NOTHING in football ever happens soon enough. Manchester City have already won the league. Sunderland needed to hold crisis talks after just 180 minutes of this campaign. Philippe Coutinho is “overrated, underwhelming and like a schoolboy.” Raheem Sterling is more influential than Sergio Aguero. Manchester United had just 36 hours to save their campaign. Harry Kane is no longer able. Claudio Ranieri, ‘the wrong man for Leicester City,’ is now ‘exactly what they needed.’ There are people agreeing with Harry Redknapp. Four games in, and it’s Klopp for the Kop.
Nothing in football ever happens soon enough. On Saturday, by the time West Ham’s third goal bloodied Liverpool, I was mid-speech at my cousin’s wedding. After toasting to him, there was a queue of Manchester United supporters, smartphones in hand, waiting to share the score with me. By then, the Chelsea crowd who had come to me earlier, four minutes into the match, were too busy fuming over their own fragilities. Branislav Ivanovic needs to be shipped back to Serbia, they demanded. The Blues had to get John Stones as well as A Marquee Signing in before deadline to avert The Crisis.
The next evening, I had been in the company of those Old Trafford enthusiasts again, but this time, they had no inclination to dwell on scorelines. Wayne Rooney has lost it, David de Gea needs to leave because he has destabilised the club, Daley Blind can’t defend and Thomas Muller was the answer.
I found it interesting to bank all these observations without offering any of my own. It was intriguing to see how different sets of fans reacted to different situations with the same short-termism. I continued being on the outside looking in through deadline day and just beyond.
Tottenham supporters were furious that an alternative striker did not arrive after missing out on Saido Berahino. Their Arsenal counterparts were kicking things because Arsene Wenger only had eyes for Karim Benzema and didn’t switch his vision to other options.
But is it really?
Liverpool did not want Mario Balotelli last summer, but settled on him because they had missed out on Alexis Sanchez and needed someone. But they didn’t need him. The rest is history in headlines and column inches.
There are legitimate concerns across the board, but each one does not need to be overblown to feed The Crisis. We operate in a bubble. Our start is the furthest from convincing. Our defence, the most rotten. Our squad depth? The weakest. Last season, Liverpool were criticised for doing business late. This time, they’re not serious about competing as they’ve not done major late business.
MORE, MORE, MORE.
We want a defensive midfielder, another centre-back, greater choice at full-back, another attacking threat. And we want results. We don’t want settling-in periods. We don’t want players to be eased in. But we want them.
Most of what I have read over the past few days suggests the league is already won, and the Reds will have a fight to finish sixth. Most of what I read before 2015-16 kicked off was how Chelsea were going to go back-to-back without breaking a sweat.
The defending champions have four points from four games. Their thou-shalt-not-pass defence has already been breached nine times. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t get Stones from Everton.
The reality at this very second is that Chelsea are worse off than Liverpool. But it doesn’t feel that way in the bubble. In that atmosphere, Saturday was the end of the season. The beginning of The Crisis. And for a large contingent living there: the sign that it’s Klopp o’ clock.
Liverpool should not be put on a table and scalped at home to West Ham. With ease. Defeats happen, but devastating dismantlings should not. Every single person involved in that humilation should still need a sick bucket. Saturday needs to be the first and last we see of it this campaign and in future ones.
Liverpool’s problems are plentiful, but take some breaths outside the bubble and you’ll find that City apart, those in and around us also have a list of Things To Sort Out. I know it’s a mad, mad request, but be a little patient. Live beyond the bubble. It’s too early to draw conclusions and crucify the season.
Nothing in football ever happens soon enough, but we shouldn’t always want it to.
FREE PODCAST: The Anfield Wrap – Liverpool v West Ham
Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
Seems strange you were doing a speech at a wedding.
#norespectfortradition
Well, if she speaks as coherently as she writes……
Good piece…
Just like that, you introduced perspective and made things look better.
I love you Melissa.
Hope we get it right
I have decided that for the rest of the season I will be avoiding the internet fandom and their short-termism and massively overblown reactions (the Illori reaction being the last straw). What led me to this decision? the simple fact that the fandom—at least, that unfortunately vocal part of it on the net—has become toxic, to the point where it has caused me to do something I have never done: want to see the club fail.
It didn’t take long to notice the calls for Rodgers’ immediate dismissal and for Klopp to come in, because only Klopp can save us because…well…“Klopp!” seems all the reason they need. The ridiculousness of the anti-Rodgers crowd made me think: you know what I want to happen? sack Rodgers now, FSG bring in Klopp, Klopp fails, recreating his final season at Dortmund where they spent the first half of the season floating around the bottom of the table with only four wins, end up finishing the season somewhere around 10th, all so that I could laugh at them all for thinking Klopp would save us. And I was immediately disgusted with myself for letting the short-termism get to me.
I don’t want to be that type of fan.
So, I think I’ll spend my season in my own little bubble, my own fandom of one—with the occasional visit to this site to read your always enjoyable articles—and enjoy the season on my own terms without any of the toxicity.
Echoes my own thoughts almost exactly! For the first time in my life the other day I found myself not wanting to wear any sort of Liverpool club gear in public: not because I’m ashamed of the performance v WHU, or of FSG or the way the club is run, but because I couldn’t bear the thought of being mistaken for one of those ‘fans’ currently staging a sit-in on the electronic supermarket floor screaming to all and sundry that they won’t get up, won’t go home and won’t stop screaming UNTIL I GET A BAG OF RODGERS HEADS AND MY KLOPP TREAT AND ITS UNFAIR AND I HATE YOU!
I used to laugh at supporters of other clubs who’d trot out the ‘sense of entitlement’ jibe, but I’m not laughing now because it seems that they might just have been right all along.
Its just embarrassing – a lot more embarrassing than getting wellied at home by West Ham. I’ll forget that scoreline soon enough, but the behaviour of our own ‘fans’ is leaving scars that will take a long time to heal.
FSG and Rodgers must love clowns like you “Jase”. Apparently it’s not the people who get paid millions of pounds a year to produce positive results for the club on the field – it’s the fans who are to blame for it all.
Did Rafa Benitez win the Uefa cup at Chelsea because of great fan support or because he’s a top class professsional?
So that excuses it does it? That Benitez won a cup while Chelsea fans were slagging him off means it is ok for Liverpool “fans” to embarrass themselves and the club with their constant vitriolic and vicious abuse of Rodgers? Is this supposed to inspire him to win silverware?
I’m not fussed what FSG think about me – which is lucky because I’m sure they don’t – and there are a number of things that Rodgers has done that puzzle me, to say the least, but simply logging on to forums and constantly slagging the man isn’t going to get me answers or change things.
What do YOU think the constant abuse achieves? Does it make things better? Do you think Rodgers reads it and thinks “Oh, look! This anonymous poster on the internet who has just called me Brenda the lying gobshite thinks I should start Ilori at CH. You know, I think I’ll do it”?
Does it make Liverpool fans look knowledgeable, reasonable and committed to the club, or does it make us all look like the Chelsea numpty with his bit of A4 paper?
Yes, Jase is my name. Problem?
You’re right, Rodgers doesn’t care what the fans write on internet forums. So why not allow fans to let off steam and not slag them of about it?
Fans of an major club in the world are angry when their team isn’t winning. Rodgers is the 2nd longest serving manager in the Premier League yet hasn’t won anything for Liverpool. It’s about time the Liverpool fans got angry at the way the club is declining. If we keep nodding like sheep at every miserable season we’re served up we will become irrelevant.
Get over yourself. No one is abusing Rodgers. If you want to see abuse, look at how The Owl was treated. Rodgers simply appears out of his depth and lacks a cohesive plan the more we see. With each passing game, an increasing number of fans are seeing him for the salesman he is. He’s probably a nice chap, but looking less and less likely to be a top manager, despite spending over £100 million more than Rafa in less time, and failing to secure a single worldy.
It’s not just the shit results since Suarez left, it’s the bloody awful turgid football he’s brought back to the club. Take the crazy Suarez period from his tenure, then look how dull, clueless and fucking boring his game style really is. He doesn’t have Chelsea’s success to get away with it, and regularly gets outplayed by those that’ll be floating around the drop zone that consider survival in the division good enough. Not fucking good enough. It’s not just the games this season, it’s how we collapsed last, not even making a top 4 position once.
Get rid now if someone better wants the job, and we all know who they are.
Or Klopp comes in and does a Pep Guadiola like at Bayern Munich. .aka win
Well put points as always Melissa. Patience is needed but last season and especially the Stoke game has left too many too close to clamouring for change at the slightest mishap. Bearing in mind Rodgers is the second longest serving manager in the league you could argue LFC have been patient enough. Then you look at Wenger though and that is real patience! Listening to the podcast post game all everyone seemed to really agree on without saying it directly was the manager making a lot of mistakes and adopting the wrong tactics again. Man U is always the tastiest game to dampen the mood further or make your hair tingle and keep you buzzing for weeks like when Gerrard used to kiss the camera there!
The reality at this very second is that Chelsea are worse off than Liverpool.
Right, but that doesn’t take the place of waving the EPL trophy around and drinking out of it while taking a dump at the center circle of Old Trashford.
absolutely.gloating about the problems of Chelsea and Utd wont get us anywhere.These clubs can buy there way out of trouble we have no more family silver to sell off
Where is the gloating about their problems? I don’t see it. Everything that is said about them is what their supporters are saying to provide perspective.
Valiant Effort Mellissa… but you’re barking at the moon.
Perspective is Cod Liver Oil to some.
No matter how small a spoonful you ask them to take, they’ll still spit it back in your face with a loud “Eeeeuuuchhhhkk!”
Awesome piece Melissa. Couldn’t agree more with everything you’ve said.
Keep flying our SA flag high. You make us proud!!!!
PS: You were brilliant on Monday Night Football. Loved the way you stuck it to HD Ackerman.
Problem is there was something fundamentally wrong with the team last season culminating in the ultimate humiliation in May. 80 million quid later and even ignoring this seasons actual results there still looks to be something fundamentally wrong with the team. We dont create enough and our defence looks all at sea. We shouldnt need to look at whats going on at rival clubs to acknowledge something isnt right at our own.
Yes Chelsea and United might be having difficulties but what has that got to do with us? They are very successful Premiership winning clubs, we are not. Our difficulties are against a backdrop of no League success in 25 years and 3 trophy less seasons under the current manager. We have been playing atrocious football for quite some time now and don’t look to be contenders for the title anytime soon. To suggest that “It’s too early to draw conclusions and crucify the season.” is fine if we hadn’t last season to compare it with!
It’s one thing to ignore the ludicrous over reactions of the Internet but genuine fans are right to be concerned after West Ham. So many of the problems of
last season reappeared and the manager’s faults, no set tactical plan, playing people out of position, wrong team set-up, gobbling off to the media without any justification, appear to be still present.
OK it’s only one game and things could still turn round, it just appears to many that this is only a remote possibility. Other teams’ problems are only relevant, alas, if LFC are taking advantage. praying for a result at Old Trafford.
Me, the rest of the fans and the players and Manager will like you be praying that the OT result and performance gives us some cause for hope, but that is the gamble in football. Both sides have their problems and on the day luck will play a part. Mental strength, teamwork and the skill of our players is something we will all hope will be shown more than them but it will only paper over the cracks for the media and probably most of us. Personally I just want us to score goals…and more than them.
Got everything crossed now….and Benteke is supposed to be injured….oh no! Short termism as Melissa says is not the way to go but we need some thing to maintain our hope. Perhaps the extent of what Melissa quotes is the result of an over-supply of disappointment….and the players coaches and manager need to keep this in the front of their mind .
The last 12-13 results are the slightest mishap? Losing to WHU at home 0-3 is worse than losing away to Stoke 6-1 in a game that didn’t matter.
If the mancs slaughter us, will it also be just one game?
So far we’ve 2 wins, a good draw and a bad defeat. 7 points. Now if that defeat had have come away to Arsenal instead I believe the fume would be less. Still 7 points though.
It was the manner of the defeat. At Anfield. All to reminiscent of those bad games from last season. Same mistakes being made in defence, very little happening up top.
When you look at the squad it’s actually looks quite good, a coupla areas need addressed but not too bad. It’s how the squad is being utilised is the worry and has been the worry of many fans these past few seasons.
I’m very much a Rodgers sceptic and am prepared to give him time but making similar major mistakes from last year does nothing to convince me of his suitability.
I said at the start of the season I’d take 7 points from the tricky 7 aways as long as we win our homes. No one to fear at home over those matches but already we’ve been tripped up.
We’ll know a lot more after these 7 tricky aways!!
Weird how similar the start of this season feels like the start of last season. Really similar. Even the way people are telling others “Stop whining because this team or that team has problems right now”. Bland performances, poor offensive play, meh midfield, not horrible but not great defense
.There are very few players in the squad who are exceptionally good at something,there isn’t an exceptionally good tackler, there isn’t a stand out passer (don’t get me wrong, there are players in there who can thread a good defense splitter now and again, but no Silva/Ozil/Fabregas type), Sturridge is a dependable finisher but he is always hurt, Benteke is good in the air but we have capable crossers, not exceptional/consistent crossers. As a collective the team isn’t exceptionally good at anything.
Other teams will struggle too and thats great, but that does nothing to fix our problems. Its not doom and gloom, we’re not getting relegated. But There is definite cause for concern.
http://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2015/08/thursday-column-liverpool-points-plus-change/
“Sorry lads, as it stands, the goals against bracket is looking pretty good for a man who can’t organise a defence.”
Genuine question Melissa, and I completely understand if you choose not to answer; why is it that when we win you write a column about how good Brendan Rodgers is but when we lose you write about some fans’ over reactions? In the article Ive linked you were talking about savouring a start that had 2 shots on target against Stoke, 3 at home to Bournemouth and a draw at Arsenal in which they had a perfectly good goal disallowed. But now after that performance against West Ham this is what you choose to reflect on.
Another one; why do you always pick the same section of fans to write about? And why do you imply all Rodgers’ critics are of the same knee jerk over reactionary nature? It’s like saying everyone right of centre politically is a Nazi or left of centre a Marxist.
And a final one; why do you continually refuse to recognise and/or converse with those of us who have seen the manager have over 3 years and spend nearly 300m and watch our team look clueless in attack and shambolic at the back for a long times now? You admit we have plenty of problems and ask for patience….perhaps we should simply wait to watch the problems get worse and watch 7 years of Rodgers failing instead of the 3 and a bit he’s had up to now?
Again, I’ll understand if you choose not to answer. Many of us will. Thanks.
Hi Michael,
That column wasn’t about how good the manager is at all. You’ve picked one line out of the whole thing, to suit your view. It was about change. And this column doesn’t even mention him.
You seem to be the one that wants to make everything about BR.
This article is also not about a type of fan. It is about observing reactions and wondering if things are as bad as it is made out to be, or if it is just a consequence of football’s impatience across the board.
Refuse to regularly converse? Erm, the lads are always telling me that I don’t have to respond to comments because I spend a lot of time doing so.
Fair enough, thanks for your reply. I look forward to the day you write an article which is even mildly critical of a manager who has had so long, spent so much and achieved nothing, or indeed an article that addresses the legitimate criticism of the manager. Some people seem to think they support Rodgerspool, not Liverpool.
PS: Very disappointed to hear the TAW lads tell you regularly you shouldn’t converse with your readership. Showing utter contempt for customers can never be a good thing.
Don’t think Melissa was having a go at Rodgers critics tbf, just the ones who over-react and spew madness online and in the pubs.
I’m not his greatest fan myself, But so far this season he’s won 2 and drawn at the emirates before the west ham game. I don’t care how we’ve played, we’ve got the points. You think every season the title winning side doesn’t have shit 1-0’s and game they got away with? Hell, that used to be the basis of Man Utd’s winning seasons! I’ll take those points all day long.
So the first game we have a shocker, everyones Rodgers Out again? Look up knee-jerk reactions and you’ll find a frothing twitter feed of LFC fans slaying Brendan for losing one game. And those saying Klopp In like he’s going to magically fix everything and beat our bankrolled rivals to get fourth or higher, don’t even get me started…
Sure, he could be the messiah incarnate. He could just as easily be Jurgen Flopp. Grass isn’t always greener.
I agree with the general theme of the article, but I think Mr. Pearson has a point. Fans and the media are always overreacting to the short term. This is not new. The media has to write/talk about something and fans are fickle. However, I have noticed a tendency for some at TAW to be more than a little patronizing about legitimate concerns.
Realistically BR won’t and shouldn’t be fired for one loss. Any reasonable fan knows there is no chance of it, the owners have massively backed him and that’s probably that until the end of the season. But there’s nothing wrong with legitimate criticism.
Fact is, LFC have scored two goals in four games, and one shouldn’t have counted. Many fans, including myself, think BR should have been sacked at the end of last season after the team decided to take the last month or so off. BR has had three full seasons, and besides an 11 match winning streak with the two hottest strikers in the world, he has been a slightly above average manager, and a terrible evaluator of talent. Blaming the “transfer committee” for all the bad decisions is a cop out; if BR doesn’t have to means or will to shape his own squad by now, he shouldn’t be manager.
Reasonable minds can disagree about BR, but when you write an article bemoaning short term thinking and talking about the large contingent for Klopp o’clock, (with a nice, big picture of him), you are clearly criticizing those who think BR should be sacked. Nothing wrong with that, no reason to be defensive about it, you should just own it.
Fact is, there was a large contingent calling for Klopp after the end of last season, and they haven’t changed their minds. I’m one of them.
But BR isn’t going anywhere for now, so I will continue to hope I’m wrong about a manager who I don’t think is good enough and picks players for the wrong reasons, along with a whole bunch of other things. (E.g. How does a team that claims top four ambitions have two teenagers in their best 11 on opening day?)
The ones who truly deserve the criticism are the mental cases that hurl abuse at players online so awful they close their accounts.
All that being said, really enjoying the TAW player! Still worth the fiver.
When you look at Benteke in pure statistics with 49 goals in 100 games at Aston Villa, then you look at Sturridge in pure statistics it is 40 in 66 during the same period.
Benteke is acclimating and Sturridge is returning to fitness. Coutinho has not even reached his peak, yet. Firmino (49 goals in 153 games at Hoffenheim, most recently 32 in his last 73 games there) is getting used to a new league in a new country.
It doesn’t take immense faith to believe that goals will be forthcoming. The best part is that each of these talents looks like they can really function as an attacking unit once they’ve worked each other out. Once that happens, I wouldn’t want to be a CB having to work out where it’s all coming from – especially when Milner or Henderson arrive in the box.
We may not have an individual at the heights of a Suarez, but even after the toothless performance against West Ham, you can see how we may end up with a collective threat just as dangerous.
As for the Rodgers Out crowd, I’d appreciate it if they’d stop pissing on our collective reputation as supporters.
Here’s a bubble for the lady: If history is anything to go by, the first few games of 13/14 season weren’t so sweet on the eye either. More than a few hard fought 1-0 victories if you’ll recall. It wasn’t until Suarez returned from suspension that things really kicked into gear. If there’s a lot of you that are hoping the return of Daniel Sturridge will provide this season it’s spark then that’s a gamble I’m not prepared to wager on. When I look around and I see competitors dropping points, when I look at the money we’ve brought in from selling our players, I expect us to capitalize. New coaching staff, new players, new whatever…it matters not. It’s been three years. Where’s the philosophy? Do you remember beating Real Madrid 4-0 in the Champions League? It really wasn’t that long ago. Do you remember watching the opposition squirm in their boots as You’ll Never Walk Alone was belted out before kick off? They knew they weren’t just going up against 11 men in red or the faithful inside Anfield, but generations upon generations of reds. The weight of our history used to weigh on even the mightiest of our opponents. Now it seems like it’s too heavy for this manager. That’s not a condemnation or at least an outright condemnation.. just the view from where I’m sat.
There were those three 1-0 wins, but they were only three of the games when Suarez was suspended. We were 7-2-1 during his absence, scoring 19 and allowing just 6.
Eleven of those goals during the 10 games were by Sturridge, who was basically the runner-up for PFA Player of the Year. Sturridge also scored against Chelsea the day Suarez bit Ivanovic and the day Suarez returned to the league against Sunderland.
Sturridge scored in his first three games. Only the second player in Premier League history to score in eight games in a row.
He scored 36 goals in his first 50 games – the highest total by any Red since before WWI. That’s more than Suarez (21), Torres (34), Fowler (31), Dalglish (31), Owen (28), etc.
Sturridge scored 50 goals faster than ANY PLAYER in LFC history. He’s 26 year’s old now, entering the prime of his career. And he will have Benteke occupying defenders while Firmino and Coutinho provide the creativity around them. Remember the through balls? Coutinho will finally have someone to play on the shoulder with the pace and skill to put them away.
Let me illustrate it:
——Benteke—–Sturridge—-
————–Firmino—————
-Coutinho—————Milner–
If that combination clicks with anything resembling its potential, we could end up having the most lethal attacks in football. The front three alone have 130 goals in the past three seasons.
Think about that over the break. YNWA
How about this?
————–Aguero————-
Sterling—De Bruyne–Silva
—-Yaya Toure–whoever—-
Or?
————–Costa—————
Hazard—-Willian——Pedro
———Matic—-Fabregas—-
Or?
————–Rooney————-
Depay——Matrial——Mata
Shweinsteiger–Schneiderlin
Or hell, even?
—————–Sako—————
Bolasie—-Puncheon—-Zaha
—–Cabaye—-MacArthur—–
Or?
——————Gomis—————
Montero——-Gylfi———-Ayew
————–Ki——–Shelvey——-
You’re just playing Fantasy football or Football manager there with your little line up. We haven’t seen Sturridge kick a ball fully fit for over a year now. There’s no way of knowing how he’ll gel with a player like Benteke (all those stats of his were achieved either playing as the focal point or alongside Messi… sorry, Suarez). Your placing too much expectation on Sturridge, which will turn out to be too much pressuse (expect a lot of TAW articles explaining Sturridge’s injury record to dissappointed fans, if he’s not banging them in regularly by the end of November).
And you’re wasting Henderson playing him as a DM in a diamond formation, for fuck’s sake. It’s like everyone forgot all of Henderson’s goals and assists, thinking he should be our deepest lying mid.
Fuck me, I’m looking at that Swansea set up and I’d buy just about all, except Gomis.
I’d have Shelvey back in a heartbeat, that we’ve sold him for 5 mil, literally hurts.
Ki would be a perfect DM for Brendan, based on what he wants (or doesn’t want) out of his team’s deepest lying midfielder.
Sigurdsson’s a class player, and since Ibe’s the only winger our transfer/loan dealings have left us with, at this moment in time Montero is a massive upgrade (I’d include Ayew as well, but he’s more of a second striker).
P.S. *Martial and *pressure for the above post.
If you can’t support us when we lose or draw don’t support us when we win
Bill Shankly
So now wanting Rodgers out is not supporting LFC. You’re right, bring back Hodgo.
Unfuckingbelievable.
Trying to be positive, perhaps one could look at it from the following standpoint.
After some of the big defeats of last season culminating in the Stoke game BR finally realised he had to do something to make it more solid at the back.
This realization was enforced by the fact we were playing them away first game and then had Arsenal away a game or so later.
So the main emphasis he has had in the build up to the season and for first few games was to make Liverpool solid and then hopefully things up front would gel from there. (Obviously they work on attacking as well but a large emphasis on defence).
Once they got through those first three, he felt the urge to keep the same team to try to build on it – and failed at West Ham, Liverpool toothless in attack.
He’s now got the international break to work out a way to arrange things differently in attack to deal with Benteke isolated no width etc. the same way he had the season break to try to deal with the defence.
Time will tell, perhaps the Norwich game more than the United game whether he is willing to change his approach to some sort of degree in the attacking side of things.
Although this is probably quite a naive and superficial way of looking at it, perhaps there is a grain of truth in it as well.
The john stones line cracked me up. Good stuff.
3 years from the clubs last trophy, a 2nd place finish in the league. The following 2 seasons the club finishes outside the top 4… clearly a need for a new manager? Well it’s a good job they didn’t think that in 1971 then isn’t it!!
Most LFC fans I know don’t think we need more players, they think we have a good squad that we aren’t getting nearly enough out of.
Really good article. I remember when footie was fun. It was back before Sky and the Internet. Not because we won all the time (although we generally did) but because we had no instant feedback shows and websites and the like that meant we could THINK about things other than football sometimes.
Sadly Sky and the Internet combined now mean that every minute of every day someone has to have an opinion about something to do with the game. And what better way to fill pages and radio stations and blogs and TV stations than to always claim a crisis is at hand or that such and such has to be sacked.
Perspective used to take time to manifest itself but now 4 games should just about do it, even if two were won and the third drawn at a tough away. None of that matters it is only the 4th one that REALLY matters and that is because we lost (badly) and to top it all we have 2 whole weeks for the Internet warriors and radio sound bites and the Harry Redknapps (really??) of this world to spout their bile.
I hate International weeks/fortnightly………..
These comparisons are a bit like using stats, you can always find examples to support your theory. Bournemouth mostly stuck with what they’ve had, and Watford changed everything (the manager they’ve replaced just managed to get freaking Maccabi Tel Aviv into the CL), and they both stand about an equal chance of doing well and surviving, or being relegated.
IMO, the clubs I want Liverpool to be compared to are clubs like Arsenal, Swansea and Southampton. (No real point to make with this. I just feel them to be the best examples to follow for where our club is.)
I just want to raise this point though. Melissa makes the case for Chelsea being in a worse situation to ours, basing it on the four games of this season. While I agree that no conclusions should be drawn from a mere four opening games of a season, maybe you will find an explanation to the different level of crisis being made out of the two clubs’ situations if you’d expand the analysys so as to include the past season and four games, instead of just the past four games.
My point being, it’s all good if you want to call it an overreaction because it’s only been four games, but it wouldn’t hurt for an objective analysys to acknoweldge the fact that last season happened as well and that maybe the dissatisfied fans have found the opening four games of this season all too reminding of the last one, with very little to suggest that progress has been made, both in a defensive and offensive sense.
(And yes, it may be the case of bedding in new players before they click, but you could’ve said the same about the Adam, Downing, Carroll lot. As for me, I’m waiting for a run of two or three games in each of which we score at least two goals, regardless of the goals against column, before believing we’re finishing anywhere higher than 5th.)