“Keep calm and CARRY ON.”
We’ve all seen the variety of mugs, t-shirts and generally miscellaneous merchandising for the now famous wartime slogan. We’ve all shaken our heads as it appears to have manifested itself in every walk of life. But after the cataclysmic result against West Brom on Saturday, we could learn a thing or two from that old slogan – and it’s essential that we all do so.
First and foremost, it’s just one game. A game in which we played pretty well until the sending off to be fair. It was just like watching a carbon copy of last season. Play well, control game, create chances, miss chances, get punished, on wrong end of refereeing decision, heads go down, game over. That was a microcosm of our season.
But we need to remain positive. Screeching that we’ve appointed a relatively inexperienced manager and “I told you so” isn’t going to do anyone good.
The Americans paid big bucks out for him and his staff, he is here to stay and that’s all there is to it. It has been a long time since a manager had total support at Liverpool. The fans split into warring factions (and remain so) over Benitez, Hodgson received hardly any support (he was doomed from the start for this reason, though he was patently always going to be a dreadful appointment) and Dalglish might have had the backing of the fans but was not FSG’s man which is why it made their decision to sack him in May that little bit easier after a poor league season.
We desperately need to show the unity behind Rodgers. I feel sorry for him because it is important for any new manager to hit the ground running but our fixtures have been totally and utterly appalling to him. West Brom away was a great chance to get off to a good start with games against Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United all on the horizon. A defeat against City and the pressure on Rodgers is going to grow.
But that is madness, insanity even. It takes a while for a new regime to click into place. I remember Houllier’s revolutionised team losing 1-0 at home to Watford in the first game of the season at Anfield in a horribly disjointed performance. Hodgson’s second game was a 3-0 thumping away at Manchester City in an again disjointed and unfamiliar performance. We might have been defensively ragged after the red card on Saturday but I wouldn’t call it a disjointed performance until that moment. I actually thought we were impressive. We definitely should have been well in the lead and yet we ended up losing 3-0. One of those games that makes you despise football, although you return the week after nonetheless!
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It’s all a question of patience. Brendan Rodgers’ remit is to get Liverpool back into the Champions League. He has to do it on a limited budget. The size of that budget and the ambition of the owners is up for debate but that’s perhaps for another article. But that’s his job. He isn’t going to achieve that overnight. I do believe he is well positioned to do it as our squad isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be but he deserves at the very least this and next season to make his mark on the club.
Screeching for his head to roll after one game is lunacy. But yet on Twitter, which after a poor result does tend to resemble some sort of asylum, people were, without a shred of irony, calling for his head. There is room for doubt about all his signings so far, there is room for doubt about whether he should have been given the job, but it is truly time for Liverpool fans to come together as a fan base and get ready for the long haul.
We are going to try and play football the right way and I firmly believe that when everything settles down, we are going to be competitive. I don’t think we’re going to Wembley thrice and I don’t think we’re going to win the Europa League, but I honestly think we can get ourselves back on our feet this year and look towards the Champions League places as a realistic goal IF we bring one or two more players in. If you listen to Rodgers, that’s what he’s trying to do.
Let’s just have a little patience, take our time and engender some positivity. It’s just one game. There are 37 more for us to be a lot closer to where we want to be.
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I will be happy if we end the season equal on points with ManU even with a 2 less goal difference. No-one in Mancland is panicking yet, neither should we.
I’m sorry but I simply cannot agree that until the sending off we played well! I was far far from satisfied even at half time and remarked that if we didn’t “pull our finger out” in the second half we would be well ant truly “stuffed”. We didn’t – and we were! I was never one for views through rosy glasses!
Question is if we played so badly to you how did we manage 60% possession with a pass completion of 88.9% both up on last years stats! For a team playing a new system we should have been 3 up well before WBA scored the wheels only really fell off in the last 10 mins. We have to take the positives out of the game as well as the negatives Joe Allen,Lucas,Johnson and Skrtel in the 90% plus passing accuracy with Suarez,Agger and Downing 87%plus PA so Rodgers philosophy is already having an affect on the team.
We need a goal scorer or Suarez moving out from the middle with Borini being given a chance.
Stats…..the most importants stats were Horrendous mistakes Agger(1) Skrtel (1). Sitters missed Suarez(3).
Its good to dominate the less-critical stats, but the focus should be on the critical ones; they decide matches. Suarez conversion rate is pathetically bad, this needs addressing immediately. Its been there for al to se for a long time, so its depressing to see Rodgers start with the same failed approach of Suarez as main striker.
THIS IS AN OPEN LETTER TO Mr. JOHN HENRY.
Dear Mr. Henry,
How are you? Bet like the rest of us you did not feel too great after watching our beloved club (i am not too sure you are a fan like the rest of us but i would include you in “our”) fall to a mid table team (sorry West Brom fans) but what did you expect when against common sense and good judgement, you decided to appoint a rookie manager who had ONE, yes ONE, UNO, 1, good season at the top flight and whose best talent is his ability to write a good plan to impress you.
Mr. Henry, “We told you so !” There we got off our chest. You see, at that time (we still do now) we have a very good option other than Brendan Rodgers. His name is Rafa Benitez. You might have heard of him. He won us the CL in his first season, got us to another final, have us play in this competition every year barring his final season, won an FA cup and finish as runners up not too long ago. And he did all this having to contend with a very distruptive and destructive pair of your countrymen and a limited budget. Oh did i mentioned he broke the duopoly of Real and Barca in Spain with a limited budget too? And he still lives in Liverpool and loves the club?
But you have other ideas and decides to appoint a rookie manager from a small newly promoted club. Obviously you did not study the history of the club or learn from it for if you did, you would notice the last time we did that, it was so bad you have to fired that man 6 months down the road. Then you went ahead to appoint an ex playing legend on an interim basis which was a good thing as it stabilize the club but then against good judgement you gave the job permanently to him even though the last time he archieve anything significant as a manager was more that 10 years (it nearly bankrupted his old club) and he was sacked while managing in Scotland, yes in the Scottish league where even Souness can florish but not KD. This err “Legend” of course went ahead and blew 85 mill on largely unproven and overated British players and we finished the season with a mickey mouse cup, an 8th position and all sorts of new unwanted records (least home win in a season, least point, etc). Then of course you are forced to sack him BUT we thought you have learnt your lesson already and appoint or should i say reappoint someone with a proven winning record and at the same time familiar with the club. Of course we were wrong and we have got ourselves into this mess, again.
Many would say of course would say are you bloody out of your mind, it’s only been one game. Yes that was what we said for the past 2 seasons, deja vu? Mr. Henry, you and BR had said time is needed to rebuild. Well it had been 23 years (and counting) since we won the league and at the rate we are going, it would be another 23 more. You and BR are talking as it we had built a sustantial lead over our rivals but nothing could be further from the truth of course. We are years behind (please remember that we finished last season closer to relegation than winning the league) and your managerial gaffes would only bring us further behind. If there is one trend we could notice here is you like to gamble with your desicions. Problem is you are gambling with our beloved club.
Mr. Henry, please stop gambling now. Its clear that BR just like RH, brings with him a small club mentality and you could see the effect on our club just after one game. Bringing Swansea to Liverpool? Is he kidding us? He calls himself a student of the game? New manager, same crap.
Bring back Rafa now as he seems to be the only one who knows what to do at LFC.
Remember, it was not too long ago we finished 2nd and won the CL.
From
A true LFC fan.
We could never have won that game with Dowd doing his usual home side bias against liverpool. He does love waving his cards at our players.
Until we solve the goal scorer problem there will be a lot of this. Suarez is so inefficient in converting chances its painful to watch. That problem has been there for over a year yet no changes have been made. To miss Jelavic was a crime by Kenny….that could have been the buy to save his job at Anfield.
Too many false dawns, we have to win and win fast. By the time this month is finished we could and probably will be 12 points behind the leaders! It’s all very well to say it will be okay but it obviously is not, I will afford Mr Rodgers some time but the league won’t it could turn into a relegation scrap pretty quick.wht haven’t we signed Dempsey?
LFC is going no where this season. It’s not Rogers fault, it’s the owners. They are not prepared to provide the funds that LFC need. Honestly FSG are to small for a club with the history and expectations of LFC. We need owners who have the capital, not nice talkers who want to penny pinch their way through.
Yes agreed, noticed that this a trend with Americans, all taked but no substance? And what happened to our stadium plans?
Lest we forget fsg saved our beloved LFC from bankruptcy! They are expanding our commercial contracts- very lucrative sponsorship deals, that will become very important when financial fair play kicks in. Also, our wage bill was probably in the top 4 in the league, yet the team finished 7th 5 th and 8th recently- so quite rightly that needs sorting out, which is why we are taking hits on selling players just to get them off the wage bill, I.e maxi on a free. Aqualani for a few million. Kuyt £1m. Cole has got to go- terminate his deal and be done with the saga. I like him as a person but his injuries are relentless. Downing/ Adam/ Carroll are prob on £220k a week between them. That’s not value either. I’d take £25m for the three if it every materialised! Doni was a free. I bet he is on a lot too. We need a goalscorer. A finisher. They nearly always come at a premium, apart from ba, cisse and jelavic for example. I would really like to see Adam Johnson, Dempsey as realistic signings. We need to look into gerrards replacement. Christian Eriksen next summer would be quality.
Still need two or three players to be competetive, a striker and quality central midfielder and a winger, Still, forget fourth or fith again this season, we can’t compete finacially, even with Spurs or newcastle, let alone Manure,Sh-itty, Arse-nil or that crappy team that stole Torres. Can’t even get anyone on loan either. We used to be a top european team, but top players only play for cash, not history. YNWA.
We need a FINISHER
LD – How can you say the owners won’t provide funds? The problem isn’t funds. Liverpool have spent similar if not more than Chelsea, Arsenal and maybe even Utd over the last two seasons, and certainly more than Newcastle and Spurs.
The problem is poor player recruitment and unfortunately a delusional core running (not owning) the football club. The Liverpool culture (the ‘Liverpool way’, former glories etc) is what is essentially holding the club back. Yes, maybe FSG have bitten off more than they can chew, but you can’t say they haven’t thrown funds at it. The Suarez case highlighted the pig skinned, ‘we’re the greatest yet the world’s against us’ culture that has been endemic at Liverpool football club over the last decade. The (often fantastic) culture and close knit nature of Liverpool as a place and football club is often its downfall.
As for player recruitment, whoever was responsible for recruiting and agreeing fees on Carroll, Downing, Adam, Henderson et al should be fired and never given a job in football again.
Stop looking to blame people OUTSIDE the football club and try and look within….
Those people must be KD and DC.