13 Nov 2012

Worried LFC Icon warns: 'Unreliable' Reds may 'finish 10th' this year. Possible...?

Liverpool have now gone six games unbeaten in the league, but despite that fine achievement, the club has only 12 points from 11 games, and is currently languishing in 13th place in the table. It sounds bad, but with only 8 point between 13th and 4th, the gap is not insurmountable, and if the Reds sign a good striker in January, that could make all the difference. Anfield legend Jan Molby is not so optimistic though, and he feels that the club could ultimately end up doing worse than last season.

In his column for Eurosport yesterday, Molby - who recently claimed that Raheem Sterling would 'struggle' in the Premier League - conceded that Brendan Rodgers is 'moving things in the right direction', but dismissed the Reds' chances of finishing in the Champions League places. He observed:

"There is a real sense of frustration around the club at the moment.

"I look at this Liverpool squad and think they will finish between sixth and 10th in the table.

"They are far too inconsistent, and their defence has not been at all reliable, coupled with a lack of potency up front".


If Liverpool maintain their current points-per-game average for the rest of the season then finishing 10th ia a definite possibility, but I have to believe that things will change soon, and I'm sure they will.

Rodgers has reassured fans several times over the last few weeks that he will have the money in January to sign 'one or two' new players, and Molby warned that forward progress will be damaged if FSG do not stump up the cash:

"The board have to release the cash to allow Rodgers to sign a forward in January, because Liverpool have been desperately short of firepower this season beyond Luis Suarez and the club will not progress if the problem is not addressed"

Given the current situation at Anfield, it seems unthinkable that FSG will bar Rodgers from spending big to sign a striker, but stranger things have happened.

In my view, FSG have done a very good job with Liverpool so far, and the recent announcement that Anfield is to be redeveloped is another sign that they have the club's best interests at heart.

However, if John Henry fails to make money available in January, the fanbase will be baying for this blood, and it will be nigh on impossible to win back their trust, especially if failure to sign a striker leads to Liverpool ending the season in a worse position than under Kenny Dalglish.

Jaimie Kanwar


28 comments:

  1. worse position than under kd well let me enlighten you out of capital cup already plus we got to fa cup final all this whilst suarez was serving his ban plus lucas and gerrard injuries so just imagine were kds side might have finished with suarez imo kd should have been given another season because uptlil now rodgers has not impressed me in the slightest when i first said this nearly everyone was saying i was talking rubbish allen was not worth 15 million and borinni well 12million your having a laught well judging by the recent posts on this site it seems more and more people are starting to agree with me it will give me no pleasure to say i told you so because ultimitly it will mean the club suffers again i cannot see fsg giving him much more money based on results ,performances ,and his transfer dealings so i agree with molby and if suarez has a major injury then we could well find ourselves in a relagation battle

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  2. I think signing a striker or two in January would serve dual aims for us: (1) Those signed would increase our chance conversion rate, and therefore points earned, and (2) Rodgers would be able to move Suarez and Sterling to wings, there they will be of the most benefit IMO.

    It's not just the striker issue we're having, our wings have been not as active as they should be for creating lots of chances, so such transfers could solve the wing issue as well.

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  3. Yes your right mate, Allen and Borini was 27million down the drain for 2 mediocre players. Allen is not a patch on past midfield players at this club. Borini was a shocking buy and even when fit he wouldnt score the quantity of goals his price tag will demand.
    6 games unbeaten but i would rather win one and lose one than draw 2. Draws away are ok and acceptable as long as you win your home games giving you 4 points of every six giving you 76 points and a Champions League place. If only things were so simple.
    I agree with you Liverpool are now more heavily reliant on one player than any other club in the league.

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  4. jaimie anychance of running a poll on is you optimism on rodgers wavering think it would be interesting to know how other fans are feeling now we are nearly a third through the season

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  5. i would not mind but imo the football we are playing is a lot worse than last season last year i always thought that we would always give someone a hiding this year i will settle for any result

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  6. I think it's important to consider the opponents played in the first 11 games before we jump to conclusions on league position etc - Chelsea, United, City, Arsenal, Everton among them, all in the top 5; arguably the toughest matches in the next 7 league fixtures are Tottenham and West Ham, but then there's Wigan, Swansea, Southampton, Villa, and Fulham, then followed by Stoke, QPR, and Sunderland in the Christmas season.

    The expectation to get some points in the next 10 league fixtures is much higher than in the first 11; granted in the past 6 matches there have been many draws, that includes away to Chelsea, away to a very good Everton side, and against a very tough Newcastle side. I agree there are worries in defence and a general lack of goals, but with a run of games against (arguably) lesser teams there is a genuine opportunity to gain some points and some momentum. Unbeaten in 6 against some tough opposition is a good foundation to work off of.

    That said, if LFC are still languishing in the bottom half of the table by Christmas, then the alarm bells should start ringing, as this is a perfect opportunity to climb up the table and challenge for fourth (even if we may not get it, I still think LFC have should be challenging for it).

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  7. I don't know, we have been known to turn up for big games and turn up with a half-arsed attitude against lesser teams, for the past several years. But who knows, its a new manager so that wishy-washy mentality might change.

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  8. Jason let me see if i can clear things up. There is not too many differences between this season and last season with KD. Liverpool had a thin squad last year and we still have a thin squad this year. A lot was asked from the players whom we had to do the impossible which was to take us to a top four finish and that is still being asked of our players today (they failed last year but jury is out for this year).

    The only major difference between the KD tenure and that of BR so far has been the emergence of the youth. BR has relied more on them than KD has done. Love KD but he killed his Liverpool tenure when he spent lavishly on average British players. I think for one that Liverpool has done a better job under BR in scouring the globe to find affordable talent. KD did not really do his homework when he went shopping for players. Rodgers has gotten rid of some of KD's purchases already. The misconception that a lot of people feel is that given more time KD would have turned the ship around. I for one do not think so. Kenny was not capable of admitting that he had made a mistake and to me that was his biggest detriment. BR has already apologized for the decisions made in the summer transfer market and has already on numerous occasions reassured fans that he would get reinforcements for the Liverpool attack come January. While it is too early to call BR a hero or his tenure in charge a success a lot depends obviously on whom he can bring in during the January transfer window.

    I don't know if Kenny was just too proud but i feel that he had a problem taking criticism and that is why I think he was ultimately lost his job. Brendan Rodgers has a better media presence and has no problem owning up to his mistakes. To me this is the major difference between the two. A second season under Daglish would not have been successful since the Scot was not capable of even owning up to the fact that he had gotten things wrong.

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  9. i strongly believe that if the scoring responsibilities is not spread out amongst more of our player we will not be able to finish in the top half of the table. I do not believe that we can realistically rely on Suarez's goals alone to take us to a top four finish. If by some rare stroke of luck Suarez were to achieve a 30 goal season then i can see that as distinct possibility. Bottom line others need to become involved in the goal scoring department pure and simple.

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  10. yeah rodgers has scored the market and bought 2 players hes had before let me ask you one question who would you rather sign for a player who has won nearly everything as a footballing ledgend and manager or someone who has been sacked by reading and brung someone elses team up kd is a football ledgend something rodgers is in his own mind he thinks he his the best manager in the world but imo hes average at best and the longer hes at the club the more we will fall behind cannot only blame rodgers also fsg for there big mistakes

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  11. Who has Rodgers signed
    Joe Allen: Poor spends most of the time back passing, cant tackle, cant create a very average player who is about as exciting to watch as paint drying
    Borini: Striker, hasnt scored doesnt look a threat at all not a person to create fear in an opponent
    Sahin: Looking like a guy who could not get a game in Spain. The EPL too fast and physical for him
    Yesil & Assaidi: two unknowns only used in cup games

    So who he brings in during January leaves a lot to be desired.Can you trust him to spend FSG money (which I think wont be as much as you think)
    The backbone of the side are still the players brought in by KD and RB including the youngsters who came to the club during RB's era.

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  12. i will take nothing away from KD's playing career. Liverpool will always be indebted to him for what he has done for it. Because you are a successful player does not automatically mean you will be a successful coach. Rooney is a great player but i think he would make a terrible coach of that everyone can agree on.

    The question you should be asking yourself is weather you want someone who has won everything in football as a player but has been out of the game for well over 20 years leading your team as a manager, or do you want someone who has remained heavily involved in the game therefore possessing a modern take on the game when it comes to methods and tactics to lead your team. I think it is irrelevant that Rodgers was sacked. If coaches that were judged simply because they got the sack then coaches like Nick Macarthy , Mark Hughes ,and even Roy Hodgson (who got sacked from Liverpool and is now England's national team coach) would never find coaching jobs again. Sacking a manager does not lower his professional value. It just means that he has had a chance to learn hopefully from his mistakes and will fine tune his strategy to do a better job next time.

    I loved KD as a player more than a coach. I know he had won a cup as Blackburn manager while he had Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton playing for him back in the 90's. The game of football has changed a lot then from what it was in the 90's. Things he may have gotten away with back then he would today. There is just to much money tied in with the game, and big clubs have gotten more competitive. If Daglish had returned to Blackburn Rovers and delivered an 8th place finish i doubt he would have been sacked. The Liverpool job is a boilermaker of a job, you have to produce or your gun. Same thing was true for Andy Carrol. Carroll could languish at West Ham and never score a goal now and nobody would care but he couldn't do that at Liverpool the fans would demand more of him.

    Sorry got carried away again. Hope i have cleared things up.

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  13. I respect your views but I want you to have a think about things.

    Last season we were 5th at Christmas but unfortunately everything went downhill from there, despite winning the league cup and making the FA cup final. This season we haven't even been in the top half.

    On our day last season we could beat anyone. We also played very well, very attacking..Sometimes Kenny would make some tactical errors but we still did alright IMO. This season we haven't defeated a big team. We only have 2 league wins.

    Kenny inherited a poorer squad than what BR inherited. Suso, Sterling, Morgan, Coady and Wisdom were already at the club so BR doesn't deserve credit for their emergence. Kenny declared that only Fabio Aurelio would leave in the summer, and he would only strengthen the team. BR hasn't strengthened anything and let more players go than what came in. No one has been effectively replaced.

    Now we have an unproven manager, with more unproven players than ever, with unproven back room staff.

    We have had 3 different teams in the last 3 seasons and KD's team was the best of those three. Kenny was sacked and BR was brought in, and now we start all over again - A new team. What if BR doesn't deliver. If we finish 10th that would be a catastrophe. What if BR is sacked? Everything just starts over, and our standards continue to drop...everything is declining.

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  14. i personally dont want to see suarez having the responsibility of tracking back to help out the full back which is what would happen if he is played wide. He needs more freedom than that to influence offensively.

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  15. I am optimistic that top 6 finish is very much realistic if we can sign a decent goalscorer or two. Defence looks good to me and don't think we need to sign anyone, maybe only a leftback and that too is not a necessity. In midfield everything depends upon Lucas, if he can comeback and again be the beast that he was before his injury then we'll have no problems in midfield but if not then we need to sign another defensive defensive midfielder because Allen just doesn't have the physicality to play in this role and so easily gets outmuscled for the ball.
    My target list for January to make Liverpool top 4 contenders would be Huntelaar, Mertens, Sissoko.

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  16. If BR does not get any decent players in, in January, Suarez will be gone in the summer. Hope we can get 50 million for him, probably from Chelsea, Real Madrid or Barca.

    I'm sure most of us don't want that to happen!

    But, we are looking at an expensive situation here because January sales are always expensive. And we don't just need to buy one player; we need a few immediate buys:
    - a mature experienced DM to compete and cover for Lucas
    - a young talented CM/AM to take over SG's role
    - a mature experienced RW to compete and help develop R.Sterling
    - a young talented LB to challenge and help put Enrique back on track
    - 2 strikers - and at least one has to be a 'super' striker to cover/combine with Suarez.

    I think this is the bare minimum the club needs. If not, the players will probably be even more disappointed than the fans.

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  17. Hey my friend,

    May I ask what do you think about the 35 mil pounds AC, 20 mil pounds SD and 16 mil pounds JH bought by KD? Do you really think these are brilliant gems bought by KD and DC with some really obscene amount of money? Do you really think it's BR's fault to discard a striker that scored 4 league goals in the entire season and benched an attacking winger with no goals and assist in the entire season as well? We probably have no idea how much money is 100 mil pounds, I definitely don't have. I just know in football management terms, that amount of money wasted by KD and DC is enough for a third of a new stadium.

    For now, I did not think BR did all the right things for LFC but at least he's doing damage control for the club. He's working within his financial limits and he's daring enough to throw youngsters into games. How does one replace mediocre players in the club when he has financial constraints? By bugging the owners for more money? No I'm sure not, he has to be daring to throw youngsters into games and continue to search for cheap and good youngsters abroad. Isn't that what BR is doing right now by playing AW, RS, Sahin, Suso and JS in games? I don't think they even cost LFC half of what KD paid for SD. I really think BR is doing somehow alright given the financial constraints LFC are having this season.

    Right here, why are we comparing results between KD and BR when the 2 were not given the same financial condition? With the original squad inherited by KD + 100 plus mil pounds wasted by him, do you mean he should not be doing better than BR at this point of time? Imho, BR is unproven but KD had already proven himself to be a genius player but a super lousy manager. Desperately need to make comparison? Please do so only at the end of the season. For now, please, God sake, get behind the manager and team, all self-proclaimed fans of LFC!

    YNWA

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  18. Player sales provided more than half of the money Kenny had. BR can do the same - He can sell players. So stop mentioning money. Allen + Borini were about 30 million. That's a lot of money as well.

    KD transfers:

    £115,300,000 spent at an average of £12,800,000 per player. Player sales got him approximately £74,500,000 in transfer fees. This equates to a net spend of approximately £40,800,000.

    BR is already up to 30m net spend!

    I will compare things at the end of the season. I support the team and the manager. But what I'm trying to say is that IMO we aren't getting anywhere, only going backwards.

    I'll go back to my main point as well. If any Liverpool manager finished 10th, he should get sacked. This season isn't for 'consolidating'. Minimum expectation should be Europa league qualification.

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  19. The task of tracking back or not doing so is individual and depends on the opposition, the defender played behind him, and so on. Rodgers can easily task him with only attacking duties and leave a full back who works mostly on defensive.

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  20. well sais but you also forgot we lost suarez for a long spell as well wer would rodgers be now if he lost suarez for 8 matches

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  21. Im afraid that "only attacking" in this position would leave us vulnerable and open to exploitation by the opposition. Stirling/suso have been playing in this position and have to carry out defensive duties.

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  22. I am from SA and even for me looking on from the "outside" its easy to see why KD was more of a waste then BR. To be honest its quite simple. KD wasted £95mill on useless British players. He played a winger for nearly all season who couldnt score or assist for a goal. These two key fundamental flaws were for me good enough to sack him. People go on about what a legend he is and what a player he WAS, this to me is insignificant.

    KD is gone! Rafa Benitez is gone!.

    BR is here and his trying to shift the club in the right direction. To do that he had to move on 95mill worth of errors. Indeed some stayed. Any 1 who expected a top 4 finish this season, including BR is simply and am gonna be blunt here STUPID. Lets get real people and stop debating the obvious, like Ive said before...

    Best finish 9th
    Probable finish 12th.

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  23. Pete I take nothing away from Daglish's accomplishements for Liverpool as a player but as a manager he was a man well over his head. He was nothing more than a relic from a by gone era. Might sound harsh but I think it had to be said. First of all let me clear something up. FSG in their bid to make a good impression on the Liverpool faithful hired a club legend who hadn't been active in football in many many years. If Daglish took the hot seat for a Championship team or a team in League 1 that would be a different story but to be given the reigns of a competitive premier league team showed poor judgement on the owners part, and they quickly took the necessary steps to rectify matters when it became clear that Daglish had lost the plot and Liverpool now made the evening news for non-foot-balling matters. Rodgers was brought in to clean Daglish's mess plain and simple. I might have to remind some of you that Liverpool was fighting an image problem due to Daglish's failure to take control of the whole racism Surez racism debacle and that controversy didn't go over well with the owners on the other side of the pond. FSG handed Daglish a treasure trove for his transfer Kitty. Even Rodgers must have been envious of Daglish when he himself took over at Anfield. Kenny got to spend 108 million pounds on six players who turned out to be rather average.

    The argument that Kenny inherited a poorer squad than Rodgers is hog wash. Kenny was given far more funds to do something about the team he inherited it and he failed miserably. His biggest shortcoming for me was his inabilty to take responsibility for poor decisions, and the constantly rewarding under-performing players with starts. Since Rodgers has taken over Henderson has not started that many games , and Carragher has been nothing more than a sub.

    While results under Rogers has not been to good, he is guilty of not communicating his wishes for a Clint Dempsey to the owners way before the end of the transfer window. Had he done this he would have known the owners position well in advance and had time to pursue other viable targets. BR owned up to it already and is ready to move the club on.

    Rodgers is the far better choice no doubt on that.

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  24. rodgers will soon be gone no doubt about that unless my worst fears are realised and fsg are just here for the money

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  25. I don't think it will be 'nigh on impossible' to regain fans' trust if we don't spend big in January, but they will have exhausted their goodwill. This means that they can get us back on side, fickleness works both ways, but they will always be one fuck up away from ignominy.

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  26. admit it , you just hate BR period.you dont have any valuable points but you just wanna see him gone.shame, such divided loyalty amongst ourselves, this will only drag the team backwards(and im sure u'll be happy to see Liverpool finishing in the bottom half only to have BR gone)

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  27. can't you just shut up!!!!!!what personal issues do you have with BR?

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  28. dont hate him just hate the fact that hes at our club fair play to you if your happy with medocrasey but i am not

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