IT’S happened again. A week after a sort of glorious silverware with the Carling Cup visiting Anfield for another year, King Kenny shows he’s still not ready to keep doing the best for the club ahead of his ego.
He decided yet again to start with his foreseen right-wing prodigy Jordan Henderson on the wide right who hasn’t done a useful thing since signing from Sunderland.
That wouldn’t have been too much of a bad thing, given the way the team started. Yes Liverpool ran Arsenal out of the park most of the game.
Passing was fairly good, well co-ordinated, and with strong intent. But the same old story seemed to be lack of numbers in the final third, especially in the box when the crosses were being delivered.
It’s hard to see how Stewart Downing’s been criticised as Dalglish’s worst signing ever when Jordan Henderson is on the same list as him. Downing’s been productive on the left-wing and the rest of the team’s failure to get on the end of his crosses surely reflects more poorly on others, than him.
Secondly, what does it take for Dalglish’s men to have a greater presence in the opponent’s box when the wingers put the balls in?
Coming back to the fairly humiliating defeat against Arsenal at home – it’s humiliating not because of the manner of the loss but more because they didn’t do much throughout the game apart from scoring twice.
When Arsenal equalised, there was still a fair while to go before half time. Then we enter the second-half and Liverpool continue with the onslaught but the Arsenal defence seems to have them figured out. Dalglish has Craig Bellamy on the bench. Why bring him on in the 88th minute? What’s his fascination with waiting until five minutes left to play?
He’s done that throughout the season, whether the team’s chasing a 1-0 deficit or trying to get a breakthrough past a 1-1 or a 0-0 stalemate. What’s wrong with making a change, say on 70 minutes or even 65?
Round about the hour mark, Liverpool’s game was crying out for pace, especially down the right-hand side and Bellamy would’ve been the perfect option. A straight swap with Henderson and the difference would’ve been there to see. Or Switch Kuyt to the right and bring Bellamy in the middle.
Either way, Arsenal would’ve had a lot more to deal with. King Kenny however remains arrogant with the tactics that have proved futile throughout the season.
Now of course he has a Carling Cup win to justify his decisions. Oddly enough, this could be Liverpool’s undoing. It’s nice to win silverware but it’s not really a strong statement of success in the bigger scheme of things.
But bringing on anyone with 2 minutes to go when you’re chasing a win or as Saturday turned out – an equaliser, it’s a farce.
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Abhijan Barua, dude, when you want to write about football and Liverpool, you need to look at both sides of the argument. The team was playing its best football i’ve seen this season. And young Henderson was excellent, showing self belief and confidence that he has not yet shown this season. The team was playing fantastically well, so who do you bring off? When Kenny brought on Bellamy, it was obvious there would still be at least 10mins left because of the unjury to Arteta. And we were pressing and trying to win the game at the time. But why would you look at both sides of the argument? You are obviously a Kenny-basher, so instead of praising the team for winning the Carling Cup, then having one of its best performances of the season and being ridiculously unlucky, you prefer to bash the King. Come off it you unintelligent, attention-seeker.
Henderson was excellent and thats was his best game . have you ever kick a ball in your life or do you just write ,well try ,anyway another lfc site block ,thanks leting me know 🙂
Ian everybody has a viewpoint, and if you don’t agree with a particular opinion maybe you should try sharing yours with us? At the end of the day, we all want what’s best for our club. P.s. I’ll challenge anybody to a game of keepy-ups on the sites behalf – bet I win 😉
the more you defend Dalglish tactics, the less Liverpool will win, let’s not talk about substitution first how can you even bench Bellamy? the best performance? how do u guys measure the best performance? on number of corners which give us nothing? on penalties we are unable to score? what exactly does he(Dalglish) coach them in training? at least on Benitez reign we were to shoot from outside the box, have u ever seen that kind of shot after Benitez? Dalglish is s****, if u didn’t realise it, u will know it at the end of the season
Not sure this type of article does anything but pin-point the failings in our “Supporters” rather than further the cause, work in progress, it was an excellent display, aside from actual finishing.
Tacticts were fine… The players just couldn’t hit the side of a barn….
Why are all these people blind? Dalglish is not just good enuff! Starting with his signings, he totally wasted 115m pounds! Why sign henderson when u have shelvey? Adam should warm d bench and fill in only when we are 3 goals ahead wit 12mins left. 20 mils on henderson should have gone on marvin martin 7m & eduardo vargas 10m. 20 mils on downing should have gone on georginio wijnaldum 5m, kevin strootman 5m, and adam johnson 15m. 35mils on carroll should have gone on shane long 5m, luuk de jong 9m, nicolas gaitan 8m, gaston ramirez 4m, jan verthogen 10m, scot dann 6m, marc albrighton 10m.these players in addition to adam, enrique, coates would have made a formidable team. Our squad will look like this; reina, hansen, doni, enrique, robinson, kelly, johnson, agger, dann, skrtel, coates, lucas, shelvey, strootman, maxi, wijnaldum, gerrard, martin, gaitan, shane long, adam johnson, luuk de jong, suarez, verthogen, gaston ramirez. Kuyt, cole, aquilani, carragher, to free some cash for further investment. To add salt to injury, mr dalglish is tactically delinquent. Can guarantee, if he finishes outside top 5, he’ll be relieved of his duties.
FSG, pls bring Rafa back, make hamman d asst manager.
Mike, I vote for you to replace Kenny. You obviously know your football talent across Europe and beyond. To be honest, I haven’t even heard some of these. Adam Johnson is a good choice though. I’m sure City would hand him over along with a few free Etihad tickets to Abhu Dhabi.
Youn totally hit it Mike. As a fan for the past 27 years, its sad to hear KD finding excuses time and again for failures and some so called fans actually condones it.
Spending 100 mill plus, languishing in 7th, winning the least important trophy available (after nearly losing to a 2nd div side), that is how low our standards have come to these days.
While realistically we do not expect to win the Prem this season, finishing 4th is well within our expectation after our outlay and its kind of tiring to hear KD’s excuses everytime we drop points.
Red Nose at Manure at one time or another, did not have half his entire first team but did not offer excuses but just carry on and win. What would KD have done except whine?
KD thinks that just because he was a legend as a player with us, he can do anything to screw us now as manager. His ego is more important than the well being of the club. Paying 20 mill for a barely there footballer is one thing, continuing to use him even though he is rubbish is another. Why did KD not shown this kind of patience with Aqua man? He was one of only few players that did well in pre season. Why continue to side line Maxi? Is Hendo any better?
For those KD supporter, my advise is go set up a KD fan club and a FB page and devote your lifes to him there. Oh and stop calling yourselves LFC fans untill you put the interest of the club above that of this Rubbish hero of yours.
Let me tell all does fans that have been supporting Kenny or what u people called him, no body is bigger than our great club, this man has sent our great club to a grave and will soon Berry our great club by make us to be fighting out of relegation, I hope that all of u that has been supporting this failure manager knows how many premier league game we have played this year? If u don’t know Let me tell u, we have played 7 games, which is 21 points, do u know how many points we pick out of 21? 5 points and sent 16 to grave, the worst manager I have ever seen in my life, after spending 100 and something million for one seasons, I don’t care about any body apart our great club, L f c, I don’t blame him, because he’s there making his money, and we fans are the ones feeling the pains, win or no win, he will be paid, I don’t believe that this man will still be our manager till now, sack him because he don’t know what he doing and does not deserve to be our manager, bad tactic, bad formations, bad selection, no fighting sprite,
Ben, this clown makes Hodgson looks like the great Shanks.
I have to question all those pulling Kenny apart for ‘tactics’. Signings, maybe. Substitution times & changes, yes. Starting line-up, at times yes. But tactics cannot be a failing when in matches we make enough clear-cut chances to win these games several times over. Our conversion rate per chance is one of, if not the, worst over the top 5 leagues in Europe. Poor finishing (& some players) – not poor tactics people, that is a totally different topic. Dalglish may have his failings but caring about the club is not one of them Ben – he ONLY has the club’s best interests at heart. Always has…
Jimmy, when initial tactics did not work, as gaffer you have to find changes. Noticed how red nose of manure did in the Charity Shield game?
To KD he has the interest of the club yes but as always not at the expense of his own oversize ego.
I agree 100 % , KD is stubborn or either he does not know when a player is playing badly , the following should happen next season.
1. Reina – we have to find a goalkeeper, PR makes to many mistakes and cannot read the game and control his defence.
2. Carra must retire,Johnson must be sold , replacement to be found for Agger who is injury prone.
3. Hendo & Spearing to be benched, both are not ready to play for the 1st team.
4. Suarez must be sold ,embarrasment to club, Carrol to be benched , Kuyt is passed his sell by date.
5 . If we drop points in the first few games in new season KD must quit.
You are 100% correct
Much appreciate your valid points
Khalid, KD, Hendo, Carroll, Downing are all clowns but what the rest have done to be deserve to be chuck out?
How far has our standards dropped ?Kenny was a great player for LFC and a great Ambassador for us and will always be special. Does this make him untouchable ?No- with all due respect any 1 who knows this clubs great history cannot stand their and pretend that alls well since KD took over.Statistics are their for all to see.KD and Commolli have to take the responsibility for this.Would Hendo,Adam,Carrol and Downing make any of the top 5 starting line-ups ?Tactics – you chasing 4th,you already in Europa,you have a major problem with scoring goals and converting chances.What do you do? Play suarez on his own up front to deal with 4 defenders and have a player YOU bought for 35Mil on the bench and then bring him on with 5 minutes to go.We play a formation of 5 across the midfield to compensate for our lack of pace and creativity and abscence of a genuine holding midfielder. Problem is when the wingers get hold of the ball and put the crosses in none of them are quick enough to get into the box.Now Commolli has indicated that no major spending will take place in the summer. Consider this and then maybe you will realise why a lot of LFC fans are angry.1)Do you really think that the likes of Hendo,Adam,Carrol and Downing will get us 4th place next season.Add to this that Stevie is not guaranteed 38 games and that the top 5 will be buying.For all the talk of the squad being better than last year – how many world class players do we have – 2 in Gerard and Suarez.How many players do we have who can single handedly change a game when we up against the stubborn teams.Did we spend R 100 + mil to win the Carling Cup so now we slap ourselves on the back for this.So the reality is that by mis-spending we have set ourselves further back in our quest to get back to where we belong.
We can’t say FSG had not backed KD and DC either, they did put up 100 mill but did not expect these 2 buffoons to spend 75 mill of it on clowns. Even at the beginning FSG did not imply they are are either Shiekhs or Romans.
We do not have too many 100 mill, eben if we do we can’t spent it without running foul of UEFA. We need to 4th and excellent players to win games. Points that are completely lost on KD, DC and their blind supporters.
Every year we tell the wprld we have excellent youth players like Suso, Morgan, Raheem but we see very little of them or none at all. But we continue to see plenty of the flops like Hendo, Downing, Carroll, Adams. If Adams corners alone is worth 10 mill as Red Nose said, why did he not buy Adams himself.
Managers are there to pick the best team of the day and the best tactics and KD is not doing that. Why is he still here however great a player he was for us?
LFC truly is a team living in the past, allergic to the future and the glory it can offer.
People are right to quetiön kenny’s decision on certain occasions as well as one or two of players he signed.Any fan who knows football knows who shouldn’t be starting in our team,but kenny is stuborn.Henderson had a woeful performance in d last U-21 tournament,Jones,welbec,Sturridge are now in d national team.Is he bether than Maxi?
Oh dear this really is getting ridiculous with the Kenny bashing, supporters you are not,typing away with your “I know best attitudes” you should head down to Stamford Bridge with your support and trigger happy ways, 1 year Dalglish has had, not a full season, for those that start a response with “with all due respect” do me a favour and listen to yourselves.
#YNWA unless of course things are going wrong
Talking about CFC, maybe we can sack KD and bring in AVB? At least we have a young coach and a winner all roll in one.
KD is a veteran af LFC and need very little learning curve, so what is his excuse for failing?
KD can only do well at a club like LFC, where our standards had droped so low, failures is not only tolerated but accepted.
Anyone care to remember what the great Shanks says about coming in 2nd? And we can’t even be 4th.
I think what we need to remember is that Kenny needs to be given time how much time I am not sure ? But clearly looking at how we were 18months ago we are certainly better, 1 trophy in the bag, with another possible (FA) and the 4th spot still totally not out of sight and that is by someone who has been out of the game for some time!! We obviously need to get back into the CL and if it doesn’t happen this year then re-group and build for next year. The obvious risk is that if we don’t start well next year and the pressure builds & we fail again to reach the CL then a decision will need to be made. KK has been given a 3yr contract and the owners will see this out unless something drastic happens results wise. In Kenny we have to trust…. YNWA
At last, a sensible perspective!
Saleem, you mean languishing at 7th after spending 100 mill with one of the lowest scoring record in the league (worse than Blackburn, a club mired in relegation battle) is not considered drastic?
We are talking about LFC right, once the most successful club in England and the British club with the most European Cups?
Kd should get more bodies in d opponent’s box, in to respond 2 d crosses. Also, sharp goal scorer.
Fans will always be screaming for results, be it if you are LFC or your school team. Nothing wrong with that.
Also some of them will get on the backs of new signings if they do not perform over the first season, that is whats happening here. Kenny is drawing so much flak from ‘Kenny Bashers’ is not solely because of his signings, or his tactics or not even because of these less than impressive results. We all know we need to give a new manager time, and the new players too, after all we are not owned by Roman! But as I was saying Kenny is getting so much criticism mostly because of the amount of money that he played for these players. Keep the money spent in mind and anyone will tell you these are overpriced players. I suppose it is not the player’s fault that they were bought with so and so amount.
The club is rebuilding, and needs time, yes it does (we never have time of course, all we have is desire for silverware and instant success, but that happens rarely!). I am willing to give Kenny one more season, and this almighty clamour will subside down quite a bit if we can add the FA cup this year, even if we do not make it to the CL spots, because nothing works better to soothe the mind of average fans than the sight of their club captain lifting something exceedingly shiny in the local papers.
Kenny must go he has failed the team a big time,he is a legend and his tactis are poor,we need a coach like louis van gaal
In Kenny I trust, but I have to agree with the author, someone finally sees what I see. Henderson should play cm, he is far more productiv
And subs are way to late for my liking
Scrathes head!!!!!!!