By Karl Coppack
IT’S the day of the home leg against Zenit, six months into the season and I’m still not sure. I’ve sat through 5-0 wins, I’ve seen us be an aberration of a back pass and a walkabout goalkeeper away from beating the League champions home and away but struggle past a non-league side and capitulate against a side struggling to stay in the third tier of English football. I’m still not sure.
Are we any good yet?
Well, we’ve not been any good for a while. With glimpses of decent runs (preferably with more wins than draws) we’ve been pretty average. Indeed, a middling League season is something we’ve had to endure for years so it’s not always easy to tell what a good season looks like. Brendan’s wildest dreams would possibly incorporate a 63 point plus season, eleven points up on last year, which was Rafa’s last total. Good for 2013, atrocious in 2010.
No one disputes that we’ve been a club in decline since 2009 although Rafa’s dismissal wasn’t just down a seventh place finish. Whether you see Rafa’s exit as the start of the rot (I’d pinpoint the actual moment to Carra and Skrtel’s clash of heads at White Hart Lane in August 2009), few can deny that he was fighting more than the other 19 clubs and Europe. Our owners aren’t overly popular and our MD, the Litherland Fonz, certainly isn’t but Brendan doesn’t have to fight his own club. That said, expectation is lower.
The goalposts have moved significantly since then. 4th place is now a Hodgsonian utopia, something that would have been unthinkable back in 2009. Now we must meet lower objectives and our mettle has been severely tested. We have not responded well to that challenge.
We’ve deserved it. The mishandling of the club and its sometimes bizarre transfer policy has led to this fall. Short term managers and long term contracts for fading or faded stars have taken their toll and it needs to stop. You can’t build a dynasty in 18 months, only the early foundations of one. The lunacy of signing Joe Cole pointed to the dictionary definition of short termism as his career had practically ended the year before he signed. Likewise the appointment of a man who was so far removed from entertaining and successful football that he inevitably went on to manage England.
There comes a time when you have to draw a line in the cliché and accept the position you’re in and then, and only then, can you arrest the slide into mediocrity. It’s not easy and there are going to be many barriers to overcome. The first one is the name of the club.
Liverpool.
How do you solve a problem like Liverpool? How can you build for a future when the sheer tonnage of history, glory and, that word again, expectation sits on top of you? This is before you factor in a media who gleefully anticipate any slip ups (how many times do you see every FA Cup game against lower opposition televised for an eighth place side? It’s done in case something goes wrong for LFC and we usually deliver at some point). We have a fan base groomed on success. We may not have won the League for twenty odd years but we’ve won everything else and more than once but we’re still seen as a failing club. We want the world and we want it now.
Maybe we should just stop thinking we’re Liverpool. Maybe we should start aspiring to be Liverpool and see it as an ideal rather than the state of our current nation.
There’s lots of talk of Year Zero and ‘there is a plan’ but what does that entail?
Firstly, we need a staff and direction. If the treatment of Kenny Dalglish was FSG’s most controversial hour, the lack of local based CEO is probably the biggest error. The owners are seldom at the club and although there may be contact between FSG and Ayre/Rodgers many of us would like to know about that plan and how it delivers us back to the top. We know only that they like to recruit young players cheaply and sell for higher later. That’s it. The Dempsey debacle underlines the butting heads of a manager who wants experience and a quick fix and a board who want a sell on fee. There has to be a compromise.
There’s an over-reliance on youth so it was refreshing to hear the manager to talk about buying ‘men’ as opposed, presumably, to boys as the FSG model looks only to recruit lads of barely shaving age. We need leaders on the pitch and players who can stand up to any situation. Seniority is important. It’s a rare kid who will take the mantle and bollock his elders. It’s not welcomed. Ask Jack Robinson. Gerrard had Gary Mac, Owen had Fowler, Fowler had Rush. We don’t want to end up with a situation where Wisdom has Coutinho.
A glorious return is going to take time but we have to face it without sulking. You can’t fight a battle with slumped shoulders and point at an unjust past (and carpetbaggers for owners) every time you lose. At some point you have to realise the good old days of 2009 are a long, long away in both directions. Sometimes you have to start again.
The chief burden carriers for this are, of course, the players and I’m not convinced that they have arrived at the realisation that they are now mid-table standard. Obviously motivation is key and you don’t want them weeping in their cars after training but these lads are internationals and have won trophies before and should be embarrassed about the League table.
The senior players have lived through the good times and know how hard it is to stay there. Agger, Skrtel and Reina should be good enough to act as mentors but where are they? What have they been doing? These are players more than capable of finishing higher in the League. Is it sulking? Is it a comfortable lifestyle that’s made their hunger and desire evaporate? The word ‘Liverpool’ still looks great on any CV and there aren’t many players who improve upon it but that shouldn’t be the pinnacle. Liverpool plus trophies, plus success, plus turning the club around – now you’re talking. You can’t rest on your laurels, lads. You got us here.
Personnel is crucial and our strike rate in that department isn’t great. Even taking out Hodgson’s diabolical teams which included such luminaries as Cole, Konchesky, Poulsen and Jovanovic (a Rafa signing) as the absolute nadir of scattergun buying we’ve turned out some shockers at times. Rafa had his odd moments on that front but they were always tempered by world class signings (Torres, Alonso) and quality surprises (Arbeloa, Crouch). One myth that must be expunged is that of ‘we can’t compete with the bigger clubs.’ Yes we can! We’ve spent a colossal amount over the last decade but you need more skill and judgment than a willing board, a more than willing bank and a copy of the Rothman’s Yearbook to build a side. Even a year after Kenny’s profligate spending and time of austerity the club have still given Brendan £50m to spend. Hardly peanuts.
The club seems schizophrenic, stuck between a magnificent name and an average side, or at least a 6-8th place finish side. In old money that would be Aston Villa. One directs the other and some harsh truths have to be faced. How many times did the website have ‘xxx issues rallying cry’ only to see them limp off the pitch wondering what’s happened? Too many times. In Houllier’s last season it was practically a fortnightly occurrence. Rallying cries are fine but only if it’s backed up.
To use a football adage the club needs to put its foot on the ball and look around. Where is Liverpool FC at the moment? Well, we’re a mid-table team with players who are a little above that level in a few cases and vastly better than that in others. We have to learn to climb. If the club thinks that we’re still a top English and European team who are just going through a blip then further decline is inevitable. To move ahead you have to know your starting position no matter how hard it is to digest. Progress comes in small steps. Whether you think that we’ve taken those steps is subject to debate, I have my doubts frankly, but one thing is clear – the sense of entitlement has gone and everyone, the club, the owners (not that trophies hold much glamour for them) need to start again. The fans need to do more too.
Hold on. He’s blaming us now?
Well, yes I am to some extent. The difference between home and away crowds is marked and I still don’t know why. Yes, away days are more fun and usually involve more alcohol and hard-nosed, hard-faced support but Anfield used to be a cauldron. Now it’s like watching a film about a Liverpool home game. There was a moment in the recent Swansea home game where we peppered shots, often wild and silly but always entertaining. Grown men were seen to stand and shout, some of them for a full minute. Glances were exchanged, glances that told of ‘I remember this’ and the sheer joy of it all. The atmosphere was charged and for a minute we all remembered why we were here and why we bother with it in the first place – to roar the team on and frighten the opposition into submission. Course, eventually the ball went out and we went back to what we were doing beforehand – chatting to our mates, shouting at Downing etc.
The player/fan relationship is a binary one. Each relies on the other. Playing at Anfield with that bird on your chest should be the absolute highlight of their careers and running onto a deafening noise should tell them just how far they’ve come but that’s where the real work starts. For our part we need to go to the match to work, not to watch. Okay you’re not going to get a Chelsea 05 or a St Etienne every week but it’d be nice if they knew we were there. We’re all resentful to some degree and we all have our least favourite players (Afternoon, Joe) and administrators (Morning, John) but ultimately we’re all in this together. We’re not the best fans in the world anymore. We can be, but we’re not. The club isn’t the only thing that’s fallen away in recent years. I don’t mean that as a criticism, just as a starting point.
The past is the past and there’ll always be grievances. I’ve got enough to fill John Henry’s calendar for a month but there comes a point where we have to accept who we are. Capable of greatness, yes. Great? Occasionally. Do enough to be great? Hmm…
Of course, the lion’s share of the hard work begins with the club rather than us and we can’t be in a position where the owners and senior management thinks that the current situation is okay. It’s not. It’s not expected to be yet but this isn’t acceptable. The manager took criticism for his ‘great little run’ comment post West Brom as it was anything but. I hope he just meant that we failed to build on two good performances against better sides as one win in five and an embarrassing Cup upset is nothing like good enough.
Overall, we have to start from scratch and not be afraid of the word ‘Liverpool’. Brendan Rodgers isn’t Bill Shankly. Ian Ayre isn’t Peter Robinson and John Henry isn’t Sir John Smith and they will not be just because they’re men who have inherited their job titles.
This isn’t about lowering expectations. These men should feel the weight on their shoulders as much as the pride of our history. It just needs hard work and a harder attitude from all of us. That’s all.
Again provocative piece thanks should hopefully be making sense with a lot of our fanbase, and for me anyone who coins the phrase ‘Litherland Fonz’ deserves a mention.
You are right about the lessoning of passion at home games from on and off the pitch, yes we have leaders who are still displaying passion, the two local lads, cheeky little Suarez, Agger and Reina, but i think many of them on the pitch either dont get the club or have not got the hunger like the old days. When you add to that the notion for some of the crowd going to Anfield (especially the corporate or day trippers as we rudely call them) feel it is the same as going to a West End show it becomes an event rather than a football match for them.
It could also be said that the ones who still regard this as a football match and a place to cheer on their team have been priced out for these event goers.
So the atmosphere is flat, the team are flat they only times this hasn’t happened for me is when we get an early goal and the fretful fans relax.
To get back now to the ‘Litherland Fonz’ and his bosses, for me the biggest problem right now and the one which creates a lot of the uncertainties in and around our fan base is the absent owners and the changing and often blurred vision for where this club is heading.
This uncertainty is transferred through forums and websites onto the team and the manager because that is something the average fan understands, and net spend, wade structures and commercial sponsorship deals are something that leaves them quite cold. So they take out their frustrations on Downing/Reina or Brendan, any scapegoat on the pitch or in the dugout, rather then get embroiled future financial and structure planning arguments.
For me get the owners to be more visible at Anfield and get them to create a clear vision that we can all work from and they will persevere with, and this will filter down to Brendan and the Boys, then we can all sing from the same hymn book and the Holy Trinity might be an option again.
I really enjoyed this, Karl. I think you make some great points and ask some great questions. Questions that have been burning in all of us for some time. The same questions that race through my head after a defeat or embarrassing performance. At the moment we have more questions than answers, and that can be incredibly frustrating in any situation where you are trying to see more than what’s in front of you. The big picture as opposed to the current frame.
My theory, in life as well as relating to football, is that if you want to be somewhere else, you can’t keep focusing on where you are. Otherwise, you will just continue to have more of the same. If we want greatness, Champions League, and Championships back at Liverpool, it is no help pointing out our many flaws and focusing on the wrongs. Instead, we need to focus on what we want and what we will do to get there. And ONLY focus on that, despite whatever setback, upset, or other thing that gets in the way.
I mean an absolute tunnel visioned view of where we want to be without so much as a glance at where we are. The problem is, this team falls back into sulking at every set back and spending too much time bemoaning what’s currently going on rather than immediately forgetting such setbacks with the bigger picture in mind.
To me, this attitude and mind set is key. If Rodgers/FSG/the fans etc. can create this for the players, they will get to where they want to go. If we all continue to wallow in current standings, performances, so-called mediocrity, we will never get there.
And this is not a criticism of you or your piece, I just wanted to share my own idea about how we can get us back to the top as that is to me the core of what you are talking about here.
First step on the road to recovery. Fine any player who dinks a pass, or plays keepy-uppy before a pass. Reward getting the ball under control at the first touch. Yes keep it on the deck, pass and move. I knew I was in the wrong job. Oh yeah! The team have to motivate the crowd. Not the other way. If they expect us to motivate them they should pay us to attend.
If it’s like a graveyard it’s because the it’s dead on the pitch.
Again like Roy’s, an agreeable article that articulates a lot of the views I wouldn’t be able to myself. I think there is a myth that the lackluster home atmosphere of a weekend is a recent problem though, as if Anfield has had the noise beaten out of it by the 6th place and under finishes in recent times. For as long as I can remember Anfield has generally speaking of course, been as quiet for Norwich at home as it’s been loud for Inter or Real’s visit. Those wild Champions League campaigns under Rafa papered over the atmosphere-related cracks this past decade.
That said, I think it can be too easy (and I’m the worst for this) to bemoan this Henderson-hating crank in the Main Stand or that disrespectful “Dalglish out!” teenager on Facebook. A lot of the short-termism in the fanbase existed before FSG bought the club, but there’s no doubt they’ve found new and improved ways of exacerbating such attitudes with their own mistakes and at times schizophrenic approach to running the club. Don’t insult the intelligence of the supporters with the ‘Liverpool looking at Guardiola’ nonsense during that farcical “process of looking at profiles of things and stuff” last summer and expect not to come in for criticism.
People weighing up 52 points + 3 trips to Wembley vs whatever is going to come of this season is as unfair as it is perfectly rational. People saying a manager in his first season won the Champions League with arguably a much less talented squad than what we have now is as insane a comparison as it is a thoughtful look at whether a young and promising manager has been pragmatic enough to get the best out of his players this season.
I’m just ranting now… Don’t even know what my point was. Guess that’s the difference between article writers and commenters *shrugs shoulders*
Great article. Bottom line is we’ve wasted an absolute fortune on duff buys. I agree we have to move on now and not rest on our laurels. If anything the article was a bit pessimistic because we’ve pretty much won everything except the Premiership over the past 20 years. That said, I trust in Brendan. More time is needed.
Good read that. Funny. I was reading thinking there was going to be some miraculous revelation, some inspiring conclusion, bit of a crap ending if I’m being critical – a bit like LFC at the moment !!
Why did you have mention abberrant back pass ???? In light of last night’s game:
Your user name should be NostraKarlus!!
Good article BTW.
The best piece ive read on here. keep ’em coming.
…A glorious return is going to take time but we have to face it without sulking. You can’t fight a battle with slumped shoulders and point at an unjust past (and carpetbaggers for owners) every time you lose. At some point you have to realise the good old days of 2009 are a long, long away in both directions. Sometimes you have to start again…BRILLIANT.
Enjoyed the read.
We’re saddled with it now.We got some half-arsed owners who saw a chance to make a quick buck or two on marketing and “Global exploitation”.Just like the others!
” Not much to do here guys.Just get somebody in and start selling the shirts.”
Rodgers? He’s just like Hodgson.A big mouth talking the talk.Have you ever seen any passion in him?Or have you seen, like I have ,a man more interested in sound bites and cliches? He could talk all night about his philosophy and given half a chance he would do so.
He’s talked us down from the word go and if you think about it Hodgson did exactly the same thing.”.We haven’t got a strong squad.All the players are useless.We’ll have to start again.”
Not much comfort there eh? As a supporter or a player.
So here it comes……Dalglish and Benitez had the beat of LFC in their own hearts.It’s obvious.And I know that in its self it’s not enough.But when you think about how they tried in the face of overwhelming odds, they carried on to take the Club forward and give us some pride back.
So you can talk all night about giving Rodgers 4 or 5 years but just remember this.Martinez was the man who took Swansea to their current status.Rodgers came in and kept the wheel spinning.
We’re in a cleft stick now.Owners who will only back off when the money runs out.
The only tangible things we’ve seen so far are about bigger sponsorship deals and more revenue streams.Typical? Or just a bit smarter than Hicks and Gillette?
I’ve laughed about Rodgers appointment being the equivalent of ManU appointing Paul Jewell to succeed Ferguson.But now? Give me Paul Jewell any day!
Change the record Brian!
O.K.Quazi,
Which record would you like me to play?
A Day in the Life? Give Peace a Chance? Tomorrow Never Knows? Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey?
Just a joke!
All great songs. Any will do
Good reply Quazi! I’m still laughing!You shot me down in flames there!
But “I got my finger on the trigger and I don’t know who to trust”
Is that a better one?
All the best.
Hi Karl
sorry to bother you. I wondered whether you are still in contact with Ray Kennedy, as I have a “favour” to ask of him. I’d be grateful for your advise.
Many Thanks,
Chris
ps happy to discuss with you before contacting Ray if you wish
Sent you an email, mate, but mine’s been playing up a bit.