On the pitch, Dalglish has managed to get the best out of misfit Lucas Leiva and is starting to reap the rewards. The departure of Xabi Alonso left a huge void and the Brazilian never looked likely to live up to expectations at Anfield but the new season bought a new wave of life to his game and as the Kop began warming to him he has proved why Aquilani is not needed and has morphed into a Xabi 2.0.
The club’s confidence to back him in the transfer market despite only being caretaker manager last January shows how important he is at the club. Allowing him to spend nearly £60 million and Fernando Torres was a brave move by the new owners but they have reaped the rewards as the Spaniards form has completely deserted him while his replacement, Luis Suarez, has been a revelation in England, tormenting opposition defences every week and scoring a hat-full of goals in the process.
He appears to have a vision for the club and a style of play that he wants to embed at Anfield and although it will take time to move them away from the Rafa Benitez style of play it is paying dividends already. With the purchase of Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing it is clear he hopes to have an old-fashioned attacking option at his disposable, with a big man little man front pairing to get the best of both worlds. And although Carroll has not hit the heights everyone hoped he would these things often take time and like most things Dalglish touches on Merseyside it will undoubtedly turn to gold before long. The rest of the squad is also being pieced together, with Charlie Adam and Lucas forming a tough tackling and creative midfield pairing while Jose Enrique and Glen Johnson offer attack-minded full backs to give them a wealth of options going forward. The club has structure that it lacked under Roy Hodgson and with this direction they will continue to go from strength to strength.
They are becoming so powerful now that they can cope without Steven Gerrard in the line-up. He has hardly featured under Dalglish because of injury but that hasn’t stopped them winning and when he comes back to fitness they will be even stronger.
Liverpool is in his heart and everything he does is in their best interests. Whether it is protecting his players with an awkward interview or flogging their main striker, it is done because he feels that is the right thing to do and it is working. Since his return he has picked up four points against both Manchester clubs as well as beating Chelsea twice. He has not lost a Merseyside derby and has not had to rely on Steven Gerrard for results like managers before him.
Dalglish has taken the pressure off of the club because the fans quite rightly love and trust him. He brings confidence to everybody and has put Liverpool’s darkest days under Hodgson way behind them and has pushed them on towards a fight for the top four.
The turnaround is remarkable and it can only mean one thing. Kenny is no longer King, he is God.
The article was written by Joshua Robbins for FootballFancast.com. Make sure to check out the latest news, blogs and podcasts at FFC – ed.
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Misfit Lucas morphed into something great under Dalglish? Idiot, he had become a vital cog 2 seasons ago itself. Move away from the Rafa Benitez style of play? Again, idiot, aside frm his last season, things continuously improved. And LFC were top scorers themselves in some. Keep stepping on landmines, don’t you?
And one more thing, unlike KD, Rafa didn’t have millions to spend, usually the max he could spend millions on was on one player. Yes, he made mistakes, but who doesn’t. Ask King Kenny, even he would admit to em
Joshua Robbin, now you offend me with this your piece. you are the misfit. STOP writing about liverpool.
Misfit Lucas morphed into something great under Dalglish? Idiot
Move away from the Rafa Benitez style of play? Again, idiot
indeed you are a total idiot twice, no one likes you right now and last week!
IDIOT
I like how kenny handles the media. if its a stupid question why answer it.. id look up to someone like him more than some manager just answering stupid questions because he ‘has to’
Couple of issues 1 I’d prefer kenny ripping the p out of reporters for asking questions that others have already had answered instead of Roy or Rafa getting wound up and saying the odd silly thing or Fergie storming out of interviews. Kenny can’t take the credit for Lucas but he can for everything else. To the commenters what writer meant was Rafa had a very structured team tactic that was very inflexible, most of the time it worked very well but it did mean some teams could prepare a bit too well for us every now an then which is probably why Rafa was better in cup competition than league. But Rafa was our best manager since Kennys last stint so maybe the writer should consider his words more carefully next time. And Royk under Kenny we have so far spent net 35 million under Rafa we averaged around 20 million most years and the squad Kenny inherited was a mess the one Rafa inherited was decent. Add to that the facts players are getting more expensive and we made some of our transfer kitty back by decreasing the wage bill and you REALLY can’t say that Kenny spent ‘millions’ and Rafa didn’t.
Well said A.R. dreamer, your spot on there, it does my head in when people hero worship rafa, I’m glad he was our manager for the time he was here, but let’s get some things straight HE did not win us the champion league for us Stevie G did, HE did not win us the FA cup Stevie G defo did, + under his leadership we could only dream of winning three times at Stamford bridge playing good . Under kenny despite the results not going our way , I can honestly say that spurs twice, west ham away + Europa crap are the only times we haven’t looked like getting a result with good some exiting footy at least for big spells in the games, but under rafa it was one top result followed by one where we barely had a shot on target or pass properly, like I said I’m glad he was our manager but to think that his time here was perfect is just rose tinted glasses time
yeah stevie performance was great..but we didnt jump into the final did we..i..CL..win against juventus,chelsea,FA cup..win against man u,chelsea..idiot..
did you watch liverpool play when rafa was there…win against inter at san siro,barca at nou camp,real at bernabeau,..god there are so many jumping on the bandwagon..that being said this guy who is writing doesnt know a thing about liverpool..kenny is the right guy…
Robbie Fowler is ‘GOD’
rafa’s style of play was not good in the last yr but before th it was good..why do you even write..mostly you dont know a damn about liverpool..
Yes I remember all them great games but they were All in champions league which suited his style of management plus a couple of FA cup games wow f*****g wee, take the champions league out of it + how many Great memories do you have from six years ,maybe going out of domestic cups early every year or the 30 odd points behind leaders every year, yeah I can’t wait to get back to them days lad. Now I never said he was awful some of them CL games are some of the happiest times of my life, its just he’s not the trophy winning messiah everyone thinks he is, red you muppet
okay you mentioned the two were due to stevie and he did nothing and when i said his tactics was one of the main reason’s we won them…stevie was great at both finals no one can deny that..your arguement is that we dont ave great memories..really..4-2 win at craven cottage after being 2-0 down at half time..3-2 win at man city home after being 2-0 down..these are examples.. there are so many ..i remember it cause am liverpool fan..dont jump on the bandwagon…you are calling me a muppet..wow…FYI we average 72 points a season in rafa’s time..his last yr was terrible…but before tht time’s were good..now kenny is the right man..it will take time ..i ave the patience to wait for 3-4 yrs and i hope the rest of the supporters can wait…
Well we can only dream like you that in 3-4 years we can get to 72 points in the league like in rafa’s day. I have been patient for the last 21 years + will continue to for as long as it takes, I ain’t jumped on no f*****g bandwagon mate, its just I remember what a truly good sides looks like + slowly we seem to b getting there like you said, let’s just agree to disagree on rafas greatness