Of course Kenny ought not to be sacked, and I agree that the signings themselves can’t necessarily be held against him as aggressively as they have been by some people. But when you talk about the “good players playing badly,” a manager ought rightly to be judged by his ability to get the best out of his players. If his more critical public approach to motivation doesn’t ultimately work out, and results continue to deteriorate, then I don’t think it’s unreasonable to question his position. Benitez, whom you mention, has won La Liga titles and a Champions League since Dalglish last managed. And his impressive domestic campaigns were fought, in spite of financial restrictions, against very strong Mourinho-led Chelsea, and CR7/Tevez-inspired United. The standard now, especially in the fight for fourth, is considerably lower.

You also mention Hodgson’s debacle against Wolves. I would argue that that performance has to be taken in the context of defeats against Stoke, Blackpool and Blackburn (to name a few) to understand its true grimness. The 4-0 capitulation we suffered at the hands of Spurs this season though, which Dalglish oversaw, was probably one of the worst performances/results which I can recall in recent memory. The 3-1 vs Bolton wasn’t a picnic either.

I would also disagree with the adjectives “patient” and “intelligent” to describe this season’s play. It has certainly been more rousing than under Hodgson, and we’ve attacked more dangerously, but a distinct lack of patience and intelligence has been a key reason behind our failure to break down weaker opposition at home. There’s a certain Dalglish-inspired “up and at ‘em” approach which has, in my opinion, been quite ineffective.

So, all in all, I agree that this is a transitional season and Dalglish’s job shouldn’t yet be in question. Sadly, I don’t share your belief that he is in fact the man to take us forward – he may well turn out to be, but on the evidence of his first 12 months in charge, it’s difficult to be so optimistic.

lol in 3 years time you will once again be chanting kennys name, the guy was a genious on the pitch and a genious off it he still is, he learned alot from bob paisley, dalglish IS very much the man to take us forward, but it wont happen this year, or next, it will be a long term battle, next season will tell alot, because next season will be an improvement on this season, but of course if it isnt, even i myself will start asking the questions, but seeing all the shit this club has gone through recently, i am more than willing to give dalglish a good few years to actually build a team, if we win tonight we are at wembley for the first time since 1996, and if we dont, we still got to a semi final, progress is there, the league gets tougher every season, it will take a long time for lfc to get back up there, but under kenny i have every faith, like stevie g said this morning, talk of him being axed or the wrong man is LUDACRIS, kenny has played a big part in  the history of our club, the man deserves some fucking patience and respect.

Numerous points that i’d disagree with in your response. Firstly, talking of financial restrictions on Benitez, when at Liverpool he also spent a lot of money on players who never made the cut, and more importantly, players who were never going to. He spent  £230 million in his time at Liverpool, and left the club, albeit a Champions League trophy better off, in a pretty similar position to how it was when he took over. For example, the signings of Josemi, Dossena, Pennant, Crouch and Morientes were signings that we never going to cut it at the top of the Premier League, whereas £20 million flops such as Aquilani and Keane show that Dalglish is no worse.

Secondly, it is no a much harder job to attain a fourth place finish in the Premier League. Liverpool were very much part of the ‘big four’ under Benitez, yet he was still able to see them to fifth and seventh place finishes, with the Everton and a Spurs sides, neither a patch on Spurs Chelsea Arsenal or even Newcastle now, taking fourth ahead of us. 

The 4-0 debacle against Spurs was no barometer to draw conclusions of Dalglish. Liverpool played the majority of the game with 10 men, and the latter stages with 9. To compound the misery, Spurs were particularly brilliant, pretty in keep with how they’ve been playing all season. That game was one to forget about quickly as a right off, not to judge the Liverpool side or manager by. 

I also think that we’re playing better football, on the whole, than we were under Benitez or under Hodgson, the mentality is there, but we’ve been distinctly lacking someone who can finish off the numerous chances that we’re creating. 

So all in all, I understand your frustration with current results but can’t relate to your belief that Dalglish is not the right man. The changes were never going to happen over night, and I think that Dalglish has made some promising steps in the right direction, even if they’re not yet showing their full worth on the pitch.

I am also more than willing to give Dalglish a few years to actually build a team, I’m just saying that on the basis of the last 12 months, we have no reason to believe he’ll necessarily be successful. I apologise if I showed a lack of fucking patience or respect, but it is difficult to avoid the idea that Liverpool fans just blindly follow Dalglish when you give such an aggressive response to a pretty moderate and nuanced criticism of him.

£230 million? Is that Rafa’s net spend?

No, it’s not. If you want to talk about gross figures, Kenny/Comolli have spent £100m or thereabouts in the first year alone. And £62 million of that has been spent on Adam, Carroll and Downing for God’s sake.

You mention Keane and Aquilani and players who cost relatively little (all under about £7 million) like Crouch (who actually did well and turned a decebt profit), Pennant, Dossena, Morientes abd Josemi, but overlook the fact even with the club buying fifteen players since he was sacked (in other words, two thirds of a squad, many of whom were disastrous Purslow/Hodgson acquisitions who didn’t even last a year), five of the current best XI are Benítez signings, including four of the second best back five in the league, and including arguably the best keeper and defensive midfielhfer in the league. Bar Johnson, all of those five cost under £7 million.

You’d also do well to note that the massive profits made on world class players like Alonso, Mascherano and Torres mean that Benítez’s transfers as a whole paid for themselves. He gave us two of the best deep lying midfielders in the world, and arguably the best striker in the world at the time, not to mention deploying Gerrard and Carragher in new positions and making them vastly better players than they were.

And if you’re going to talk about signings like Pennant, you could at least point out that Pennant in particular is a good example of the constraints Benítez had to work within because of lack of funds or the stupid way the club was run under Rick Parry (and later Purslow). Rafa was trying to get Dabi Alved from Sevilla but the club couldn’t afford the extra couple of million more he would have cost than Pennant. Two years later he joined barcelona for about £20-25 million. Rafa also had deals more or less agreed for the likes of Pato, Walcott and Aaron Ramsey before they joined theie current clubs, only for the plug to be pulled from above (in the case of Ramsey’s case because Parry felt we had better players at the academy. Hdaaha yea alright, who were they? ‘Were’ being the operative word).

He also wanted to sign David Silva in 2009, but withdrew from negotiations when Valencia leaked word of it to the media. By the time we might have been prepared to go back Rafa had learnt that he in fact to break even on trsransfer spending, something he did for his last two years in charge as the debts caused by Gillett and Hicks started to strangle the club, something which is the real reason why he left as manager with the team in bo better a position than when he arrived.

Can I take this opportunity to apologise for the Cambridge/Oxford gag? I didn’t know that you can’t actually apply to both. You will be entirely unsurprised to learn that this was not an issue that came up in my life when I was 18. 

Also, thanks a lot Phil Dodds. All you had to do was call me ‘anti-LFC’, but no, you had to respond with a sensible, rational argument, didn’t you? I hope you’re proud of yourself. 

I appreciate this article and your opinion is absolutely as valid as mine, but I have to disagree. Dalglish’s failure during the transfer window and the lack of improvement at the club have in my humble opinion demonstrated that he is not the right man to lead us forward. He is a Liverpool legend, but he is not a good manager. Over and over again, we see him make tactically inexcusable decisions and the team is just playing worse and worse each game. His reaction to the Suarez incident shows how ridiculously out-of-place he is at this moment. And with players such as Ashley Young, Juan Mata and Phil Jones getting out of our reach and signing for our rivals, whereas we decided to pay twice the value for a bunch of rubbish players, shows me that he just doesn’t know what he is doing. I would almost have preferred to stick with Hodgson and give him the chance..

This article is typical of the anti-LFC bias in the media. Despicable pro-Man United propaganda….
Happy now?

excellent writing. i have to agree … LFC currently have good players that are playing badly.

lets take a second to look at the bigger picture here folks. were talking about taking a club on its knees from 6th to challenging in 1 season? not even shanks could’ve managed that. the barometer of the prem lge era is sadly whiskey nose. it took him 5 yrs and a huge turnover of players to win the lge, including finishes of 11th and 13th all while the only superpower of the day (us) was crumbling. Now thanks to sky and the fact they’ve won 19 we’re all looking for the instant fix, while the landscape has changed dramatically with the megabucks of city/chavs making it even harder to compete. rome wasn’t built in a day boys…..

We will see what you all have to say about Kenny at the end of the week. What i see happening is : Liverpool will lose both matches. And our so called British Beef i.e. Carroll, Doooowing etc. free of pressure will go on a late season free for all tear up and score loads of goals/assists, but we will miss out on 6th place. We win no trophies. But, fans will sing on the terraces that next year that we will be champions and all will be forgotten then and there. Next summer Kenny will buy more British beef and the cycle will repeat itself. I felt our signings were cowardly and now they are coming to roost is all. Since the Concorde , has UK produced a world beater.YNWA

i agree with some of ur points however,,,,,, spending 20mil on a player and 35mil for a guy who infact didnt want 2 come or leave his last club doesnt impress me………furthermore with all the money we have spent on inept players over the last few seasons we could of built the new stadium by now and not owed a single £ 2 a bank or had 2 get it sponsered…………..man city 4 the last 2 seasons have built up a squad of players with a vision of reaching the c-l in 2-3seasons which they have acheieved also a squad who will callenge 4 the title and good luck 2 them (personally better them than the scum over the rd).         what gets my back up more than anything is the fact that chelsea, the gunners and now man city with have won the prem esp in the 1st season of getting a new manager we have not depite the best efforts of benitez…………..put it simply liverpool fc have continued 2 pay over the top prices 4 average players, again with the money spent we could of bought 3-4 world class players and got a more winning mentallity then players who have spent most of their carerrs in relegation battles.

Couldn’t have written it better, Maleven!

Like a lot of fans, I struggle to summarise where we are as a team and a club at the moment.  But one thing that keeps coming back to me when I watch us play is; how different is it from the Roy Hodgson era.  OK, I’ll give you style of play, however, acquisitions, team selection, quality of play, managers comments after games (up to now at least) all look and sound the same to me.  I have listened to KD over the last few weeks and I wondered if he was watching the same game. 

I don’t think he should be sacked at all, however, excuses are being made for him and what he has done, something which wouldn’t be extended to many others including Roy Hodgson.  But this blind loyalty to Dalglish, Suarez and the club has distracted us from the reality of what is happening is just not good enough and players and manager alike are accountable for the decisions they make.  This needs to be remembered at all times so that new poor decisions are not made and that some stability is brought to the club, an by this I really mean on the field.  Consistant performances from consistant players and consistant team selection. 

I would like Carroll to work out, for his sake and for Dalglish, but to be honest I don’t think we have the time to nurse him along, we need impact immediately and we need to start choosing players that compliment our key players such as Suarez before they get frustrated and look to go elsewhere.

Forget the drama, let’s get back to the knitting……..

Good article, I enjoyed reading it.

C

I agree with you Phil, this blind following irritates me too.  Dalglish should and will be given more time, however, what I have seen so far does not fill me with hope.  I had misgivings about the view that Dalglish would be the answer to all of our woes, and I never believe decisions should be made on sentiment alone.  Perhaps Dalglish is finding his feet still and getting used to the modern game, its players and the intense media coverage etc, all reasonable factors when you have been out of the game for so long.

But I think it’s ok to say he has made mistakes and not been seen as negative but a realist…. and we move on.  Just as long as he does not make too many!

Nick, you say let’s look at the bigger picture but all you have done is blame other people and compare us to others that have failed for a time and then came good. 

My opinion is is that mistakes have been made, poor decisions on and off the field and as manager Dalglish, like any other manager, has to be accountable.  That’s a fair comment, looking for him to be sacked is irrational and will not help the club, however, all is not right, we have bought poorly or at worst we can’t seem to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.  Something that other managers have done, such as buying players and getting them to play better that at any other club.

Sadly this is a fact and I can’t ignore that and convince myself that this will come good.  I hope Andy Carroll comes good but as each game passess I lose hope.  And as I said previously, we have not go the time.  I will even go as far as saying that he is a constant reminder of a rash and ill judged decision and the sooner we distance ourselves from it the better.  What ever the cost.

I enjoyed the blind positivity of your piece but unfortunately I disagree with most of it.Adam,Carroll,Henderson and downing are average players playing averagely and always were…did anyone in the country besides Lfc staff think these 4 players were world class and worth 90 million(!!!!!) pounds sterling(around 140million euro).I like KD attitude in interviews and the nostalgic opinion he has of the club but maybe his eye for spotting talent is gone as exciting players who offer much more who could have been tempted to sign for half this fee.
Ultimately,this outrageous and frustrating(as everyone knew they werent up to standard)WASTE of funds will be KD downfall.
I

Great article, you’re spot on about the handling of the Suarez-Evra case (I’m still embarrassed by it).

He should not be sacked but also it should be noted that investing 35M in the last few hours of the transfer window in Carroll an unproven premier league striker, carrying an injury and having already signed Suarez was quite simply a huge mistake. Why we did not wait for Suarez to settle and for Kenny to be able to go out buy a world class player for 35M to play alongside him, a massive opportunity missed to take the team to the next level and add another game changing player. He had to be sure about Carroll to invest that sum of money and quite clearly he was not as he’s on the bench in the semi final tonight with Suarez banned.

I find the disrespect that has been aimed toward Kenny Dalglish since the debacle at Bolton totally unacceptable, I think most of the anger and in my opinion stupid articles being targeted toward Dalglish have come from the younger generation of fans, I am not going to call them supporters.
These young people live in an age, and have been raised in a time when everything comes free an easy, where they believe if you throw money at something then the problems will be solved, where you can be fickle toward your friends and family, if they can’t have fast service at a McDonald’s, if their reception is poor on their phones, if they don’t possess the latest bit of technology their lives are hardly worth living.
These people have an idea about what a friend is that is so false and far-fetched that no wonder they want The Kings head on a plate after a couple of indifferent results, if they don’t have a thousand friends on Facebook, or similar followers on Twitter then they feel unworthy in some way, maybe they are victims of their parents or society as a whole, but that is not an excuse for the way they act on some of these forums, and media sites toward our club.
The real truth must surely be that they have no real concept of the history of this club and the individual history of Dalglish, here is a man even if you forget what he did on a football field, or what he achieved as a Manager at Liverpool Football Club & also Blackburn Rovers, is deserving of the respect of this City and the people of Liverpool who may not even be football fans(if there are such people). What Dalglish did post Hillsborough is well documented and I think some of these young people who are quick to have badges of Dont Buy The Sun and JFT96 on their social network walls, should go back and read the history, do they really have an understanding, sadly I think they do not!!
Kenny Dalglish is just a man, this has been proved by the illness he suffered post Hillsborough and what that episode in his life did to him, the effect it had on him and his family, what he is not though is a normal Liverpool Manager, people have been quick to ask for his sacking and compare Dalglish to Rafa and Hodgson are totally out-of-order, sometimes the love you have for someone is not about just football, we all know the famous quote from Bill Shankly ’Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.’ but a less used quote also from Shanks is perhaps more prevalent today “If you can’t support us when we lose or draw, then don’t supporters when we win”
I think my point is sometimes just look slightly past disappointment and playing the blame game, and some of these fans need to ask themselves what kind of support are they giving our club and Manager, is it really helping? This is a long-term plan, a plan that will not always have Champions League Finals, F.A Cup Finals or constant visits to Wembley, but what it should have is the support of Liverpool Fans.
Follow me on twitter @christobinsings

you are all mad, you  dont have the right to speak about kenny like this, and you need to chill out. this is one season, i personally think if you look at the whole team and squad with everyone fit its cracking. everyone just needs to turn up now.
as for anyone saying kennys isnt the right man for the job, watch and you will see

You havent read a word have you? If KK cant do it no one can. oh and we just beat city so shove that up your pessimism as LFC has no need of quitters and moaners like you “mate”

PLEASE…benitez while a nice man cannot tie kennys shoes. Luckily our new owner agrees and all you muppets who want rafa back wont see it happen again…EVER haha…

why da fuck do people complain? liverpool is in a final now for first time in many years, and well he has done some quality signings and some singnings we dont know how will turn out yet. 

like andy Carroll but at that time andy look very promessing and we needed a striker simple as that

there you go mcintosh a well written piece that has been researched well done malvern. it says mcintoss is providing expert comment hahahahah

Now guys, we need to give KD his time at the helm. We gave Benitez a long time and he did fairly well given the funds he had and the constraints on him. Yes, some of his signings aren’t exactly living up to their names. And some are. 

Like the article says, the players are good, they’re just playing badly. Just look at this, Jose Enrique was Newcastle’s Player of the Year, Downing was Villa’s player of the year, Adam was Blackpool’s player of the year and on the PFA Shortlist. 

As for Carroll, we need to give him time. Now that Stevie G is back, he can do well and once Downing really gets going, Carroll could probably be having a field day in front of goal. 

However, one thing I do disagree is about Alberto Aquilani being a flop. Yes, he was a flop last season but now with Milan and earlier during pre-season, he was one of the best players. 

The football that’s being played suits the team we have on our best day. But the point is we need to make every day our best day. Just take the City game for example. 

We need to give him time. Yes, the scums have 19 titles and if City and Spurs slip up so badly, they may even get 20. But we mustn’t look at trying to play catch-up with them now. Once we have our full team, in proper shape, who can beat anyone, then we go for the kill. Until then, it’s transition period for us.

Top article. I’d like to throw in my views. For the record, i was very pro Benitez. He restored pride in our club and made Europe fear us again. Every manager makes good and bad signings and Rafa was under intense pressure. I actually agreed with his famous rant, felt it was about time someone stood up to the pro Mufc media bias and Ferguson. 

Back to the present day and our Saviour, our King.Kenny has done a terrific job of getting rid of players who didn’t work out, weren’t of the required quality or didn’t have the required attitude and desire. To replace Torres with Carroll, made Business sense at the time, reducing the wage of our Number 9. However as with all last minute deals, the price is not a reflection of talent, but more of the buying club paying more in desperation and the selling club not really wanting to sell. We needed a Number 9 and were left with around 48hrs to find one and get them signed. Thus being held to ransom.

You can also add the main 3 things that add value to a transfer in England. 

1) January transfers are typically overpriced due to Not wanting to lose player mid campaign
2) The Mythical UK players have always been over inflated transfer fees. All because they qualify as home grown, there price is inflated. As noted by Jen Chang, Zaha at Crystal palace is valued roughly the same as Xherdan Shaquiri, there is one year difference in age. But Shaquiri is one of the most coveted players in europe, and is experienced in european competion. Zaha hasn’t played top flight football yet.
3) The Selling to a rival club premium. Fact is all english clubs cause over inflated prices because they don’t like dealing with each other. They would rather sell to an overseas club or buy from them than they would another English club

Inevitably, that poses the question, why overspend on Home grown players? There are problems at liverpool that make us less attractive to overseas players than under the Benitez era. Mainly the lack of European football and the business decision made to address the wage bill issue. We couldn’t afford to do a Man City and throw wages at some of the best players around, so what we did was bring in players who had potential, but needed to prove a point and wouldn’t think they deserved European football without earning it. A collection of inconsistent (downing), unproven at a higher level (enrique, adam) and young (hendo and carroll) players who were brought in. As a result we have room in the wage bill now to attract top overseas players next year. We brought in players we could attract at the time, we aren’t playing Championship manager. Alot of the top players would not consider us last summer.

I think with the wholesale changes to the first team squad, we cant really say ‘he’s home grown, he should have settled by now’. Last night against city, Enrique is new, the CB first choice pairing no longer has Carra. In Midfield, only Gerrard and Kuyt remain from the benitez era. This is new team, a new squad. We need to remember how we as fans have been proven wrong with Lucas, we need to allow time for these lads and support them. When one player comes in, he may not take as long to settle, but remember how many players we had to move on to get were we are today? So many changes must surely need more time to adapt?

This is a re-building process. The only problem is Man city and Tottenham started theirs 3 or more years ago, the top four is now a top six. Six months into a season and 12 months on from the return of the king, is far too early to judge. The insecurities and negativity created within the fan base from the failed hicks and gillette reign, should remain consigned to history. We can only move forward, together as one. That is the Liverpool way, and something Kenny understands more than anyone.

YNWA

The comment was a reply to Liam McNeilly’s comment rather than the article

Articulate.

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