There is a certain myth around Liverpool FC that needs to be broken, a lie that we tell ourselves as Liverpool fans that we need to stop pervading, and it is that some senior players can do no wrong. When Liverpool perform well these players are lauded; praised for their awesome influence on ordinary mortals that made these secondary players perform above their usual level. They may have provided no goals, assists or even any defence-splitting passes, or match-winning tackles, and they may, themselves, have performed decidedly averagely but it will have been them that instigated the win, nonetheless. However, when the result goes badly or the team performs badly, they are exonerated of all blame and it’s as if they weren’t even on the field when the game took place; Lucas, Skrtel, Ngog or another ‘lesser’ player will be the fall guys instead. At the moment, there are three players that are performing well, well below par on a regular basis and have so far – mostly – avoided criticism, or been dropped.
For so long, Liverpool FC fans have dreamed of a team of Carraghers. Now, sadly, seeing even one Jamie Carragher in a Liverpool side is an indication that errors may be made and the defence may be shaky. That is not to say that the defensive fragility Liverpool have shown this season is entirely Carragher’s fault; it isn’t, but he has become a shadow of himself in the past 2 months. Whether or not our vice-Captains performances are just a symptom of wider problems or not, the simple fact remains: he needs to be dropped, if not least of all for the good of the team but also for the good of his own confidence. A spell out of the first team – however much he might resent it – can only be good for Carragher’s mental state of mind. For so long he has been un-droppable, and not for a moment is that to suggest that Jamie has let his performance drop through laziness, or feeling overly secure in his position but he has become stale, irritable and when Liverpool come under pressure he is beginning to resemble a wild man; screaming at officials and blaming his team-mates for his own mistakes. He is making more mistakes than usual; showing uncharacteristic lapses in concentration and needs to be taken out of the fray, at least for a few weeks. Give Agger his place back and see what Skrtel and Agger can do together to shore up a leaking defensive line. At the age Carragher is at now, any serious drop in form could be permanent if left to deteriorate further, and if Agger is not given games soon, we could risk losing them both.
Secondly, Steven Gerrard needs to take a moment to address what is happening with his performances and his inconsistent form. One minute, he’s scoring two goals in 10 minutes against Man Utd, the next; he’s going missing for entire games at a time. I’m well aware of Gerrard’s match winning attributes, and if it hadn’t been for his goals in the past 2 league games, the results would’ve looked much worse than they did by the end but had the Captain been performing, marshalling his troops and just generally putting in a good shift himself, then it’s likely that the results would never have needed ‘saving’ in the first place. Now, this is not a slight on Gerrard’s abilities, his value to the team or his status as a genuine, rock-solid world class midfielder but at times last season was perhaps his worst in recent memory and this season has started similarly. If his goals contributions of the past couple of weeks are not to be a wasted catalyst, then our Captain needs to be the man to stand up and be counted, and give the rest of the side – lost, disillusioned and seemingly bereft of guidance as they are at the moment – an example (and one that has, all too often, not been there lately) to follow. An alternative to this would be to take the Captaincy away from Gerrard, pass it to another well-respected team-mate; who is capable of leading from the front (or back) – Reina. The freedom Gerrard would be given could enable him to concentrate solely on getting his own game back in order. As big and as hard as he may be Gerrard is one of our most mentally fragile players. Whatever the reason may be, something is affecting his form, in terms of game-to-game consistency and cannot be allowed to influence the rest of the side by proxy. Gerrard is our best player that much is fact but he cannot be allowed to escape criticism; not if we are all to remain in our belief that no man is bigger than the club.
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@Rusty, great point but I recall it was Arbeloa who was keen on leaving when Real came knocking.
However I watch Real Madrid every now and then and he really isn’t that good imo.
And what about Poulsen? Why are we looking for players near their 30’s and paying 5m for him? Sadly I think this is what it has come to, players who has “experience” and can play their part, free transfers etc. Yurk! I dreaded this day.
Gerard and Torres are only human i dont believe Torres is fully fit yet, i still believe Stevie has saved our asses so i can easily take him off your list.
The real truth is we do not have the quality to support them, Carra is nearly finished and Poulsen Jova Babel Maxi and Konchesky should not be here.
I think most of you are missing the point, especially the writer of this article. Yeah, its so easy to point out that our “star” players aren’t performing. Yet you haven’t asked as to what the heart of the problem is. Torres is not scoring, true. Torres is also not getting the ball, and when he does, it is being played behind him or out on the wings, so any scoring opportunities are gone.
Secondly, Roy is shifting the mids around so much, i don’t think anyone knows where they suppose to be plying. Against Man u, He shifted Mereiles around from from the middle, to the right, and then back to the middle.
Thirdly. Gerrard is playing way too deep.
So if you are going to blame anyones performance, have a go at Roy, he seems to have no fucking idea as to how to play any of his players, and he is too frightened to make the changes necassary to make things happen. Im asking Roy to get his balls out of his wifes purse and be a manager, or get the fuck out of LFC and let someone who has the ability to control our players to do the job that he is obviously incapable of doing.
@Jim – I wonder if structures at the club made Arbeloba want to leave. It has happened on occasion. Real is the club he grew up at. Imagine an english player abroad getting a call from LFC, MU or Arsenal. Nonetheless, £3.5 million, less than what we paid?
@Jim – I started watching Real play a couple of years ago.
‘we haven’t thrown a strop, stopped turning up at the game and cancelled our Sky subscriptions, we’ve remained loyal and tried to stay as optimistic as possible’
if you call this tripe optimistic then we;re all well and truly fooked. Don’t take up a career in coaching
there are lots of premiership strikers playing worse and being less effective than fernando torres but they dont play for liverpool so the london manchester press mafia are not interested in them, they want only to harm the greatest club in the world – no chance we will have the long last laugh.
Sammyboy – not sure what you’re talking about. your remarks don’t seem to tally with the article. I still go the game (and yes loads staying away) but I agree with the writer on the points he’s making (seems loads on here do too)
People talk some pure shite on this forum, its beyond a joke.
^also bryan, not sure if you’ve actually read the second page on this article that Sammyboy has lifted the quote from…and as far as agreeing with this article, you’re off your head pal, drop torres and take the armband off gerrard? lets put babel in goals and hire rafa as a cheerleader while we’re at it eh? absolute jiz for brains.
Torres so far this season has been very poor. He looks disinterested, hides behind defenders instead of joining in play, and generally looks fed up.
Carra has looked susceptible, but he is still phenomenal at correcting ANY mistakes, whether made by him, or often made by his partners (Skrtel in particular). Most of the goals we concede are aerial, and it’s no surprise Carra is faring worse in a side with no height, when it once had the likes of Hyypia and Henchoz.
However, the one player I will not criticise is Steven Gerrard, and neither should anyone who knows their salt. Apart from scoring 3 in his last 2 PL games (including single handedly driving us back into the United game), he hasn’t let his head go down like Torres, and is by a mile our biggest threat. Of course, it takes time for the players to gel and Gerrard doesn’t yet know the runs or passes that Meireles/Cole/Jova/Konch are going to make yet, so it’s understandable that he’s not beating the world at the moment.
But to criticise a man who has almost transcended humanity into a demi-god in his recent past is utterly insane. He is the greatest players this club has ever had since Dalglish, if not better (the amount of times Gerrard has dragged us out the **** single-handedly is astounding). And, to cap it all off, his foil and righthand man, Torres, has turned into a diva, leaving Gerrard once again as the only bloke in the squad capable of doing anything.
So, do not criticise Steven Gerrard – it’s blasphemous.
Oh God Dan – demi-god – we’re a team of 11 players not just Gerrard. He can be criticised you know he is human. When is this dem-god going to show some emotion other than pained constipation? He needs a dose of salts.
we just arent playing well as a team right now.
form is temporary class is permanent.
the point your all missing is when we played sunderland we had no width on the pitch kuyt is supposed to be a forward joe cole plays in midfield we had gerrard polsen raul m. joe cole kuyt and torres who i tought played well, but we had no width also what is torres doing tackling back to get the ball isnt he a forward? its gunna take a bit more time and patience benitez had five years hodgsons had five minutes
Yet another knee jerk article.
Carragher is being blamed because he has to play at RB & CB due to Johnson always being out of position. The same goes for Skrtel trying to cover LB because either Konchesky is not good enough or because he needs a bit of time to bed in.
Gerrard is inconsistent and has often let games pass him by but at the same time he has been on fire and won us games too. He is an emotional player who is distracted far too easily by problems off the pitch, but i’m not sure taking the arm band off him is the answer.
As for Torres, he is struggling for form & fitness but it’s not helped by having all new players behind him, he’s never played with Cole, Jovanic or Meirless before.
In conclusion it’s too early in the season to be shouting the odds, new players, new manager, new systems etc it all takes time to blend. In the meantime can all supporters stop slagging the team and make sure they are not walking alone.
I really can’t see what Poulson and Konchesky are doing in a red shirt.Neither would get a place on the bench at ‘a top six side’.Also why have people forgotten about Lucas just as he seemed to be coming good for us.Him and Kuyt have been model pros for the reds showing the kind of grit and determination that grinds out results on a bad day.Lets face it,this season is one of rebuilding.
Pacheco both needs and deserves more game time or he’ll move on.What’s the point in competing for a place in the team that doesn’t exist.With the Carling cup catastrophy behind us we should be putting a very strong attack minded side out and start enjoying playing football again.It’s the only way to get other teams respect back.Every team that comes to Anfield lately knows that the game is there for the taking.Let’s face it we can’t build from the back as we have done in the past because the quality just isn’t available no matter how much you tinker, so plan B – Attack, Attack,Attack and outscore opponents.The fans need shaking to wake up.It worked two seasons back.We need to tighten up all over the park and play fast, one touch football as we have shown we can do in the past.Get shut of the deadwood in January.
Babel has never had the right mentality for the club and imo we bought the wrong Dutch starlet.
Drenthe is infinitely better and was available for a similar amount at a similar time.
Sell Babel and buy Honda before a rival does.The guy is quality and would easily pay for any sizable fee in Asian merchandising alone.
Make it happen Roy.We need more guile and pace going forward not 3 midfielders who are content with passing backwards for 90% of the game.We’re just inviting trouble playing so negatively.
We desperately need a comfortable win (hell an ugly one would do for starters) to get our heads up. (both players and supporters).
YNWA
Well, ok. The results hasn’t been kind to us in the opening games, But lets face it.
We’ve played Arsenal, Man City, Utd all of which are top 4 contenders, Birmingham away who hasn’t lost a game at home for a year, and a lot of teams will drop points there. We also played Sunderland.
*Sunderland beat shitty
*They drew Arsenal
Left is the WBA game wich was bad but we still managed a result. I wouldn’t call for heads just yet.
Look at Chelsea, the first top half team they faced they lost. (Nevermind City’s unwillingness to grind out results against lesser teams, which will eventually see them end up with Europa League tickets)
Arsenal lost to WBA at home. And their goalkeeper is for shit. It’s astoundashing that they have had him in goal for the last 3 seasons.
Man utd have drew 3 games or something against bottom half opponents? And Rooney can’t produce due to personal issues.
Put this into perspective and maybe things are not as bad as they seem.
YNWA