Rewind to May 2009 and Liverpool finished 2nd in the Premier League with 86 points (even outscoring Manchester United by 9 goals), just four short of Champions; Manchester United. Fast-forward three years to May 2012 and following £110m of summer spending Liverpool scraped to 8th with 52 points. What has gone so wrong at Anfield? And who is to blame; the owners, management or players?
Now Dalglish has been relieved of his duties after two unsuccessful managerial choices, the latter being a club legend and the former; Roy Hodgson being a manager who was given the form simply on form, having led Fulham to a UEFA Cup final and a respectable league finish. Two poor managerial choices by the board are not the only reason for Liverpool having one of their worst seasons in recent memory, but also seemingly backing them financially has contributed toward the downfall.
Hodgson struggled with his signings, the majority of which who have since been moved on including Meireles, Poulsen, J.Cole, Koncheskey and Jovanovic (who was signed by Benitez). These signings saw Liverpool flounder but it didn’t take long for Hodgson to be fired and him to be replaced by ‘King Kenny’, who was back heavily in the transfer market.
It was Kenny Dalglish’s unsuccessful transfer policy that really saw Liverpool fall from a real force in the Premier League to their current predicament. Dalglish looked to secure in form, young British players; but was forced to pay the so called ‘English Tax’ (paying over the odds for British talent). Before their moves to Anfield, all the players had been successful and playing regular first team football. So fitness wasn’t an issue and in front of a capacity crowd like Anfield Dalglish was hoping the players would not only live up to, but also exceed expectations.
Charlie Adam’s 12 goals in 35 appearances; Blackpool’s talismanic captain and playmaker, his workman like performances virtually kept them in the Premier League which persuaded the Merseyside club to part with a relativley large sum of money. Adam’s £9m move to Liverpool, has so far seen him struggle to find the form, which persuaded Liverpool to shell out so heavily, and in 28 appearances his return has only been a disappointing 2 goals so far.
Henderson was an established starter at the Stadium of Light and had won back-to-back young player of the year awards on Wearside. Highly regarded amongst his peers and management, it took Liverpool £20m to prize away Sunderland’s starlet. His undoubted talent and potential reportedly had the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal interested so it had looked like a good piece of business which showed Liverpool were no longer going to push overs.
It was the purchases that replaced Fernando Torres that showed Liverpool’s real intentions in challenging for silverwear, but latterly has also shown their lack of knowledge of the transfer market. Carroll’s shock £35m move looked like an over priced transfer, but having notched 11 goals in 20 appearances in Newcastle’s maiden season back in the Premier League following their relegation to the Championship, had he scored in a similar 2:1 ratio none of the Kopites would have been complaining. His form has dropped alarmingly and in the 2011/2012 season has only managed a measely 4 in 35 appearances.
Suarez is one of the better pieces of business and has still not set the English game alight. Having scored regularly both in Holland with PSV (159 apps: 111 goals- All Competitions) and internationally with Uruguay particularly at the World Cup 2010. It persuaded Liverpool to part with virtually £23m. This season his form has seen him notch 11 in 31 Premier League appearances and he has also been dogged by an eight game suspension for racial slurs aimed at Manchester United captain, Patrice Evra. Which has seem him take well deserved flack from the stands and also the press.
Suarez and Carroll moved in the January transfer window 2011, Suarez’s transfer had Torres not moved to Chelsea would have complemented each other well up front but it was Torres’ deadline day move that persuaded Liverpool to panic buy Carroll for £35m; a British transfer record.
Stewart Downing was renowned for causing chaos with his direct running, his crosses caused mayhem and created plenty of opportunities and goals with his previous club Aston Villa, it was this form which persuaded the boardroom to pay £19m for his services. Downing has undoubtedly been the biggest disappointment of all the signings, he is still yet to either score or assist in the Premier League in 36 games. Toward the end of the season he was even given a penalty to break the hoodoo, which he managed to cannon against the post.
It is assumed that Kenny Dalglish has spent upward of £110m on creating his own squad. The two squads below are a comparison of the team that finished in 2nd and the team that finished 8th this season.
Liverpool’s most frequent starting 11 for 2008/2009:
GK- Pepe Reina
RB- Glen Johnson
CB- Daniel Agger
CB- Martin Skrtel
LB- Fabio Aurelio
RM-Dirk Kuyt
CM- Steven Gerrard
CM-Xabi Alonso
CM- Javier Mascherano
LM- Albert Riera
FW- Fernando Torres
answer: Dogleash
That’s simple………….KENNY DALGLISH!!!
FSG are not for investing at high levels nor high salaries.They are a mid to low table outfit at best.They seem to have a lack of understanding that top class players come for top class wages at top class buying prices as well as not able to research up and coming players that are cheap on the market ( a la Newcastle and even Everton’s Jelavic buy). They are slow to react and lacking in football savvy.Finally they have absolutely no idea what they are doing! I wrote so much prior to them how it would be a disaster and it will be!They are NOT the buyers we should have had by a long sight!
with the WORST midfield in league ??? chuffed foolglish got the sack,spearing henderson downing adam are SHAMBOLIC SIGNINGS…
No short term memory at all on so called “fans” in here. Liverpool was bled dry by Gilette and Hicks that sold away all the best players, spending the money on interest to banks, and Roy was helping out to get Liverpool relegated.
Luckily Kenny and FSG arrived to stop the fall.
A petty Jack Lodge hasn’t been a Liverpool fan long enough to remember the last 2-3 years, or else this article could have looked different.
The answer is all of them are to blame. In 2009 when we finished 2nd but probably should have won the league that year it was reasonable to expect that if Rafa had been backed by the owners Hicks and Gillett we could have gone one better the following season. They didn’t or couldn’t because of the clubs financial position due to how H&G bought the club in the first place. If you don’t strengthen the team each year you go backwards cos the other teams are strengthening.
Enter the new owners. Henry said on the day he bought the club (for a bargain basement price) that he was not a rich Arab sugar daddy. They would reinvest only what the club could afford which is how it should be. The moneyball idea of buying unrecognised players at affordable prices is the only way the likes of liverpool (and man u to a lesser extent) can compete with the sugar daddy clubs man city and chelsea. The biggest mistake was commoli and dalglish’s failure to follow this by buying british players. By definition you pay more for british players. If they followed newcastles example by buying better unrecognised players available abroad they both would still be in jobs as we would have better players at lower cost.
The players we did buy are also not without blame. I think many of them got to liverpool and took the pedal off the gas. Coming from lower clubs I think many of them thought they’d made it. This with settling in to a new club resulted in loss of form for all of them with the possible exception of Suarez who has a fighting spirit.
Whoever the next manager is we need stability now and the adoption of a style of play that can win and the players who can fit into that style of play probably from abroad with a sprinkling of the best from the academy. My closest analogy would be what brian clough achieved with notts forest in late 70s when he took on and beat the big clubs.
You need not look any further than Rafa Benitez.
1. No spending money to compensate other Clubs for losing their manager.
2. The winning mentality and continuous drive for improving.
3. He can oversee or continue what he started with the academy, which is on the verge of adding 2-3 players into the first team setup.
4. He managed with a budget of 16 million net a season apart in which he got Liverpool to overachieve with a thin squad.
5. The last 2 seasons he was in charge, he could only afford Ngog, Kyriagkos and Jovanovic for the few bob he could scrap with the investment payments but still managed to finish in 7th, even though he had Europa League, a season blighted by injuries, a demoralised team and a Club in Boardroom turmoil.
He managed to compete with the La Liga’s best, the Premier League’s best, Europe’s best twice with Valencia and Liverpool and had he been given the financial backing (not just the wheeling and dealing he had by buying and selling and a portion of the CL earnings) he would have taken us to the promised land.
A lot has gone wrong since. People who blame Rafa for Alonso leaving need reminding that it was he who bought him for 10.5 million and sold for 30 million. So it was poor man management that he got the best out of him after 2 poor seasons and sold him for a profit. The media saying we were going for Barry to replace Alonso was all wrong. Rafa was only buying competition until Lucas was ready. Besides, we were never going to sign him for 18m O’Neill was holding us to ransom for although Parry ironically allowed or pushed the signing of Keane to undermine Rafa.
Was it bad management that maybe he wanted to move to Madrid for family, footballing reasons and handed in a transfer request? For many Spanish players, unless you are Catalan, Real is the pinnacle!! He was offered more money and didn’t have to pay as much tax either on it.
The new tax laws in England played a considerable part in having high profile players leave the Premier League or consider La Liga instead. And that’s when the powershift changed.
Yes, he loves Liverpool but it was Real!
As for the 2 signings of Glen Johnson and Aquilani, before we had our Sports Scientist we had to go by the Roma medical team’s word that the injury problems wouldn’t last for Aquilani. From what I saw of him, he had the ball playing qualities and touch to be a success. The money we initially put down for him wasn’t 17-18 million but money subject to appearances and the loans offset his wages.
Johnson whether you like it or not was 2nd, 3rd choice after losing out on Dani Alves to Barca who were quicker to put down the money (just over 10 million at the time). We had to buy English to maintain the homegrown rule and to get any wingers of decent enough class it would have set us back even more.
If Rafa was backed the likelihood is we will be in the top 4 with Silva or Mata or both alongside Torres and Suarez (insert prolific striker).
Anyway, Rogers, Klopp and Pep have refused to talk to us; Deschamps and Rijkaard maybe are getting a look into, Martinez prefers Villa apparently and AVB wants time to consider his options with Roma also wanting him.
If we can’t even get a manager who’s heart isn’t in the right place from the beginning it is a lost cause. AVB might turn out well but with his only success being in the Portuguese League and a dismal start at Chelsea, overran by egos maybe it is a risk!
We need someone who can steady the ship and not some flash in the pan young manager or a releagation batller that may come good. The next appointment can be make or break otherwise we will be looking at 5-6 years before we are even in contention for the top 4.
ilove how we managed more corners more shots on goal than man united hit the post 32 times and its all kennys fault rofl ,yeah kennys fault that even though we seemed to play the attacking football and dominate games but not get the results we deserved in some matches that kenny gets all the blame ,yeah we miss a penalty to go 2 nil up in a game miss it its kennys fault ,2 cup finals back in europe a league position undeserved by what our performance son the park deserved and its all kennys fault lmao ,its kennys fault his world class goal keepers gets beaten on the post several times in the league , yeah its all kennys fault
i’m with u bruv i wished kkk stayed in charged as well, would have been funny seeing u finish in the bottom half next season
People saying that we were amazing last year but unlucky are being short sighted. Hitting the woodwork a lot does not equal playing good football. Heaps of half chances and hopeful crosses from deep. Awful to watch. Gerrard and Suarez were the only players out there that seemed to know what football should look like. Kenny shouldn’t take all the blame but he must shoulder some. His signings were awful, i’ve never been less excited about new signings then when we signed Downing, Hendo, and Adam. Signing a bunch of mid table players and then being surprised that you finish mid-table…..?
its obvious its because he spent 100 mil on crap players and play the so call Liverpool way and get punish for it. Barcelona can play offensive because they have good and clinical players. If we have mid table players to play beautiful hence 8th. The reason why he should be fired is a combination of spending and the worst record ever for Liverpool since the 50s if Im not mistaken. Anyway Man city hit the post 20 times but they will make more chances to score.
You have to go back further then the 08/09 season Liverpool’s problems started with the loss of squad players who had achieved CL football and played in the final! Bellamy,Crouch,Cisse,Pennant,Garcia,Riise,Gutherie and Sissoko!
Then from 09/10 season the loss of Alonso,Hypia,Keane,Dossena and Arbeloa!
Then 10/11 season Mascherano, Benayoun,Torres and Riera!
17 first team players gone in 3 years who were getting us CL football! We wonder why we can’t achieve top 4 in the last 3 years!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gerrard was never the engine room in Benitez’s side, the engine room was Alonso and Mascherano. Gerrard played further up the field behind Torres in a Zidane type role. Why is it that people don’t see that? Benitez knew that Gerrard lacked the discipline to play centre midfield and that his instinct to attack was more of a benefit to Liverpool than playing him in the centre of the park only for gaps to appear when he goes wandering off up the park and play breaks down. The problems for Liverpool started when Xabi Alonso left. It affected all of the players. Benitez replaced Alonso with Aquilani, but lets not go there. Now we have the likes of Spearing and Shelvey playing centre midfield. Are they ever going to be as good a pairing as Alonso and Mascherano? You want to find where it all broke down for Liverpool, then look no further than there. You want proof! Liverpool’s last game of the season 2009/10 was against Spurs and they handed them their lungs. Our first league game of 2010/11 was against Spurs and they handed us our lungs. Our problems at the moment are that we have never replaced Alonso and Mascherano. That’s why Torres left and he’s laughing now haing not played anywhere near his potential and having won the first two domestic medals of his career of any real note, FA Cup and Champions League.
The reason. Sacking the best mngr we had for the last 20 years. BENITEZ.
I stand to be corrected but wasn’t Glen Johnson still at Portsmouth in the 2008/2009 season? And was it not Alvaro Arbeloa that played right back for big parts of that season? Plus, how many times did Agger and Skrtel start together at center back? It was Carragher and any other available including Hyppia. Typical lazy journalism! Stopped reading there and then!
“Having scored regularly both in Holland with PSV (159 apps: 111 goals- All Competitions”, he played for ajax you idiot!
Its my opinion that Kenny took it upon himself to do away with everything he did right when he came in for Hodgson. The creative formations, use of Maxi Rodriguez (remember how he ended last season?), Kuyt and even Meireles all seem to have been considered unnecessary. Where promising youngsters got a run out, this season was less so. When I look at the season we have had, the only thing that surprises me is how shocked everyone was by the outcome! In addition to having the poorest squad we have had since the beginning of the Houlier era, not only were average players brought in, but good players were moved out. Aquilani who has played a total of 12 games for Liverpool, was somehow judged surplus to requirements as he ‘played in Gerrard’s position’ according to Kenny.. News flash KD, Gerrard has spent the last couple of seasons fighting injury, and will obviously need cover moving forward; I just hope whoever comes in can see this (Hopefully Benitez). When a player is good enough for Milan and Juve to take them on loan, chances are they are better than Charlie Adam!!!! In conjunction with the Meireles sale (To Chelsea, no less), where is the midfield flare to come from? A bunch of new boys and ‘kids’ in the middle of the park?? Then tactics; once Lucas is injured, surely Henderson should be back in a defensive midfield role, just assuming a basic tactical knowledge? (To be fair, as soon as he was injured I questioned our top 10 credentials anyway)The reason Downing looked so bad, and so few goals were scored is that hardly anyone was ever following up in the box!! Many goals are scored from second attempts, but that can only happen if someone is confident enough to follow up – You tell me how many goals Liverpool scored on the rebound this season? I’ll wait! Even with the poor resources we had, play an Aquilani as the attacking midfielder in a 4-3-3, and all of a sudden you have some attacking flare linking up with a Suarez with the safety of Gerrard and Lucas (when available)or Henderson behind him. In my opinion that was always Benitez’s reason for buying him – Gerrard was to replace Alonso whilst Aqua replaced him in the attacking third, with Lucas as the lynchpin (I always try to avoid thinking about Carroll coz that just hurts my head). In other words I feel there was both poor tactics, and a lack of continuity in addition to the obvious H & G debacle of 2010. P.S. If you are going to talk about the ‘great’ Benitez team in comparison, please get the squad right, Arbeloa, not Glen Johnson was the starter for 2008-2009 season.