Well needless to say, it was a pretty miserable birthday for me on Sunday. Not only did I have the misfortune to witness our absolutely shite performance at the Theatre of Prawns but I`ve also managed to come down with the flu. So I`m writing this from my sick bed and I`m bored and pissed off, so it`s a bit of an epic.
There have been occasions over the years, when I have had cause to wonder why we Liverpool fans bother? Our support for the team sometimes seems like a strange addiction, somewhat similar to an addiction to hard drugs.
It`s not good for our mental health, its bloody expensive and although the high`s can be incredibly high, the low`s can be unbelievably low. Our Champions League victory in Istanbul is a perfect example of one of the incredible highs and Sunday`s dreadful defeat by the mancs was most definitely an example of one of the unbelievable lows.
Sundays dismal display all but ends any chance we may have had of winning the Premiership. A season that appeared to hold the very real promise of a serious title challenge, started badly and has just seemed to get worse. We now find ourselves barely two month`s into the campaign with only a quarter of our games played and yet we are already so far behind and playing so poorly, that we may face a struggle just to get into the top four. It’s a depressing and quite frankly an embarrassing situation.
So where has it gone wrong? It seems that the blame game has started, with some fans and so-called experts alike almost falling all over themselves in the rush to put the knife into Rafa Benitez. Anyone who follows this blog will be aware that I`m a big fan of the boss but nevertheless my support for him is not blind support. Like everyone else, I have disagreed with some of the decisions that have been made and I believe that ultimately the buck stops with the manager.
So of course Rafa must take some responsibility and he has done. While many other managers tend to lock themselves away in the dressing room after such a defeat, it`s a measure of the man that he came out and faced the TV camera`s and the press, and his disappointment was there for everyone to see. But is it fair that he should be left to shoulder all of the responsibility?
I think that the players have been getting away very lightly and they are equally, if not even more so, responsible for this awful situation we find ourselves in but I`ll come back to those later. The boss is an easy target for criticism in our current situation, but much of it simply doesn`t stand up to scrutiny. Let`s have a look at some of the main points.
Rotation: I grew up during the magnificent Bob Paisley era and his pre-match team talks would often consist of the words “same eleven as last week”. So it`s been hard for me to get used to rotation policies but I accept that it is necessary in the modern game. Much has been made of the fact that our game on Sunday was the 97th consecutive game that Rafa has made changes to the side. But he believes in rotation and he has employed it to great effect at both Valencia and at Anfield. While I would agree that sometimes I have felt he has made too many changes, it`s difficult to argue with the success he has brought to both clubs.
People who bring up this statistic of 97 consecutive games with changes to the side always seem to conveniently forget to mention that during that run we won a Champions League, an FA Cup, a Super Cup and a Community Shield. We also managed to get to finals of the Carling Cup and World Club Championship, and lets not forget that between October and the end of last season we won more points in the Premiership then anyone else with a record breaking run of 33 consecutive clean sheets along the way.
All this was achieved using the very same rotation system that Rafa continues to employ today. Although I realise that things have not gone anywhere near according to plan this season so far, I cannot understand why so many are jumping on the bandwagon of ridiculing the boss for employing the same system that has served us so well. Why is it that some people are more ready to believe in the hind sighted crap that the Andy Gray`s of this world come out with, then they are prepared to believe in the boss?
Steven Gerrard`s position: I seem to get into trouble everytime I mention StevieG. There are even some people who feel I have some kind of axe to grind with him. This is not true, I think Gerrard is one of the greatest Reds to ever play for the club and would easily have a place in my top 3. That said, I don`t believe he is beyond criticism at times. Gerrard has not been our worst performer this season but by his own high standards, he`s been disappointing. A lot of people have blamed the fact that Rafa has played him out of position. I must admit that I didn`t agree with Rafa`s decision to play him on the right of a 5 man midfield yesterday. In that situation I think he should have definitely played in the middle and I couldn`t understand Rafa`s thinking particularly when he didn`t even switch him into the middle when Pennant came on.
Although many people would prefer to see him playing in the centre of midfield, I believe that if Momo and Xabi are available then Gerrard should play on the right of a 4-4-2. I would think that even if you don`t agree with him playing on the right, you should at least understand the argument for playing there. He was a revelation when playing in that position last season and scored 23 goals, which is the most he has ever scored in a season. Some have said that Gerrard is not happy playing this role and this has contributed to his poor performances but he seems more then happy to play this role for England, so why not for the club?
It amazes me that some people want to point the finger at Rafa for Gerrard`s poor form, when all he has done is play him in the position where he was so effective last season. This may seem like sacrilege to some, but isn`t it just barely possible that StevieG`s bad form is down to StevieG? Afterall, since the World Cup he`s been busy vying for the England captaincy, making TV ads and promoting his book. All of these things are of course no where near as important as captaining Liverpool and I`m sure Gerrard would be the first agree. But rather then point the finger at Rafa for his loss of form, I`m of the opinion that StevieG`s increased celebrity status may be affecting his focus. Look at Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney. All three were high profile stars for England at the World Cup, all three have been promoting books, all three have been appearing in various TV ads and all three have come nowhere near the form they showed before the World Cup so far this season.
Rafa`s Tactics: I find it incredible that some would question Rafa`s tactical plans. I would agree that he doesn`t always get it right but he has shown time and again in the past, that he is more astute in this department then many of his rivals. Sometimes the best laid tactical plans can unravel not because they are bad plans but because the personnel didn`t follow the game plan and I`ll get to that later.
The quality of the new signings: This to me is the weakest of the criticisms levelled at the boss. I`ve said before that I feel it`s totally out of order to fully pass judgement on a new signing until they`ve at least got a full season under their belt. Peter Crouch is the perfect example of a player that many wrote off in the early stages of his Liverpool career, but look at him now. It`s true that with the exception of Agger, none of our new signings have pulled up any trees as yet but I think it`s also true to say that we have seen glimpses of what they are capable of producing, given time. The signing of any player is always going to be a risk but I think we all understand why each of them was signed and I don`t remember too many people complaining about the signings at the time.
Those are my views on the main criticisms I`ve heard directed at Rafa. Although I`m not trying to suggest that he be absolved of all blame, in my view he has been criminally let down by some of the players. It seems like in almost every game we`ve played this season, we`ve had at least two or three players performing so poorly that they have upset the whole rhythm of the side and our game plan would go out the window.
When I was a kid, I saw an interview with Bill Shankly on TV. He had come to the end of his career as Liverpool manager and he was asked at the end of the interview how he would like the fans to remember his time in charge. He answered this question in his typically unique way by simply saying, “I`d like them to remember that we were always honest and we never cheated the fans”. I was too young to understand what this meant at the time, but as young as I was I still understood that when Shankly spoke, you listened.
For some reason those words stayed with me over the years and it was only during some of the lean times of the 90`s and on certain occasions in the Houllier era, that I came to fully understand what they meant. On Sunday, those words came to my mind once again. Watching the our dismal display on the pitch and hearing the jeers of the manc fans raining down on me, I felt cheated as a supporter.
The fact that we played the game in our yellow kit seemed very appropriate as it reflected the performance of many of our players. All of you reading this will no doubt be seasoned watchers of football, who will have played the game at some level. Although sometimes our devotion to the club can blind us to certain things, I know you will be just as aware as I am, that this was not an honest performance by many of the players. It doesn`t always come across on TV but I saw many occasions during the game when we had good possession of the ball and yet hardly anyone was showing themselves for a pass. It was like nobody wanted the responsibility of having the ball and I can`t remember a single occasion when we won a second ball in the entire game!
You can complain all day long about Rafa, rotation and tactics etc but none of that explains a players failure to make a challenge, make a simple pass, mark his player or to generally put in a bit of effort. Such things are all about attitude and that should be the basic starting point of any team. No matter how brilliant the manager or the tactical plan he employs, if the players don`t have the right attitude then you will achieve nothing.
The first part of the game was a bit cat and mouse but when Scholes received the ball while somehow being allowed to stand unguarded right in front of our goal, there was only going to be one outcome. How the hell could the members of our defence allow him such an easy chance? I mean it`s not exactly difficult to spot the ginger-headed freak! This should have led to a rapid response by the Reds, but we did absolutely nothing to trouble their defence and of course later in the game Rio Cokehead got them a second goal after receiving a defence splitting pass from Jamie Carragher!
The mancs didn`t play particularly well and if we could have raised ourselves into giving any kind of a reasonable performance, they would have been there for the taking. However, as it worked out, an ordinary manc team out-played, out-fought and quite frankly out-classed us. That was a very painful sentence to write but it`s true, we were absolutely pathetic. I only hope that when the players are looking back at the video of this game, they feel at least a little of the same disgust and embarrassment we supporters felt at their our half-arsed display.
So where do we go from here? Well one thing`s for sure, we can`t possibly get any worse. Our heads are down at the moment and we are all feeling a little devastated that our Premiership dream has been all but ended for another season. It`s always easy to sing when your winning (just ask any manc supporter) but it`s a lot more difficult to get behind the team when things are going so horribly wrong. But the ironic thing is that it`s at times like this, that the team really needs us the most.
We`ve got to keep faith with Rafa, I still believe in the boss but even if you have reservations, I still think we owe him big time for Number 5 and rest of the silverware, and its time for us pay up. He`s getting enough stick from those mongrels in the media, the last thing he needs is the fans turning against him. Cut him a bit of slack and give him a bit of support, I think he has earned it. Although a few of them deserve a good kick in the arse, we must also get behind the players and hope that they will finally stand up and be counted.
We now have four home games in a row, so it`s a golden chance for us to build some momentum. It`s still early in the season and there are a lot of important games to be played. We need to start climbing up the Premiership and ensure that we secure our top four place and put ourselves in a position to take advantage of any slip-ups by the top two. We are still in control of our Champions League group and yet we haven`t hit any kind of form yet, so who knows how far we can go once our real form starts to kick in? There`s also the domestic cup competitions and the need to defend our FA Cup. So although we appear to be out of the title race, there`s still plenty for us to play for and every chance that we can still have a successful season. So keep the faith, all is by no means lost.
YNWA (remember that?)
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