparently. Hence him dropping out of the England squad.
It is a bit unfair to compare the two seasons solely on the points won. havent we forgotten our bad luck and the number of times we hit the post which could have won the games last season? more than 30? how about this season, less than 5, i suppose. And last season, we played a high tempo pressing game under kenny whereas this year, we, at times look flat and the team simply gives up. BR has no plan B. it doesnt matter whether we are playing arsenal or stoke. he will have the same team out week in week out. it doesnt matter who is on the bench either cos whoever comes onto the pitch will not make no difference.
Sorry Calvin but that’s absolute rubbish regarding the “BR has no Plan B”.
Think back to the United game, rotten in the second half trying to contain them with a very nervous display. Good subs at half time and we were by far the better team in the second half when we took the game to them.
At Arsenal he had the team playing a very effective contaiment game against the paciest team in the league and we played on the counter…and did it well. That was excellent tactical awareness in my book.
At City, we pressurised, pressed and harried them and made a slight modification to the formation up front.
Carragher’s been put back in to manage the defence as Skrtel’s on poor form and isn’t showing any leadership. Henderson is being swapped in and out with Allen for tactical reasons. Enrique has been in and out with injury prompting Wisdom to also bounce in and out of the team, Johnson has been swapped to right and left and back again.
Rodger’s team may have looked slightly stagnant playing the same system/players/formation earlier in the season but a mix of circumstances and the fact that you need consistency and repetition in anything to become good at it have forced that decision.
You can call BR a lot of things but he’s not guilty of not trying to change things up, there’s proven diversity in his team.
I agree that we performed pretty good in our games against city and arsenal, but the fact remains that we cannot cope with the ‘physical’ teams despite having the same back four as last season. Unfortunately, BR opted to adopt the same tactics, same team, same approach regardless of who we are up against. I want BR to succeed but being a LFC manager, he is expected to deliever results.
Agree with this sentiment completely. Maybe football supporters in general are viewing the football world in black or white but it seems like every debate that’s had now polarizes fans to one extreme or another. Rafa Benitez was either the single greatest football manager in the world, or he’s a useless clown(a debate which still rumbles on). There doesn’t seem to be any room for nuance.
Truthfully on this….. I am sitting on the fence right now. I don’t feel any need to jump on any bandwagon and am happy to assess things fully at the end of the season.
I have to say though, this season I have made a conscious effort to use social media less when it comes to LFC, an awful lot less. Recently I have dipped my toe back in to twitter, specifically after games, and its amazing how many times I finish watching a game with my mates and feeling positive yet come online to find a toxic poisonous mood among our support.
gree with this sentiment completely. Maybe football supporters in general are viewing the football world in black or white but it seems like every debate that’s had now polarizes fans to one extreme or another. Rafa Benitez was either the single greatest football manager in the world, or he’s a useless clown(a debate which still rumbles on). There doesn’t seem to be any room for nuance.
Truthfully on this….. I am sitting on the fence right now. I don’t feel any need to jump on any bandwagon and am happy to assess things fully at the end of the season.
I have to say though, this season I have made a conscious effort to use social media less when it comes to LFC, an awful lot less. Recently I have dipped my toe back in to twitter, specifically after games, and its amazing how many times I finish watching a game with my mates and feeling positive yet come online to find a toxic poisonous mood among our support.
Its gotten to the point where twitter reds have been so vitriolic towards our own team, I cant help but feel I had watched a different games. All things being even, I genuinely feel that nuance is a good thing right now and I welcome the opportunity to reject black and white for the grey.
Can’t see spurs dropping 9 points between now and the end of the season, but with a favourable run in I’m quietly confident we can take 5th. Which would be a big improvement on every season since 2008/9. If we continue to play at or very near the level we just showed against city we won’t be far off. I’m patient enough to sit on that fence until the end of the season
We simply need to do 1 thing to cut out these daft defensive mistakes – concentrate for 90 minutes!! Good read again, Lord.
Much younger squad with a much greater scope for development. we were bound to take a short term hit this season blooding so many young players and letting good experienced pro’s go like kuyt, bellamy and maxi, as well as a new manager,new players and new system to adapt to. I think a better time to judge should be at the end of next season when we can see if this seasons gamble on younger players has come to fruition. I think it will
Agree completely with the sentiment about seeing the shades of gray.
I might be being a little paranoid here (doesn’t mean they are not after you, right??) but does anyone think that some of the vitriolic posters on twitter are actually sad fans from other teams trolling to try to destabilise the club. It is just that I can think of one website starting with ‘L’ and ending in ‘kop’ where I swear the guy who runs it is a manc in disguise, who gets his kicks out of winding us up (I read it on a forum somewhere that he admitted to being a Spurs fan but my money is on a manc).
Unfortunately, grey doesn’t sell papers – or Sky subscriptions – because it’s not what appeals to the idiot masses who need their opinions force-fed to them. Hence we end up in the situation we are now where everyone on the telly has to SHOUT ABOUT HOW EXCITING THIS FOOTBALL GAME IS THAT YOU’RE WATCHING!!!!!! and how incredibly not grey it all is.
So yeah, it’s nice to hear a bit of common sense at last.
My personal opinion is that Rodgers will end up with more points that Kenny did last season, and it’ll be well deserved. Fans will argue whether that means he’s had a successful first season or not, but that’s not the important bit.
I can’t put my finger on why, but for me there was always a sense that Dalglish wouldn’t get Liverpool challenging for the title again, no matter how long he was given. I don’t know why, it was more a gut feeling than anything else. Like his best days were well and truly behind him and deep down he knew it.
For all his unfortunate forays into David Brent management bullshit speak, Rodgers seems to have a real vision for the future of the club – a concrete plan that he believes in and is working towards. Like him or not, for the first time since Benitez left, you have the feeling there might just be a really bright future somewhere on the horizon. And that’s a nice feeling to have.
V. good article, and I know which side of the fence I’m on (the positive one). They look better. They FEEL better (how’s that for grey?!). I was proud watching them yesterday. Rodgers has had to oversee a period of dramatic change and I think we’re emerging from that in much better shape than we were last season. The squad still needs 2-3 additions though, so let’s hope the scouting team can identify & FSG can deliver the bucks.
Shades of grey is spot on – the attack is better, but the defence is worse, though we have the second most clean sheets in the Premier League, so…..
Who knows?! More positives than negatives this season though, in my opinion.
Excellent summary of where we are at. Many said that patience was called for this season and we should at least wait until the end of that season to pass judgement on Rodgers. We have seen quite a few promising displays this seasons followed by poor ones, but yesterday’s showing at the Etihad was the best all-round 90 minutes I’ve seen in a meaningful game for a good few years. Sturridge was fantastic. Fourth is not realistic IMO, but desperate to finish fifth and get back into Europe.
I think the wider football fanbase in general is always going to seem hysterical and fickle, going from one extreme to the other depending on what the result was over the weekend, in an age of Twitter, blogs etc. More measured, thoughtful supporters aren’t going to feel strongly enough either way to write their opinion into the Echo or whatever. It’s why sites like this can be important for fans wanting to stay sane.
If I had some constructive criticism based off my expectations before the season started, I would say I expected a more consistent high line which was a problem from last season that hasn’t been solved. When Allen and Lucas are struggling with form and fitness respectively, Brendan can’t pass and press the ball well for them, but the line we keep can be looked at.
I’m fans of theirs and am glad they committed to new deals at the start of the season but for all their ink, our center back partnership don’t exactly relish a physical battle so not playing to their or the keepers strengths and dropping deeper allowing Kenwyne Jones, Walters, Benteke, Fellaini and even Matt Smith on Coates last week a run closer to goal in aerial duels is a little counter-intuitive. That would be like Houllier telling Hyypia and Henchoz to keep a high line when they were, although excellent stoppers, not the quickest defenders in recovery.
That said the one game I’d say we should drop deep and soak up some pressure would be Arsenal away with Walcott’s pace in behind on a big pitch with Wilshere and Cazorla ready in waiting to ping it over to him so no complaints there. Man City may be the most crushingly disappointing champions in recent memory but they’re champions nonetheless, and but for a couple of individual errors of judgement over the course of both games we’d have a deserved 6 out of 6 points against them, so definite positives can be taken from the performances we’ve seen this past week.
An absolutely fantastic article from top to bottom.
I think that you’re forgetting one thing here.The devastating effect of the Suarez/Evra affair.
FSG did sod-all.Say what you like but Dalglish supported his player just like any other Manager would have done.
But the media didn’t see it that way.At some point we’ll probably understand why they didn’t.
But the press coverage had to have had an effect.And some people were quite happy to have accomplished their mission!
totally with BrianB there, the thing that harmed last season most for me was lack of leadership above Kenny. Someone should have lawyered Louis up like nobody’s business, leaving no room for the shameful farce of being beaten by the FA when he was so obviously not racist and Evra having form in this accusations department. Louis in them 9 missing games, what difference the outcome of the season?. kenny could well have surpassed brendans current season points total by now as well. Still, the new year and shape of the team has been very promising. A run of wins now and I will be really placated. The hardest thing about being a liverpool supporter is the off pitch circus. No organisation of that cost and size should be shooting itself in the foot for more than a few months if at all. We have years of it.
Depending on performances my mood regarding Liverpool can swing wildly from bleak desolation (Oldham) to highly optimistic (man city) and I think the term consistent is what we are missing as we seem to neither one or the other at the moment. I’m sitting on the fence for the moment but leaning towards the sunny side but I think that’s just my bad back
I think to expect a steady progression when introducing a new way of playing the game to a club is a little bit unrealistic. It’s not like a plant or a tree growing, where you can measure it weekly or monthly and log the increase in size, number of leaves etc. It’s measured in more abstract ways, like the way you might measure how much you know about a subject by taking regular, complete tests. Some tests you may get a set of questions that suit what you know, other times you might get a set of questions that make you wonder if you know anything at all about the subject, but ultimately your knowledge of the subject grows until you feel more confident about passing an exam, say.
About 30 years ago I played a lot of snooker. I started during a period between jobs, and when I started I was shite. I practiced every day for weeks, and sometimes I was absolutely shite, sometimes I was a little bit better. As the months rolled on, I started to notice that when I was playing well, it was quite a bit better, but I was still having a lot of shite games too. After a while I was asked by someone at the club to start playing in low level inter-club competitions, because it appeared that my average game had improved. I still had the odd shite game, but when it was shite it wasn’t quite as shite as it had been.
Can we imagine that maybe the way a football club improves is not a linear progression, but a series of, for want of a better word, jerks? 3 steps forward, 2 steps back? And so on in this fashion until the average game improves, and perhaps the shite isn’t as bad as the shite was when it was really shite?
I am starting to look forward to our games now, because I love the way that when we’re good, we’re really, really good. And, because of this, I can live with the shite . Bring it on.
ferd