The appointment of Damien Comolli, which has been seen as being connected with NESV’s metrics approach, could be a good thing also for a return to some sort of “Liverpool Way.” This is what he said during his first interview with Liverpoolfc.tv:
“I had a long conversation with Kenny Dalglish about that. I just wanted to know what it takes to be a Liverpool player. I said ‘you have been a player here’ and obviously he’s been a fantastic manager, and I said ‘what did you like when you were a player in the changing room to see in other players, what did you like when you were a manager, what’s the tradition here, what does it need to be successful at Liverpool Football Club’? I was talking more from a personal character personality aspect of the players.”
Speaking to Dalglish about what a typical Liverpool player should be is crucial to finding a direction for the Reds. I believe King Kenny is fundamental to our future philosophy in this regard. While NESV have started recovering the damage created by Hicks and Gillett by both engaging with the fans and keeping a degree of calm in the boardroom, the third element: attacking and pass & move football can only be addressed by the greater involvement of Dalglish. Comolli talking to Kenny is a good start but as I mentioned in a previous article, he needs to have a more formal role at the club to provide the Reds with some direction. Not necessarily in the guise of manager, but a Philosopher-King, like Johan Cruyff at Barcelona or Franz Beckenbauer at Bayern Munich, where they not only embody the values of the club in an Ambassadorial role but have an important say in the future direction of the club.
Many former Reds have been concerned that the loss of the Bootroom has been an overriding factor in Liverpool’s recent failings. I don’t agree, and I agree with Balague that making the club more English, will not necessary make Liverpool the club it used to be. As John W Henry says, the “values” of the club are what is important , and King Kenny should be the man to turn to, to advise them on what the “Liverpool Way” means, and what sort of footballing mentality the club should have at all levels from youth to the playing style on the pitch.
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Lemmy and his band Motorhead at a French bar
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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.