Build Klopp's Liverpool

As with most Liverpool fans this has not been a particularly enjoyable couple of weeks for me. One point earned from an available 9 against what we would usually term beatable opposition leaves a bad taste in the mouth and brings all that pessimism that built up in us over the last few years back to the surface. The fact that we thought we were past all this seems to make things even harder but it’s important to remember that far from being in the same situation, going through the motions like we had been for the previous few months/ years, we are actually only at the beginning of what is sure to become a bright new future under a young world class manager who would pretty much walk into any other job in world football if he were so inclined. Jürgen Klopp was confirmed as Liverpool FC’s manager back in early October, he is in the third month of his tenure having had very little opportunity to properly stamp his authority on the squad. No pre-season, no transfer window and not a lot of time to make judgements on who does or does not fit into his style of play. In the finite amount of time available so far there is actually only one thing that he could have truly learned and that is that when it comes to getting Liverpool back to where we belong there is no quick fix available that can solve all our ills. This is going to be a long term project so thankfully we have a manager in-situ who has proven in his previous 2 roles that if you give him time and support he can absolutely turn that into solid achievement.

What we have seen so far has been understandably inconsistent, yes there have been some very disappointing displays coupled with some very poor results but there have also been hugely encouraging performances alongside impressive results, 3-1 against Chelsea, 4-1 against City as well as a 6-1 demolition of Southampton should act as a candle which lights the current darkness and reminds us that when it clicks things can be good, but until the manager has been able to build his own team and implement his own ideas we will struggle to reach such levels on a consistent basis.

Given that there have been so many strange results throughout the league this season and very few of the usual top performers (in other words the richest clubs) have managed to maintain a level of consistency I think it is understandable that after some encouraging early performances Liverpool supporters started to look up the table and say “what if…” however the performance levels since then have been a stark reminder of how difficult things really are.

This is a crazy season and this is highlighted by the fact that even now we are only 5 points off the top 4. But even with that reality in mind I truly believe that our focus for the remainder of this season must be on building Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool. Our new manager needs time to try some different things, test out players and situations to find out what works, what is needed, what we have already that is useful, what needs to removed and what needs to be added. I think that if, as supporters, we can accept this we can enjoy the high’s and lows of the season as it plays out and know that once we are through this difficult period we will be much better off for having gone through it. Its not to say we should write off the season, we should still take every game as it comes and if we can string together a few results who knows where it may lead us. We are still in every cup competition as well so the chance for some glory still exists but our focus needs to shift from winning at all costs to building at all costs. If a little bit of experimentation costs us a result or two we might need to live with that. No matter what happens from here through to the end of the campaign, lets be re-assured that we have the right man at the helm leading this club. Lets support the team and take confidence from the fact that every lesson learned this season will lead to a brighter future. Lets let the man do his job, maybe some of the players are not good enough, lets give the manager time to be confident in deciding that and to identify who needs to be replaced. Lets not allow that in-fighting and bickering to take hold again. Lets stay together behind a proven winner. Lets understand that sometimes its better to forego the quick fix in order to achieve even greater rewards in the future.

The Europa League, Why Bother?

On Thursday night Liverpool FC welcomes FC Sion of Switzerland to Anfield. A team who qualified for the competition having won their domestic cup competition in a season in which they finished 7^th in a 10 team league. Following our draw against Bordeaux in our opening fixture Liverpool will be hoping for a straightforward win against the Swiss minnows before our game against what should be slightly tougher opponents Rubin Kazan next time out.

Having just named all of the teams in our group it’s clear to see why a lot of people feel the Europa League has lost even the small amount of lustre that remained in its previous incarnation as the UEFA Cup. Certainly in these early stages the romance is all but gone. The long distances for some away games to face a side you may not have heard of before is not exactly the stuff of dreams for players or fans alike. And with clubs becoming more and more obsessed with money, although its justified, the relatively meagre financial rewards of the lesser European competition hold little appeal.

People make a lot of claims to support the idea of the Europa League as being nothing but a burden but a lot of these claims are questionable. The old chesnut of there being too many games in the competition is simply incorrect.  In reality you only have to play 2 extra games to go all the way in the Europa League compared to the Champions League. Of course if you qualify for the Champions League by finishing 4^th you have to go through a 2-legged qualifier, so that makes it exactly the same amount of games. The other claim that always baffled me is that it’s somehow harder to compete in the domestic league if you are in the Europa. Maybe this is true versus a team with no European football who have those extra midweek rests (like we did in 13/14) but compared against teams in the Champions League I can see no clear advantage. Quite why playing Thursday & Sunday is supposed to be a huge amount harder than playing Wednesday & Saturday is utterly beyond me.  Its not that so many games should be easy, but why not let this competition serve to prepare us for when we return to where we want to be. The competition itself does not offer incredible financial reward, of that there is no doubt.  Neither the prize money, nor TV money on offer is even comparable to that of its big brother, but for me, to focus on that is to completely miss out on the potential long term benefits. I hope the hierarchy at the club have recognised that this competition has many aspects which although they might not make it a priority, certainly make it worthy of serious participation.

Right now, we have a very young and very inexperienced squad. We also have a very young and inexperienced manager. The experience we could pick up in this competition would be absolutely invaluable to all at the club. You only need to look back to how the players who won Old Big Ears in Istanbul credited the experience they had gained when winning this competition in 2001 as playing a vital supporting role. There are also many managers who used their experience in this competition to springboard them onto greater success, Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho to name but two. Even our owners have no experience of the joy a run in Europe can bring.

I want to be absolutely clear, this is not me calling for our manager to go all in at the expense of our league form. His quotes yesterday with regard to protecting Daniel Sturridge and leaving him out of the squad are entirely agreeable to me. I think that’s the beauty of this competition, in these early stages there is no reason why, with some good tactical work from our manager, we cannot select what would be recognised as a “weakened team” and still hold a realistic chance of progressing.  All the while the squad, and manager, are picking up experience.  If we do progress through the group stage we will be joined after Christmas by the teams who finished 3^rd in their Champions’ League group and at this point the standard of the competition rises. Hopefully at the point we will have a more realistic idea of how our league season is panning out. I would argue that if at that point it seems our chances of achieving top 4 seem unlikely, it may even be worth moving this competition up the priorities list. Let’s not forget that the Europa League now offers the coveted Automatic Champions League place to the winner. At this stage of the competition there are 32 teams remaining so depending on the opposition we could start to enter stronger teams dependent on the opposition.  

In a less tangible sense I would like to see some European pride restored to the team. Liverpool in Europe has always been a romance. From the incredible nights under the floodlights at Anfield to the many legendary players who have reminisced about the beauty of hearing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. Our last forays in Europe have been nothing short of depressing. I would like to see us make an impact once more. Of course I would rather that be in the Champions League but that is not on offer at the moment. It will be hard to qualify for the Champions League even next year, so why should we close one possible route without giving it a good shot? 

Brendan Rodgers: Lets Not Make This Personal

Firstly, as I’m writing this after another poor result for Liverpool I know that not as many people as usual will read it. I’m not sure if everybody is aware of this but there is a visible drop off in the number of hits an article receives after Liverpool lose, we are not talking tens and twenties here we are talking hundreds. Where a loss will lose me a few hundred, even a big important win rarely sees a jump of more than one hundred or so from article to article. This is true of most websites which are dedicated to one club in particular. And to me it explains why it sometimes feels like everyone is against the manager, because of all the critical articles. It should be remembered though that regardless of how the writer may feel they guarantee hits by sticking another nail in the coffin. I’ve thought about this a lot and although I don’t make any money from my articles (and I don’t really have any ambition too) it certainly makes the time and effort that goes into each article more worthwhile if I know people around the world are interested to read it. I’ve thought long and hard about how to combat this and I’m pretty sure I’ve found the solution. All I really need to do is follow public opinion and write plenty of articles slagging off Brendan Rodgers. That’s what’s in vogue right now and it’s easy. The opinions are already out there spreading among Liverpool fans desperate for somewhere to place blame I wouldn’t even have to come up with anything original. I could just regurgitate what’s out there and I'm pretty sure it would be click, click, click with no decrease in hits.

I’m not going to do that though. Not because of some holier than thou mindset or because I think that I’m better than anybody. I’m not going to do it because that’s not how I feel. The whole point of me writing in the first place was to express my own opinions so that’s what I’m laying out here. Feel free to disagree, feel free to comment to tell me so, but bear in mind it’s just an opinion.

At the moment we are all feeling down. We all come into supporting football for the joy it gives us, and it feels like for the last year or two the joy has been in scant supply. There is no doubting that performances have been terrible and results have been, at times, abysmal. This naturally, and completely correctly, leads to many questioning the manager. So far, so depressing.

That the manager wasn’t sacked in the summer was a shock to many and it was a dangerous gamble for the owners to take as they must have known that anything other than a perfect start this time around would lead to serious questions being asked. Well, the season started off far from perfectly and the inevitable and justifiable questions are being asked. What has accompanied these questions though is not, in my opinion, justifiable. The personal insults to Brendan Rodgers, the way he is portrayed in sections of the media, the reduction of any of his achievements to luck. It’s not right and I really don’t think it’s necessary. If you want the manager gone, there is a perfectly strong body of evidence to support your case without claiming that 13/14 was all down to Suarez or discussing his personal relationships outside of football. It seems to me that every article I read at the moment which discusses Liverpool is accompanied by a picture of Brendan with that crazy look on his face, as if to imply he is some crazy goof who has no clue what is going on. I'm sure there are plenty of normal pictures which could be used but they are discarded for some reason. It also seems like every article I read discussing Rodgers himself to reference his “Brentisms” as if he is the only football manager who uses management speak and buzzwords, just listen to LVG as an example but you will find many other examples too if you look for them.

At the moment things aren’t working, that is a fact. We are not playing anywhere near as well as we should and our results have been terrible most of the time. But we must not forget this is a hard job. Its been over 20 years since Liverpool last won the league title. He is far from the first manager who has been unsuccessful in delivering that trophy. This job breaks more managers than it makes, hell, Gerard Houllier almost died from managing this club. My own stance is that I do not actively want Brendan Rodgers out and I'm still willing to support his as the manager of Liverpool Football Club but at the same time I know that if I heard he was sacked in the morning I would probably feel a little bit relieved at not having to discuss this situation anymore… for a while anyway, until this job beats the next guy. If we get a Klopp or an Ancelloti I will be positive and optimistic, but lets not forget that is a big if.

What I find hard to take is how willing a lot of Liverpool fans are to join in the hatred towards the man. I’m sure he has done his best. It may prove to not be enough. If that’s the case, he goes and the next manager comes in. But remember all of this may end up being true of the next man as well as the cycle continues.

LFC build-up :Utd v Liverpool - The Perfect Remedy or a Poisoned Chalice

When Liverpool left the pitch having won a point away from home against Arsenal, in a performance which heralded the kind of optimism that had now been seen among the Liverpool faithful since January it seemed that this time we were finally going somewhere. The new signings who had so far been exposed to first team action were showing early promise and any supporter you listened to delighted in echoing the common refrain of “tell you what I would have taken 7 out of 9 points from these three games before the start of the season”.

Fast forward one week and that optimism had been usurped by despair yet again. If the Arsenal game was supposed to show us how far we have come well then the game against West Ham showed us just how much father there is to go on our road to redemption. The fact that a performance like this came at Anfield only added to the anguish and in the end it somehow left most of us feeling worse than what was previously believed to be this side’s darkest day back on the last day of last season. And with good reason too. All of a sudden we saw how Benteke could struggle to influence a game, we saw our that defense (which had previously kept 3 clean sheets) was far from being the impenetrable unit it had previously appeared to be with Dejan Lovren seeming to return to type and prove his many doubters right.

The most unwelcome international break which followed that game couldn’t have come at a worse time for miserable reds who were left with no escape for at least a fort night. The fact that this chance for redemption comes against United at Old Trafford does little to inspire confidence that our moods will be lifted much come Saturday evening. We were soundly beaten 3-0 here last season as United completed the double over us and our record at this ground over the years is far from impressive. You wont find many arguing with my description  that this is hardly the greatest Liverpool side ever created. The thing is though, this is far from a vintage United side either and if you spoke many of their fans I believe you would find that, currently our mindsets are not so dis-similar. They had ground out a couple of wins to start their Premier League season without ever looking truly convincing, they then had a stale draw against Newcastle before slipping to a damaging defeat away to Swansea. The only differences between our season is their lack of a truly promising performance such as ours versus Arsenal and also their lack of a home defeat like ours against West Ham. The point of my ramblings is not to convince anybody that we are certainly going to go there and return with all three points at 7:30 on Saturday, what I am trying to show is that this result is not a foregone conclusion for either side.

It is far too early to talk about six pointers or the likes, but this game definitely has more about it that simply the 3 points which are on offer. Both managers are currently experiencing some real internal pressure and although it seems outlandish to suggest that this single result could result in either being removed from their position, it is not in doubt that the pressure will be multiplied on either manager if they were to lose this game. It is of course possible that the need to not lose this game could result in something of a stale mate, certainly in the latter stages if the game is tied in a score draw (the only result which could realistically see both managers saving face). However the Old Trafford faithful will not accept a team sitting back, at home against such a hated rival. This is the reason why I think it is possible for Liverpool to get something from this game. We’ve shown our most promising signs against teams that are willing to play. Whilst there is no denying our struggles at times, I think it is clear to most that they are most clearly visible against opponents willing to give us the ball and repel our attacks, this is why our recent home record  has been so poor as teams are so willing to soak up pressure at Anfield. Away from home, away from the frustrated Anfield crown, with our ever excellent away fans providing the loudest support they can possibly muster egging us on could just prove to be exactly what is needed at the moment.

While in truth this game offers nothing more than 3 points to the victor, with plenty of season remaining for a loser to make up that difference, if one team does emerge victorious it will be the perfect remedy to their recent ills, whilst the loser will have to take another sip of the poisoned chalice as the pressure on their leader approaches breaking point.

Utd v Liverpool - The Perfect Remedy or a Poisoned Chalice

When Liverpool left the pitch having won a point away from home against Arsenal, in a performance which heralded the kind of optimism that had now been seen among the Liverpool faithful since January it seemed that this time we were finally going somewhere. The new signings who had so far been exposed to first team action were showing early promise and any supporter you listened to delighted in echoing the common refrain of “tell you what I would have taken 7 out of 9 points from these three games before the start of the season”.

Fast forward one week and that optimism had been usurped by despair yet again. If the Arsenal game was supposed to show us how far we have come well then the game against West Ham showed us just how much father there is to go on our road to redemption. The fact that a performance like this came at Anfield only added to the anguish and in the end it somehow left most of us feeling worse than what was previously believed to be this side’s darkest day back on the last day of last season. And with good reason too. All of a sudden we saw how Benteke could struggle to influence a game, we saw our that defense (which had previously kept 3 clean sheets) was far from being the impenetrable unit it had previously appeared to be with Dejan Lovren seeming to return to type and prove his many doubters right.

The most unwelcome international break which followed that game couldn’t have come at a worse time for miserable reds who were left with no escape for at least a fort night. The fact that this chance for redemption comes against United at Old Trafford does little to inspire confidence that our moods will be lifted much come Saturday evening. We were soundly beaten 3-0 here last season as United completed the double over us and our record at this ground over the years is far from impressive. You wont find many arguing with my description  that this is hardly the greatest Liverpool side ever created. The thing is though, this is far from a vintage United side either and if you spoke many of their fans I believe you would find that, currently our mindsets are not so dis-similar. They had ground out a couple of wins to start their Premier League season without ever looking truly convincing, they then had a stale draw against Newcastle before slipping to a damaging defeat away to Swansea. The only differences between our season is their lack of a truly promising performance such as ours versus Arsenal and also their lack of a home defeat like ours against West Ham. The point of my ramblings is not to convince anybody that we are certainly going to go there and return with all three points at 7:30 on Saturday, what I am trying to show is that this result is not a foregone conclusion for either side.

It is far too early to talk about six pointers or the likes, but this game definitely has more about it that simply the 3 points which are on offer. Both managers are currently experiencing some real internal pressure and although it seems outlandish to suggest that this single result could result in either being removed from their position, it is not in doubt that the pressure will be multiplied on either manager if they were to lose this game. It is of course possible that the need to not lose this game could result in something of a stale mate, certainly in the latter stages if the game is tied in a score draw (the only result which could realistically see both managers saving face). However the Old Trafford faithful will not accept a team sitting back, at home against such a hated rival. This is the reason why I think it is possible for Liverpool to get something from this game. We’ve shown our most promising signs against teams that are willing to play. Whilst there is no denying our struggles at times, I think it is clear to most that they are most clearly visible against opponents willing to give us the ball and repel our attacks, this is why our recent home record  has been so poor as teams are so willing to soak up pressure at Anfield. Away from home, away from the frustrated Anfield crown, with our ever excellent away fans providing the loudest support they can possibly muster egging us on could just prove to be exactly what is needed at the moment.

While in truth this game offers nothing more than 3 points to the victor, with plenty of season remaining for a loser to make up that difference, if one team does emerge victorious it will be the perfect remedy to their recent ills, whilst the loser will have to take another sip of the poisoned chalice as the pressure on their leader approaches breaking point.