A lot has been going through my mind, some good some bad and right now I’m not so sure I know where to begin. So this might come across as an unreasonable rant, but I feel I need to let some of my anger out.
What on earth has Kenny Dalglish gone and done with £100m pounds? Firstly, he starts off by spending £35m (transfer record) on a player who is meant to be good in the air, since when do you spend that amount of money on a player who can’t offer you anything else? And then when the player arrives you all of a sudden realise that he isn’t even good in the air at all. His movement is crap, he stands on the bloody football pitch, he’s lethargic, no pace, not a hope in hell of getting past a defender, and let’s not even start on his ball control. The guy lays-off a ball to a winger in the middle of the park, then stands there. He then stands there, WTF??? What the hell is Bellamy supposed to do when he gets to the by-line?
To top it all off, we went and overpaid on other players who were supposedly meant to get this guy firing. £20m on a “moneyball” signing (most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard) who is supposed to provide the quality ball for our one dimensional record signing to feed off. And more money on another chap whose set-piece alone was apparently worth £10m at some point. Not to mention £20m on some youngster who is supposed to be the next best thing. The most depressing bit is that we got rid of some perfectly good players to accommodate this lot.
What peeves me the most is when I go onto the LFC forums and I see someone saying they think Andy Carroll played well. He won a few headers in the air (around the centre circle, might I add) and laid off a few balls. Really??? Is that what it takes to be considered a striker good enough for Liverpool Football Club, is that what we should be expecting from a £35m investment? For some reason our management seem to think it’s fine to splash unheralded amounts of money on what I and many others would consider to be at best average players, players whom no other top club would touch.
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Great read and i have to agree.
i must admit that i scratched my head at the signings but thought oh well Kenny must know what he is doing,keep the faith i have kept telling myself for the last few months ,BUT……. im still waiting? and a year on and Carroll has done NOTHING!!!
the last few months i have watched Charlie Adam become more and more poor with his crosses and i am at the point now were i think that we have been mugged by Blackpool and by dalglish. the question i would like the answer to is this………. Who wanted these players Comolli or Kenny?
it may be a saving grace if we find out that comolli is the one to blame, but it would break my heart to find out it was all Kenny,as then i would have to say that he is not cut-out for this anymore.
The truth is that the money was well wasted. A lot of persons are saying that Carroll will come good someday but I bet my prick b’cos am sure he’ll never do that in LFC shirt. He luckily got few goals for Newcastle & did nothing spectacular. You’ve said it all. Kenny has done the worst transfer of all time for LIVERPOOL & thats not acceptable.
The problem is attracting the high quality players needed to move foward.You forget why would the best players want to pkay for a team nit in europe,and in fact may not be next year.Maybe we have to with this on two stages,get into europe first then try and attract the higher quality players
Lets not use this Bulls##t excuse that no players wanted to come over. We never sought to get top quality European players but we have gone on a path of buying British crap. There are standout players all over Europe that would have jumped at the chance to join us but we only looked in our backyard. Yes the best of British players probably didnt want to come to LFC but im sure many a player would have jumped at the chance to join us from around Europe or the rest of the world for that matter. And to ROWBOT …what makes you say that Henderson will come good? What has he done? Only knows to play safe and pass the ball sideways and backwards.
Ill tell you something Im from Australia and from what ive seen of Henderson we have youngsters here that shit all over him…and who cares if hes the under 21 captain of England …he shouldnt be cause there is a bunch of other players that are way ahead of him that play in that team. Im sick of the junk we have bought and now to hear we are going after Bent??? wtf??? is kenny and commoli thinking of havnt they learnt yet?
Oh, why did Enrique and Suarez joined us then? Are you saying they are not world class?
The fact is KD blew it big time and worse JH condones this sorry excuse for a manager. Worse still if reports are true, KD would want to continue with this path by bringing in Bent, another overated and overpriced British player.
The only way for and LFC to get out of this mess and to move forward is to SACK KD, NOW!
Just imagine if Rafa had` spent 100 mill on this bunch of clowns, would any one of you so forgiving?
exactly. championship trundlers brought to graze on anfield pastures, while collecting thousands of pounds per week.
i do believe that henderson will come good, eventually, but if our aim was to guarantee 4th place, we should have bought proven quality. Adam and downing may top stats lists BUT that counts for nothing if they have the mental make up of a mouse. Adam and downing are worthy of clubs like villa, while carroll was a panic buy after llorente/benzema/gomez bids were turned down.
kenny will loose his job over these signings.
Liverpool’s NET spending was £35 million. The £100 million being trotted is misleading. NET means the difference between what was spent for new players and the amount received for the sale of unwanted players.
You are missing the point. The question is why did KD have to PAY 100 mill on this bunch of British clowns? Are there no better pay to spend LFC’s 100 mill?
Your right to say net spend £35 million, but it doesnt hide the fact that he did spend £100 million on utter garbage. you cannot say “oh we really didnt spend that coz we sold torres, thats no excuse, dalglish keeps saying there not worried about the price tag, well that is suicide, coz do you think he will be given another 35m to spend on another striker/ i doubt it, we had an opportunity to do something and dalglish and comoli have blew it, whats bad is that were no better off than last year, we swapped a cm pair of aqualani/mireles for adam,hendersn, its doesnt bare thinking about. Its time to smell the bacon and realize getting dalglish back was a big mistake, ill hold my hand up as i thought like everyone he would be good. But hes let himself and club down
How was liverpool to know that Andy Carroll would disappoint when he excelled at Newcastle,uh?
That Donkey had just half a season in the Prem. Can’t we monitor him further before KD make his move? Is this rocket science?
As soon as we suffer a heavy defeat you lot grow the balls the criticise the signings? Before the new signings it was the “mediocre” first team players that Hodgson inherited. Though its those same mediocre players who have proved to be some of our best players in the last 12 months. Agger, Skrtel, Lucas, Rodriquez, Johnson, Kuyt, etc. Have some patience. Liverpool are a team in transition. One of the best defences in the league and although we having trouble clocking up the goals are still in contention for champions league. Quit you moaning!
I like your thoughts mate. Some patience wouldn’t go astray from our fans. A team in transition is the key thing to understand here, and retrospect is a wonderful thing… Youngsters in Oz that shit all over Hendo – comment above???!! – yeah right… And they are playing in the A-League I am guessing? Just shows what we are dealing with here. Oh, and I am from Oz too! Next you’ll be telling me the Roar are better than the Reds…
Steven the problem was with the manager not the players. Matter of fact then and matter of fact now. Interestingly Agger, Skrtel, Maxi, Kuyt all the`players that you mentioned was`signed by Rafa. Where are the`players signed by KD especially the British ones? Did you notice 100 mill and`a year later we are more `or less in the `same place as`of June the season before. Is that what 100 mill could only get you these days?
Here here….. well said!!!!! However, I do think Charlie Adam has been solid and shown glipses of class, although, he needs to sort out his set pieces and penalties (where at Blackpool, both his set pieces and penalties were flawless!!). He hasn’t been able to get the ball over the wall or get past the first defender on free kicks and his penalties have been awful!!! As for Downing…. no end product, shooting, finishing and crosses have been unforgivable. Carroll is a championship player that had a half season purple patch at Newcastle before Newcastle ass-raped us for £35 million. As for Henderson, he floats around the pitch like that annoying baloon that sometimes gets onto the pitch, and like the baloon, he makes no impact… he’s lightweight, not overly quick and has nothing about him that suggests he is going to be a £20 million pound player in the future (however we all said the seem about Lucas). Apart from Adam (as I think he will be top draw for us), Enrique has been out of this world and Bellamy has been excellent and Coates looks promising…. so Kenny, well done for those four, as for the rest and by far most expensive……. poor mate, very poor indeed!!!!! And before anyone says, in terms of signings, Suarez is up there with Torres, Alonso and Hyypia in recent times, and well done King Kenny again. And yes, we are playing a type of football that is very easy on the eye, and look tight at the back (pre Man City game). But as for the summer’s big money signings, oh dear, I hope Kenny re-deems himself in January and the summer.
I think a lot of people have forgotten our recent past. Rewind 12 months and tell me we are not going in the right direction.
We are not the team we were 4 years ago for sure and we are rebuilding on many fronts, not just personel. Maybe people underestimate the damage done to the club under the last ownership.
Did you really expect Kenny to come back in and perform some sort of miracle? Did you expect him to come back in and make no mistakes both in the transfer market and with tactics even though he has not managed a team in 20 years and also win the league?
He took a gamble with Carroll and in an attempt turn a negative into a positive on the last day of the transfer window. At that time it worked in that we all felt the feel good factor that bold move brought.
Hindsight is 20/20 of course but don’t tell me you weren’t lifted at that time.
Get real. We are all in this for the long term and Kenny will be judged in May, not now surely!
I for one could not see anyone else who could have come in and re-united the club, warts and all.
I agree with Mike here. I’m dissapointed by the comments here… A lot words, language, etc, etc…
Wow… So negative! I guess negativity is ingrained in us all! The same as opions… So I have mine…
Of course everyone would be prefer Liverpool to be in a better position than they are and probably should be seeing as we are one of the side in the league that has created the most opportunities without finishing them.
Regards the fee’s that were paid for some players (I’m guessing your talking about Downing and Carroll)? In a competative league where there is very little difference now between the ability of most clubs you have to expect to pay a premium when you are buying key players from your competitors. That’s why a lot of clubs go overseas as we all know.
Regards the ability of those players there is no question they have quality.
Carroll just needs self-belief. Let’s not forget he’s a young guy with a lot of pressure on him… When he get’s the service he is dangerous and a handful for anyone. Blogs, negative fans and the press don’t help. He’s got an opportunity now so let’s watch this space.
Regards Downing again he has quality unlike some of the other players he has pace and he is positive always looking to move forward. I don’t think he’s played badly at all and that goes for the majority of the team.
Well said mate.
Are you forgetting that Reina the ‘best keeper in the world’ who was bought by Rafa was the one that made the mistake that led to defeat.
I think Liverpool played well but yes admittedly they lacked cutting edge up front and Carroll does need to try harder but it wasn’t an easy game and the howler from Reina made it all the more difficult.
We controlled the majority of the game but were vulnerable to the counter due to the early mistake made by Reina, I don’t see anyone crucifying him and it’s not the first time he’s made blunders. Don’t get me wrong I think he’s a great keeper but lets not use other new players as scapegoats.
How many times had Reina saved us in this season alone? If Carroll were to do that i would lay off him.
They have been a waste and Adam and Carroll are most certainly not Liverpool players.
With regards to net spend. Whilst that stat might be “correct”, we only spent the other £65m as we could afford to. Have Everton or Newcastle (with their recent sales) spent to even break even? No! The board were happy to let the incoming £65m go straight out, so we have spent £100m. Don’t twist facts to defend what is a waste of money on everyone excluding Enrique, Bellamy and Suarez (and maybe Coates and Henderson).
We can’t blame Carroll as he never demanded a move or suggest he is worth £35m. We can only blame the people who sanctioned this crazy move. We were not threatened with relegation, we were not chasing a champ league spot OR a league winners trophy. It would have made far more sense to ask for Anelka back for 6 months (on loan) and do some proper research come the summer and spend that money on a far better prospect.
I totally agree. That all seems the smart move but logic isnt alive in modern society anymore. We didnt need Carroll and we still dont!
The people who santioned the move, meaning KD, DC and JH. Funny how JH talks about why he bought LFC due` to FFP to be in by 2014 and blows 35 mill on a chap with half season in top flight.
Good work to DC with your scouting ability
wit due respect 2 kkd, i tink he doesn’t know what he is being doing putting players who one cud regard as our second best forward so far this season on bench in d absence of luis. Jus bcos of d ridiculous price he bought them he select them ahead of better players who they re supposed 2 learn 4rm. Its so disappointing seeing craig ,the only player who cud add bite 2 d attack on d bench…kkd has made us loose a lot of points this season against d small clubs by not starting bellamy
KD is only concern about his ego. The well being of LFC is secondary. And stop calling him King, he least deserve it and its getting to his head.
Cabaye, tiote, bale, guttierez, Ba are just a few players who cost very little and yet are very good. what happened to our great scouting network, moneyball, comolli etc?
Rafa would have spent that money more wisely.
True but we are above them and out played them last week. They have stuggled recently.
We are consistent, have (or had after last night!) one of the best defensive records and have created most opportunities in the league. If I’m not wrong, correct me if I am!?
Don’t forget whilst we batter all our new signings… As amazing as Suarez is he hasn’t scored enough.
Will, we are consistent alright. Consistently dropping points. Can’t argue there.
Good examples Rowbot. How did those Newcastle players do against us last week?
Imagine if Rafa had that 100 mill? We would be fighting for the title now. Good work too DC.
I am a die hard Liverpool fan, love watching them play, hate it when they lose. But to those with your strong views here read this article… http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1009652-liverpool-fans-ridiculously-call-for-the-kings-head-as-they-dream-of-yesterday
I tend to agree with it. Like in life it’s easy to dwell on the past. Think positively, think forward!!!
6 goals and Liverpool would be in second place! The position their football has deserved!
terrible short sighted article!
Must admit Carrol and Downing Got me wondering who bought them.
I`ve watched Kenny as player from the day he arrived. I watched him for 5 years as a manager his style of football. I dont believe Kenny bought Carrol, not his style of player. No one will convince me Kenny bought him.
I’m disappointed,sad,frustrated,angry and hearth broken as to why kenny screw things up on transfer and long ball tactic and make liverpool a 1 man team again.
Long live the King! Kenny Dalglish is the saviour of LFC. If you are too blind or shortsighted to see it then you are a fool!
when you take away the money received since jan last year the net is around 40 million suarez is prob worth that much now. the spending is not as bad as people think.
It’s not Kenny Dalglish… It’s Damien Comolli; he’s the man behind the transfers so if you’re not satisfied then be angry at him. People who expected Liverpool to spend 100m+ on new players and acquire a 4th place finish by the end of the season are ignorant and naive. You have to understand that literally half of our starting lineup was replaced. Manchester City spent more than we did in their last two seasons and yet they still only finished 5th and 4th. Look at them now. Manchester City needed time and I don’t see why it’s not different for Liverpool.
We’re already 12 points higher than what we were last season so I’m not complaining. Liverpool are working on a long term project; one that take multiple years to accomplish. You’re right Andy Carroll isn’t a 35m signing but he’s only 22. He still has a lot of improve on his game. What we need is another striker this January, not that can fill in for Suarez but that will be able to compete with Suarez and Carroll.
Wow. What a load of shite.
Downing and Carroll haven’t delivered at all. Agreed. I’m not sure they ever will.
Henderson and Adam have done fine, the former since moving into the middle. We lost three nil through a goalkeeping error and being hit on the break/disputed penalty. The only goal of note was the corner, which admittedly should have been defended better. Overall though, we were at times comfortably the better side.
Performances are improving, I’d like to see a striker come in, let Kuyt go, but to bash Kenny at this point is ludicrous.
id swap cabaye or tiote for adam. nobody knows exactly who bought who, but i imagine they all decided together. buying premiership ready players is a good idea in theory, but if they are shite in the first place whats the point.
Compare carroll £35m with another of same value aguero £37m. Downing £20m vs Silva £23m. Then tell me we made good buys. The bad news about large english football population is the loyalty to mediocrity and blind support.
Sorry Downing is never going to be better, he’s 27. Henderson has a chance but doesn’t have the determination of gerrard and is too soft. Total fee £36m.
If we had kept mereiles and bought two pacy (pace as bale not downing) or trickery winger left and right from abroad, we would still be sixth now while they settle in but once settled they would give us an extra 15-25% improvement that is 6 more goals in draws and title challenge is sure. These dross KK bought will not give us that, so our level is confirmed barring a supernatural event is 6 or 7th.
We need a head coach with some tactical know-how, as I would rather have a boring 1nil victory than a beautiful 3nil loss.
Rafa Benitez back all the way for me. Don’t agree with me but respect mho please!
The justification was that the signings were for the future and to an extent that’s right but with a 100 million we so be more clinical.
He’s not asking for KK head! Who in there right mind would, the man is a legend but I agree with what he says! KK hasn’t spent 100million that well!! What he is trying to say (and this is way I like it) is that WE ARE LIVERPOOL FUCKING FC! Y the fuck can’t we attract the best in the world even without a champions league place at the minute! We have every fucking right to be cocky and go for the big names! Have people forgotten who the fuck we are and what we have done! get real people pull your head out of your ass and stop saying that 2nd/3rd rate players are good enough! THERE NOT! NOT FUCKING GOOD ENOUGH FOR LFC!!!!
LFC is REBUILDING, all you haters need to understand that. Rebuilding TAKES TIME. Players need time to GEL; Naoki put it perfectly with his comparison to City.
Guys please, we were never going to take the title this season; even FSG’s goal was a CL spot, and last I looked, we were still in contention for one. Yes, our offense has been sputtering, but we cannot heap all of the blame on Carroll and Downing. Andy has an immense amount of pressure on his 22 year old shoulders, and now with Suarez suspended, he has his chance to prove himself. To me his ability is not in question, however, remains to be seen if he has the mental toughness to succeed at Anfield. So let’s all reserve judgement until the end of the month. As for Downing, I agree that he tends to drift out of the match on occasion, but to me, he has provided some much needed pace on the wings. Pace that we have been direly missing for years (let’s not forget how one dimensional we were during the Benitez era). Also, it’s a little hard for Downing to whip in crosses when he’s frequently deployed on the right wing, a position from where he has hit the post more often then any player this season. He has quality, and will be a successful player while we rebuild.
Additionally, we as fans have to realize that the lack of CL football DOES MATTER to potential signings, especially non-English players who may not be as familiar with our glorious history. Do you honestly think that KK and Comolli did not go after Mata before signing Downing? Of course they did, Mata just opted to play for a team who finished ahead of us in the table last season and was involved in the CL. Anyone who thinks that a foreign player such as Mata would choose to play for us based on our history 18 league titles and 5 European Cups alone is totally DELUSIONAL. We cannot continue to live in the past, and must look to the future.
The amount of hating in this forum sickens me (which should be obvious based on the length of this rant). All you “fans” who are complaining after one match with City need to settle down, and think LONG TERM. We now have involved owners with deep pockets, who are not afraid in invest in the team. We have an amazing youth system, which has been attracting the best talent from England and abroad…Kelly, Flanno, Jonjo, and Co are just the tip of the iceberg. LFC IS A CLUB ON THE RISE, and those of you who would rather hate and cast a shroud of negativity do not deserve to be fans of my beloved club. I would not be surprised if the majority of you are bandwagoners who only began supporting the club after Istanbul.
To the true fans out there remember, You’ll Never Walk Alone.
That is the most sensible post i have read for a while!
4th or Kenny must be sacked. As mentioned, had Rafa spent that cash, we’d have world class players like javi martinez instead of championship trundlers like adam and downing.
Kenny waffles too much, he is not an intelligent manager. he’s had his best days and should always be remembered as a legend.
this is no knee jerk reaction, i never wanted to sign the players we singed, carroll included.
Why carroll alone should be blamed?
Against man city the winger who was supposed give delightful crosses to carroll pass just once to him… on other occassions he passed them directly to city defenders and all other passes wer to enrique in the first half and to johnson in the second,its been like that for most of the games. carroll sure did troubled Kompany. henderson is a work in progress who just lacks confidence. adam just isnt the right player for liverpool. Miereles and aquilani wer worldclass on the other hand. in short, downning and adam look to be disasters. henderson and carroll can be good players if they train harder. but we still need someone like torres to finish the opponents off.
My squad formation for lfc.
Reina
Johnson/kelly Carra/skrtel Agger Enrique/aurelio
lucas/Spearing
xherdan shaqiri/hazard* gerrard Aquilani*/henderson Adam johnson/nathan dyer
suarez
Carrol/Torres*/Stevan jovetic*
Rafa should somehow be present with kenny at lfc and be an automatic choice to be a manager again in next 2 yrs. YNWA
You are both the greatest jokes of the time called fans? How much did newcastle spend? How much did totenham spend? How one side were we under benitez when we scored goals for fun lost only twice? Yet he didn’t not have £100m fee?
After spending £100m, I expect more. That is common sense! This current team is sustained by the core of benitez flops as you all claim. Lucas out our midfield can’t control a game positively its just pass back and sideways because was the leader in the middle. Now we need gerrard there. What of sktel the terminator and agger. Johnson, maxi, pepe, even gerrard who would have gone to chelsea but for rafa benitez who turned him into a playmaker.
Compared downing, carroll and henderson to others that cost the same across the league and tell me they can win the league for liverpool in 2yrs. They all have poor tactical awareness and game intelligence and this is what wins the league. This is why England hasn’t won a major competition or done great for years.
KK is not a tactician. Tacticians win more trophies and don’t need to rely on their players solely to do so, hence rafa benitez and our squad of 2004.
Nuff said
@peter if lfc really were rebuilding why were good players sent out..(aquilani,miereles) and why was shitty downing bought when juan mata was available?
but yes as for carroll…he was the only realistic buy on the deadline day…as el nino dint leave them any choice…he may have been a panic buy, yes…and he had just been injured but before that he had scored 11 goals including an hattrick for newcastle and he was 21… so no one really can be blamed. kenny prefered english talent its obivious, but whats wrong in it? don’t most germans play in germany itself?
its pains me to see that he didnt buy adam johnson as a winger. he’s young,fast,accurate.
carroll can be good only if the team plays for him which isnt really happening. so either lfc or carroll have to change their style…or carroll must adapt the michael owen way to be accurate when he gets a chance. but we need a 23-24 year old striker now who is not 6.4 feet in height but may be is 5.10 or 6, who is fast, who can pick up defense spliting passes from gerrard and can put it into the back of the net. and is a finished product unlike work in progresses or just a prospect.
I like others on here is frustrated by Carroll but we forget he has been extremely unlucky not to score 4-5 goals. I cant remember a player besides Suarez who was hit the post or bar so many times or keepers pull out miracle saves eg against Blackburn and Wigan. I think he isnt coping under the pressure but I still think he will come good. Yes 35 mil is a lot but we judge players far to quickly. Not so long ago we all wanted Lucas to go now hes one of LFC best players. have some patience people. And for those who say we could buy XXX at the end of the day if players dont want to come, you cant force them especially since we are not in Europe. Some of us need a reality check.