KENNY Dalglish has achieved a turnaround of Liverpool’s fortunes last season and has won the Carling Cup this season, so not all is lost.
At the same time, even admitting that we overpaid for some players (Carroll, Downing, Henderson), I have no problem with the acquisitions per se. As we saw with Coates against QPR and Downing in the Carling Cup final and the game against Stoke, the players who came in over the last two transfer windows are coming good sooner or later.
Where I feel less comfortable is with the mental strength of the team, which as we saw against QPR leaves a lot to be desired. This, in my view, largely comes down to the confidence and tactics of the manager. There is little doubt about the confidence of the King, and this was enough to push the team up the table last season. It might however be argued that the team, built largely before Dalglish came in, already knew where and how it should play, so that the confidence boost was enough to turn things round. The situation this season is murkier, with Dalglish getting his tactics right for some games but wrong in many others.
If the manager has the right tactics, plays players in the right positions, and so on, the team gains confidence and a winning mentality. The turnaround at Sunderland with the coming of Martin O’Neil is a case in point. Liverpool under Rafa Benitez is another.
Taking this perspective, and even if Liverpool were to achieve a Cup double this season, the question Liverpool’s owners must pose themselves is whether Kenny Dalglish is the right manager to take Liverpool to the next level, which surely must imply the ability to compete for both the Premiership and the Champions League.
Dalglish was the right man to take Liverpool out of the negative spiral that accompanied the last days of the Gillet-Hicks regime, the unfortunate exit of Rafa, and the equally unfortunate appointment of Roy Hodgson. The continuing travails of Liverpool in the Premier League do however make me wish for a return to the winning days of a certain Rafa Benitez …
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You’re objective and honest with your article Mr editor.You know Rafa would qualify for CL,Runner up on home soil,win CL or go to finals.I mean you cannot chase away such a manager given that he did not spend 35m pounds on certain players.You can only assume he could spend such amounts to build a Barcelona…PERIOD!!God please bring back Rafa atleast by coincidence because humans are stubborn!
Sacking rafa was the worst decision the club ever made. And I predicted this would happen. We have to being him back asap otherwise we are doomed. I live in Australia and when Rafa was coach I always woke up for games at 2AM and 3AM Sydney time. We had fight, we attacked, but for the last two years I rarely get up for a game as we are just crap.
agree bring back Benitez
King Kenny was good, PERIOD. But he is not able to perform that anymore. Waking up at 4 in the morning and seeing Liverpool players playing like reserves in training is really frustrating.IN QPR’s game i switched off after the first half knowing very sure of the upset coming.
The players are playing with no direction.Backpasses makes my heart beat erratically.If they are leading by a goal, they starts to slow the game. No passion to play like champions. All these are missing in the players.
Gone are the days where opponesnt fears Livepool. Now they feels proud to snatch victory not just a draw. The opponents knew Liverpool are mentally not strong.
Please bring back the glory days.Dont just rely on Kenny’s former success. We can live on history alone. We need to be part of the future history.Break the duck, create a winning mentality.DROP CARROLL, he thinks he is a prima donna. His response are way too slow for a striker.
PS , I am a Malaysian RED.. forever
Any manager will have their own unlucky days, but Rafa has something to prove.Almost every season LFC is on CL list, winning once, going for semis and almost fire top. His tactical deployment of players that counts.He should be called back.
KD and DC (yeah, lets not forget him) spent 113 mill and this brings us (1) A massive 28 points behind our hated rivals (2) 14 points off 4th (3) One overated cup which B’ham won last season and they are now playing in the second division (4)Potential 2nd Wembley apperance.
Yet his brief by the owners are simle, bring us 4th. Forget about the title, we are a massive 14 points off it. Ask ourselves, are we much better off under Hodgson? Did LFC gave him 113 mill or time that KD has? So don’t let the cups distract us, the benchmark had always been the league and Europe, period.
KD fans outthere (i said KD fans not LFC fans, yes they are simply that, KD fans)talks about beautifull football etc but look at Swansea, they are playing much better football then us and how much did their team cost? And they just got promoted.
KD with his players Downing, Adams, Henderson, Carroll, they are not exactly new to the Prem, so what settling down are they talking about? Did Swansea or Norwich need that much time to settle? How many seasons had Downing played in the prem already?
Many times this season, KD had simply been exposed as a bloke who is out of his depth in the Prem, poor tactics, poor choice of players, the list continues (He makes Brendan Rodgers looks like the great Shanks). We simply needs a replacement who younger, understands modern foofball and can use our limited resources wisely. Its good if we can bring back Rafa but if not someone from mainland Europe would do. Bottomline KD must be sack unless we want another season such as the one now.
Under KD, success is defined as winning some Mickey cup and finishing mid table, while our rivals can potentially win a 20th title.
LFC fans and JH, is that what we all want?
nah,dont bring rafa.he is arrogant like kenny.get somebadyelse maybe rikard,louw.or even klinsman.kenny has failed
Kenny has built a mid table side, the table does’nt lie, no good saying we dominated this game and that game, but lost them. We are there because that’s where we deserve to be. Kennys team will ultimately ruin his reputation, as well as his press conferences. So it would be fair to say we need a more up-to-date manager, with some pulling power within europe. One that will restore our midfield with quality, and end our one dimentional game plan, even have a plan ‘b’. Not sure if i would like Rafa back though, i wanted him out at the end of his tenure. So i think Kenny should go at the end of the season and take the crap players he bought with him.
I’m utterly astonished with all the negative blogs about kenny. He’s got us playing wonderful football. We’ve passed teams to oblivion, created tons of chances. That’s Dalglish!
First, new players take different amounts of time to settle. There are very few who settle as immediately as Barnes, beardsley, aldridge. Henderson, Carroll, Adam, downing all need time. Downing has shown quality, man of match at wembley. Henderson has shown spurts of quality, so has Adam, and Carroll last few weeks has just started to gain an understanding of what’s needed. He’s only 21, a kid. They all need time from our famously fickle and impatient fans who are even questioning suarez! That truly amazes me that does. But then Michael Owen got negative blogs when he was an lfc player, Robbie fowler too, and so did Ian rush on his return from juventus, when he went loads of games without a goal.
What disturbs me most is that many “fans” insist we should bring back rafa. Those same fans that were desperate to get rid of him cos we were one dimensional, he’d sold alonso and made some bad decisions, now want him with all his mistakes, back in the managers chair
What. We need to do is look back to August 2011. No one gave us a prayer of the title. It was just too big a jump to make going from 7th to 1st. Our so called reasonable aims were to continue and refine our flair at last season’s end, we all seemed to recognize that getting a champions league spot were a possibility, and good cup runs would be s bonus.
That’s basically where we are.
Last point, sir Alex of manure has been so successful for one reason. When he first became manager they were always finishing 3rd or 4th. Then red nose changed things an united nosedived flirting very closely with relegation. They sadly survived and went on to win the f.a cup, all cos if the patience of the club.
So we should remember that if we fans stay patient, not panic, and all of us sing n support in unity then 6th or 5th is still possible, plus wemberley just maybe twice and the fa cup.
If all fans had been asked before the start of the season how well lfc spills do, I’m pretty certain if we fans were offered the csrling cup and fa cup they’d bite yer hand off
Lez, under Rafa, we beat the likes of Real, Barca, Juve all with modest resources (He certainly did not have 113 mill and blew 35 mill on one player). Rafa’s most expensive players was Torres, all 26 mill of him and in his prime.
This season both Manchester clubs lost in Europa League to so so teams and we are a massive 28 points behind the leaders. Can we imagine we would ever be a force in the league again, nevermind Europe if we continue to persist with KD?
Many fans do not expect to win the Prem this season or even challenging for it but a massive 28 points behind? And we are even outscored by Blackburn? Hey wait a minute, wasn’t KD a great striker himself? And he can’t get our strikers to score.
After spending 113 mill we at least expect to challange, no wait finished 4th. We are now a massive 14 points behind.
We all like the notion of our former great players doing well but we simply can’t let our hearts take over our head. We are talking about the future of LFC here.
Do we want to fall further behind our rivals, lose more potential fans and end up like our Blue neighbour (no disrespect). If not we have to do the right thing, SACK KD.
Also its completely clear we need a goal fetters like fowler, Owen, aldridge, rush. How about offering £20 million for him?
Do you think the likes of Carroll , Adam , Henderson , Downing , Spearing can compete in the CL ? Kenny says no big signings will be coming in , yet Cara , Kuyt , Bella , Stevie , Maxi are all well over there prime and I have 0 faith they can play game in game out without injury next season. So the futrue of our squad is the young players kenny brought and Suarez. Suraez and Renia are the only YOUNG world class player we own. I really dont care who our manager is but what i do care is we have a squad that can beat real , barca , manu , city liike we used to from 04-07…. Everyone preaches time and patience but we have been patient the last 6 years , im grateful for the carling cup but as a LFC fan i expect far far more. We used to be the largest threat in the CL and for me that means we were the best team on the globe , now ? most premier league teams are confident they can take a result from us. We have the billon dollar owner we just need the world class players , i mean whos going to replace stevie in the middle of the park ? Adam ? Henderson ? I like them but you compare them to any world class midfeilder and they are left in the dust. We need players from all over the world and players who can preform at a much higher level then the squad we have. Enough with the kenny haters and enough with the lets give them all time . It’s clear as day we just need better quality players PERIOD
Lfc will be a thing of anguish for the fans next season if kenny still remains our manager. Tactics win matches. Kenny is tactically inept and can’t do anything to change bad situations during matches. He is so stubborn and proud to take good advice. If he remains here next season, he will stubbornly continue having soft spot for his mediocre signings when the least pl club would have gone to south america to recruit brillant cheap players they will use to bash us 3-0 which will be our greatest doom. So, he must go. He is a trash. Legend my foot.
No Tony, we have to respect KD as he is a Legend as a player. But you are right he is trash as manager
Kenny must do the honorable thing and quit , he is not the man to take us to the next level, winning CC & FA Cup is not success as compared to winning the EPL & Champions league ,we should also start finding another replacement for Reina because he does not feel to be at Liverpool.Jurgen Klopp from Borussia Dortmund should replace him.
I 4one hope that he does take us to the next level. I have my doubts thou. But if he doesn’t than there is one person 4me to come back. That’s señor RAFAEL BENITEZ.
He has failed the team a big time and we are a midtable team,during rafa time madrid us to fear us
Some people make me laugh calling for Benitez to come back whilst complaining about the football Kenny has us playing. Do you people actually remember how we approached most games under Rafa? That’s right, turgid, defensive and cagey. It was quite embarrassing at times, even going away to lower placed teams to counter their approach. The one time he let us ‘off his leash’ to attack, we finished 2nd. Then went backwards because of his stubborness which lost us Xabi Alonso – remember that Rafa fans?? Oh not to mention finishing 7th the next season. Yes, Kenny’s results in the league haven’t been great but our football is a million times better than what we have played for quite a few seasons. I think he deserves another season to be judged. The man ONLY thinks for the club, not himself as many of you somehow seem to think.
The games against olimpiakos, Chavs, Milan,R Madrid, thrashing of MU at OT will live with me forever. Is that negative. 09 season we scored more goals than the team who won the league MU. Was that defensive footie mate. His last season he was undermined by everybody at the club and that includes Gerrard and Carrager. Just how many games like the ones I mentioned did u watch under the messiah KD.
Lend’s those rose tinted rafa glasess mate. So now it’s Stevies & Carra’s fault that he left as well as everyone elses barring the fact that he had taken us as far as he could. How can u compare game in the Champs Lge when we haven’t been in Europe under Kenny? Quite silly that. But whilst you’re at it I do remember games like Benfica/Braga also. Chavs? How about the 4-1 drubbing we received at Anfield as well as the losses to Utd. Oh and Burnley? But I guess as long as you’re selective with the game you choose, u can help ‘prove’ your point eh?
Champions league games u said it yrself. U won’t c those under KD mate cos thi yr we’ll finish 7th may b 8th or 9 th and next yr will b exactly the same. He did say himself that this team doesn’t need improving so if u think that this team can finish top FOUR next yr u r very deluded. I will talk to u this time next yr and will c where we r.
We will see next year then. Is it Kenny’s fault that the players haven’t finished their chances that we’ve created this season? We create more chances per match under KD then we ever did under Rafa. I think the deluded ones are the likes of the Rafa lovers who seem to forget how awful we played and his last season was. Dont forget he took over a Champs Lge qualifying team, KD did not so its quite rediculous on your part to bring the Champs Lge up in the first place to compare them. As I said, lend me your glasses mate
If u r right and I’m wrong I will travell to UK and apologise in person my friend. I will b very just as happy as u if we win the league next year. But I’ve got no hope that it will happen. We created more chances u say and it’s not KD fault. Who’s fault it is then. Who bought the players that can’t score goals. Just look at the PL table and c how many teams have scored more goals than us.
hi is a big legend and we stop ther.i wach football evrey day but im not good to go on the tucheline.another misteak sorry u are wing 2 0 ten min left and wath a nice sub caroll for luis and d result we lost 3 2. evry one is talking about rafa his not my fovert but much better than kenney.
FRANK RIJKAARD PLSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kenny has gone as far as his knowledge can take him,he can’t make top 4 next season ,this season is long gone.the point is, the guys judgement in the transfer market is suspect.having spent over £100m on misfits, i don’t think any right thinking board would trust him with more funds.the best option for him is to step aside for someone like RAFA to make good use of funds to be provided by the new owners.
Kenny is a legend in LFC history, we like to remember him for the good things he has done for the club.With the present situation with the team, he is gradually developing a negative profile for himself at LFC.
Another sad issue in LFC is about the owners,- they don’t have a clue about modern day football & most probably don’t know how to get a new manager.
Am willing to place a huge bet that LFC would not make top 4 next season ,if they retain KD as manager.
FRANK RIJKAARD please give over, rafa took him too school when we played his barcelona. imagine where we would be if rafa had spent the money that hodgson and kenny have had. rafa would actually turn all of kennys signings into better players, just as he did with gerard
houlier’s players, so without spending a penny we would at least be fighting for top four.