In times gone by, it hasn’t been hard to fathom what the ‘Liverpool Way’ was. After all, generations of managers and players have lived and breathed a philosophy that spread back to Bill Shankly encompassed by the direct relationship between club and fans, a private boardroom quietly running the club’s affairs and a pass and move attacking style on the pitch which was the envy of every team in Europe. For all intents and purposes, most Reds fans feel that all of these have been lost in some way over the past few years. The previous ownership not only were aloof from the fans they should have been serving, but also they exposed the boardroom disputes very publicly, while on the pitch fortunes followed those off it, with the team hitting a big low last season, finishing seventh.
After such an affair with the Hicks and Gillett regime, fans could be forgiven for feeling disenfranchised from their club and angry with its direction. To many Roy Hodgson embodies the last vestige of the “old regime,” and that for the club to totally start anew, he must go. Guillem Balague, a Spanish journalist and Liverpool supporter, however highlighted that the problems go far beyond the manager. The past few years has led to a loss of an overriding philosophy, questioning whether people still believed the ‘Liverpool Way’ still existed. Using the example of the Youth policy at Liverpool, Balague says:
“Without an overriding philosophy regarding how Liverpool FC should play, the youth academy has no future goal or ambition. The academy should provide the platform, the foundations upon which the future of the club is built, yet nobody knows what shape the groundwork should take because nobody has seen the final plans for the building itself. We know what the archetypal Barcelona player looks like; we talk of Arsenal players being typical of a certain set of characteristics. What does it mean to talk about a typical Liverpool player these days? What standards do we expect from them?”
It is something that has troubled me and other Liverpool fans for a while to. The club must have a long term plan that can be carried out. Balague feels it is all well and good NESV having a philosophy about saber-metrics, but he feels that only tells us about their “economic plan, but little about the footballing vision.” On this point I have to disagree with him for John W Henry has explicitly stated that the philosophy of bringing in good young players (which the metrics system can assist in) is designed so theses players have the values of the club instilled in them from a young age. This is similar to their own philosophy with the Boston Red Sox as well as having similarities with Barcelona’s La Masia academy.
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“the philosophy of bringing in good young players (which the metrics system can assist in) is designed so theses players have the values of the club instilled in them from a young age”.
What values? This is the point which the author has missed. It’s all well and good having the facilities – without a philosophy, it doesn’t matter how good the facilities are – we’ll just churn out players, but not ‘Liverpool’ players who may journey elswhere and want to return ‘home’ like Cesc does.
As far as I’m concerned, the Liverpool style is supposed to be “Pass and Move” and I’m pretty sure that that’s what most people would have associated with our club – at least up until the last decade or so of turgid, defensive football.
Hodgson said all the right things in the summer, about how that is his philosophy also, but he clearly lied to get the job and is just a poorer version of our previous manager!
Riijkaard ticks all the boxes that we could want in a manager and is available, RIGHT NOW!!
– encourages attractive, attacking football
– brings through talented young players into the first team
– ambitious, young and has good communication skills
– proven winner on the very biggest stage and has a reputation to command the respect of our players/potential targets
In the same way that Arsene Wenger has completely changed the image of “Boring, Boring Arsenal”, Houllier and Benitez have completely changed the image of Liverpool; it’s about time that we reclaimed our heritage as the best “footballing team” in England (even if we aren’t the best “team” overall), and that is NEVER going to happen with Hodgson in charge!
i totally agree didnt like rijkarad in 1990 spitting but his team did play exiting football roy might be a nice man but is he a born winner unlike king kenny id like a manager with beleif not making excusses build them up never let the opposition know we have weakness bill did clougthy did
Sorry but I don’t think you understand the point of Balague’s article and to be honest I don’t think you understand a lot of the issues he’s discussing.
Maybe you should go back to the article and have a long think about it.
For the youth system to work it must above all teach the players that results do matter at all ages. The Barcelona model will not work in England because the Premier League is a faster pace than La Liga and is far more physical-players do not get the same time on the ball as they do in Spain. Man Utd’s youth system should be the model for Liverpool to copy and not Barcelona’s. Inter Milan stopped Barcelona quite easily in the Champions League. Spain may have won the World Cup but that is international football and not club football so that argument is not relevant.
This is abot non-footballing chararacteristics which can be more important than the footbaliing characteristics. Rod Marsh, Stan Bowles etc were fantastic footballers but they won nowt because they did not have the right stuff. The right stuff is what differentiates winners from losers. People who don’t like to lose, with will to win, determination, guts. These are the attributes you need over and above the footballing skills. The Gerrards, Roy Keanes, Giggs of this world have these attributes, many footballers do not. A team of Jamie carraghers but with the skill. That would be the perfect team and would be unstoppable.