IT’S has been a week since the sacking of Kenny Dalglish.
There have been numerous opinions as to why he was sacked? Were FSG right in the sacking of Kenny? Did FSG made a mistake by sacking him?
The search of new manager has somehow been overshadowed by constant arguments on this.
While some of you might want to criticize me for sticking to it and posting it time and again, I still feel the need to reiterate the fact that Kenny was not the only one to blame for the league debacle that lead to his sacking.
Kenny for sure failed in a lot of fields this season but there were a lot of things he did right. Tactics and team selection has been widely talked about in reference to his wrong decisions. Yes, he did make mistakes on it, like playing Henderson, Adam and Downing constantly even after series of poor performances, bringing on the substitutes a bit too late in games leaving them with very less time to make impact. But at the same time, he has also succeeded in uniting the team, bringing back the confidence in the dressing room, which was missing during Roy’s era.
A lot of things were expected when Kenny took charge from Roy Hodgson, who was sacked after a series of bad performances which saw Liverpool stuck at 12th position in the league. He brought in Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll after taking charge and did a great job by finishing 6th in the league. Then In the summer in a bid to strengthen the squad he spent huge amounts of money on players like Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing, Charlie Adam, Sebastian Coates and Jose Enrique. These players however failed to fulfil the expectations and most of them had a season worth forgetting, barring Suarez, Bellamy and Enrique.
Inconsistent performances coupled with bad luck (I am sure everyone remembers hitting the woodwork more than 30 times this season) in the league throughout the season ensured that Liverpool finished 8th – their worst finish in the league since 1954. They finished below Everton and Newcastle United who did not even spend half of what was spent on Downing, Henderson and Carroll. Disappointing league performance? Yes it was. We all felt it and so did Kenny.
Everyone saw how the team played throughout the season and I don’t think it is only Kenny’s mistake or fault. If he is responsible for the poor showing then, I think at least half of the team is equally guilty for it, if not the entire team. A lot of you might want to argue on the players he brought in. Then let me assure you, even I feel most of them were overpriced, but we all know they were the best players in their respective teams in the preceding season. In my opinion it’s not Kenny’s fault that they failed to perform here. Okay, it is understood that the price-tag they came with put them under enormous pressure to perform, but there were a lot of players in the league who made big money transfers but performed very well with their new team.
Kenny’s tactics has been criticized by fans and pundits alike in a lot of games. They were not the best tactics but not many player’s were asked to play out of position. Every player played at their natural and most effective positions. Though he seemed to have given more chances to Adam, Henderson and Downing despite of disappointing performances week in week out while keeping Bellamy, Kuyt and Maxi out on the bench, he gave every senior player their fair share of chances but results remained the same. He however tried to rotate the first line up on few occasions, but it never worked out as expected.
[ad_pod id=”unruly-video” align=”center”]
Looking at individual performances of Downing, Henderson, Carroll and Adam explains the league standing. All four of them don’t even have a total of 10 league goals and their assists tally did not even breach the 20 mark. I understand Kenny brought them to Liverpool but he did not bring them to lose matches neither did he bring them in to put in those substandard performances. He instead brought them on the back of outstanding performances they put in the previous season, for their respective clubs. If I remember correctly, everyone was excited even before these players arrived, and when they arrived, everyone cheered their arrival. Few people however raised their eyebrows after a few bad performances but most of the people supported them saying “they are Liverpool players and they need our support”.
The point here is not to point fingers on the player’s or to assess who’s performed below par this season, however the point is that Kenny is not the only one to blame. I feel strongly about it and I have said before and will say it again that Kenny deserved another chance, at least one more season. Those who saw the entire season and know about football should have noticed that Kenny’s failure can be attributed up to some extent to the players, by which I mean the entire squad, who have been inconsistent throughout the season and rather disappointing towards the end of it.
The question remains, did the players fail Kenny? Yes, up to some extent, just as much Kenny failed with his tactics and team selection this season. The players failed him on the pitch with mediocre performances throughout the season. Kenny took the entire blame and was sacked for it while all these players would get their second chance next season despite failing equally. Football is a team game and one man cannot be blamed for the loss neither can one man be credited with the win. It’s a team effort and while winning the entire team should get credit and while losing everyone should be equally held responsible for it, because in my opinion a team loses when entire team fail to perform in some way or the other.
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com
Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook
Yes, definitely. In particular, Senior Players (Reina, Gerrard, Kuyt) were a mess this season.
i asked u this…does kuyt played?…or u didnt see what injuries caused gerrard?..if u say raina..i ll absolutely agree with u.
Yes Torres, Mierelisfor deserting when they knew dalglish had brought in Suarez to compliment them. Lucas and Gerard for getting injured at the wrong time. Reina for having a below par season. Downing and Adam for turning out to be duds, Henderson for not being able to play out of position, Kelly, Johnson and Agger for constantly picking up injuries. Spearing for not being as good as Lucas and lastly Jamie Carragher for getting too old.
You can’t blame someone for getting injured ! That’s an Uncontrolable factor of football! Lack of quality in our squad is more to the point. Also many poor performances- especially finishing chances. Build up play and chance creation was ok- great in some games. However failing to have the guile to break down inferior teams is a constant problem that needs drastic improvement. The defence is solid, although reina has had an inconsistent season- his first bad spell but this happens to all players at some point. He is class and will be back to normal, I’m sure. I think it’s a mixture of tactics and deciding when to change these tactics when it doesnt work. Persisting with out of form downing, Henderson when you have maxi and kuyt, who always put a shift in and score or assist in important moments of the season. I don’t care what anyone says, playing for Liverpool football club when you have come from Sunderland, villa, Blackpool and Newcastle, is a big step up because of the size of the club and all the expectation that comes with that. I think in hindsight, we should have bought higher profile players who have more experience as well as the likes of Carroll and Henderson. I think they are good players, but should have been eased into the team. I have never been too excited about Adam and downing, especially for a combined £28M. That’s not value to me and a lot of people I’m sure. Some players really struggled but then you have kuyt and maxi who weren’t used enough for me to ease the pressure on new signings. As for Carroll, Torres messed it all up. We bought Suarez to play with him up front which would have been awesome. He left it so late we had to rush through a purchase and Newcastle knew we had £50M spare. He will be great in seasons to come- form improved toward end of season.
dont take the p*** bill but when kenny wanted jelavic for 6m and cash for cover for lucas it was refused kenny never stood a chance but we did play some nice football but these yanks have put the club back 12 months
I am sad that KK went. But a the end of day he bought in players who weren’t of Liverpool standards. We let Mierilis go and we got Henderson! He shipped out Aquilani and we got Adam. Then we got Downing. We replaced Torres with Carrol (I know he came better last few games, But he no Torres). For the 1st time in years we had money to go out and buy some top class players and look at what we got. There were players out there who much better (Douglas Costa, Juan Mata as examples). It such a shame because who ever replaces and KK and whatever the new management set up is I doubt FSG will spend so much money this Summer. KK had his chance and blew it.
its the biggest mistake they have made, getting rid of kenny,for what martinez? he deserved another year martinez is at best a championship manager, or a bottom 4 one in the prem.noone on here can tell me martinez is in kennys class. yes kenny made mistakes but like many he should of been given time to get them right, and i among others reckon he would off.they have now turned anfield in to a war zone, as fans next season will not put up with losses by martinez, 4th with him yes bottom 4….
Get over it!! Kenny failed miserably. Spent ridiculous amount of money on overpriced rubbish , worst finish in a season since the 50’s , got rid of class players for duds, stuck with his duds regardless of form , alienated other players by not playing them . HE HAD TO GO!!
So you tell me why does he deserve another year? We were out of the running for champs league with about 8 games to go!! The season was a terrible failure and its people like you that keep clinging to the past that have kept this great club in the shadows of the Mancs.
I for one dont feel sorry for Kenny he put himself in this position with rubbish buys , team selection and tactics. I feel sorry for the next manager that has to come in and work with this dross that Kenny has left behind. YNWA
Should have been given another season, and bought someone in he could teach as his assistant, either looking at taking over next summer. Hope FSG no what their doing.
No, kennys’ transfers were crap and he managed them. Paid the price, same as anyone else would have. Still love Kenny though he’s legend. YNWA.
Get behind the new manager whoever it is. I felt that KK deserved another year as he had us playin better football. But hey we need to move on everyone has to get going from the very first kick off. That`s players management and all fans.
Wasn’t commoli equally involved in transfers? They have both ultimately paid the price for the British policy- I mean how much was it? £100m or more? If players in European football of real quality cost around £20m each as a general rule, then we could have got 4-5 quality players. How amazing would the first team squad have been?!!!! Then have Raheem sterling, shelvey on the bench to bring on regularly.
Okay , seeing as everyone except Dalglish is to blame might I say the woman down the road from me looks a bit suspicious and I think she is totally to blame for LFC’s sorry mess. Should I speak directly to her about this or is it best left to you?
I’ve talked to that woman – she denies being responsible but her brothers daughters taxi driver is positive that it’s all a conspiracy against FSG who are in his words ‘Princes amongst men’….
Common!! Why be so stuborn like kenny to admit that kenny has been incompetent.. he lost the plot, he did dot brought us in safety zone when he tooked over it was fate.. Meireles, maxi, kuyt went on a good run, players like flanagan and kelly who don’t pass the ball backwards were brought in the team, kd did not had time to disrupt the beautiful game which they were allowed to play, lfc was on freewheel.. This year he back stabbed all those players, and he paid for that.. was it maxi’s fault?? kuyt was left on the bench at the expense of useless henderson, same was for meireles, thats why he prefered to leave.
If dalgish was good enough, players like torres and meireles would not have left, brit like carrole and downing wud not have been brought to the club, players like raheem sterling would have been given more time to play, maxi and kuyt would have been shown more respect, caragher should had been confined a subs role, when skrtel was off form and scoring owngoals he shud have been benched. Instead of cursing luck and the woodwork he should had broght another striker in january when there was still time, be it on loan even. when seeing us hit the woodwork week in week out he should have looked for other tactics to make win the games, not let us go on 7 defeat run!! A record since 40 yrs!! He should have admitted that 8th position is not good that he would do better, not just claim that 8th position is progress and he was proud of it.. and that the mickey mouse cup which WAS LOST by cardiff on penalty which their players missed was success for lFC.
Am glad he is gone, even if martinez come, at least he will know that he was better than dalgish as he beat liverpool with a wigan team without spending 100 millions!!
Well said, over ctitical about our cup win, but spot on that this season was our window of opportunity to buy quality for the future and it was wasted , yes wasted by a legend ! 🙁
You buy rubbish, you get rubbish . So blame the rubbish or who bought it ?
KD was the only person to b blamed full stop. Why people like u can’t just move on. Move on mate. He’s gone.
Are the players been brought, came from Street corners or from EPL team? It was
Dalglish, who overpriced the players?? Then who overpriced Torres ?? Do Mr Henry knows why Liverpool finished 8th? Why he didn’t advise Dalglish what’s going wrong before ? During the 18 months we all have used and still using Live 4 Liverpool with clear imformation what’s going wrong what can be done for more improvements as Liverpool supporters it’s seem the owner is getting worried of money spent and sacked Dalglish? only replacing manager that’s not the fact to be on top i haven’t seen yet any superior tactics played from any opponents only individuality what the next manager will bring? Wait and see Even Guardiola been away of success with Barca of an European top squad and where is Dalglish ?
We interviewed the taxi driver, after holding him upside down off the top of big ben he finally came clean . It wasn’t him but he gave the person a lift and dropped him off at FA Headquaters
This web site truly has all the information and facts I needed concerning this subject and didn’t know who to ask.