After a torrid start to the season, and the turmoil of the club’s sale to new owners, Liverpool’s season seemed to be going into a nosedive even before it had started flight.
Then came a brief period of hope, in which the passionate Merseysiders saw their beloved team string together some good performances that saw them win away at Bolton and at home against Chelsea, and also against Napoli in UEFA’s Europa League.
All the good work that seemed to be pointing in the direction of a turnaround was then undone by last week’s draw at Wigan and the loss at lowly-rated Stoke.
The team looked disjointed and below-par again in both the matches, and the fan’s ire and discontent was evident by their chants of “King Kenny” and “Dalglish for Liverpool”.
Manager Roy Hodgson came out after the match saying that he could not control who the fans chanted for, but could only do his best as long as he stayed manager. Trouble for Liverpool is he is not doing his best, or perhaps his best is just not good enough
for a club the size of Liverpool.
It has repeatedly been said about Hodgson, all across the football media, that he is nothing more than a respectable manager, a fact that is mirrored by Liverpool’s performances and his reactions after them.
Last week too he did not sound overly-worried about the loss, saying that he does not have a great squad and that fans cannot expect the team to win all their matches. That certainly is not how a manager of a top side should talk.
Instead of instilling belief and confidence in his players, the man keeps on moaning endlessly about this and that. If things on the pitch stay the same, it would not be long before players and managers too start echoing the fans’ chants and then there will
be nowhere for Roy to go but out the door.
Liverpool’s lack of squad depth is definitely an issue, but the players who are available to the club, have got enough class and experience to haul the club out of the mire they are currently in. The manager needs to play a more positive role, and spur players
like Torres, Steven Gerrard, Meireles, Lucas, Johnson, Rodriguez and Cole need to perform near their best. Also in this time of crisis, the management needs to trust the younger fringe players like Babel, Kelly, Shelvey, Spearing and Pacheco, since the seniors
are certainly not turning up to do the job, perhaps a little insecurity would do some of them some good.
Coming back to the problem of getting more world class players, it is evident that the club’s new owners are not going to splash the cash around in Manchester City’s Sheikhs’ fashion, at least not shortly.
In a mid-week statement, John W. Henry said he had talked to many people and had come to understand that the squad strengthening job can be better done in the summer than the in the upcoming January transfer window. He also said that focus should be on bringing
in new players from the club’s youth system, rather than going on a spending spree.
After Henry’s statement though, the director of football strategy at Liverpool, Damien Comolli said that Tom Werner and John Henry wanted to buy world class players in January too but only if they believed the price being asked was right.
So it can be easily said that the new owners are pretty shrewd businessmen and are not ready to make any promises that they would not eventually be able to fulfil, but are still going to invest in buying players which hopefully will significantly benefit
Liverpool’s squad.
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