Another fine mess...
I know you’ll have heard about other critical weeks for the Merseyside club this season but the next seven days really are ‘make or break’. Actually, even winning these three games – Portsmouth (h) tonight, then Lille (h) Thursday and finally, on Sunday, Manchester United (a) – wouldn’t make the season, losing them would certainly break it.
It’s difficult to know where to start. Bob Wilson, the former Arsenal keeper and a very good judge of these matters, told me last week he thought Pepe Reina was the best goalie in the Premier League. And, certainly, the Spaniard has been Liverpool’s best player in this shoddy period. However, he was as guilty as those zonal markers for that soft goal in France.
Largely, I exclude Javier Mascherano and Daniel Agger from criticism too and, as long as he’s only defending, Jamie Carragher. Unfortunately, Carragher’s distribution out of defence is pretty woeful, at best a ‘chip’ forwards hoping for the best. As for the star men, Fernando Torres is slowly, very slowly inching his way back to fitness and form. Steven Gerrard? Now there’s an enigma. So often heralded as Liverpool’s talisman, I struggle to remember Gerrard having a really good game this season.
Liverpool are, sadly, too easy a target at the moment giving the likes of Sam Allardyce, who’s never produced an attractive team in his life, an opportunity to spout garbage from the sidelines. Allardyce can only but dream of managing a club of Liverpool’s stature.
Nevertheless, undeniably, they are not a pretty sight at the moment. They give off negative vibes, in their football and in their body language. Mark Lawrenson told me he watched the Wigan game in the company of some Liverpool-supporting friends. When Lucas was substituted, one of them said: “Oh no. What are we going to do? Who’s going to pass the ball backwards now that he’s gone off?” Scousers have a wonderful addiction to self-deprecating humour.
Too many Liverpool players are passing the ball backwards and sideways and that’s down to the manager’s influence.
I don’t think they’re bad players; substantially this is the same bunch that nearly won the title last season. But, accepting that a lack of confidence plays a big role, they’re not, as a team, remotely expansive enough. Is it only a year since Real Madrid and Man United were brushed aside? Where has that approach gone?
Benitez continues to be linked with Real and with Juventus so he hasn’t become a bad coach overnight. Yet, if he remains committed to Anfield, then he has to start showing that he deserves the loyalty of the supporters as well as the club.
There are so many questions. Amongst them: if there were new owners and an influx of cash, would you trust Benitez to spend it (Aquilani)?
I’d say no. Should Benitez be sacked in May? Probably, yes. Could the current regime – Hicks, Gillett – attract a manager of substance to replace him? No, not without giving that person money to spend.
Yes, it’s a mess.
