Former Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson has said that he would take an eighth place finish for the Reds this season. Writing in his column in the Liverpool Daily Post, he said:
“One course of action I can’t support is changing the manager. Roy Hodgson got no credit whatsoever for winning at Bolton and seeing off Chelsea, yet when results go the other way it’s all his fault? I’m not having that. I’ve no issue with people chanting ‘Dalglish’ because he is the king, a legend. And while I don’t think he should be manager it is about time he was used in the correct way and allowed to have some influence on the club in his ambassadorial role. But it needs properly defining. Damien Comolli also has a role to play. I’m not a big fan of making wholesale changes in the January window but he does need to get out there and do some serious scouting. Never mind a list of six players, because you might only get one, he needs to be running the rule over at least 30 who he thinks can make this team better. Until then, it’s difficult to see where this current crop of players are going to take the side. But I’ll say this – if I was offered an eighth place finish now I’d snap your hand off.”
Lawrenson also questions the future of Pepe Reina if things continue as they are. Commenting on the Stoke performance, Lawrenson said:
“If you play it safe and get something fine, but if you do that and lose you might as well go for it. Sadly it seems as though not enough players have the ability to do this. If this sort of thing goes on it will only drag Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres further down. Their efforts in masterminding recent victories just count for nothing and they must be sick of nobody else being able to step up to the mark. And Pepe Reina can deny it all he likes, but who could blame him if he was getting itchy feet? If it was Arsenal or ManchesterUnited I’d be making it known that I was interested. Play Champions League football with us or stick with a side finishing halfway down the league? The question needs to be asked and it won’t be long before Reina considers his answer for real.”
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You’d take an eight place finish? Which team do you support, mate? Fulham? We’re Liverpool FC for goodness sake, we deserve to be up there at the top and anything other than a top four finish will be a disappointment. And might I suggest that an eight place finish won’t even get us Europa league football! The manager’s a muppet but look at the quality of our squad, 13+ internationals including the likes of Gerrard, Torres and Reina and you’re talking about finishing eighth. You’re pathetic, I can’t believe you get paid for expressing your views.
LAWRO,U ARE FRIENDS WITH ROY OR WAT? HAVE U BEEN PAID TO SUPORT HIM.THATS THE PROBLEM WITH U GUYZ WHO GET THE CHANCE TO WRITE ON OUR WEBS,INSTEAD OF BUILDING THE TEAM U ARE DESTROYING IT.LET THE NEW OWNERS KNOW WAT A WEAK MANAGER WE HAVE.ALL U WHO SUPORT ROY ARE ENEMIES OF LIVERPOOL.
shocking stuff from lawro….
we sack off a la liga/uefa cup/CL winning manager because it was deemed an unforgiveable FAILURE for finishing 7th….
now the new guy should snap hands off just to finish a place lower than that?
then goes on about how he shouldn’t be criticized?!?!
jesus WEPT for fools like this….
Mmy sentiments exactly OSI – I thought that the whole point of sacking a manager was to take a fresh approach and try to do better, not to just attempt to do just a little bit worse than that guy did!
Lawrenson has proven himself to be a fool before on numerous occassions, so this outburst is to be expected from him anyway – it’s just more stark evidence that being an experienced professional footballer doesn’t make you any more of an authority on football than us Sunday Leaguer’s or armchair fans!
And There we go again another EX-PLAYER talking absolute RUBBISH.Finishing 8th hey SHANKS would have out of training gates in flash you fool.I seem to remember well last year Lawro was advocating Rafa’s demise critising him at every opportunity but of course 5 weeks ago he said that the reason WHY we were doing poorly was because of the players.He is Roy’s buddy of course.Have another beer.And to think that the media pay good money for this nonsense.YNWA for 35 years
I never thought i would see the day when any Liverpool fan would take 8th this early in the season.
Well if this junk was all i had seen all season i would be pissed.
Lawro! You r an will remain a ‘plonker’.Your talk is negative as usual!
Lawro, wth man. If you can’t see the negative set up the boys are having to try and deal with then I am not sure which team you are watching mate.
Roy needs to be gone, as soon as possible before the rot really sets in.
The ex players like Lawro and Rush have nothing to say worth listening to. They were top players but they speak such clueless rubbish you can clearly see why they never became managers.
We should have been 6th last season after a disaster year. If we are any less than 6th this season the whole squad should be dumped in the Mersey.
PS: I expect Woy to be gone long before May.
I think Lawro’s right. Given the situation we’re in now 8th is probably the best LFC can achieve. Don’t rule out stars leaving this summer with Reina, Torres, Johnson and Gerrard. Once they leave, Roy will be able to stamp his authority and philosophy of his football – negative, defensive unit + long ball, no wingers, not adventurous, ie Liverfoolham.
RUBBISH,WE WON AGAINST CHELSEA BECOZ PLAYERS WERE SELF MOTIVATED AS IT WAS A BIG GAME.ITS NOT BECOZ OF ROY.
To be fair, that’s probably why you’ve never been asked to manage Liverpool ‘Lawro’. Even during a mediocre season, we don’t ‘settle’ for anything, you hope for the best. Admittedly, we’re not going to get anything close to the best under the current manager but you still have to have hope.
And what’s this ‘If I was offered..’ business all about? When did Lawrenson become a Liverpool fan again?
The reality here is Lawrenson attacked previous manager as passionately as he praised the appointment of Hodgson. Now it seems he is too proud to admit he was wrong because it makes no sense for him to say he would accept 8th yet wanted ex manager gone for finishing 7th.
He lambasts everyone other than Gerrard and Torres for not stepping up but forgets its a team game. For the Torres and Gerrard to score surely they have to have got a pass from someone and put the finishing touches. How many times have passes come from Reina to Gerrad or Torres directly and led to goals.
Against Chelsea, Lucas was outstanding but did not score the goals so according to Lawrenson that is not stepping up.While Alonso was around Lawrensen and Hansen always agreed on match of the day Liverpool was a 2 man team then how come the Alonso departure directly led to the 2 scoring less goals.
Lawrenson castigated ex manager for publicly telling Torres to concentrate on playing not mourning to officials yet says nothing when Roy does the same to Glen Johnson.
Are the double standards more an acknowledgement that one is better than the other hence the one perceived to be good was criticised harshly while the bad one is acknowledged to be trying his best even though it is not working out
This season has been a struggle because of tactical changes and we are playing like we are trying to avoid relegation not move up the table. If anyone doubts go and look at how Fulham were playing when Roy took over while they were relegation threatened. Swap the Jerseys and Liverpool is the Fulham 2007-08 version.
Which good player in their right mind would sacrifice their careers the way Meireles did by coming here with great central midfield qualities only to be shoved to the wings while the likes of Pacheco and Amoo were already here and would do a better job if given a chance.
Roy earlier on was complaining about Liverpool having too many players but it seems he is keen to recruit and simply replace without desired squad reduction he advocates.
How many more contradiction is this season going to throw at the fans.
An influential personality high up the hierarchy of cause is risking his reputation by trying to shift the blame elsewhere in saying Roy is not to blame. Roy knew what he signed up for so should not behave as if its not the same Liverpool his Fulham played against for 3 seasons. I am sure if someone else was managing and Roy was bringing his Fulham he would fancy his chances of picking 3 easy points given the way the team is playing.
It may be too early to criticise him but he should realise that a honey moon can quickly turn into a messy affair
The buck has to stop somewhere and the biggest piece of January transfer window maybe managerial in nature and we could see the team transformed. A straight choice of spending the reputed £3million pay off or spending £30million on Carlton Cole, Mark Schwatzer and maybe Zamora, the only players who would realistically want to player under the present set up. We paid handsomely for Konchesky but can anyone believe another club would offer even £1million for him right now?
Lawro’s a mug.
i am not a big fan of wholesale changes either, lawro. One change in Jan would suffice. Roy out…