Why have Liverpool failed?

The defeat against Newcastle saw Liverpool complete their worst league run for 58 years, loosing 6 out of 7 games. From a club that has spent in excess of £100 million it is far from what is expected. But what has happened to make Liverpool fail so badly?

The Suarez row.

This was a distraction; it was a problem for the club as a whole and not just one individual. Suarez muddied the name of Liverpool football club when he was suspended for racial abusing Patrice Evra, and the distraction it caused the players and the coaching staff started the rot. From the t shirts at Wigan, to the disgusting gesture made towards Fulham fans from the man himself, it has taken the focus from the team and on to him. This situation could have been handled so much better and more professionally; but instead Kenny stood by him and defended him religiously. If not for the intervention of Fenway Sports Group one does wonder how long it would have lasted.

Injuries.

Injuries have played a big part this season, Agger, Lucas, Johnson, Gerrard have all missed large parts of the season. Agger and Skrtel were the best defensive partnership in the league and without him at the heart of the defence Skrtel looks lost and unsure of his surroundings.

Injuries to Glenn Johnson haven’t been felt so much due to the impeccable cover available in Martin Kelly. But now with them both injured at the same time, young Flanagan doesn't look up to the job. He was caught out of position a few times on Sunday and his rash slide tackle in the box allowed the ball to find its way to Cisse unmarked. At the start of his career Lucas was a player no Liverpool fan wanted to see on the pitch, he was clumsy and often his mistakes proved costly. However this season he has become one of the best holding midfielders in the league, without him sitting in front of the defence breaking up play there is a big hole and Spearing doesn't fill it.

Gerrard has been the biggest miss. His absence at the start of the season was felt and since he has come back you can clearly see he has not been 100%. Is it time for him to call his England career to an end and focus on his club football? Surely after this summer's competition it is a big consideration.

Poor signings.

The signings made by the current Liverpool management read like a who's who of flops. Carroll, Downing, Henderson, Adam have not lived up to expectations. Downing, Adam and Henderson have scored 5 goals between them; pre-season you would have expected 25-30 goals easily.

Carroll just doesn't look the same. At Newcastle he feasted on long diagonal balls; this is not the way that Liverpool play, they play with the ball on the floor and it doesn't suit him.

Jorden Henderson was supposed to be the player who ended Liverpool's right wing woes. Instead he has just added to them. He has been played ahead of Dirk Kuyt time after time and failed to deliver and doesn’t look like doing so anytime soon.

Cup distraction.

Liverpool had a long Carling Cup run that only ended at the top of the Wembley steps and they are in the semi-final of the FA Cup against their city rivals Everton. With the focus on silverware this year it has allowed players to focus all their energy on the cups and not on the league.


When all is said and done an uncertain future lies ahead for the Reds. John Henry has invested heavily in the squad and has backed the manager in every move he has made, but only has a Carling Cup to show for it. The Aston Villa game is now vitally important to the future of Liverpool Football Club and their manager Kenny Dalglish, could defeat see the end of the kings reign?

There is also the factor that other clubs have improved. Liverpool were once thought of as being one of the "big 4" but are they even in the big 6 now? Man City and Spurs are well ahead of them now and even Newcastle look a better team. They will find it hard to attract the quality of player to take them to the Champions League as they are not in it. Unless they go the Leeds way and that is very dangerous. Let's be honest their American owners don't really know how to run a European "soccer" club.

How is Kenny not in your list? He's been as mediocre as your signings!!

Sorry but the "cup distraction" argument does not hold any water. The Carling Cup is an irrelevance in which most of the top teams field weaker sides half the time anyway. A run in the FA Cup could be more problematic if the team in question is also focusing on Europe and domestic titles. That's why all these teams have very large squads and can rotate players as necessary.

For Dalglish to try to hide behind cup success is therefore insulting to any fan who believes in the importance of the Premiership. It wouldn't be so bad if they then finished fifth or sixth (as Chelsea well might) but they could even struggle to finish in the top half of the league.

The league doesn't lie. City, Utd, Arsenal (after a terrible start) and Tottenham are the top 4 for a reason. Chelsea (for all their success in the Champions League) have been very inconsistent and Newcastle have really taken advantage of Liverpool's poor form by putting together an impressive run of results. I'd even go as far as saying the top 6 this year have been streets including Liverpool regardless of their cup runs.

Dalglish has lost the spark, and the signings are dire.

I think a massive part of it is just they have under performed.
last season, respectively these players were very good players, but as this term is thrown about so much, are they infact liverpool players?
Suspect to throw that much money towards British 'talent'.
The pundits are fickle though, at the start of the season you have lawro and hansen saying how much strength in depth they have and now they've changed their tune, as was the case last year in chelsea's slump.

I think the main reason we have been so dire is because Kenny signed too many over rated British flops. We need to stop signing British muck and buy some decent foregin players in the summer that can actually pass the ball 6 yards without falling over themselves.

How about you buy quality British? It's the quality not the nationality that's the problem.

TopHat24/7 wrote:How about you buy quality British? It's the quality not the nationality that's the problem.

For the cost of Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson you could have bought Ashley Young and Phil Jones and had the money left over for Javier Hernandez (I know he's not English, but emphasises the point still).

TopHat24/7 wrote:For the cost of Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson you could have bought Ashley Young and Phil Jones and had the money left over for Javier Hernandez (I know he's not English, but emphasises the point still).

How do you know we could have? They wanted to go to united to challenge for the league and play in the champs league. Its not as simple as "oh we have the money so you have to come to Liverpool" once United were in for them we had no chance of signing them.

TopHat24/7 wrote:How about you buy quality British? It's the quality not the nationality that's the problem.

Well IMO there are no quality British players out there that we could have a realistic chance of signing there are very few decent Britrish players anyway IMO but the few that are out there are all at top clubs already and would be very hard if not impossible to sign.

ATM id have Jonjo over Stevie G Henderson and Adam

TopHat24/7 wrote:For the cost of Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson you could have bought Ashley Young and Phil Jones and had the money left over for Javier Hernandez (I know he's not English, but emphasises the point still).

I think you will find that Liverpool did try and buy both of these players. Sir Alex wasn't going to get Jones until next season but when Liverpool showed a strong interest he seen his ars* over it and went in for him. We also tried to get Young who also chose Man U

Right, so the issue is Liverpool can't attract top talent, not that British players are rubbish. And finishing somewhere between 9th and 12th this season won't change that anytime soon.

Poor signings and injuries like you said have been the main problems.

Adam-Looked good in a poor team, I never really thought he could hack at a big club in the first place. He can't conduct the tempo of a game, like a Scholes, Xavi, Shweinstiger, which is the main reason why he was brought in.

Downing-Looked a good prospect at 'Boro, playing on the left and using his pace and excellent crossing ability, earning him a move to Villa where his career stagnated, playing on the right and cutting inside just doesn't suit his game. Never worth the £20m Liverpool were willing to play, could have got much better players for that money.

Carroll-A decent season in the championship and a decent start to the premier league decision in no way justified that amount of money. I would love to know who turned round to the man with the money and answered the question of 'Are you sure about this, its allot of money' and answered 'Definitely, he's worth every penny'. He isn't going to score you 20 goals a season, he relies on diagonal balls he received at Newcastle, Liverpool don't and won't play that game. They need to off load him as quickly as possible.

Henderson-Again he never struck me as someone capable or showing signs of being someone who was going to be a prominent figure in the national side. Again, Liverpool saw it differently and again paid a massive sum of money for someone who doesn't really have the pace to play right wing, nor the crossing ability, but someone who isn't technically up to playing in the centre either.

Liverpool have made such big errors in the transfer market, and the question is have the owners got similar sums available in the summer. I doubt it, especially with their wishes to build a new stadium.

TopHat24/7 wrote:Right, so the issue is Liverpool can't attract top talent, not that British players are rubbish. And finishing somewhere between 9th and 12th this season won't change that anytime soon.

Well IMO most British players are rubbbish and the ones that are not rubbish are unsignable so yes your right we cant attract some top players because most of them want to play champs league football, which is why I think the Liverpool rebuilding will take time.

dublfcynwa wrote:

TopHat24/7 wrote:Right, so the issue is Liverpool can't attract top talent, not that British players are rubbish. And finishing somewhere between 9th and 12th this season won't change that anytime soon.

Well IMO most British players are rubbbish and the ones that are not rubbish are unsignable so yes your right we cant attract some top players because most of them want to play champs league football, which is why I think the Liverpool rebuilding will take time.

At this point in time, this is where you want a manager like Moyes (No WUM intended there) who is capable of picking up shrew signings, players who are on the cheap but can make a difference. Unfortunately, I don't believe Kenny is capable of doing that. I think a good signing for Liverpool would be Defoe, not playing at Spurs, who would happily sell him imo because it would allow more funds to go towards a potential permanent signing of Adebayor. Defoe is someone who is capable of, when giving a run in the side, scoring a bagful of goals, as proven the season before last.

martyr_94 wrote:

Downing-Looked a good prospect at 'Boro, playing on the left and using his pace and excellent crossing ability, earning him a move to Villa where his career stagnated, playing on the right and cutting inside just doesn't suit his game. Never worth the £20m Liverpool were willing to play, could have got much better players for that money.

As a Villa fan have to defend the man slightly, when we signed him he had broke his leg so when he came in to the side half way through the first season he was recovering from serious injury and playing catch up fitness wise and his form refelected that. Next season think I am right in saying he was out player of the season and was on the whole one of our more consistent performers. However your general point is right, as good as he looked I never really got the impression he was good enough to either play at a higher level or make a massive impact at that level, unlike Young who was always capable of making the leap.

Crap players throughout the side.

Simple