TWO HOT TO HANDLE: Karim Benzema scores the second goal against Liverpool. Pic David Rawcliffe-Propaganda
WE walk to the ground full of hope, predictions are flying around on the scorelines and they are mostly in favour of The Reds. We do this more based on positivity than logic. Its simply more fun to go to a game thinking you are going to win. But its also based on past experiences. These teams have come before and been dispatched. We’ve been told they were better than us and they’ve left defeated.
But tonight we realise what a rare thing that actually is. The house eventually wins. The dice are loaded. You might go on a lucky streak for a while, but £40m players are essentially better at football than £20m ones. Not twice as good of course, that is one of the quirks of football, but 5% or 10% better, and that is all that matters in the end. If they all are.
We had two players who looked at their level. A lad who we picked up as a kid from QPR and a Brazilian we stole from Inter Milan for £10m, who was inexplicably taken off when he was about all we were able to enjoy. Its rare to get these players for £10m. Its rare to get someone like Daniel Sturridge for just a bit more. What you mostly get is someone like Joe Allen, who has plenty of qualities but is nowhere near the level of Toni Kroos. We get Jordan Henderson, who we all adore, but is nowhere near the level technically of Luka Modric.
Attackers cost you even more, of course. Championship teams are spending more than £10m on single strikers. Karin Benzema cost £30m. James Rodriguez £60m, . Cristiano Ronaldo more again. So what do you do if you if you want to compete and your stack of chips isn’t as big? You try and use skill and judgement and turn a £20m Luiz Suarez into a £70m one. You role the dice. Balotelli was a gamble, and right now Brendan Rodgers feels like he’s got deuces. The trust seems to have gone already. This happens with gambles, some you win some you lose. But he doesn’t appear to trust Lambert either. And he doesn’t even trust Borini enough to put him on the bench. And at some point someone above the manager might point out that he has bought all three of them.
We have also spent over £40m on a host of centre halves who don’t appear to have improved the way we defend. The first goal is gorgeous, the type only a team like Real Madrid are able to score, at a time the game actually looked fairly level. The second is the type of goal you fear Hull City could easily score. The third a goal you fear Nuneaton Town could easily score. They don’t score second half, but this owes as much to fortune and Real taking their foot off the gas than to any defensive improvements.
During the game people get tetchy, and then some get angry. I have a blazing row at 3-0 with someone who thinks its the players fault that they aren’t better at football. We shake hands at half time. I understand frustrations, we aren’t used to getting turned over at home. Interestingly it is happening more at the elite level as controlling games goes out of fashion and exploding in patches is in. Real Madrid won 4-0 at Bayern Munich last season, and Bayern themselves scored seven in Rome this week. But we’re not used to it. We do it to other teams. It doesn’t happen to us.
So how do we react to this? For some higher up it might be a wake up call. That mysterious men with fancy job titles on a committee can’t magic superstars from modest sums. The game’s rigged, man. The high rollers win eventually. And if we want to compete at that level every year we need to figure out a way to become one, or someone might have to move aside and let someone else sit at the table. But that’s probably for another day. Right now we need to figure out who we play up front on Saturday. For you shouldn’t need the spending power of Real Madrid to beat Hull at home. Although you might need to know how to defend a corner
A chastening experience, but in a weird way, it’s like a moment of clarity. This is our first time back in the Champions League for five seasons. Civilisations have fallen in less than the length of time we’ve been away, and the standard has shifted again. We mightn’t be happy about it – how could we be? – but there’s little disgrace in losing to the most expensively assembled team in football history, long standing aristocrats who break the world transfer record every year. We aspire to that level, we are peers when it comes to tradition and success, but we want to get there a different way. Is that realistic? Who knows, but people need to accept it’s going to take some time. We were without Sturridge, and obviously we’ve lost a once in a lifetime talisman, a one man SWAT team who blitzed teams on his own last season. We have loads of raw but talented youngsters. It’s such a young squad, and if those players are supported, cared for and backed to the hilt, they’ll be amazing one day. We just need to stick with this team and this manager through the thin stuff until we get there. We only have to compare this scenario to the doldrums of Hodgeball to see how far we’ve come.
The Mario experiment has been a disaster, alas, and it’s impossible to see the situation improving any time soon. Being hooked at half time, after an abject display against QPR – it’s not working. We all wanted it to, he has talent, seems like a lovable maverick, but logic has stepped in and dictated it was a wild fantasy. The point out three BR bought strikers is well made. On a related subject, we do need a new keeper. We certainly need to find a central defender from the ‘they shall not pass’ school, and a proper defensive midfielder wouldn’t go amiss either. But let’s stay with this bunch, even if a few faces will need to change. Remember we were tanked by Ajax once; it was an education, but we learned the lessons. We’ll get there again.
Excellent patience, bigger picture consideration & perspective!
Can someone explain to me how we’ve found ourselves in a position where we had no recognised striker on the pitch even though we’ve 4 at the club all bought by the current regime, only one is injured and we’ve just spent £120mil in the last window?!?!
Enjoyed this. Games so far this season are starting to expose a slightly worrying lack of coherence in the strategy somewhere between the transfer committee and Rodgers. We spent a sack load of dough in the summer, and with the exception of Moreno, don’t appear to have addressed any of our weaknesses, whilst the sale of Suarez has caused one more to be exposed.
Also, we didn’t have modest sums in the summer. We had £75m plus the usual budget. For £75m, you could have gotten Angel Di Maria, Alberto Moreno and had change.
We seemingly made a conscious decision to make no effort (Sanchez token effort aside) to persuade any of the world stars who populate the Madrid squad to come and play for us, so we can’t act surprised when it turns out our players aren’t as good.
When we play Utd, absolutely the best footballer on the pitch will be Angel di Maria.
Given where we were before Suarez left and what we’ve had to play with since, that is depressing. Even more so when his old team beats you 3-0 at home.
Liverpool can’t let this result affect their desire to make it to the knockout rounds. At the end of the day it was one team playing chess one of the most expensive sets in the world against a team playing checkers. See what happens when Sturridge is back in the side when they travel to Madrid, three points from Ludogorets (or even one…) and three points from Basel at home. That should be the goal. But what is more important at this point is earning three points on Saturdays and Sundays. If Liverpool come out of the gates in the league like they played for the first 15 or 20 minutes tonight I think they will be okay in terms of finishing in the top 4.
Let’s get some context. Ancelotti said after the game that this was Real’s best performance of the season. When you consider some of their peroformances in La Liga this season, that’s some statement. So what is probably the world’s most dangerous team right now put in their best performance of the season and beat us, which with a squad worth $500 million they bloody well ought to. We are, after all, talking about a team that most agree is an improvement of that which beat Bayern 4-0 at home a matter of 6 months ago. We’re in pretty decent company.
I think Rodgers is coming very close to scapegoating Balotelli. Balotelli was no worse than most and better than a few of his playing colleagues in the first half. I saw his withdrawal at half-time as a bit of a cop-out. A nice deflection, I thought. Thing is, I have no problem with Rodgers never picking Balotelli again if he doesn’t want to play in a way that at least provides a platform for Balotelli to perform. Asking him to do an impression of Sturridge is nonsensesical, and criticising Balotelli when he inevitably fails says less about the player than it does about the manager’s own limitations. Either play Balotelli with some advanced support, or drop him. I still think Balotelli with Sturridge could be a fruitful partnership, but Rodgers seems intent on hanging the Italian out to dry with public statements that betray a lack of faith in the player. I don’t like that and never have, and I don’t see how it can help anyone.
Still, at least all the other signings are knocking it out of the park, eh?
Did Ancelotti know Rogers at Chelsea? I think there might be a little bit of helping a fellow manager out in his “Madrid’s best” comments. They were pretty good last week in La Liga. You’re right about Rogers on Balotelli. It reeks of Harry Redknapp climbing into the very people he signs and trains week in, week out. Don’t be like Harry Redknapp.
Think brownie is spot on regarding balotelli. I’m not convinced he will ever be the answer, but he deserves a fair crack of the whip. He has been scapegoated awfully by the press and I’d like to see him receive more protection from inside the camp. Instead it feels like the approach is: as long as people are digging him out they might ignore the other flaws.
Regarding the game as a whole I thought gerrard had a very poor night. Johnson matched him and our centre halves continued to struggle to achieve mediocrity. Moreno, who many seem to believe is Roberts Carlos and Andreas brehme all rolled into one, continues to worry me with powder puff tackling and shoddy positioning. Sterling was decent, coutinho was good… actually really good, and looked like he wouldn’t have been out of place in a white shirt tonight. Few others impressed, possibly none. What good mignolet did continued to be undermined by terrible distribution and (more) poor decision making.
Gutted with the overall regression we have showed this season, but I fear it will get worse before it gets better. What price a Curtis Davies goal at the weekend?
It was a poor decision to swap shirts at half time. Says a lot about where his priorities were. He showed one or two good attributes like when he took Marcelo on. He looked powerful and fast then. The problem was, he just didn’t understand where he’s supposed to be when we’re attacking because he’s not a striker therefore we don’t need him.
Agreed. I think Balo could be a lot better with sturridge mailing the runs we are asking him to currently. 14 mil for borini should have offset his cost and i always saw him as a backup when he joined us. Rodgers can be fairly criticized for a lack if replacement in our depth at striker, but sturridge and his frailty has done us no favors. I’m desperately waiting to get two to three games with both playing together before I can feel right about saying Mario just won’t work in any way for the team. Anyone else think Lallana looked woefully slow along the flank today?
Do we know if Balotelli is definitely a Rodgers buy?? He said earlier in the summer ..” I can categorically say that we are not interested in Balotelli”. That’s sounds pretty cut and dry to me. Do we have a situation where the transfer committee is making buys without the managers backing?? Assaidi, Aspas and Alberto also strike of this too.
I’d say it’s unlikely based on his comments before the Milan game. My feeling is we aimed high in our targets, didn’t get them and were left with no one. Panic buy or last resort buy. Certainly don’t think Rodgers identified him as a target.
That’s my take on it too. That Chelsea signed Remy is a bit of a worry too. At that price he was worth the gamble.
We’ve got a highly-rated scouting team – what were they doing all summer? If you sell your best striker, you buy a world class striker to replace him. it’s not rocket science.
For me the sight of a Madrid squad player, Isco, who hardly gets a game, embarrassing Henderson, Allen and Gerrard sums it up. Gerrard was the best midfielder in the world, now struggling but played every week by Rodgers. Allen and Henderson shown to be distinctly average in this company yet stalwarts of our midfield. Rodgers has been in charge for 50 months and we are embarrassed by Lodogorets, never mind Madrid. This guy needs to show that he is capable of moving us forward. If he can’t, then he needs to make way for someone who can, and take the hapless, but good Scouser Lambert with him.
I get your point, but Isco is some player. I was most impressed by him.
He showed that he was capable of moving us forward last year.
I made a substantial sum of money betting against you tonight. Sturridge will help but he and Sterling can’t paper over all of the cracks in the squad. LFC have to be and deserve to be in the conversation for the Di Marias, the Kroos’s and the Falcaos – the proven, world-class quality. Until you are, games like tonight’s will be sure things.
When I last looked, we were 7/2 against to win, so how did you make a substantial amount of money? Be honest, do you actually have any money at all, apart from the sort that makes a rattly noise in a tin?
I don’t, if it makes you feel any better.
Suarez was right to want out. We were a useful stepping-stone that had served its purpose.
He’s where he belongs now, despite all of the s*** he made us put up with – a world class player, joining a world class team and leaving mediocrity behind.
No player is bigger than the club? Go tell it on the mountain, if it makes you feel better.
When I first saw MB swap shirts, I felt livid. Now I have had time to think about it, it seems perfectly apt and I can almost imagine the exchange of words.
“I’m here for the cash. What about you?”
“We’ve come for the points. They make us play teams like this, before the tournament gets underway next year”
Jesus, though thick and thin, eh?
Tonight didn’t expose a single thing we didn’t already know.
keeper is iffy, back four is iffy, Rodgers doesn’t know what to do with Gerrard, we miss Sturridge dreadfully and Balotelli has the movement of an iceberg in the box and his confidence has gone completely.
There is no shame in being beaten by a better side and for half a hour LFC were chasing very expensive shadows.
All set up for a tasty El Clasico.
Hull?
Hard to take a positive from that humiliation. Coutinho, maybe? If he were less apt to lapses of concentration and had more stamina he could be in their side now. Quick feet, vision, technical ability, imagination. And Sterling, always Sterling. He probably will be in their side soon. Why would he not want to be? If every week you’re looking back at the hilarious flatmate sitcom that is Liverpool’s back four/five/six and despairing, somewhere else where your contribution actually mattered occasionally might be appealing.
Goal one; can happen. We’re not pressing any more and it’s bloody Ronaldo. Goal two; oh man… that is stupidly poor defending. We do that in training. Goal three; made in Liverpool! Only we concede goals like that. Including the whole world and at every level. We invented the concept of conceding the most ridiculous, comic, piss-taking goals that are physically possible And we now have the patent. So we do it every week.
Madrid aren’t bad like. Christ, they don’t need a hand.
Great article Gibbo. Sobering game. Let’s beat Hull Saturday.
Got a horrible feeling this could be long and boring.
Agree with all the points in this article. Also that there were loads of angry people tonight.
The main observation I’m left with after the game isn’t about us. It was about Madrid. They’re an absolutely class side but I was struck by the size of them. They’re friggin huge. Like a team of Rafael Nadal’s. Looking at Allen, Coutinho, Lallana, Markovic and Sterling against them reminded me of when I was young and we used to play lads v dads. Chelsea are a big strong side, Bayern too. I think there’s something in that. Thank fuck Can came on. Some much needed strength.
It’s all fairly clear in my head now. We know the defence is poor. It was last year. We all know Swansea scored 3 at Anfield. Cardiff got 3 at theirs. Normally you lose them. It’s been said a thousand times but we would just score more. Balotelli, Lambert and Borini have started 12 PL games this season combined, with a yield of 0 goals. 24 PL games overall for us with 1 solitary goal. It doesn’t matter whether you play a diamond, a triangle or a circle. If you have no strikers you can’t win.
So where are they? Balotelli is clearly not gonna make it at Liverpool unless Sturridge brings something miraculous out of him. It was a gamble but a gamble well worth taking. I’ve been surprised by how much he doesn’t suit our play. I’ve seen him play 9 times including on tv. How many times do the scouts watch them because If I know after 9 he’s not for us and I know nothing about football. That has to be a worry. I think he’s trying but he doesn’t have the movement needed, in his game.
Lambert was surely bought if it’s 0-0 against a parked bus with 25 to go at Anfield. He wasn’t bought with the intention to start each game. So, I’ve no complaints there. We knew Borini wasn’t our man. We were desperate to sell. We couldn’t get shut though. I think LFC were willing to pay handsomely for a good Suarez replacement. They all turned us down though. Sanchez even chose Arsenal. We can’t play Borini now. He scuppered our plans, admirably or not. If he plays he stays longer. We have to drive him out because he’s not good enough.
The other glaring issue seems to be our transfers. Not only not getting the right players but for the right positions too. We should have a back up keeper. We should have bought a holding midfielder. Was Can bought for there? Either way, a bit more experience is needed there than Can can offer. You could argue Rodgers best transfer in the last few years was shipping his wife out and getting that young thing in. I know it’s early days for this years crop but I need to see a little bit more.
Johnson is 10 times better than Flanagan. I’d play Flanagan over him now (when fit). No fight from Johnson. When he’s playing inside the opponents half he needs to be more switched on. Flanagan offers something you can’t by.
I maintain, the most important thing for Liverpool is to get back in the CL. We can continue to grow then. Have more money. Buy more expensive players. Close that huge gulf between us and Madrid. Miss out and it sets us back 2 or 3 years.
Conclusion. We need to buy 2 top strikers. We’ve had some bad luck. Some wouldn’t go. Some wouldn’t come, and some turned out to be wrong for our style. Oh, and Madrid are good.
I’d like to think of myself as a loyal and committed sort of fan but tonight I was asking myself how long I can watch such inept defending and not wondering why BR isn’t doing *something* about it. This comedy defence thing has been happening every week for more than a year and this season we get to enjoy it twice a week. He’s a bright man. He can’t be blind to this fiasco. I’m losing patience with the lack of organization at the back. Put in Jones. He won’t save the shots that Mignolet will but he won’t have the back four so nervous.
I’ve also run out of time for Balotelli. Looks like so has BR. We looked much better without him in the second half.
@robin crimes. Interesting point. I did initially intend to write, ‘if Coutinho were twice the size…..’ but then thought of Modric. They did all seem to be sprinter-sized and steak-filled athletes compared to our lads though who mostly look like they grew up in the 50s.
As for Johnson. I was hopeful he was due a resurgence. His performance was woeful though and his last two ‘passes’ into touch were worthy of Balotelli ‘shots’. Interesting Spot The Ball?
Yeah mate. james rodriguez looked fairly slight at the World Cup. He looked pretty bulked up already. They were all powerful.
Or Spot The Difference. And this from someone who has tried to support them both. The ungrateful bastards,
Up top against Hull:
Sterling + Markovic. Coutinho in the hole, Henderson + Lallana, Gerrard or Can(I’d love to see Can start there), Sakho Skrtel centres, Moreno Manquillo fullbacks. Bring back the diamond. Borini and Lambert won’t start anyway.
Keeping the faith but it’s hard when we spend money to fix a problem and it gets worse. It’s like spending money to go from 3rd to 4th, but no purchase is ever a sure thing. Rodgers is a good coach. He knows what he’s doing but I fear there may be a bit an overdose of pride/arrogance that sometimes blinds him to certain things (just an assumption), although I would never ask someone to be less arrogant when it comes to football. Ronaldo became Ronaldo through self-belief and dedication.
Lets get back up as a team, as a fan base, and show them why WE ARE LIVERPOOL tra la la la la WE’RE THE BEST(pending) FOOTBALL TEAM IN THE WORLD, YES WE ARE
robin crimes: “You could argue Rodgers best transfer in the last few years was shipping his wife out and getting that young thing in.”
Disgusting comment.
Yeah, in hindsight I’d probably agree. Apologies if any offence caused. I was meant as a dig at our transfer policy but there were probably better ways of getting it across.
Mildly amusing comment imo, hardly disgusting. If the transfers were doing the business there would be no place for it to be made.
Doesn’t quite sit with me that as soon as he hits the big time he gets rid of his loyal but older, plumper, less attractive wife for a new model.
No exactly Shanks or Paisley.
Different times we live in also you have no idea what goes on inside someones marraige however great excuse to post the brilliant Bill Burr talking about ahem ‘Gold digging whores epidemic’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0gaYyNk7QA
All these defensive calamaties and still Rodgers won’t play the one proper out and out Defensive Midfielder we have in our squad. Strange that.
Brendan needs to go back to his original ideas for how the team should play. What was it? Possession of the football, high press when we lose the ball etc. etc.
It sounds like a “back to basics” message but it isn’t really. It’s the way we want to play our football. Last season we had to accommodate a genius in the team and the tactics had to be centred around that. He’s gone and we need to revert to the Rodgers type.
Do the fundamental things right – press the ball when not in possession and pass and move when we are……please.
I think we have reverted to his tactics and therein you have the quandry
We wouldn’t have been so easily beaten with a manager like Benitez in charge.
Rodgers is a good manager but not top class. He won’t be at Anfield long term.
I’m sorry but this is a bit of an over reaction surely?
This Brendan Rodgers first season ever in the champions league these things take time. Also we are playing a team that has had million and million of pounds invested in it. They are the champions. They have been semi finalist for the last 3 years before they won it last year. Where in contrast we were finishing we were nowhere near to competition.
We overachieved last year. Now we are regressing to the mean.
I honestly don’t think loosing 3-0 Real Madrid is that bad. Particularly when they have one of the best players ever opening the scoring in that fashion.
We are good and we’ll get better. Real Madrid is a blip, a good learning curve if anything. Just to play devils advocate would it be a bad thing to go out of the CL allowing us to focus on getting back into it next year?
Nice one Alan! Couldn’t agree more mate.
Bodgers’ half-time team talk = “Hey Stevie have you got Rafa’s mobile number? We need to turn this around…”
Gerrard “Sorry boss, I trashed it after me and Jamie helped get him sacked back in 2010.”
Cracking article Gibbo, spot on.
Before we jump to conclusions, are we sure Balotelli wasn’t playing the 2nd half in his camouflage gear? We could have done with 12 on the field last night.
I pretty much agree with everything Ben has to say.
A result this year will be top 4. Realistically? Probably 5th or 6th. Each place down the table from there is a step backwards in our intended progression.
It’s possible we’re going out of the Champions League, one things for sure – we’re not going to win it. A draw away to Real Madrid seems unlikely but we can all hope eh?
I’ll leave it to others to make the case for the financial benefits of staying in the tournament, I’ve no time for the increasingly growing accountancy side of the sport. I’d imagine the people who take interest in the stats side of the game must love the ever-growing bean counting aspect of football these days.
Onwards and upwards.
PR summed it up perfectly about our defence. I don’t get people saying that it’s no shame to lose to the European champions. If we would have lost by goals where you just put your hands up and say that was just pure brilliance and the team couldn’t have done anything about it then fair enough but it’s the way we lost which is annoying. The first goal was brilliant but still should have been defended better but the second and third goals were awful defending again. It was an embarrassment the way we defended for those 2 goals. If this type of defending was happening occasionally then it wouldn’t be a problem because mistakes sometimes happen but this is happening nearly every game for the past 2 years and its unacceptable. Why is Brendan Rodgers not doing anything to sort the defending out? He’s had more than enough time and if anything the defending is worse now then when he took over. Liverpool are fast becoming a laughing stock with this weekly comedy defending. If he doesn’t address this issue soon then we need another manager that will address it otherwise we can forget champions league and we’ll never win anything.
Good article John, and lots of good comments but we mustn’t let Brendan off the hook so easily, and I say that as someone who’s supported him from his first day at the club. We weren’t just outplayed by great footballers last night, we were given a lesson: a football lesson both on and off the pitch. Why do i say that?
Because we have no shape. Every Real Madrid player knew his role, they knew what to do with the ball and where their team mates would be. They played two in the centre, neither of whom you’d call a defensive midfielder, who strolled around the pitch in slippers. Neither Modric or Kroos were particularly expensive, nor are they spectacular, but they are technically sound and well coached. The team know when to move and where to move to, as a team.
Compare that to a Liverpool team who, week in, week out, are caught out of shape. I fear for us every time we have a corner! So this isn’t just about quality players but quality coaching. Real Madrid aren’t the first team to make us look foolish and they won’t be the last unless we address some fundamental issues around our team shape – what to do when we lose the ball, what to do when we have the ball. We rely far too much on last ditch tackles and moments of individual brilliance and this season we’re paying for it. We do not have a shape or a system: teams cut through us with ease.
Real Madrid were great to watch not simply because they are so attractive and technically gifted, but because they are so proficient: they play as a team, with minimal physical effort.
The half time sub was correct but it should of been Gerrard….was totally ineffectual. Balotelli needed support not the hook. He grow into the half and was the only threat we had to score a goal.
Coutinho and Sterling are not goal scorers, they played well with Lallana but had no one in the box….
Rodgers needs to move on from Gerrard now, Kroos,Modric,Isco..killed Gerrard.
Go back to a proper 2 man midfield. Play Can and Hendo. Put Sterling up to with Balotelli. Start Lallana and Coutinho. Drop Johnson. Give Kolo a chance over either Lovren or Skrtel.
Shake things up Brendan this team has zero identity.
Want some reality backed up with evidence?
Posted on the QPR article that I didn’t fear a hammering but being “routined” – and fuck me where we routined last night. And it should have been a hammering. Madrid played for 20 minutes and still should have beat us 6-0. In the second half they treated us like they would an Elche or an Almeria, playing well within themselves, taking off their best players, saving themselves for bigger fish to fry this weekend. It was embarrassing to be treated like that at home. I don’t care how much they’ve spent. We are Liverpool. Not Hull. Not QPR. Liverpool. Regardless of expenditure and personnel, last night wouldn’t have happened under Rafa. Not like that.
I’ve said for weeks now (and been lampooned for it) that a majority of us seem to be under the impression that things will definitely improve. That all we need is Sturridge and we’ll go back to scoring shitloads and winning games. This is not inevitable. Sturridge is quality but every passing week he’s not in the team fans are putting him higher and higher in the list of world strikers. It’s getting ridiculous. He’s always been injury prone and there will be many games where we don’t have him. And getting Daniel back on the pitch doesn’t solve the problems at the back. That’s Brendan’s job. He’s had over 2 years to do it. And in that time it’s got fucking worse.
Rodgers made a point with Balotelli last night. He wasn’t worse than many others on the park. Pretty sure it was the transfer committee who signed him. Rodgers has given it a go but its not working. This is a serious problem at the club.
This issue comes down to trust. After Kenny fucked up so massively in the transfer market and on players wages FSG didn’t want to place that amount of money in one man’s hands again. They have since watched Rodgers ask to buy the likes of Borini, Sahin, Dempsey (while fucking off Henderson in the other direction), Lambert, Cissokho (£850,000 for 1 year!) and Lovren. Is it any wonder they don’t trust him either?
But they need to. And the Balotelli signing, if indeed he wasn’t Rodger’s choice, proves it. What good is it men in suits reading stats picking transfer targets to go after if they don’t fit the style of play the manager wants to employ?
As hard as it is and as counter intuitive as it is (looking at the evidence) FSG need to allow Rodgers to get his own players in. It means if things go tits up there’s only one man to blame. Only then will we know if he’s good enough to bring us back to where we want to be.
Rodgers’ stored away an awful lot of credit with the club and with us as fans given last years efforts. But there was always a nagging doubt for me. Why did he abandon his philosophy of controlled possession football? Why did he abandon his favoured 4-3-3? It’s clear he stumbled into playing the diamond. Now that the diamond has been badly exposed this year as opposing managers see what, again, the majority of fans can’t or don’t want to see, i.e. Gerrard is fucking finished, and the defence is worse than before at the back and up front we’ve lost Suarez, performances and results have been brutal. And there is no sign of things about to turn around. This doesnt happen to the best managers.
In his time here, we’ve spent a fortune on attacking midfielders and strikers and we can’t score a goal. We’ve spent on a keeper and every position across the back and we can’t keep a clean sheet. There is no place on Earth you fancy we could go and shut up shop and take a 0-0. We are identityless. We are planless. We are spineless. As soon as we go behind you don’t ever see us winning. Doesn’t matter who against.
Under Rafa & even Houllier there was no fear of playing a top team. Not the sort of fear most of us had before last nights game. We knew there would be a strategy is place and that all 11 or 14 or 16 players would buy in to it and know their role inside out. Yea it might be ugly but the result is what matters, right? If a team who score as many as Chelsea can do it, why can’t we do it as a team who don’t score nearly as many? In every game we ever played you thought there was a chance to get a draw. Not last night. If you thought we could you’re part of the problem. The “everything will be alright on the night” brigade. The talking as if Rodgers can do no wrong brigade.
Im not saying I want Brendan sacked.
What I am saying is that its time everyone stops living off last season. I am saying there are big questions (getting bigger with every passing performance) for him to answer. I am saying his after match interviews need to be more honest with us. (Jim Boardman agrees, follow him on twitter) Its time he sorts this mess out. It’s time he proves he’s at where he deserves to be at. Its time he shows us last season wasn’t a massive fluke given a freak set of circumstances.
Im not sure people realise – if we don’t finish 4th come May, we are fucked. Fucked. With the new TV deal coming in for Champions League places it is simply a necessity. Think about it. Our transfers for 3/4 years now have been an unmitigated disaster. None, and I mean none, of the really top quality players wanted to come to us, even after finishing 2nd, guaranteeing champions league football and having a lot of money to spend. So what type of player will come to us if we finish 6th after a shit season with no champions league football and little money to spend? Exactly. No top 4 finish sets us back 5 years.
Then people will open their eyes and wonder if Rodgers is the man.
PS: Who gives a fuck about players swapping shirts at half time? Why is that a big deal? Does it impact on their performance? No. Is it as disrespectful as laughing at a Hillsborough Memorial? No. So what then? Sky and the tabloids make a big deal of it so fans go mental? Is that it? Wise the fuck up.
I tell you what would annoy me though – if Dave Wooding (Sun editor) was in the Director’s Box at Anfield last night. That would fuck me off no end. That would cross the line of being disrespectful.
That would annoy me too, particularly as the Murdoch owned rag seems set upon stalking Raheem Sterling and publishing non-stories about him on top of all the other shite they’ve published over the years.
Agree with your post, but we need to look forward, it’s no good pining for Rafa right now. Totally agree with you about transfers; I’m not interested in sofas and lamps, there should be a single point of accountability for all transfers and it should be the manager. Shanks didn’t always get the players he wanted, but he didn’t get players foisted on him once he’d shown his worth!
Robin crimes and Chris, you have saved me a lot of typing, sums it up for me.
I am concerned now, concerned that Spurs away was the anomaly, concerned that teams see us as an opportunity for three points, concerned about transfer policy, team shape and a worsening defence. Other than that things are great and I try convincing myself we are4 off second despite playing poorly, surely it will get better.
Blame Balotelli !
For playing him alone up front when he flourishers in the 4-4-2
Blame Balotelli
For liverpool struggling midfield
Blame Balotelli
For the 60 million seeping defence
Blame Balotelli
For our shaky 10 million dollar goal keeper.
Blame Balotelli for Liverpool folding at home.Scape goat of the empire, but when he is gone who do we
blame ? The cracks will still be there which Saurez covered over.
News just in: the European champions with every attacker/midfielder costing £30+M at least are a bit good at the togger.
Think Henry Marshall’s spot on in terms of a starting 11; get the left back in an replace Suarez with another world class player for big money, but the club went for squad building in the summer and having seen Aspas come on to break down Chelsea to try and save the league title I thought that was the right thing to do so I’m not gonna fume with me hindsightism.
Thought we were good first 20 but the absolute best can hurt you out of nowhere with a world class goal. For the second and third heads had dropped and Benzema could have been Zamora at the weekend and took advantage of that defending. Without getting too Evertonian I’m glad Ronaldo missed his sitter in the second half just because 4-0 at home reads more as a hiding whereas 3 is just a good beating by a classy outfit.
Had a masochistic respect for Ronaldo’s knee slide celebration for his first goal at Anfield. Fair play to him because he’s mind boggling. Thought his last couple of seasons at United were his just-best-of-a-generation-but-not-one-of-the-best-ever ceiling then he goes to Madrid and does THAT for 5 years.
Under Benitez I would have been certain of having a plan to beat Real midweek then failing to break down a Steve Bruce side at Anfield over the weekend. This feels like the opposite. Having a style of play that beats Steve Bruce’s Hull/Birmingham/Wigan/Sunderland week to week gets you top 4 consistently nowadays (ask Wenger). Rodgers is only just feeling his way in to beating Real Madrid without selling out his boss/occasionally naïve brand of footy.
That’s a good point Tom (Hull, Rafa, Real).