SUBSIDENCE is a peculiar concept. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing either. Has your anger subsided yet?
A lot of Liverpool fans got angry about the way last season tailed off. A lot of Liverpool fans got angry that FSG didn’t sack Brendan Rodgers and replace him with Jurgen Klopp or Carlo Ancelotti. A lot of Liverpool fans got angry that we signed James Milner and Danny Ings. A lot of Liverpool fans got angry about the whole Raheem Sterling debacle. Some of us got very angry. Some of us stayed angry, while others put their anger on the back-burner for another day. Fuming is popular round our way.
Subsidence is a peculiar concept. It can be a very damaging thing.
How far have Liverpool Football Club subsided in the great scheme of things when it comes to football in this country and is there a way back for us this season?
We’ve again drifted through a summer where we’ve lost our widely presumed ‘best player’. We will see the transfer window close with another prudent final net spend. We essentially operate by sleight of hand when it comes to transfers. Three upturned plastic cups, a small ball beneath one of them. Keep your eye on the one with the ball under it and see if you can find it. Is it the one on the left, the right or the one in the middle?
While you’re considering where the ball is you’ve had your wallet slipped from your pocket and the family silver has been sold.
FSG are very, very clever in what they do. In many ways clever is what we need. Especially in the absence of a filthy rich owner that simply wants to lavish us with an open cheque book. Shrewd is the watchword. We have to be clever, we have to be shrewd and we have to be cunning.
It was quite shrewd of FSG to silence Brendan Rodgers for much of the summer. It was a bit like the Conservatives hiding George Osborne away during the General Election campaign, before bringing him out with a baseball bat to club baby seals once a majority was won.
Rodgers has basically been backed into a corner this summer. Told he still had a job to return to for 2015/16, but also informed that his coaching team would be removed and replaced. To all intents and purposes he’s gone from being free-range to caged, but he’s also been given the chance to escape his new found confined workspace. All he has to do is succeed. That’s easy enough eh?
There is a strange degree of a do or die/finality for Rodgers this season, coupled with a re-birth of sorts on the playing side. The Steven Gerrard era is over; a new era begins, although what that new era might necessarily entail is open to interpretation. My instinct suggests we have a set of players that can be moulded into something very, very interesting. The only question I have is whether or not Rodgers will earn himself the chance to create that something very, very interesting.
We embrace a fresh campaign with a fresh squad to large extent, with an old legend gone and a new captain leading us on to the field of play. New heroes will rise; highly priced new arrivals will stall. Someone previously written off will prove us wrong by coming good.
Simon Mignolet grew in stature during the second half of last season, we have plenty of options in defence, although it’s stability we could do with there, rather than another merry-go-round season of both personnel and formations. We have a number of possible midfield scenarios open to us and going forward it’s more or less Christian Benteke for Mario Balotelli, Danny Ings for Rickie Lambert and Roberto Firmino for Raheem Sterling. At least two out of those three will improve on what their predecessor produced last season. Daniel Sturridge is to return and there are several points to be proved by a reasonable number of players.
Rodgers has however been handed a pretty unforgiving start to the season. Stumble over the early games and the anger levels will reach boiling point. No Liverpool manager to have brought us to within touching distance of the title since 1990 has still had his job two years later. While Gerard Houllier limped on for two years beyond his 2001/02 crack at the title, Rafa Benitez and Roy Evans were gone long before the two year mark after their respective title flirtations of 2008/09 and 1996/97. If Rodgers is to avoid repeating previous history he will have to break new ground this season.
We are about to enter an unpredictable and potentially volatile period. If you do go off the deep end at some point, then make sure it’s for a valid reason. Either way around, should the club eventually stick or twist with Rodgers, a wrong decision being made will set us back half a decade once again, when we’re already arguably half a decade to a decade behind the clubs we seek to chase down. Despite everything we’ve been through, despite everything we put ourselves through, in spite of ourselves as much as because of ourselves even; my gut instinct is preparing itself for good things rather than bad things to come.
Subsidence is a peculiar concept, it isn’t always a bad thing, yet it can be massively damaging. It can also be self-inflicted. Be careful what you wish for and maybe cut Rodgers a bit of slack if the anger rises early on. We don’t always need our enemies to bring us crashing down, as we’re more than adept at doing it for ourselves, but we can also move mountains when we put our minds to it.
The coin is spinning. Heads or tails?
@Scraggy_74
Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
Sticking for now , probably because I have start of the season excitement. This is before all swans turn to non functioning geese. However I hope Brendan quaffing in the last chance saloon will concentrate his mind to a degree and he is less experiential than last season. Also I think if I was in a scrap I would like Danny Ings ,Milner, Henderson , Benteke in my corner and we can now physically compete to a higher degree than last season.
I am reasonably confident of a 5th finish but start of season fever is convincing me that everything will click and the script will be written with Lazar having the season of his life. Benteke will become a feared Drogba figure (but with pace.) Milner discovering himself as the main man a becoming an inspirational figure and true LFC hero.
That is the script in my head but then there is the central defence and then a rewrite may be needed
Nice article
Yes, subsidence is a peculiar concept. but let me remind of this interesting story.
How many of you have heard of Chicken Boo?
Not many? Well here’s a brief summary…
Chicken Boo was a character from a mid 90s
cartoon sketch show called Animaniacs. He was a
human-sized chicken who often took on easy-to-
see-through disguises in order to convince the
world he was a man and not a big walking piece
of poultry.
Unfortunately for Boo, he couldn’t talk; he simply
clucked at anyone who tried to engage him in
conversation. Surprisingly though, some people
were still stupid enough to fall for his flimsy
disguises and actually mistook the clucking for
something deep and significant.
The Chicken Boo sketch always followed the
same formula; he disguised himself as something
– a company director, a martial arts expert, a
military general, even Batman’s sidekick Robin on
one occasion which had the Dark Knight himself
fooled – someone early on in the sketch then
points out the absurdity of it all, protesting “but
it’s a chicken!”, before getting mocked and
ostracised by the terminally stupid who side with
the chicken, believing 100% that it was an
intelligent man leading them to greatness.
In every episode Boo’s disguise would eventually
get knocked off, revealing to the shocked masses
that yes it was indeed a giant chicken they’d
been following throughout, a realisation which
leads to anger as Boo gets run out of town.
fast forward to 2015/16 season, many of you think that Rodgers will be Rodgers: tweak formations and systems again and again and again;play players out of their favourable positions time and again; Continue sticking with lovern over sakho. To you, observing Rodgers in the Liverpool job has been
like watching a fly slamming itself against a
window, over and over again wondering why it
can’t pass through this mysterious invisible
shield.
No doubt Rodgers is a man under pressure from all corners of Liverpool world; the owners. the supporters the players, the media or the pundits. but he has learnt his lessons and is very experienced now and can fight with likes of Wenger and mourinho. He is a man with a purpose, a trophy, most probably EPL trophy ( And yes we can) or any other trophy and a top 4. yes, Rodgers made lots of mistakes last season but he is here to rectify it now and trust me we will see another 2013/14 season but this is a better one- a step forward. give him peace to do his job and he will do it.
no need for klopp when you already have a ready-made klopp- Brendan Rodgers the Kops klopp
You mean he’s turned into Rafa Benitez!??
I’m slightly excited about the new season due to the fact that we seem to have improved in most areas…..or maybe because it’s just a new season.
Liverpool have regressed in recent years. Last 6 seasons we’ve finished 6th, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 6th, 7th with Spurs finishing above us 5 out of 6 of those seasons, one piece of silverware and limited European outings. Simply not good enough and the rot needs to stop.
I’m gonna wait until the end of Oct before having a proper look at our season to date. I won’t be going overboard either way til then. If we take 7 points from those first 7 tricky aways then I’d be relatively happy but we need to be steamrolling the bottom half of the table home and away. There’s no one we get at home for the first half of the season that we shouldn’t be taking max points.
Unfortunately our defence could prove our undoing, namely the left side of defence. If Rodgers starts with Lovren, as he seems to favouring, I predict problems. Our left back is either the inconsistent Moreno or the inexperienced (yet to kick a ball in the Prem) Gomez. That’s doesn’t combine well to give us solidity in defence. Talk about unpredictability and volatile, you got it right there.
Each signing is an improvement on the player they have replaced (on paper)
I feel we are still one signing short namely a dedicated second DM cos I just know Lucas will pick up another two month knock at some point. Alas Rodgers has little interest in the position and is once again hoping that the side can score their way to a top 4 finish or a cup. Well it nearly worked two seasons ago, but that the point – it was nearly was because too many “cheap” goals were conceded.
Still – new season, new hope eh? (but sign a DM please Brendan)
When comparing squads from last season to this, I scratch my head and think..Borini? Lambert? Balotelli (the man, I believe, behind so much unrest at LFC and who can go F himself with his support Rah££m comment)? Up against Costa et al… what were we thinking – reality check required.
I also believe that BR was somewhat undermined when it came to the scowling, skulking, ineffective ‘why always me’ Balotelli (you might see a pattern of how I despise this player and hate seeing him in a red shirt). He was never on BRs radar and if put on it by others, ‘categorically’ wasn’t BRs choice. I give BR a by-ball on Lovren; we all wanted him. We have a decent squad ow and we are not being picked by any pundits to make the grade; all good in my opinion. I hope BR leads us to victory and the naysayers can f aff with Mr Mario Balotelli! Hint…why has noone come in for super Mario? Mancini was right…he is UNMANAGEABLE.
The problem with shifting Balotelli isn’t that nobody wants him, everyones willing to take a risk on talent if the cost is manageable. Teams particularly in Italy simply want to lowball the shit out of Liverpool for him.
Yes mate, it was Balotelli’s fault. Even when he was injured we were still losing to Neil Warnock teams because of Mario. And how dare he wish his mate good luck on going to a different work place. Its not as if we’d ever do anything like that, eh?
Oh, and “we all wanted Lovren” – speak for yourself. And even those who did want him all say now they wouldn’t play him ahead of Sakho, which is what Rodgers has done and will continue to do. So how can you give the manager a by ball for that?
I’ve noticed a strange coincidence. When talking about the new season, it seems all writers of the more positive/optimistic/deluded persuasion simply ignore our defence. As if it doesn’t matter. As if defending well is an alien concept to LFC (it is, but only recently). As if improving our defending would not lead to more points on the board. It’s like magic. Pop. It doesn’t exist. Football is only about creativity and scoring goals, didn’t you know?
And its because these writers are stuck. They are “supposed” to be positive this time of year. Its the start of the football season. They love football. They’ve been looking forward to all the football, but primarily watching Liverpool do the football. They love Liverpool. But they also know Liverpool have a manager who is incapable of putting together a team which will concede less than 40 league goals. So what do they do? Do they use their brain, tell the truth and get accused by the morons of being a miserable cunt? Or do they ignore the whole defending thing and be positive anyway, regardless of what their critical faculties are telling them?
Remember when Rodgers was appointed and spoke of Liverpool being successful because of a long and historic tradition of attacking football at Anfield? And those who actually know our club looked at each other knowingly because it was utter bullshit? Because we, like the vast majority of league winners and european cup winners, were always built on defence and defending well. We had a nastiness, a ruthlessness and a viciousness most champions are associated with. We could grind out the most boring of 2-0 home wins against the most limited of opposition. That was us. That was Liverpool when we were successful. But unsurprisingly, without the defending we were known for, it wasn’t long after that we stopped being a success and started being failures.
We had the best or second best defence in the league in every single year between 81 and 91. In those 10 seasons we won the title 6 times and were runners up 4 times.
In 07/08, Watford conceded 56 goals. Rodgers took over in 08/09 and Watford conceded 72 goals.
In 08/09, Reading conceded 50 goals with a GD of +32. Rodgers took over in 09/10 and in 21 league games before being sacked Reading conceded 33 goals (so he was on course to concede 72 goals again) with a GD of -10 (so he was on course to take a +34 GD to a -22 GD)
In 09/10, Swansea conceded 37 goals. Rodgers took over in 10/11 and Swansea conceded 42 goals. In 11/12 they conceded 51.
In 11/12, Liverpool conceded 40 goals. Rodgers took over in 12/13 and Liverpool conceded 43. In 13/14 we conceded 50. In 14/15 we conceded 48.
There’s a common theme there. But its all ignored because if they wrote such things, they couldn’t be positive. They already have their conclusion, so why put in inconvenient truths that would hinder what they’ve already decided would be the outcome?
For those fuming while reading this post – Im sorry, I didn’t make those figures up. They are fact.
You’re givng the impression that you are being really brave and honest by critising Brendan Rodgers?
Don’t think you’ve quite caught the mood. Rodgers is on borrowed time unless he pulls off a miracle and you have correctly located it at being in the defence.
But you’re hardly an outsider unless you have been in a cave for the last 12 months…
Hi Padraigh
As neu75 says – I think the vast majority of fans are aware of the problems with BR and the defence.
The fact is that BR is going to start the season as manager and so I am guessing, to be fair to the people you refer to, if you are trying to be an optimistic writer/fan you are going to focus on the things he does better as a manager rather than the things he does badly.
The alternative is to keep pointing out the obvious negatives and go into the season “knowing” that we are going to finish outside the top 4 because of our/his weaknesses and taking comfort in the fact that we were right and the optimists were all wrong.
I’m not criticising – I am well known amongst friends for being the most “negative” (I would say realistic) fan they know. I think this is due to my age and the number of false dawns I have sat through. However, Neil used an interesting phrase on TAW a while back which struck a note with me – “the most overrated thing in football is being right”. He’s 100% correct. I’m fed up with forecasting failure and being right. I can’t do anything to change the decisions the clubs makes no matter how much I would want to and therefore the forecasting/pointing out the obvious becomes nothing other than a defensive mechanism which allows me to tell anyone who’ll listen that “I told you so” in the likely event that we don’t win the league.
Well … new approach this season*. I am going to wind the clock back to when I was in my teens and total belief of all things Liverpool was the starting point. I’m going back to treating going the match as a fun & entertaining thing to do and am not going to worry about BR, finances, club mascots or whether the manager should pick Lovren or Sakho. Willing suspension of disbelief if you like.
Liverpool ARE going to win the league this and every other year and when I’m wrong I’ll try not to mind too much when others tell me so. Better that than the last 20 years of knowing we won’t win it and trying to take comfort in being right when we’ve come within a whisker and failed.
*ps. I expect the new approach to last no further than the end of August but I’ll try my best.
We do have filthy rich owners. They are focused on making money rather than winning games of footy. That’s the difference between us and the top 4. We are just a burger franchise now.
there has been some shite posted on here recently but this takes the biscuit.
or the donut ;-)
Really excited for the new season. I really want us to succeed under Rodgers – so many reasons why but perhaps top of the list is the amount of crap he gets from our fan base. Sure, Lovren over Sakho appears a weird one but if he does go that way then so be it and if it fails badly then he’ll be out of a job soon enough. I think we’ll play some wonderful stuff and score lots of goals. Come on you redmen!
Hi Steven
Thanks for the interesting article.
“Be careful what you wish for and maybe cut Rodgers a bit of slack if the anger rises early on”
100% agree. Thought the same thing about previous managers including Kenny & Rafa.
The much maligned, and much maligning , Padraig does make some good points about Brendan’s defensive records over the years. I think we probably all share his unease about our defensive set up this season but I have a few reasons for hope-
1- The influenceof the new backroom staff can be an improvement on that of the previous incumbents
2. A good pre-season, admittedly against inferior opposition , with few goals conceded
3.The recruitment of Milner and the departure of Mr Gerrard will make our defence less vulnerable, less get-attable.I think our midfield will boss games more than last season with the energy of Henderson and Milner.
4.A regenerated frontline will score the goals that enable the team to relax and play and defend with more confidence .We have all seen the confidence drain from the team when a hatful of chances have gone begging and then the fragility sets in knowing that one goal conceded will finish us.
4.The prowess of Benteke at defensive set pieces should prevent a few soft goals .
5.I think we have bought very well this Summer.Clyne is an obvious upgrade on Johnson and Gomez looks an excellent prospect. Having previously spent big on Sakho and Lovren it was unlikely that we would buy a new centre-half although I would have liked us to strengthen there.I worry about Lovren and Moreno but the opportunity is there for them to step up and improve.They are not bad players
6.Finally, we appear to be set to move to a more solid back four rather than the back three with Can horribly exposed and played out of position. Hopefully Rodgers has learned from the mistakes of last season. With the new attacking flair we have I am sure we will see a return to some of the football that excited us in the 13/14 campaign but tempered with a little more pragmatism and experience. It will be fun to find out.