110m wasted on cut-price 'creative' cack - The real reason LFC haven't won the title for 17 years

A dispiriting policy of buying cut-price, inferior creative players is the principal reason Liverpool have not won the league title for 17 years.

An examination of Liverpool’s ‘creative’ signings since Kenny Dalglish left reveals a disturbing tendency to buy cheap, substandard squad-fillers. This is indicative of the decline of the club’s attacking philosophy, and until this changes, Liverpool will not win the league.

In the 70s and 80s, one thing remained constant in Liverpool's unparallelled success: Top class creative players and fearless attacking philosophy. When Ian Rush left in 1987, Kenny Dalglish didn't waste money on dross - he went out and bought the best creative players within Liverpool's budget: John Barnes, Peter Beardsley and John Aldridge.

It’s a sad thing to acknowledge, but since Kenny Dalglish left in 1991, the attacking philosophy of the club has slowly been eroded and replaced with an increasingly defensive-minded approach.

This was painfully apparent again in the recent home defeat to M******** U*****, where Liverpool’s woeful attacking play was exposed again as the team failed to create a single goal-scoring chance.

It's a trite observation, but League titles are won by the SCORING AND CREATING OF GOALS. Defensive stability is obviously important, but goals win games, and without the quality to consistently break down stubborn defences and create/score goals, it is impossible to win the league.

The plain fact is this: Every Liverpool Manager since Dalglish has squandering MILLIONS on mediocre creative players. For far too long now, there has been a maddening unwillingness at the club to spend big money on top class attacking wingers and link men.

The huge list of pedestrian 'creative' signings over the last 17 years reveals the following:

1. Too many low grade creative players bought on the cheap.
2. An unwillingness to invest in proven creative talent.
3. A preference for young, unproven creative talent, most of whom inevitably fail.
4. A preference for tireless workhorses who run all day but are short on craft and guile.
5. Misuse of genuinely creative players who could have made a difference.

Below is a list of so called ‘creative’ players bought over the last 17 years.

Sean Dundee (1.8m)
Nigel Clough (2.2m)
Erik Meijer (Free)
Karl-Heinz Riedle (1.8m)
Dean Saunders (2.9m)
Paul Stewart (2.3m)
Mark Walters (1.2m)
Oyvind Leonhardsen (3.5m)
Michael Thomas (1.5m)
Titi Camara (2.6m)
Danny Murphy (1.5m)
Hakur Ingi Gudnasen (150k)
Mark Kennedy (1.5m)

23m (approx)

00s
Emile Heskey (11m)
Vladirmir Smicer (3.7m)
Bolo Zenden (Free)
Bernard Diomede (3m)
Salif Diao (4.7m)
Antonio Nunez (1.5m)
Bruno Cheyrou (3.7m)
Florent Sinama Pongolle (3m)
Anthony Le Tallec (3m)
Craig Bellamy (6m)
El Hadji Diouf (10m)
Mark Gonzales (1.5m)
Fernando Morientes (6.3m)
Harry Kewell(5m)
Jermaine Pennant (6.7m)
Dirk Kuyt (9m)
Ryan Babel (11.5m)
Andriy Voronin
88.5m (approx)

In my view, none of the above were/are good enough to be first team regulars for Liverpool. Many of them were not even good enough to be mere squad players. The club needed to invest in proven creative talent, not squad-filling journeymen.

Players like Danny Murphy and Craig Bellamy may have had their moments but when it comes to creating a team capable of winning the league, such players are far below the creative level needed to consistently mount a league challenge.

It’s even more depressing if you contrast the players above with the club’s purchases in the 70s and 80s, or the creative players bought by Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United over the same time period.

The list above represents over 100m of money wasted, with Gerard Houllier and Rafael Benitez the biggest culprits, wasting almost 80m on cut-price dross.

Just imagine if Liverpool had Managers who were truly focused on attacking football, and went out and bought smartly - choosing the best attacking players they could find for the budget.

It’s no secret that Gerard Houllier turned down the chance to sign Cristiano Ronaldo and Rivaldo amongst others. Who knows how many other great creative players were turned away in favour of dross creatively inept players like Emile Heskey and Bruno Cheyrou?

Houllier’s aversion to creativity can also be found in Rafael Benitez, who has wasted millions on creative players who were just not good enough or just didn’t perform.

Roy Evans made his fair share of mistakes (Sean Dundee anyone?) but, in his defence, Evans’ teams were a joy to watch, and played the best attacking football in the country during the mid 90s.

Liverpool under Evans had superb attacking players like Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler mixed in with the brilliance and experience of Ian Rush and John Barnes. Defensive frailty was the team’s problem, something Houllier and Benitez fixed at the expense of Liverpool’s attacking play.

Examining Liverpool’s purchases since 1990 reveals one particularly depressing fact: The club has, in my view, bought only 7 worthy, effective creative players in 17 years:

90s
Patrik Berger (3.2m)
Stan Collymore (8.5m)

00s
Luis Garcia (6m)
Milan Baros (3.2m)
Peter Crouch (7m)
Fernando Torres (20m)
Yossi Benayoun (5m)

Two other notable players who could have made a difference were Jari Litmanen and Nicolas Anelka, both of whom were brought in for free. Both were fantastic acquisitions with bags of quality, superb technique and real ‘Liverpool type class’.

Of course, they were scandalously wasted by Houllier, who preferred the technically inept likes of Emile Heskey. Milan Baros was another exceptional player who had the creativity choked out of him by Houllier and later Benitez, who persisted in playing him as a lone striker.

Rafa has at least brought in Fernando Torres, but El Nino alone is not enough. Liverpool need 3 or 4 creative players of similar quality if they are going to seriously challenge for the premiership.

Liverpool are lucky to have been blessed over the years with homegrown creative talent like McManaman, Fowler, Owen and Steven Gerrard; take them away and the last 17 years looks even bleaker.

And where are the homegrown creative stars of the future?! There are none, because Houllier and Benitez have invested in cheap rubbish instead of developing homegrown talent.

Liverpool need a complete change of philosophy and emphasis; attacking football and creativity needs to be the priority, and the club needs to go out and buy the best creative players within the budget AND start PROPERLY developing academy players who show creative potential.

Spending 17m on Javier Mascherano - another defensive minded player - is ridiculous, and is yet more evidence of why Rafael Benitez is not the man to drive through the necessary change. The team should be built around ATTACKING players and an attacking philosophy. At the moment, the team is shaped around defensive players...this has to change.

Ultimately, it's simple: If the transfer ineptitude of the last 17 years continues, and Liverpool persist in buying cheap/ineffective creative players, the Premiership will remain out of reach.

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Liverpool's lack of guile exposed again as gloating stars fail to deliver

Liverpool’s dreary defeat against Manchester United once again exposed the team’s creative paucity and underlined something that has been apparent for years: Liverpool need players with genuine flair and skill and until the club invests in world class wingers/link men, the premiership title will remain an elusive dream.

The Man United defeat was utterly predictable, not only because of the depressing recent history of the fixture, but because of the crass display of cocky overconfidence that saw Liverpool’s players fawning over each others’ supposed brilliance after the midweek victory over Marseille.

The likes of Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt and Pepe Reina were bigging each other up as if they’d just won the premiership. Pepe Reina even had the gall to bait United, telling the world that Liverpool ‘expected to win’.

I suggested then that such behaviour was ill-advised and contrary to the great Liverpool tradition of humbleness in victory. And as is almost always the case with such gloating, the hype never lived up to the reality.

Against Man United, Liverpool were completely devoid of any real attacking threat, and did not create a single goal-scoring opportunity from open play. Read that sentence again and consider the ramifications: At Anfield, in a must win league game, Liverpool failed to create a real goal scoring chance.

There were two opportunities in the first half, with United’s keeper Edwin Van Der Sar almost gifting the team a goal, but these hardly amount to chances created by guile or skill.

The drudgery of Liverpool’s ‘attacking’ play was painful to behold, and the terminally ineffective Dirk Kuyt once again showed his lack of killer instinct by having no creative impact whatsoever.

But ‘he runs all day and works so hard for the team’ the apologists will whine. Big deal! He can run all day, but when is he going to score some GOALS? That is his job, is it not?! And how can he score goals when he spends 90% of his time in MIDFIELD?!

Why start an exciting player like Ryan Babel or a proven goal threat like Peter Crouch when you can have the leaden-footed Kuyt? It’s just maddening that Benitez persists with Kuyt, and the sooner he admits his mistake and gets rid, the better.

Fernando Torres fared no better than Kuyt; the in-form Spaniard was invisible for most of the game and was a non-entity in the second half. Once again, the hype of the preceding days came back to haunt Liverpool.

After Marseille, Liverpool players were falling over themselves to proclaim that Torres was ‘world class’. Indeed, Mascherano called him a ‘Monster of football’, whatever that is.

Against Man United, Torres struggled to be premiership class let alone world class, but with Liverpool’s disturbing lack of creativity, it is no surprise that 'El Nino' did nothing in the game.

And then we come to Liverpool’s central midfield pair: Mascherano – the man Benitez recently described as ‘World Class’, and Steven Gerrard, whom Jamie Carragher heralded as ‘world class’ and ‘on a par with Kenny Dalglish’ a few days previously.

Well...they were overrun by Owen Hargreaves and the 19 year old Anderson, and Gerrard offered nothing as an attacking threat. Furthermore, Gerrard continued his trend of failing to perform in big games against United.

Roy Keane used to regularly dominate Gerrard but that was understandable given Keane’s mastery of his role. But Anderson?! He had Gerrard and Masch running around in circles – not what you expect from players who are supposed to be the best in the world, but as I said above, the hype never lives up to the reality.

Of course, the blind faith brigade will be out in force calling anyone who criticizes the result ‘knee-jerkers’ and they will cite the club’s recent good form as some kind of evidence that things are moving in the right direction.

Others will be raving about how Rooney and Ronaldo didn't deliver and how Liverpool dominated possession. NONE OF THIS MATTERS. Who won the game? Who won the same fixture last season? Who usually wins when Liverpool play any of the top 3?

Exactly.

This is Benitez’s 4th year in charge and Liverpool look no closer to winning the league than they did under Gerard Houllier. Houllier’s reign was characterized by a distinct lack of creative guile in the team, and Benitez has not improved this one iota.

The plain and simple fact is this: Unless Liverpool invest in world class creative players, they will never win the premiership.

A cursory glance at the roll call of premiership champions reveals that, almost without exception, teams with genuine creativity win the league - Manchester United and Arsenal are testament to this, as are the championship winning teams of Liverpool’s illustrious past.

It is no coincidence that Anfield’s last championship winning team contained players full of trickery and guile; the wondrous like of John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, Ray Houghton and Jan Molby were all supremely skilful operators with the ability to take players on and open up the tightest defences.

Fernando Torres aside, the current Liverpool team has no genuine creative flair, and this was as painfully obvious against Manchester United as it was against Arsenal in October. No doubt, that statement will be met with the usual hysterical cries of ‘but what about Steven Gerrard’?!

Gerrard is not a consistently creative player. Every once in a while (and usually against inferior opposition) he will go through a purple patch where everything he hits turns into a goal or an assist. However, when it comes to the crunch games against superior defences, he is often found wanting.

Against Man United, he was back to hoofing Hollywood passes and wasting possession; the same lack of intelligence displayed against Everton earlier in the season was on display again.

The same goes for all of Liverpool’s suppose ‘creative’ players. Harry Kewell and Yossi Benayoun are undoubtedly good players, and should be part of the squad, but they are not the long term creative solution Liverpool need.

The only player on the pitch who looked likely to create a genuine goal-scoring opportunity was Ryan Babel, who was positive and tried to take players on. It says a lot about Benitez’s priorities that an exciting, creative player like Babel can’t even get a regular start in the team.

Liverpool have been on a good run, and It’s great that the team has scored masses of goals against inferior opposition, but when it comes to top quality defences, it’s the same old underachieving story.

Instead of spending 17m on Mascherano - a midfielder Liverpool *do not need* - Benitez should spend whatever money he has available on the best creative wingers/link men money their budget will allow.

This won’t happen though; just like Houllier, the ultra cautious Spaniard prefers defensively minded workhorses who run all day to exciting, unpredictable flair players.

Until Benitez changes his philosophy (unlikely) or Liverpool hire a Manager who believes that attack is the best kind of defence (In my dreams) then the club will continue to be also-rans in the premiership.

Two defeats does not mean that the club's league chances are over, but with tough away games against the top 3 to come, and no one capable of consistently unlocking tight defences, the prognosis is the same as it has been for 17 years: failure.

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Liverpool sink into the 'creative abyss' at Blackburn

Another week, another turgid performance by Liverpool, once again characterized by a depressing lack of real creativity.

Whilst Liverpool may still be unbeaten in the premiership, a run of five draws from the last seven games represents an unacceptable loss of points – 15 up for grabs and only 5 taken. This is not league winning form, and to suggest Liverpool have a chance of winning the league is now bordering on the absurd...

After the Blackburn game, Benitez argued: “We deserved more because we created a lot, especially in the second-half. We had clear chances and their keeper made some excellent saves."

Liverpool deserved nothing from the game, and Benitez once again must take the blame. Starting with three central midfielders and one up front, Liverpool’s fear of the opposition took precedence over setting out to win the game.

There was no way Liverpool were going to win the game playing the increasingly ineffective Dirk Kuyt upfront. He is not a striker – he is a midfielder! Furthermore, playing Kuyt as a lone strike is ridiculous in the extreme. He plays too deep and always drops off to collect the ball, when he should be getting on the end of things.

Kuyt is the archetypal Benitez player: A super-fit, hardworking work-horse, who will run all day but offers nothing in the way of skill, guile or genuine creativity. Kuyt was cruelly exposed as the limited player he is against Blackburn, with his poor decision-making in promising situations particularly disappointing.

Steven Gerrard had a couple of good chances, but he is not and never will be an effective link man. He is not Kaka or Zidane. He doesn’t have the footballing intelligence to carry out that role. With Sissoko and Mascherano holding, Gerrard was basically given a free role and he created next to nothing.

Once again, it took the introduction of the disgracefully ignored Peter Crouch to liven things up. Crouch and the newly fit Harry Kewell were at the heart of two or three excellent chances that almost led to Liverpool (undeservedly) winning the game.

Benitez’s cautious ‘safety first’ approach is massively frustrating. Crouch and Kewell should have started, and Liverpool should have played with two up front from the beginning, but Benitez is more concerned with setting Liverpool up not to concede. It’s only near the end of games that he dares to change things change for the positive, but by then it’s often far too late.

Benitez’s dreary brand of anti-football is a real problem, and watching Liverpool is a painful experience these days. Four years into his reign, Liverpool fans have the right to expect more. He’s assembled his own team and there can be no more excuses.

Yes, Liverpool were missing Alonso and Torres…but why was that? Because Benitez rushed them back from injury against Arsenal and suffered the consequences. As I said in a previous article, that decision will cost Liverpool valuable points, and probably any chance at the title.

If Benitez had played it smart, perhaps Alonso and Torres would have been able to play some part against Blackburn, and if they had, chances are the result would have been different.

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Arsenal expose LFC's 'pub team' creativity

Liverpool were given a footballing lesson by Arsenal on Sunday and were extremely lucky not to lose.

It pains me to say it, but Arsenal were superb, playing football the way it should be played - with sublime technique, imagination and exquisite pass and move. In contrast, Liverpool were afflicted by a dispiriting lack of invention and their usual inability to keep hold of the ball…

This is hardly surprising considering Rafael Benitez’s apparent aversion to genuine creative players, proven again with his preference for the creatively bankrupt pairing of Dirk Kuyt and Andrei Voronin.

These two players are typical Benitez players: Fit, hard-working ‘cover every blade of grass’ grafters who will always score top points for effort. However, they are not creative by any stretch of the imagination. Running ten miles a game does not win you the league – players who can consistently unlock defences are the key to success.

Liverpool have creative players, but due to Benitez’s stubbornness and cautious approach, they are under-utilised. Yossi Benayoun and Ryan Babel should have started in place of Kuyt and Voronin, and with the system Benitez played, this should have been a no-brainer. But no – Benitez deferred to his typically defensive mentality and went with players who spent most of their time defending in their own half.

What exactly is the point of playing two strikers as make-shift wide players when there are genuine wide players on the bench?! It’s ridiculous. Dirk Kuyt in particular did nothing all game except defend and run around like a headless chicken. And the fact that Liverpool had to rely on a free kick to score just makes this lack of creativity even more obvious.

It was only when Peter Crouch and Yossi Benayoun entered the fray that Liverpool began to retain possession and show a few signs of creativity. These two players are among the most technically proficient in the team and this showed in the way they played. Crouch had 3 or 4 excellent chances and held the ball up well, and Benayoun retained possession excellently and brought others into the game.

Steven Gerrard scored a brilliant free kick goal, but apart from that, his impact on the game was once again negligible. I lost count of the amount of times he gave the ball away or wasted possession in a good area. Gerrard seems incapable of slowing the play down, and always seems to be rushing at 100mph. This is why Benitez substituted him against Everton, though Gerrard shows no signs of improving this aspect of his game.

Of course, Andy Gray and Jamie Redknapp will, as usual, try and convince the world that Gerrard was man of the match with an amazing performance, but this was simply not the case.

The lumbering drudgery of Liverpool’s attacking play is a serious problem that has plagued the club since Roy Evans was at the helm. Gerard Houllier and Rafael Benitez share a defensive mentality which is at odds with the great Liverpool style of the past.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: Unless Liverpool invests in some world class creative talent, the league title will never return to Anfield. Liverpool teams of the past *always* had special creative players and it is no coincidence those teams won title after title. Benayoun, Babel and Torres apart, Liverpool are fatally lacking exciting attacking players. Furthermore, Benitez’s failing rotation policy ensures that the likes of Benayoun and Babel hardly play, thus robbing them of the chance to develop their attacking consistency.

Liverpool need a minimum of three genuine creative players: Two world class wingers and a Beardsley type link man. This will not happen whilst Rafael Benitez is Manager though, as playing expansive, entertaining football is contrary to his footballing philosophy.

One thing is for sure – if Ryan Babel was at Arsenal, under the tutelage of Arsene Wenger, he would be playing week in week out, wowing the world with his attacking skill.

And that is the difference between Wenger and Benitez: Wenger wants to win and win well by playing attacking football and always taking the game to the opposition. Benitez just wants to win at any cost, sacrificing attacking football for a dreary ‘safety first’ approach.

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