The Liverpool Way

What a season it’s been. Starting with the 1-1 draw against Sunderland. The win away at Arsenal. Losing Meireles in the last minute of the transfer window. The 4-0 thrashing at Spurs. The Cup runs. The highs. The lows. The Cup Finals. Evra. Suarez. Carroll. Blackburn. Norwich. Swansea. And to top it all off, yesterday (16/05/12) Kenny Dalglish was sacked as manager of Liverpool FC.

I haven’t published anything on here since March and whilst that’s been for various reasons, it’s mainly because I was dissatisfied with the Football we were playing. When I wrote up there ‘the Highs and the Lows’ that to me is really all this season has been about. We’ve had some great results, ones that I’ll treasure forever, but I feel as a whole the negatives have outweighed the positives and I’m looking forward to this summer break.

I’d like to say first of all, I’m not exactly happy with the sacking of Dalglish, but I’m not disappointed either. I didn’t wish for him to be sacked. I didn’t want him to leave the club like this. But ultimately when you look at how the season has gone, him leaving the club is probably for the best. To finish 8th in the League, 17 points from the Top 4, and 37 points off 1st place just isn’t good enough. Especially when you look at how many points we picked up in our last 10-20 games. And getting beat at home to teams like Wigan, Fulham and West Brom. It just wasn’t working, something wasn’t right.

Anfield has always been our fortress. A place where teams came and crumbled under the drum of the Anfield roar. But this year things have felt different, and teams haven’t been afraid to play good Football. And luck? What can I say about luck? To hit the woodwork 30+ times in one season is a ridiculous stat, but that’s Football. They either go in or they don’t, and when these things happen there’s nothing you can do about it. It becomes irrelevant.

I’m disappointed with the season as a whole, but there are some things we can celebrate. We picked up our first piece of Silverware in 6 years, and we’re back in Europe. Yes it’s only the Europa League but England needs to rid itself of this snobbery. It’s Europe! We’ve also played some great Football at times. Suarez has been excellent and Carroll’s recent inclusion in the England Euro squad shows how much he’s improved. It’s enough to feel confident about for next year, under a new manager with some new talent brought in in the summer.

Who do I want as next LFC manager? I’ll leave that one to the owners. I’ve been behind them since day one, and I fully believe they know what they’re doing. And if they don’t? Well it will be just another chapter in the history of LFC. We can only wait and see. I for one think it’s going to be a very exciting summer and I’m looking forward to seeing the Reds play under a new man next season.

But I’d like to take this last paragraph to thank Dalglish. Thank you for coming back and trying your best. Thank you for getting us out of the mess we faced at the end of last year, and for loving this Football club as is so often replicated on your face. You will always be a legend in the eyes and hearts of all LFC fans, and we will continue to chant your name and remember you throughout. All the best for the future. As you know probably more than anyone else: ‘You’ll never walk alone.’
 

There’s a lot to be said about our performance against QPR last night but for now let’s just talk about Stoke. We won, we got through to the Semis, we’re going to Wembley again. Brilliant right? Of course. But then what?

A bright start against QPR, 10-15 corners in the first 20 minutes, passing the ball well, creating chances on goal. We didn’t convert any of them mind, but the thought was there. Then QPR started to gain confidence, Liverpool’s pressure dropped off a little and the teams went in at half-time level at 0-0. A frustrating half for us both.

Second half, Liverpool finally got the break through we deserved. Substitute Sebastian Coates firing in (literally firing) a stunning volley from inside the box, leaving QPR goalkeeper Kenny without a chance. Goal of the season, no doubt. 18 minutes later and we get goal number 2, a deserved lead and a good goal, which was probably more Suarez’s/Downing’s than Kuyt’s.

What happened next? Something Liverpool fans will be scratching their heads over for weeks/months to come. QPR scored from a corner, a soft goal to concede, poor defending and a baffled looking Reina. They gain confidence, thinking they can at least rescue a point from this. 5 minutes later, Kenny takes Suarez off, putting Carroll on (we’ll talk about this later.) QPR go and grab another goal, again a header, this time from ex-LFC striker Djibril Cisse. Reina at fault again in my opinion. Then, into stoppage time (when our night is already ruined) Jose Enrique slips up and Jamie Mackie goes through on goal and easily slots it passed Reina. The full-time whistle blows and QPR get all 3 points.

It’s took me several hours and a night of sleep to get my head around this loss and I am still none the wiser. Make of it what you will, the team let us down and they’re to blame for this defeat. Reina had an extremely poor night (not his first this season) and in the final few minutes our defence was a shambles. Can Kenny be blamed? He can take his fair share yeah. First of all starting with Adam (who has been poor all year) and secondly, leaving Carroll on the bench. I don’t understand this. Even more confusing, 10 minutes from time putting the big man on but taking Suarez off, when I thought the whole point was to play them together? He can also be blamed for our poor performances as of late, all of which in my opinion have been the outcome of fielding the players he went out and bought, and who he decides to play.

I’d like to make it clear once again that I am not asking for Kenny to be sacked, but I think come the end of the season, if his/his squad’s performances haven’t improved, the club should consider new management, and in all honesty I think it would be more a case of Kenny happily stepping down as manager of LFC.

Something has to change. Whether it’s the manager, the director, the players, the fans? I don’t know. But something definitely has to change. And if it’s a case of Kenny staying on next year and getting another 50-100m in the summer, I hope he doesn’t make the same mistake twice and go out and buy a load of rubbish. We move on as one and get behind the Reds, but for me personally, this season is over (FA Cup or not.)

”No matter how bad our recent form is, we always seem to beat Everton. #LFC”

In fact, Liverpool seem to have stepped up to all the big games this season, the ones that led us to the Carling Cup at least. And last night was another example of how we don’t lie down so easily. Our necks were on the line, we dug in deep, passed the ball well, and eased to a fairly comfortable win over our bitter rivals. Gerrard hat-trick, thank you very much.

Straight after the game I looked on twitter (as I normally do) and found plenty of comments about Dalglish. It’s something that’s distracting me as a Liverpool fan. After a poor performance against Sunderland, and a third consecutive defeat in the PL, there’s a lot of unsettlement with fans about management, and if you look at my report for that game, you’ll see I was one of the most judging fans. Well, when something goes right I’m going to stand up and say I was wrong.

First of all, my tweet about Gerrard, he certainly hasn’t lost his form. Suarez also stepped up last night, and even though he was a little wasteful and dramatic at times, I still love seeing him in a Red shirt. I’ve also said in the past that Liverpool should sell Carroll. Let me make a point that I say this only because he is wasted on the bench. When he’s played, for me, he’s gotten better each game and it’s Kenny’s inconsistency that’s disrupted his progress.

What I would say about Dalglish, is that he got it right last night. And by that I mean, in not playing Adam. I’m not going to say Adam is the source to all our problems this year, but he certainly hasn’t offered anything to the squad. And when you look back to who we had last year, Poulsen, he’s not really that much different, is he?

The squad played well and it was a brilliant night for any Liverpool fan. Now we need to look at Kenny’s words and take things one game at a time. Consistency is needed. The players need to keep last night in their minds, Kenny needs to pick the same 11, and we need to move forward as one. If we do this, at least we’ll be proud of our team come the end of the season.

Special mention to Kelly, Enrique, Henderson and Spearing, who I thought were all excellent last night.

I’ve decided to do things a little differently this week. I expressed all that I had to say about this game on my twitter feed yesterday, I will copy and paste it all onto here. Apologies if my opinions upset anybody.

Half-Time: 

Charlie Adam is awful. Another boring and disappointing performance from #LFC

I really hope this isn’t the future. Our football stinks. #LFC

Imagine us playing like this in the Champions League.. #LFC

Shelvey not on the bench? What a joke! #LFC #sortitoutKenny

Why bring him back and then not even bench him? The standards at this club are dropping dramatically. #shelvey #LFC

The more Kenny plays Adam, the more I lose faith in the man. #LFC

McLean > The Whole #LFC Squad. Now that’s a man that wants to win.

If it stays like this, Kenny will have 5 points out of a possible 24. Good enough? No. Time to leave? #ithastobeasked

An ageing midfielder and a man who can’t really score. #sadbuttrue#LFC

Striker off for a midfielder? Clever that Kenny.

I don’t know how you can blame anything else other than management? #LFC

Full-Time:

#InKennyItrusted Sorry but it’s time for change, this really isn’t good enough.

Suarez was poor yet again today, and the ‘we know what you are’ chants are becoming a problem. #LFC

5 points out of 24. #dalglish #LFC

There’s an obvious difference between #LFC and #THFC losing 3 on the bounce. They’ve played attractive football all season, we haven’t.

11/03/12:

Having slept on it, I still think new management has to be considered in the summer. #LFC

And I definitely don’t trust Comolli/Kenny with another £1. #LFC

I honestly couldn’t care less about the FA Cup. Our football has been shocking this season, and shows no sign of improvement at all. #LFC

Everytime a Liverpool defender kicks the ball back towards Reina, they should be booed. It’s unacceptable, our style of play is awful.#LFC

Barcelona fans would whistle at the players if they weren’t doing enough, and look at them now. #LFC

Time to accept too that Gerrard is probably finished. His form has been poor this season, he’s forgotten how to shoot. #LFC

I hate being critical of a club I would do anything for, but our performances have been so disappointing this season. #LFC

As I have said above, I hate to be critical of our performances week in week out, but regardless of whether we reach the final of the FA Cup or not, our football has been below standard this year. Football is not just about winning; it is about going out and giving all that you have every week. It’s impossible for a team to win every game, but it’s possible to go out and play good football and come away feeling that yeah you lost, but you done all you could for those 90 minutes. At the minute we are getting nothing of the sort from the Liverpool players on the pitch, and in my honest opinion, you can only blame management. It’s the derby on Tuesday night and I don’t know what’s going to happen but Kenny and the players need to buck their ideas up. I’ll get behind my Red Men but we need to play good football and give all that we have until the end of the season. Until then. 

I’d say out of all that I write on here, around 80% is negative, 20% positive; but why is that? Has this season really been that bad? I think performance wise, yes it has been, and today’s game against Arsenal was just another example of how Liverpool haven’t ‘got it right’ this season.

Skip back a week and you’ll see Liverpool coming away with the cup. Carling Cup Winners 2012, at last something to celebrate! Did we deserve to win it? I’d say looking at our tough journey to the final (compared with Cardiff’s relatively easy run) yeah we did. But our performance on the day was far from attractive, and once again we made hard work against a (no offence) fairly average side, not PL quality anyway. Luckily Gerrard’s cousin missed and the team and the fans were given something to smile about.

Going out today at Anfield, we had to win. How on earth we were still in the race for fourth I don’t know but you can kiss goodbye to it today. We slipped up. When it looked like we were about to draw at home (again) Van Persie fired in the winner and gave The Gunners all 3 points. Was it a fair result? I’d say so yes. We didn’t take our chances, our midfield didn’t press enough, and Kenny was too slow with the substitutions. I’ll be honest; my patience is being tested by this man’s ability to stand on the touchline all game, arms crossed, looking like all is fine at Anfield.

After today I can quite easily say that Liverpool FC should sell Adam and Carroll in the summer. I doubt we’ll make any money on them, but it doesn’t really matter. Adam was awful today, and has been the whole season. For those thinking about his odd good game (Man United, City..etc) it isn’t enough. We need a midfielder that is consistent week in week out, and Adam doesn’t give you that. Neither does Spearing, although I rate him 10 times better than the Scot. I say we can sell Carroll because there’s no point in having a striker sat on the bench for 90 minutes, then bringing him on for 4 or 5 minutes (or whatever he got today) stoppage time. It’s like this: We either sell Carroll, or we find a manager that will use him.

I’m really disappointed with the performance today, and a good shift from the likes of Henderson, Spearing and Downing (who I thought all played well) can’t make me feel any better. This season has been a write off from day one, and even though we’ve managed to win a cup and are still in the race for the FA Cup, if you’d have asked any Liverpool fan what the priority was at the beginning of this season, they’d have said a top four finish. What will happen if Kenny doesn’t get it? We can only wait and see.

I just want to wish all the best to Kenny and his men today. I’ve been silent over the last few weeks but I promise to start blogging again after today. Good luck, let’s go out and win it, and whatever happens, You’ll Never Walk Alone. Come on!

It’s two weeks later and I am still left pondering as to what the hell really happened at the Reebok Stadium. I know I’m not the only one, and even though we’ve since gone and knocked both Manchester clubs out of the Cups, I’m sure the Bolton game is still clear in Kenny’s mind, especially going into Tuesday’s league game against Wolves.

Now don’t get me wrong, against City we were excellent. We kept our heads up, got back into the game twice, and showed enough character to knock the millionaire club out of the Carling Cup. Which means of course that Liverpool are returning to Wembley after a 16 year absence (excluding the Millenium Stadium) which in itself is fantastic news for the club and I’m sure is something that wouldn’t have been possible under Hodgson. We’ve performed well in the Cup, especially with the difficult ties we’ve been put up against. Most challengingly Stoke and Chelsea away, not to mention Exeter and Brighton who in recent seasons we may have come a cropper to. Credit is owed to Dalglish for building a squad that has made a Cup Final, and to Bellamy for helping us get there.

We then of course knocked out our fiercest rivals in the FA Cup. Nothing has tasted sweeter this year (especially after the whole Evra/Suarez thing.) It must be said that it wasn’t our greatest performance, and we possibly (possibly!!) only won because Fergie decided to play De Gea (which cost him the game.) But, looking at the facts.. a huge Cup tie mid-week, it was no wonder we weren’t up to our best. And it doesn’t really matter because we won, fair and square. Dirk Kuyt grabbing the winner (his 50th goal) and proving that he’s still good enough for the club. We can’t sell him now, why would we?

The important thing (and what I’ve been building up to) is that we go out at the Molineux on Tuesday and pick up all 3 points. Anything less won’t do. It’s funny because after almost every game this season I’ve said ‘well, we won’t get fourth now,’ yet before almost every game, I’ve found myself thinking ‘we need to win this, or we won’t get fourth.’ It’s still within reach believe it or not, and a strong finish to the season could easily see Liverpool gaining a place back in the Champions League.

It’s been announced this morning that we won’t be signing any more first team players, and whilst I’m a little disappointed, I can’t help but feel it might be a good thing for the club. What we need to do now is get behind our players. Maybe over the last few months we’ve put too much thought on ‘who else we need’ or ‘who would transform this club’ when the truth is, our summer signings are starting to show form and who knows, they might even reach that full potential we’re so fond of talking about. What I do think, is that we need to start playing the youngsters more, especially Shelvey. After Kenny brought him back from his loan spell at Blackpool I thought we’d see more of him, and I hope he gets given a chance on Tuesday. I also think Kelly need to be playing more, in place of Johnson.

I’m not saying that a defeat to Wolves will erase the memories of the last week, but I do think it will dampen the mood a little. Football is built on confidence, and you only get that through consistency. For that reason alone, we need to win.

Here’s to a strong finish to the season. Let’s get behind our Redmen.

At the end of last season ambitions were high, not only with the club, but with the prospect that our youth academy was in full swing again. We were introduced to the likes of Jon Flanagan, Martin Kelly and Jack Robinson, and I like many were watching videos of Suso and Raheem Sterling that were circulating around on the internet. It was a great time to be a Liverpool fan, with a feeling that next year things would be different, and that we would see more of our bright young stars.

Several months later and I can’t help but feel that things have changed. No longer do we talk of our academy. The players we’ve brought in haven’t done too great a job, and instead of looking inside the club, we’re looking out, at targets who may or may not be within reach.

Now I’m not saying that Jack Robinson is any better than Jose Enrique. I love the Spaniard and I would happily say he’s one of the best LB’s we’ve had in years. Nor would I say that Johnson has been under performing. He’s been one of our best players this year. But what I am saying, is that I want the buzz of the academy back. I want talk of homegrown players breaking into the club again.

To me, the performances we put in at the end of last season (when we were playing these youngsters) were more heartfelt, and the determination for these lads to break into the first team (of a club they’ve supported all their lives) gave them that extra boost and that little bit of fight. When I watch Liverpool play this season, I can’t help but feel that some of the players on the pitch couldn’t care if we won or lost, and it’s a disappointing sight.

Bring back the talk of our academy, and bring back the talk of a brighter future at Liverpool Football Club.

Just wanted to raise a question. Do you think we’ve missed Meireles at LFC? And did you think it was wrong at the time for the club to let him go?

Personally, I think we lost a great player. When he came to the club it took him a while to fit in but he found his feet quicker than Adam, Downing, Henderson and Carroll have. He also scored us a number of goals, the first few being fantastic volleys. Not forgetting his link up play with Suarez and Maxi (when the Argentine was lucky enough to be playing.)

At his time of playing he got a bit of criticism for perhaps jumping out of tackles but then is a CAM really meant to dive in? I thought that was the CDM’s job.. I think we messed up letting him go. He hasn’t done much at Chelsea but IMO you should never sell to your rivals, no matter what they’re offering. 

For those that will say if he wanted to go, let him go, I understand where you are coming from but Meireles has said he left because the club didn’t back up their promise of giving him a pay rise, or something of the sort, meaning that it’s the clubs fault that we lost him. I think it was a mistake, I too think loaning Aquilani out (again) was stupid and we should call him back from loan.