The King, Elvis Presley, once said that “the image is one thing and the human being is another. It’s very hard to live up to an image.” In 2012, the image is Liverpool FC, the human being is Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish; never before has this great club failed to live up to the image created by Shankly and Paisley as the modern day Liverpool have.
As this seasons draws to a close, Dalglish has presided over a season that has consisted of the worst league form since 1953 but will finish the season with at least one trophy; glass half full or empty? Last week Liverpool’s former Director of Football Strategy and Director of Football, Damien Comolli, left the way most men too afraid to quit do; mutual consent allows the big pay off without the black mark on the CV.
Under Comolli and Dalglish, Liverpool saw a huge investment in players in a period of about 15 months and Comolli paid the price for the overspending on players that were not fit to wear the Liverpool shirt by either being not at a high enough standard or by being disrespectful; Luis Suarez (£23m) an extremely good player who soiled his own name and his clubs for racially abusing Patrice Evra and then by refusing to shake his hand when the whole world was watching; Andy Carroll (£35m) only played a handful of games with Newcastle before suffering relegation, hard to believe that is all £35 million can get you; Jordan Henderson (£16m) only played only 2 seasons for Sunderland, scoring only 4 goals along the way while only impressing sparingly; Charlie Adam (£8m) played well in a team that got relegated; Stewart Downing (£20m) his delivery is just not good enough when he has Carroll in front of him who thrives on crosses into the box, just does not get enough goals; Jose Enrique (£5m) had only been relegated with Newcastle 2 years before but starting to look like a solid defender; Craig Bellamy (free) a solid Premiership player, who has had more clubs than Tiger Woods, more trouble than he is worth.
Most of the players brought in have suffered criticism from the fans and the press but the established players have as well. Jamie Carragher is well past his best and looks sluggish in the modern game, Dirk Kuyt is the hardworking striker that doesn’t get any goals, Glen Johnson is the right back that can’t defend, Pepe Reina has played poorly ever since he threw the ball in his own net against Arsenal in Roy Hodgson’s first game and their best player, Steven Gerrard, cannot pull out miracles for 38 games in a row.
The squad also lacks any real depth; Maxi Rodriguez has scored goals, granted, but realistically he is a poor man’s Downing who is a poor man’s Young who is a poor man’s Valencia who is a poor man’s Ronaldo. Has it really got so bad that Liverpool blame a bad season on the injured Lucas’s absence? Comolli can be blamed for taking Liverpool’s wage bill almost on a par with Manchester City’s but cannot be blamed for all players failings as well. Dalglish has to take responsibility for only winning 5 out of 15 home games this year and have only taken eight points from their last 11 games. The legend of fortress Anfield is a complete fallacy. Liverpool love to compare themselves to Manchester United; Liverpool have as many points after 33 games as United did after 21 games and the gap is only going to get bigger as United close in on another title to take themselves further away from Liverpool. Dalglish said earlier this year that “People should take an intelligence check.
By just winning the Carling Cup and the FA cup (or just by participating to the final against Chelsea) it doesn’t justify that Kenny Dalglish is the manager who can turn around the fortunes of this historic club. If we analyze statements of LFC’s key players such as, “Maybe that’s because we aren’t good enough. It is a bit of everything; we are not playing well, we are not working the right way,” or, “an FA Cup victory will not make up for the club’s poor performance in the league this season,” it is obvious that even the players indirectly admit that. As John W. Henry and Thomas Werner can hit it forward they should appoint a real winner manager with a deep knowledge and understanding of modernized football for the new season and surround him with a Director of Football who is experienced and has a proven success career record in the field of Football!
Absolute Utter Rubbish from another member of the foul mouthed Davies lineage. Go away and have a go at Sir Red Nose and his Manure.
Difficult to have a go at United when they win a major trophy every year.
League form has been dissapointing but there been very few games we have been poor. I take it this is some sort of blog rather than an informed journalistic opinion and i have seen it on a LFC news page. I would say in Kennys first season and with the squad revamp last summer and teh previous window it is too early to get the knife out. The players who came in can do better and next season i am confident we will see improvements from Carrol, Downing etc. one trophy and another final is not bad at all, and i believe we will be a lot stronger in the league next year with a few squad tweeks. If we had scored more of the chances we have created we would be much better off, but we havent but it should not detract from a big improvement in our football generally and three trips to wembley. Europa league next season will give us a platform to push on and fight for a top 4 place so your article is poor and if we get our signings right in a summer we will be a force. We have beaten most of teh top teams this season but we have to find consistency but Kenny cant score for them. He will get it right.
Oh god this is bad! Badly written, poorly expressed, sentence structure and grammar are pitiful. I’d expect more from a 13 year old. Maxi a poor man’s Downing? Kuyt doesn’t score goals? Pitiful!
Kuyt has two league goals this year. Even Torres has 3. Thomas Vermaelen has 6. Kuyt only averages 1 in 4 over his career at Liverpool, my conclusion is that it is not good enough. Buy you clearly watch Liverpool more than me and disagree.
Funny, I seem to recall him scoring a hat-trick against Utd last season and a winner againat them this season, his playing time has been much reduced this season, he can only play if picked, is normally played out of position, yet scores important goals, ergo, you don’t know what you’re talking about
Why do we want to hear analysis from a Utd fan – you worry about your post-Fergie decline
Not a United fan.
Liverpool have always been a cup team, FA, League,Euro, Champions league, targets for succesful clubs. liverpool have won the lot, several times too. Trouble is they just can’t win the league anymore, they’re getting further away from it too, lets face it this is the worst liverpool team for …well…50 odd years. It’s much harder to win the league now than it’s ever been, we’ve gone from the big three,(in the 80’s) to the big four, (in the 90’s) (when cheslski got rich), and now it’s the big six, with Spurs (who have splashed cash) Man city (same) and a surprise gate crash from Newcastle. Now we’re sitting OUTSIDE at 8th! Kenny is as much to blame as Comolli for this. Over the years i’ve noticed a dilution of class in our team, specially with the loss of Alonso, masch and Torres. Now we have a mid table team without a bench to back it up.
Great point about Alonso. Seemed to be the catalyst. Such a shame, Gerrard and Alonso in the midfield were a great pair.
Dalglish said earlier this year that “People should take an intelligence check.
yep, dalglish has spent £115M in 12 months and still failed to achieve anything close to rafa in the premiership.
115m is nothing in the modern game, but because Kenny spent it then it is the biggest amount in world football. lets forget that all our youth were overseen by kenny. lets forget that carroll the much vilified player has now started to play well under kenny. Bellamy was a great short term signing Enrique has been a top signing regardless where he came from. Coates looks a good signing for the future as is Henderson. Kenny also brought in Clarke who has turned Skrtel into the player of the season.and made our defence solid Clarke was one of Kenny’s best signings imo. yes we have not done aswell as we wanted in the league but were you expecting Kenny to take the shambles h&g and roy left us and turn us into league champs in his first full season?????. Fergie took 6 yrs to turn utd round lets give Kenny time he is on for 2 trophies and the rebuild has only just started. YNWA
Yep I would agree about Steve Clarke, a brilliant acquisition by Dalglish. Something I missed, granted. Chelsea would love to have him back. As a general point, to everyone, it is not the fact that £115m has been spent, it is the fact it has not been spent wisely in my opinion, other than Enrique who would be a solid defender for any top club. The Carroll transfer is not the one that annoys me, it is the Downing and Henderson ones that just can’t be justified, especially in hindsight, it’s not like they are foreign players trying to find their feet. I thought £12m for Oxlade-Chamberlain was excessive but looks about right after 9 months. But its only opinion, it’s what makes the world go round 🙂
More like Downing is a poor man’s Maxi if anything, as for stuff you have missed, the biat, anything resembling a salient point, another brain cell to complete the pair… I could go on, but one of us at least knows when it’s time to stop. (Writing tripe in your case!)
Boat, I meant
FOOLGLISH doesnt deserve another day,let alone years ??? Wake the hell up please,Carroll downing Henderson Adam are nothing short of shambolic signings FACT…Don’t tell me there gonna be good in time ? They have all played premier league football,mostly bottom half teams ? And this fool FOOLGLISH spends treble what there worth ?? FOOLGLISH has destroyed are football club like sourness did !!!
That’s ‘triple’ and ‘they’re’. Now who’s the fool?
Not to mention ‘our’! Is english your first language? Or ‘are’ you just an idiot?
Which team spent £115M these past 12 months?
And don’t forget, this is rafa’s team that delivered 63 points in his final season…and delivered 58 points and 6th place last season.
Kenny dalglish is one of the few managers in premier league history who has successfully managed to downgrade a football team having spent a ton of money on it.
presumably when the team finish 18th next season having won both domestic trophies KD will be able to say “look we’ve got consistency in the team, we defended our trophies!”
Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.