Dalglish & Barcelona Can’t Both Be Wrong

“Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.” – Shankly

This simple philosophy is much of what spread recognition of Liverpool FC around the world as not only a successful club, but as a proper footballing side.  It’s successful, it’s easy on the eye, and it’s really what the game is meant to be.

It’s what Barcelona mean whey recite their own simple motto.  In a piece for BBC sport Iniesta and Xavi mention it this way:

“Receive, pass, offer, receive, pass, offer,” is how Iniesta recalls his education. Xavi, meanwhile, talks as if his talent is a side issue: “I am a child of the system, a pupil at the Barcelona school of football.”

Barcelona teaches these ideas from as early an age as they can get their players in the door.  It’s equally important now for us to notice the keen interest King Kenny always has and continues to take in our youth teams.  Tweets about u-16 wins at Everton and U-9 through U-14 weekend results mixed with the success of Kelly and the appearances of Shelvey excites me for young talent coming through the system.  Having him at the helm hopefully will allow us to rebuild what we have lost in the time since he has been gone, name a set philosophy and way of carrying ourselves.  Circumstances did not allow him to leave on his own terms last time with a clear successor to carry on the Liverpool Way in the dugout, much less the Academy. Managers from Souness to Benitez offered much less attractive offerings with far less success to show for it. (Istanbul aside of course, but we were hardly playing people off the park)  Maybe this time he will be given that chance.

We’re not the only ones pleased with this return to normalcy, John Henry too has spoken out in America to Fox Soccer Channel about the change in styles from Hodgson to Dalglish:

“The philosophy we were playing under didn’t seem to suit the club and we knew we had to make a change,” said Henry in an interview with Fox Sports Soccer.

“We knew we wanted to change the type of football we were playing, we wanted to move to a much more positive pass-and-move philosophy.

He goes on to discuss the issue of permanent appointment as has been done on many outlets lately, though one endorsement I was happy to see came from Carra today:

“That’s up to the club owners. But for everyone, especially me and Stevie [Gerrard], he’s a hero to us. The results are obviously going very well. If you’re asking me, obviously I’d love him to be the manager.”

Assuming the owners don’t go completely off the tracks we could be in store for good times to come.  NESV knows how to build a winning organization, Kenny knows how to build a winning football team.  If the owners can once again institutionalize the things that make LFC great, then hopefully we truly can see the back of the past few years and kick on towards #’s 19 & 6

YNWA

p.s. If you enjoy ourkop.com please join us on Facebook and Twitter by clicking on the buttons to your right.

We’ll keep you up to date as we approach each and every fixture throughout the season.

<3