RATHER spookily, this time last week I wrote a piece demanding that the owners act rapidly at the end of the season and either move Kenny Dalglish on or back him. Sadly, the decision was made to sack him. It isn’t one I agree with fundamentally, as I feel he was probably deserving of another 12 months, but I can understand arguments against this and I can understand why the owners have taken the decision that they did. “Liverpool Sack Dalglish” did not sit right with me however and it never will.
But to be brutal, what’s done is done. I had a feeling that Kenny was leaving and I was, for a change, correct. It’s sad to see him go irrespective of whether you wanted him to stay as manager or not… he’s Kenny Dalglish, he is the heart and soul, the very living embodiment of Liverpool Football Club. But we all now have to move on.
I have another feeling. I have a feeling in the gut of my stomach that the new Liverpool manager is going to be Andre Villas-Boas. So do much of the press and the bookmakers for that matter. Maybe it’s a case of 2+2 = 5, but in the case of AVB and his suitability for the Liverpool job I think that everything adds up perfectly.
Whilst I am not remotely convinced that our owners have any strategy whatsoever, let alone a footballing one, he does fall into the supposed “Moneyball” virtue that they are constantly extolling. He’s young for starters. Possibly too young – this is one of the reasons that many people believe it went off the tracks at Chelsea. A young upstart amidst a dressing room of veterans. But this youthful exuberance means that he would be around for a long time.
With patient ownership (and FSG could easily be labelled impatient, although for me they were far too patient with that dolt Hodgson) AVB could easily get the “project” that he so often spoke about at Chelsea. His young age means that he’s not going to be retiring any time soon and so would be in the job for the long haul. They can lay out their expectations to him and say “we are going to back you no matter what, you are our man and we are going to stick by you for four years.”
Easier said than done, but that should have been his remit at Chelsea and under a more prudent and less interfering ownership, probably would have been. He would probably have been tasked with replacing the likes of Terry and Lampard. Regrettably, finding a replacement for Gerrard and Carragher (not that I am, for one second, suggesting that either are dressing room trouble) is going to be something we need to entrust to this manager in all likelihood.
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This is a huge appointment. Four managers in two years is not The Liverpool Way. You could argue for or against Benitez and Dalglish leaving their jobs, I doubt anyone would argue Hodgson had to go unless they were wearing a blue shirt. It is time for some long term stability.
Don’t get me wrong, his appointment would be a gamble. Anybody’s going to be a gamble now. Replacing Kenny Dalglish is an enormous task. That would be the same for anyone. And AVB does have question marks over his time at Chelsea when he did make tactical errors. Why did “player power” become such an issue? Where was the magic touch that ran amok through Portugal and Europe the season before last?
The beard and the touchline squatting need to go as well, without question.
But if this is a game, and let’s not be unrealistic here, this is an enormous roll of the dice from the owners, then I am all in on AVB. I will be disappointed if we get anybody else and particularly Roberto Martinez. I like the Spaniard but do not think he is ready for our job. I could be totally wrong and AVB might be a complete disaster, but I have a good feeling. He is the perfect fit. There’s no compensation to pay (and no fat headed, pie mouthed arrogant chairman appearing on Sky Sports News to tell the world) and we can build the future around him.
The talented Portuguese is in Boston for talks this week by all accounts and is, according to reports emerging, looking to take the job. AVB and LFC could well be a perfect match for each other. Let’s just hope we have a better hand than we all feel we do after the rejection letters winging their way in from all around Europe this week.
We cannot get this wrong. If we do, we will be snatched up by the jaws of average-ness. I firmly believe that AVB will galvanise us, modernise us and lead us forward. What other choice do we have other than to believe? We can’t sit around mourning the reign of Kenny being over. It’s time for us to move forward, and I want us to move forward lead by a talented young man by the name of Andre Villas-Boas.
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I agree with your article, AVB would, given time become a great manager, and hopefully it will be at Liverpool! Not only that, Roman kindly paid his release fee to Porto for us to FSG will save a good £13m on that! Just hope they don’t offer the job to Martinez or Rafa! LFC need AVB
I totally agree. I am fully confident that the Principal Owner John W. Henry and Chairman Thomas Werner will get it right and make the right call. The man that should replace Kenny Dalglish should not be other than Andre Villas-Boas; no Roberto Martinez, no Brendan Rodger. Andre-Villas Boas is a good manager and his footballing philosophy and style of play will fit LFC. But let us analyze his football philosophy. He is one of the world’s most exciting young coaches and because he didn’t do it at Chelsea that doesn’t make him less good.
A FOOTBALL PHILOSOPHY
AVB: There are more spaces in football than people think. Even if you play against a low block team, you immediately get half of the pitch.
And after that, in attacking midfield, you can provoke the opponent with the ball, provoke him to move forward or sideways and open up a space. But many players can’t understand the game.
They can’t think about or read the game. Things have become too easy for football players: high salaries, a good life, with a maximum of five hours work a day and so they can’t concentrate, can’t think about the game.
Barcelona’s players are completely the opposite. Their players are permanently thinking about the game, about their movement, about how to provoke their opponent with the position of the ball.
DS: Does a top team need to dominate possession to win a match?
AVB: Not necessarily, for a simple reason. In Portugal we have this idea of match control based on ball circulation.
That’s what we in Portugal want to achieve in our football: top teams that dominate by ball possession, that push the opponent back to their area.
If you go find the top English teams pre-Arsene Wenger they tell you how to control a match in the opposite way without much ball possession, direct football, searching for the second ball.
Maybe now, controlling possession is the reference point for a top team, but that happens because they have much more quality players than the other teams, so it would be wrong not to take advantage of those individual skills.
DS: One thing Louis Van Gaal says is that you can control a match offensively and defensively but you must keep in control defensively you can also determine where your opponent will play on the pitch.
AVB: Yes, I agree. In that sense, yes. But the idea we now have in Portugal of match control is about having more ball possession than the opponent.
DS: Exactly, but match control has to result in scoring chances. That’s the only way it makes sense. There are teams that have like 60 per cent ball possession and that results in nothing at all.
AVB: That’s it. Match control always has to have a purpose, a main goal.
DS: And in that concept of match control, are there any sectors of the team more important than others?
AVB: Well, that depends on the mechanisms you want to use defensively and offensively. Let me give you an example.
Top teams nowadays don’t look to vertical penetration from their midfielders because the coach prefers them to stand in position (horizontally) and then use the movement of the wingers as the main source to create chances.
So, you, as a coach, have to know exactly what kind of players you have and analyse the squad to decide how you want to organise your team offensively. And then, there are maybe some players more important than others.
For instance, many teams play with defensive pivots, small defensive midfielders.
And, except Andrea Pirlo and Xabi Alonso, and maybe Esteban Cambiasso and one or two more, they are players that are limited to the horizontal part of the game: they keep passing the ball from one side to another, left or right, without any kind of vertical penetration.
Can’t you use your defensive midfielder to introduce a surprise factor in the match? Let’s say, first he passes horizontally and then, suddenly, vertical penetration?
THE INFLUENCE OF JOSE MOURINHO
AVB: There has been an evolution in football language and football analysis since Mourinho started to coach. There’s a different way of looking at a match, a different way of doing technical analysis.
People have started to look beyond the formation, and started talking about the dynamics within the team and how they’re more important than the team’s formation.
TALKING TACTICS
DS: What’s the difference between playing with three or four midfielders?
AVB: Rafa Benitez created a 4-4-2 much more dynamic than the usual English 4-4-2. Because he introduced speed in ball possession, he gave it variation between vertical and horizontal passes.
The usual classic English 4-4-2 is more basic: a penetrating midfielder and another one that stays in position; a winger who moves inside and another one who stays wide; a full back who overlaps and another one who covers the defence.
If you talk about a 4-4-2 diamond, that’s totally different. You play with two pivotal midfielders, one defensive and one offensive, so it creates many more problems for your opponent.
Defensively, though, you take a great risk of ceding too much space because you are very central and you lack width. You have to create compensation mechanisms.
Me, I’m a 4-3-3 fan, not 4-4-2. I don’t see how a classic 4-4-2 could work in the Spanish league, where every team plays 4-3-3 and the superiority of the midfield has become crucial.
What Mourinho did with Chelsea with his 4-3-3 was something never seen before: a dynamic structure, aggressive, with aggressive transitions…and then there is Barca’s 4-3-3, which wouldn’t work in England, because of the higher risk of losing the ball.
If you have midfielders like Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard you don’t want your forwards to come and play between lines, because Lampard and Gerrard have a large field of action and very often move in to those spaces.
Lampard was often irritated with Didier Drogba because Drogba wanted to receive the ball there but then, amazingly, his first touch was poor, so he lost the ball and we were exposed to a transition from the opponent.
So we had to limit Drogba from going there and ask him to play deeper.
BARCELONA’S TACTICAL MASTERPLAN
DS: Is good ball circulation essential in the attacking organisation of a top team?
AVB: Well, it’s essential to every team. Every team want to score. That’s the purpose of the game. Barcelona play horizontally only after a vertical pass. See how the centre backs go out with ball, how they construct the play. They open up (moving wider), so that the right or left-back can join the midfield line.
Guardiola has talked about it: the centre backs provoke the opponent, invite them forward then, if the opponent applies quick pressure the ball goes to the other central defender, and this one makes a vertical pass.
Not to the midfielders, who have their back turned to the ball, but to those moving between lines, Andres Iniesta or Lionel Messi, or even directly to the striker.
Then they play the second ball with short lay-offs, either to the wingers who have cut inside or the midfielders, who now have the game in front of them.
They have an enormous capacity not to lose the ball, to do things with an unbelievable precision.
Another thing about Barcelona, there is always a full-back who arrives earlier in the attack, the other stays in position initially but then progressively joins the attack, as the ball circulates on the other side of the pitch, so he can be a surprise element. When you least expect he arrives. He chooses the perfect timing for the overlap.
DS: Louis Van Gaal says a vertical pass is not a risk, but a horizontal pass is because when you make a horizontal pass you are much more open, more exposed in case you lose the ball.
AVB: Yes, that’s right. And there are differences between a horizontal pass and a slightly diagonal pass.
Something that used to happen a lot in England, when teams played 4-4-2, was that the central midfielders exchanged the ball between them in parallel passes so what we did with Lampard, or Liverpool did with Gerrard, was to try to cut into that space between the two midfielders with fast movement from Lampard.
If they got the ball there, there were already two opponents eliminated in the attacking transition.
DEALING WITH DEFENSIVE TEAMS
DS: How do you attack a team that plays with an ultra-low block?
AVB: Let’s see. Juventus play with an ultra-low block, they don’t put any pressure on you high up the field. Nowadays most teams don’t. It can limit you because they control the space behind them with perfect offside timing.
They limit your vertical passes as well because they are all grouped within 30 or 40 metres, completely closed in two lines of four plus the two forwards.
So you start constructing “short”, begin the attacking process with your centre-backs of full-backs carrying the ball forward to the midfield area but then you want to pass the ball to the midfielders and you don’t know how to do it, because there is an ultra-limited space, everything is completely closed.
DS: So what to do?
AVB: You have to provoke them with the ball, which is something most teams can’t do. I cannot understand it. It’s an essential factor in the game.
At this time of ultra-low defensive block teams, you will have to learn how to provoke them with the ball. It’s the ball they want, so you have to defy them using the ball as a carrot.
Louis Van Gaal’s idea is one of continuous circulation, one side to the other, until the moment that, when you change direction, an space opens up inside and you go through it.
So, he provokes the opponent with horizontal circulation of the ball, until the moment that the opponent will start to pressure out of despair. What I believe in is to challenge the rival by driving the ball into him.
That’s something Pep Guardiola believes is decisive. And that’s something that Henk ten Cate also took to Avram Grant’s Chelsea. He took it with him form Frank Rijkaard’s Barcelona. We did it differently at Chelsea under Mourinho.
Our attacking construction was different, with the ball going directly to the full-backs or midfielders. With Ten Cate, play was started with John Terry or Ricardo Carvalho, to invite the opponent’s pressure. Then you had one less opponent in the next step of construction.
“I doubt anyone would argue Hodgson had to go unless they were wearing a blue shirt” – I guess you mean that you doubt that anyone would argue with the decision that Hodgson had to go (and I totally agree with you, he should have gone earlier – in fact, he should never have been appointed).
“Don’t get me wrong, his appointment would be a gamble” – dead right again, which is why AVB should never be appointed manager of LFC. He did a great job at Porto but really messed up at Chelsea, so the 50-50 odds (in fact, considering Chelsea is an English club more like 30-70) are simply not enough to make taking this gamble a good idea.
The odds that Rafa would succeed, on the other hand, are probably 90-10. This is still essentially his team (most senior players were either brought in by him or developed into world class starts under his tutelage) and his club (the entire football setup from the Academy upwards was put in place by Rafa), which means Rafa could slot in like a great if a little worn pair of gloves. Moreover, Rafa has the tactics, character and intelligence to turn a good team great, as he has proven at both Valencia and Liverpool. Most importantly, Rafa has a long-term vision for the entire club, from the Academy upwards, which he began implementing in 2008 before being ousted by our previous owners. And, last but not least, Rafael Benitez has unfinished business at Anfield, and the hunger and ambition of any of the younger managers being considered by FSG.
SPOT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why is he a perfect fit? Because he’s young? Because he had one good season at Porto? Come on!
We gambled on Hodgson – disaster. We gambled on Dalglish – disaster. Now we’re going to gamble on someone that dresses like Frank Spencer? Jesus wept, will we ever learn…
Instead of critcising Steve put your ideal candidate forward then figure out if it has a hope. Sure AVB got some things wrong at Chavski but he did it for the right reasons and anybody prepared to knock the obnoxious quartet of Terry, cashley, Drogba and lumpy lard down a peg or two gets respect from me.
Somehow it seems to me that it was Di Matteo who won the day by getting these players onside. Whether we like the attitude of John Terry is neither here not there, the truth of the matter is that AVB failed in his first job with high expectations at Chelsea. This is not to say he is not a good coach, however that is not enough to succeed in the high-temperature environment and expectations of Chelsea or Liverpool.
In my view, it has to be between Benitez, Capello and van Gaal. They’re all available, have extremely impressive records and know what they’re doing. Capellos age might, just might, be against him as a long term appointment, however I wouldn’t hold that against him – Ferguson is older and still going, for example. It’s interesting that all have had run-ins with the boards of clubs they’ve worked at (so too has Mourinho) – maybe it’s a trait that comes with being successful – winners tend to have strong personalities and a stubborn streak.
One of the greatest article I´ve read the last few days.. I hope the same. YNWA!!!
Can I just ask…
Who would we consider NOT to be a gamble?
Isn’t it obvious my friend Sanjred? For some every manager is a gamble instead of Rafael Benitez but they don’t realize Rafael Benitez would turn being the biggest gamble as it exactly happened with Kenny Dalglish. Isn’t all these who pushed the owners to make the wrong call and make Kenny Dalglish a permanent manager? And at the end we saw what happened; 8th in Premier League by not participating in any European competition; with Rafael Benitez in 2010 7th!
Yes let’s attack Rafa and 7th place in 2010 because everything was rosy wasn’t it? I mean we weren’t so screwed that the club was selling all it’s major assets was it? Let’s be fair here if we hadn’t have had Sir Martin Broughton (God love him, I certainly do (never thought I’d say that about a chelsea supporting Tory)) stitching up Hicks and Gillett we would have been in administation. Why not look at the fact that for 5 years Rafa got us beyond Christmas in the CL. I mean why not attack fans that called for Kenny to be given the job when he’d lifted the desperate depression of woy’s days in 2010/11. Don’t attack Liverpool fans Costa Y they know a lot more about our great club than you seem to judging by the post above.
I do not attack the fans, they should not attack FSG who seems to be doing a great job as they try to make us a title contender club again, let us show faith and trust in them and I am fully confident they will make the right call (and not let us blame all the others and argue that in 6 years Rafa was perfect as manager with his decisions because he wasn’t with all do respect!)
The King was an obvious gamble because he had not managed since his Director of Football job with Celtic over a decade earlier. Although Benitez was the obvious candidate then (as he is now), it is fair to say that Kenny Dalglish did turn around the club after the disaster that was Roy Hodgson – and helped bring cohesion and unity at the club. Although Liverpool overpaid for players like Downing and Henderson, this was probably not the call of the manager but of the Director of Football and the owners, and the Liverpool squad today is strong partly thanks to the work of Benitez in seasons past and partly due to the new arrivals. Where Dalglish was less successful was in his game tactics and overall strategy to the season, as reflected by frequent draws and losses after dominating matches and our terrible position in the league table at the end of the season. Benitez would not be a gamble, this is still to a large extent his team, with many of the players members of the team that challenged for the title as recently as 2008-9, and his club, since the entire academy structure was essentially set up by him. More importantly, Rafa can be trusted to bring the best out of the team, as he showed time and again at Liverpool and Valencia.
Strictly speaking of course, everything is a gamble, to an extent. It’s all about risk minimisation.
The criteria should be imo:
A manager with proven major league championship success over multiple years
A manager with European experience, Champions league preferably, someone who has actually won it would be even better
A manager who has big club, and I mean world-wide support, experience
A manager who has proven English Premier League
experience
A manager who can attract top players to the club and has a history of working with big names.
Is available/willing to take the job.
Age is largely irrelevant, unless he’s over 70 quite frankly – hasn’t held Ferguson/Wenger/Redknapp back has it?
If there is someone out there who ticks all these boxes, then he is the man for the job. It’s obvious, it’s logical, it’s sensible, it’s less of a risk. Simple.
If there is
capello he may get through english premier league experiance by being the national team manager
otherwise i cant think of anyone to match your criteria
Benitez
Are you sure?
The guy is such a non-starter!
I can’t believe anyone would even give him the time of day at Liverpool.
He should go and manage it Portugal where he may well come across as cool and hip. But here? Not a chance! One phrase springs to mind… Style over content! We are liverpool, not chelsea of the kings road. He’s the sort of guy who appeals to those owners who no nothing about football, A guy who can bullshit his way through an interview and has the appearance some noncy PR man would be drouling over. He was so far out of his depth at chelsea, I’m surprised he’s even surfaced again!
Spot on, great article.
it would be great for those who want rafa the bore back to realise there is no chance of him returning, thankfully. so slagging of the guy(s) who may be taking over is not helping the morale of the team and supporters as a whole. wise up
This is a well thought out passionate arguement!
Totally agree with the author however I am now also interested in Martinez after being totally opposed!
Frank deBoer, Guardiola and Klopp had less experience than Martinez when they took over their present (and past) roles! Has he got it? I tink he just might. But AVB is favourite right now!
if anyone with this seasons record of Kenny came along they would be laughed at by the fans. AVB has better stats at chelsea than Matteo, and AVB’s record in Portugal is excellent. I think a clean start is needed. Kenny Dalgleish ticked all those boxes.
we need so start discussing the candidates who are the most likely to take over and therefore the various merits of avb or martinez. rafa isnt even being considered so please give up the ranting please.
Ok I’ll start:
Martinez.
Managerial experience: 5 years
Titles won: League One Title x 1
European Experience: None
Win Rate in EPL: 27%
AVB
Managerial experience: 3 years
Titles won: Primeira Liga x1
Taça de Portugal x1
Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira x1
UEFA Europa League x1
(All won in 1 year with by far the best team in Portugal)
EPL win rate: 47.5%
With a huge 8 years of management experience between them, our choice is between someone with a 27 per cent win rate in the EPL, and a one-season wonder.. brilliant.
I’ll add that AVB has the worst stats of any Chelsea manager of the last 15 years
you really are a wonderful human being. what has rafa, 1 champions league with another managers players, 1 cup, and turned inter from champions league winners into a mess. avb i would argue done great at porto in yes 1 year. was given the remit to give chelsea a facelift by roman and then was axed for beginning that process. good next option for us. martinez is more of a gamble i think. like avb (and unlike benitez) plays good footy but his lack of managing top of the table clubs is the gamble. also i feel players would be more likely to sign with avb in charge rather than bob. however we are still a big draw in name and our style of play in itself will attract players.
http://soccer.indonewyork.com/andre-villas-boas-v-roberto-di-matteo-comparison/
Actually, Benitez record reads like this:
Managerial experience: 13 years
Titles won: Segunda Division x1
La Liga x2 (with Valencia)
UEFA Cup x1 (with Valencia)
Champions League x1 (with Liverpool)
FA Cup x1 (with Liverpool)
FA Community Shield x1 (with Liverpool)
UEFA Super Cup x1 (with Liverpool)
Supercoppa Italiana x1 (with Inter)
FIFA Club World Cup x1 (with Inter)
Win rate in EPL: 55.4% (higher than the win rate with 2 x La Liga winners Valencia)
Also runners up, just for the record:
UEFA Champions League x1 (with Liverpool)
Premier League x1 (with Liverpool)
FIFA Club World Cup x1 (with Liverpool)
Football League Cup x1 (with Liverpool)
Also the only manager in LFC history to win major honours in both his first two years at the club. It’s hard to argue with that, wouldn’t you say?
I’d hardly say he turned Inter into a mess – six months and two cups. Remind me, how long did his successor, Leonardo, at Inter last? Where are they now in the Italian League? If you ask me, his claim that the team needed investment has turned out entirely true.
And if you want to argue that he won the Champions League with Houlliers players, I’d still say hats off to him – he did more with Houllier’s players than Houllier ever did. 🙂
Capello is the man!
No rubbish needed at LFC.
Capello would absolutely be my second choice after Benitez. Proven winner – including TWO successful spells at Real Madrid (so much for the “never go back” boo boys)
I just hope our owners see it your way
I realllllllllllllly hope FSG can take a look at this comment. realy greate… get AVB…
I realllllllllllllly hope FSG can take a look at this comment. realy greate… get AVB…
I realllllllllllllly hope FSG can take a look at this comment. realy greate… get AVB…
meeeeeeeeeeee tooooooooooo avbbbbbbbbbbbb plssssss
Get Rafa…….
my fault i should never have mentioned rafa as i should have known steve would have began his tiresome old rant. im not going to argue about rb as, i state again, fsg have no intention of going back to him. face it avb and martinez are to two leaders in the race. what i want to hear is the positive merits of these two and which is the best we can hope for. remember it will be one of these two we need to get behind next season.
It’s not a tiresome old rant, anymore than your ‘get AVB’ is a tiresome old rant.
If we want LFC to be successful we need the best qualified guy for the job, right? No more ‘flavour-of-the-month’ appointments based on one good season, one good cup run or a good run of results at the end of a season. Don’t you get it yet?
We tried a flavour-of-the-month appointment in Hodgson, based on Fulhams UEFA cup run – it was a DISASTER. We tried the sentimental appointment with Dalglish based on results twenty two years ago – it was a DISASTER. Now you’re saying we should try an unproven young manager based on one good season (AVB) or one good run (Martinez). DON’T YOU GET IT YET?
I want experience, a proven ability to get results, a proven winner NO MORE SHOT IN THE DARK GAMBLES… The guy with the most impressive CV gets the job. Don’t put people down just because they don’t agree with you. Try using real logic to argue your case for who you want. Saying a manager is young and plays attractive football isn’t enough. Youth and pretty football doesn’t mean a successful team. Christ, look at how many wanted Mourinho as manager, and he’s responsible for some of the most turgid (yet effective) football I’ve ever seen.
I want the guy with the most impressive CV, the most experience available, to get the job. Understand?
i want more from my club than success. i dont want to be bored watching unentertaining footall. i want entertaining football i can be proud of while winning. do you understand you ignorant one dimensional twit. you would enjoy wimbeldon in the 90’s you f?uckwit.
Whats wrong love? Getting all frustrated now because you can’t win an argument by putting any logical reason for your choice, just tabloid- informed opinionated nonsense? All the big boys picking on you are they? Ah diddums, there there, don’t cry.
Tell you what, if it turns out that FSG don’t choose AVB or Martinez, you’re going to look a right c0ck aren’t you. Stick to FIFA on your xbox.
If AVB or Martinez come in and take Liverpool back to the CL in their first year, I will gladly eat my hat. The reality however is that they are more likely to need more time than an experienced manager, which in Liverpool’s case is a major consideration. Steve is right, the time is to bring a proven winner – ambitious, unrelenting, tactically astute. My preference is for Benitez because in addition to all that he has the long-term vision to develop the club into a long-term success story, however I would still prefer success under Capello or van Gaal to further experimentation and likely failure.
Capello would be a good choice as would be van Gaal.
and how are you going to feel when youre beloved benitez doesn’t get the job. what i was trying to achieve was a debate with open minded adults on what positives the favorites might have as they would appear to be our likely new manager. i genuinely believe rafa wont be offered the job so lets agree to disagree on his merits or lack of. im facing up to the fact that we arent going to get an experienced manager or our preferable choices we may both wish for. but the bookies are rarely wrong. dont have an xbox btw.
Look, everyone has an opinion, fair enough. I’m entitled to mine, you’re entitled to yours. We’re having a debate are we not? We’ve been through 3 managers in three seasons, because imo we’ve taken bad decisions over managerial appointments and have not used level headed logic, that’s my point. It looks like FSG well may take yet another huge gamble – I hope it works out, I really do. If it does, I’ll be as ecstatic as everyone else. But if it doesn’t, how many gambles do you have to take before you realise that gambling on X coming good is a step too far? Before you know it, we really will be hiring and firing managers like Chelsea. Benitez, Capello, van Gaal whoever, as long as it’s someone who has been there, done it, and done it again repeatedly. If you want to win big matches, you use your best, most experienced players, not inexperienced youth team players. Same for managers. Thats all.
“I want the guy with the most impressive CV, the most experience available, to get the job.”
That would be this guy then, no?
http://live4liverpool.com/2012/05/lfc-news/manager-with-best-cv-set-for-talks-with-fsg
With his record, he has to be a consideration, certainly. The only downside is his age I suppose, but why not pair him with a young ambitious assistant who can take over the reigns after an agreed period in 3,4,5 years. Let them learn from his experience, like Shankly to Paisley to Fagan to Dalglish. Isn’t that the Liverpool way?
young age means that he’s not going to be retiring any time soon… Who’s normally around long enough to make this a deciding factor?
yessssssssssssssss finaly im so pleased to see that at least avb is agreed upon i would love to see avb at liverppol avb was meant to be at liverpool
the barnes article in lfctv website is good. i think the model he is conveying explains the way fsg have in mind. within in he mentions martinez quite a bit which makes me wonder has robo taken over avb as the favorite. the bookies since this morning have robo favorite ahead of avb
the football philosophy (pass/move, possession) we had pre houillier times needs to be reintroduced and modernised and used as the blueprint we intend to implement now and into the future. for example: barca, ajax, the scum, etc. the new manager will need to emphasise this blueprint and extend it throughout the club into the future. once established and recognised, a consistent thread can be followed so that while managers may change a consistent philosophy can be adhered to.
this will give us the consistent characteristics for the types of players we require as a result and allow youth and underages the goals to aspire to, instead of the upheaval, changes of managers provide with different styles and player preferences.