Current Frustrations - Talking Points

Unfortunately Saturday turned out to be another mediocre performance where we went in with a very realistic ambition to win the three points but ended the day very frustrated having tried but failed to achieve all we felt was possible. After 90 minutes on Saturday I felt very low indeed. I had seen our form dip and rise (and then repeat) through the season so far but I really felt after the very comfortable (although not amazing) performance against WBA last week that we were ready to push on, hit some decent form and keep improving. On paper a home game against a newly promoted side always looks win-able. Unfortunately, if you don’t put games like this to bed when the early chances arrive, your own confidence suffers and the opposition’s confidence rises. Of course when at Anfield this can lead to the fans getting restless and all of a sudden there is a huge uphill battle to climb. Saturday followed this pattern to a T. Andy Carroll had an early chance which he struck well but unluckily crashed off the cross bar. From that minute you get a feeling of, oh no – not another one of these games. It took me a full day to cool down after the result and try to view things more calmly. Immediately after the game I was giving out about this and that and at times like this I know the best thing to do is stay away from twitter, facebook and message boards. I’m wound up enough without listening to the poisonous diatribe of the Doom-mongers not to mention wind-up merchant fans of other clubs. There’s plenty that I’m frustrated at right now and plenty of points I’ve heard others raise. I’m going to try to raise a few of them here and give them my own sense of perspective. These are my opinions and these are the reasons why I won’t let myself get too down, or agree with the points,  about where we are right now. I hope you’ll use the comments section below the article to agree or disagree, I’m more than happy to have some constructive debate on the subjects.

Complaint:                     Suarez’ Goal Ratio

Example comment:         He’s a good player but he’s no goal scorer

I’ve been guilty of this one myself, in fact I remember a long conversation with family after the Utd game where I was making this exact point. The difference is that it’s now being used by some as a stick to beat the team or Suarez himself with. When I made the argument it was to highlight that he is a brilliant player but that is something which, if improved, could make him even better. The thing that gets me about this argument is that although Luis may miss some chances, he makes most of these chances himself. Its not like we can say “oh Micheal Owen would be scoring bagfuls if he was in that team” because its not true. MO wouldn’t because he would need the other players to make his chances. Most of the chances Luis gets are down to his own endeavour so even if he does miss them, nobody else would have been capable of making the chance in the first place. He’s also not getting a lot of luck with his finishing at times. He could have had 2 on Saturday if not for the Swansea keeper’s superb performance. Same has been true against a few sides this season. I think he has had a decent return goal-wise so far with 7 goals in 14 games (all competitions) He could have had a lot more and I’m sure he’ll start converting more of his chances soon.

Complaint:                     Kenny’s too old

Example comment:         Its been years since he’s won anything, maybe we should get rid now.

No, just No! I don’t know what people expected Kenny to achieve in his first full season in charge. I can’t help but ask myself did he possibly over achieve in his brief caretaker role for the 2^nd half of last season? Perhaps after the upturn people just thought, thats it were back now we’ll win the league next year. Quite simply that was NEVER a possibility. Kenny steadied the ship last year and lifted us out of the doldrums with a very weak squad. He is 11 league games into his role on a full time basis. The players are still learning his methods and will certainly improve with him. I certainly don’t see that age has anything to do with anything. Remember Rafa’s first season? Or Houllier’s? Inconsistency comes hand in hand with a new manager. Changes to playing staff, tactics pre-game rituals can all be unsettling to players especially when trying to bed in so many at once. I know that there are very few managers in the world who boast such an impressive CV and there are none who can command the respect of our dressing room with such ease. I think Kenny is learning more about his players week in week out. Those calling for a change in manager would quite simply want to cop on! At the end of the day.... this is Kenny Dalglish at the very least the man deserves more respect. I thought it was very refreshing that he didn’t try to make any excuses after the Swansea game. He seemed to agree with supporters that this performance simply wasn’t good enough and that improvement was needed. You can bet your last Euro/Pound/Dollar/Yen (Delete as appropriate) that Kenny will be working every waking minute to ensure that improvement happens!

Complaint:                     Disaster

Example Comment:        We’ll never get fourth place now

The thing is we have reasons to be down, that’s true. I cant argue that there are plenty of things that are frustrating me right now. But there is NO disaster at Liverpool Football Club right now. No matter what the gutter press try to say, no matter how many supporters of other clubs talk about it and no matter how many doom-monger fans throw this shite in your face. A disaster is where we were just about a year ago when the club had literally been crippled by debt by two ignominious owners who cared not one iota for the club or the fans and were prepared to see the club fall into administration rather than lose a penny of the money they hadn’t even invested in the club. Disaster was when we were sitting in the relegation zone after 10 games . Disaster was when we were under the command of a man who’s CV offered no consolation of an impending improvement. Who’s signings, tactics and weekly comments showed that he had no connection with the club, players or fans. A manager who called a 2-0 defeat to Everton one of our top 3 performances of the season.

I think most right minded Liverpool fans felt that we could hope to qualify for the Champions League this season. And if we look at things in context there is absolutely no reason to lower that ambition. We are currently in 6th place in the table, 3 points off Chelsea in 4^th. Newcastle currently occupy 3^rd place but they are about to embark on the most difficult period in their season so far, I think its reasonable to expect that they will drop some points over the next few weeks. Things haven’t quite clicked yet, but that is always the case when so many new players along with a new manager, need to bed in together. We are now on an international break so hopefully (injuries permitting) our boys will come back raring to get on a run and start stringing some wins together. We have an immediate opportunity to start clawing our way to fourth when we face Chelsea in our next game. This is followed by a game against Man City which is nearly a no lose game for us. After that we have a decent run of winnable games which, if we can start converting more of our chances, could see us make a significant climb up the table. It’s a long season, most teams will have a period when things don’t go the way they want them to but that doesn’t mean that everything has to be an apocalypse. At times you just need to keep some perspective. I know one thing, Kenny, Steve Clarke and all the players will be working 100% to ensure an improvement.

There are more points to be discussed, but as this article turned into such a long one I thought I would break it into 2 parts. I hope to get part 2 up before the end of the weekend. Be sure to sign up to receive email alerts so that you don’t miss it!