It just keeps getting worse doesn’t it? What a horrific seven days it’s been for the Reds. It was no great surprise we lost to Chelsea, which in it's own way is as depressing as the loss itself. They’re so much better than us right now it was going to take plenty of good fortune for us to get anything from the game. We got a little bit with a deflected opening goal from the impressive Emre Can but after that the only luck we had was bad.
We let in two goals that on another day may not have stood and were also denied two clear penalties by hapless referee Anthony Taylor, whose performance bordered on disgraceful. If one decision summed up his afternoon it was when he booked Raheem for being smashed in the jaw by that snide Ramires. Staggering.
Additionally, I didn't think it was a corner for Chelsea's first and the ball looked like it had gone out of play for their second (both of those are on the linesmen who were equally shite now I come to mention it), while deciding to start booking Chelsea players late on when it wasn't going to influence the game was fooling nobody. We all knew what he was up to... "I booked six Chelsea players, what do you mean I was too lenient?" etc etc
As bad as the official’s display was though (just what is it about us and baldy refs?), I don’t want to dwell on that further as other aspects of the defeat concerned me far more. Most notably, that team selection. I defended what Brendan did against Madrid for a couple of reasons. The first is that (as I’ve written several times already) I don’t care about the Champions League this year. We’re not good enough to make any kind of run in it and I’d rather just concentrate on the league before we find ourselves too far adrift. I’m in a tiny minority there though and I understood why people wanted us to give it our best shot against Madrid, what I didn’t understand was why they felt that picking all of those “names” represented our “best shot”.
I took Brendan at his word when he said he picked that team largely based on the Newcastle game that had taken place before the trip to Spain, rather than the Chelsea game that would come after. The clear implication was: “they were shite at Newcastle so I brought in the other lads to see if they can do better”. He also said after the game: “All those that weren’t playing tonight, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will play against Chelsea”. So yeah, I stuck up for him because he wasn’t “waving the white flag”, he was making a statement that poor performances won’t be tolerated. At least so I thought.
Don’t I look like a tit now though? ALL of them came back in. Every last one of them ‘dropped’ for Madrid was back against Chelsea, irrespective of how their replacements had performed. What the fuck kind of message does that send out to Toure, Borini, Lallana, Manquillo…. I’ll tell you the message it sends out; it says that form isn’t important, the team isn’t picked on merit and that the manager will lie to deflect criticism being flung his way. That Madrid team WAS all about resting players for Chelsea, we know that now because the side he picked on Saturday proved it.
He’s probably managed to piss off most of the squad these past few days. Regardless of whether we feel their form warranted selection, I daresay Gerrard, Sterling, Coutinho and Henderson were pretty miffed at not getting the ‘reward’ of playing in the Bernabeu given they did so much to get us there in the first place, while it’s also a safe bet that those who performed well in Madrid only to be cast aside for Chelsea are also none too pleased with the boss. Then there’s the fans; he’s now alienated not only those who didn’t like his team in midweek but also those of us who stuck up for him!
I was disgusted when I saw the team; not just with Rodgers but also with myself for swallowing his bullshit. When will I ever learn that these fellas are all the same? You can’t believe a word that comes out of their mouths. Self preservation takes over with all of them at some point.
Just what exactly have Johnson, Balotelli and Lovren done to deserve to walk back in? It beggars belief. Even some of the others probably shouldn’t have come back in and had he picked Lucas and Allen over Gerrard and Henderson I couldn’t have argued too much even though I was fairly sure they’d be back in. Coutinho getting the nod over Lallana was a flip of the coin thing, I don’t think you can object too much to that one, and Sterling was always coming back in as Markovic just isn’t any good, but to make seven changes to a side that Rodgers claimed were “outstanding” in Madrid was ridiculous I thought.
It’s not like they vindicated his choices either. We started well enough but as soon as they equalised (from a set-piece, who’d have thunk it, eh?) we were never getting anything from the game. I’m just surprised it was only 2-1 and that it took them as long as it did to score. In the Madrid report I drew a comparison with the Mike Tyson / Tony Tucker fight. This one was the first Tyson / Frank Bruno match up. We scored early and that was our “He’s hurt him! Get in there Frank!” moment. Then we realised that we’re Frank Bruno now and that was that. Chelsea shook off the cobwebs, came back strong and eventually delivered the knockout. It was all so sadly predictable.
They didn’t even really extend themselves either, I always felt like Chelsea had another couple of gears they could have gone through if they needed to, but - Jose being Jose - they just did enough to win it and they always looked in control at the back (penalty appeals notwithstanding). Had they really gone for it I think they could have scored two or three more with relative ease. QPR gave them a tougher game at Stamford Bridge last week than we did at Anfield. That speaks volumes.
They’re fucking horrible, but you have to hand it to them, they’re as clinical as they are cynical and they’ll win this league by at least 15 points as they’re miles better than anyone else. Fabregas and Costa have transformed them and although we kept Fabregas quiet for the most part, Costa really put himself about. Only his own manager and club captain are preventing him from being the undisputed “biggest cunt in the Premier League”. He’s vile, there’s nothing he won’t do to try to gain an advantage. He makes Luis look like Gary fucking Lineker.
That said, he was a real handful and while Skrtel deserves credit for how well he handled him, Lovren can’t say the same. He’s just a bag of nerves now, but he’s not being helped by our tactics. Continually trying to play the ball out from the back when Chelsea were just sitting in wait for us is not on Mignolet or the two centre backs; it’s on the manager. They don’t look comfortable doing it but it’s drummed into them that this is what they have to do and I actually felt sorry for them at times, especially Mignolet. If I never see that hopeful chip out to Glen Johnson again it will still be too soon. In fact, if I never see Johnson again it will be too soon. Not that he was our worst player by any means, he even made a couple of vital blocks in the first half. Mind you, when he didn’t foul Hazard on halfway early in the second half that just summed him up for me, the dozy bastard. Reverse that situation and there’s no doubt whatsoever that Ivanovic is fouling our attacker. No doubt at all. It’s what winners do.
We’re not winners, we're just shite now, we don’t do anything well anymore but it all starts up front and the more I watch us the more I’m convinced that - as with last year - it’s mainly all about the strikers. Or in the present case, the lack of them. Swap the centre forwards over in this game and we'd probably have won. In fact I'm sure we would have. I don’t actually think the rest of the team are that much worse than they were last year, it’s just that their strengths have been rendered useless and their weaknesses are far more glaring now they don’t have that pace, movement and genius in the forward line. It’s no co-incidence the likes of Gerrard, Henderson, Allen, Sterling and Coutinho are looking nowhere near as effective (or confident) as they were last year.
When they get the ball they no longer have the two best strikers in the league buzzing around them making angles for passes, causing havoc with their runs and scoring goals for fun. Now they’ve got Balotelli.... It’s not his fault, it’s the fault of Rodgers and those other faceless twats who decided to buy him. Rodgers is the public face of it all who will get all the flak, but where are all these other frauds masquerading as scouts and statistical analysts? Hiding in the background, trying not to be held accountable for anything, the incompetent shithouses.
This isn’t a new thing either, I’ve been banging this drum for 12 months. What we did last year was in spite of our transfer dealings, not because of them. Last summer was a scandalous waste of resources, January was a complete joke and now it looks like they’ve topped it all with the mother of all cluster fucks this summer.
There’s just no way on earth Balotelli was Rodgers’ idea though, I can’t accept that at all. He may have been talked into it for whatever reason and therefore deserves criticism for his compliance in the transfer, but I’d love to know who put the case forward for that deal. We never will know of course, as that’s not how they operate. We still don’t know whose bright idea it was to sign Aspas, let alone Balotelli. Rodgers is wheeled out every week to face the music and try and explain Mario, but how can you explain that one? It’s unfathomable. He's an even worse fit for how we play than Andy Carroll was.
He doesn’t move much when we attack, he doesn't run in behind and on the rare occasions he does the soft twat gets caught offside! His link up with the midfield and widemen is almost non-existent, attacks aren’t even breaking down with him anymore as they aren’t even getting started because nobody wants to give him the ball. I don’t blame them either, there’s really no point giving it to him as he can’t do anything with it. Sterling is clearly fed up of putting balls into the box that Balotelli gets nowhere near, and Coutinho just looks like passing to him is a last resort and generally just tries to take the entire opposing team on by himself.
I was watching Balotelli closely and his movement in the box is so naive. It’s like he’s never been taught how to make space for himself or how to get in front of a defender. Next time we play just watch him when the ball is out wide or around the box. So many times I’ve seen it now where Sterling or someone puts a ball into the box and he’s just static, hiding behind two defenders. It takes a ball of stunning quality to find a striker in that situation. The one Marcelo put in for Benzema last week for example. Most of the time you aren’t getting a ball like that and you have to move to get in front of your marker. Watch Charlie Austin at QPR in that situation and compare it to Balotelli. Night and day.
It's all about instincts you see, and Mario doesn’t possess any at all. That’s why the ball never falls to him in the box and why none of his team-mates can ever get the ball to him (unless they produce a worldy cross like Borini did against Swansea). Again, that’s not his fault, it’s just who he is, so its madness to keep playing him as the lone frontman. We can all see it, so why can’t the manager? One of the things I liked most about Brendan is that he’d always been quick to address the obvious and didn’t persist with things the fans can all see are not working. This is not like him, he obviously can see it as he’s a smart fella but there are signs the pressure is affecting him now in some of his decisions.
Balotelli is in danger of becoming the biggest flop in club history, but the fault does not lie with him, it lies with those who decided he would be a suitable replacement for the best striker we’ve ever had and with the manager who is continually putting him in a role he’s not capable of performing in. The more I watch Mario the angrier I get. Not with him, with those that put him - and us - in this predicament. When the only other options are Lambert and Borini (yeah, I know Sturridge is injured but that wasn’t exactly difficult to predict was it?)... well it’s just fucking negligence of the highest order.
It’s ok for fans to put a positive spin on the signing and convince ourselves he’ll be a success (even though before we showed an interest in him I’d say 99% of us would have said steer well clear) because we’re not the ones who are paid a fortune to build a team and get results. The people who are paid to do that have failed miserably and it will most likely cost them their jobs. That includes Brendan. I still really like the fella and I want him to turn it around (even though I’m angry as hell with him at the moment), but the bottom line is managers live or die by their signings and the signings who’ve come in on his watch have ranged between “not bad” to “complete dogshit”.
Sturridge is the one unqualified success even if his body is made of papier mache. Coutinho would be another, but it’s worth remembering that had Blackpool chairman Owen Oyston not been such a massive gobshite we’d have signed Tom Ince and not the Brazilian. Yeah, that’s right, I said it, we got completely lucky with Coutinho and I’m loathe to give much credit to them for that. Nothing they have done since tells me they deserve the benefit of any doubt.
Shit signings did for Houllier, they did for Benitez and they did for the King (not to mention Comolli), so if Brendan thinks he’ll get away with it he’s sadly mistaken. I want him to turn this around but I don’t see how it can happen without new signings and frankly I wouldn’t trust him and/or “the committee” to go the shop and buy me a bar of chocolate and pack of crisps, never mind go and get us a decent striker or two. “I asked for a Fry’s Peppermint Cream and some Bacon Fries and you bring me a Chomp and a packet of Oinks??? The fuck is wrong with you morons? And I gave you a twenty, where's my bastard change…. you best not have blown it on scratch cards again..” Cue lots of finger pointing at one another and me being left wondering exactly which one of these friggin' bright sparks brought me a fucking chomp and gambled away the rest of my hard earned.
It’s a moot point anyway now I suppose, as there’s not going to be any more money to spend as the pot is probably empty. Even if it isn’t they’ve blown so much on shite that there’s no way on earth FSG are giving them anymore to squander. That’s obviously why Lovren is still in the side; Rodgers is terrified to drop him even though every one of us knew Kolo deserved to play against Chelsea. How would Rodgers explain that one to his bosses though? “Err yeah, that £20m centre back I told you would solve all our problems… turns out he’s not as good as the 34 year old freebie that we all thought was shit. Sakho you say? Yeah, funny story that… turns out old man Kolo is better than him too. Who knew?”
Most worrying of all is that I’m not convinced we can play any better than this, not without a massive overhaul in tactics and personnel. Chelsea are just miles better than us now and it was a tall order expecting us to get anything from the game. That doesn’t make it any easier to accept, we were above them last season and now we’re as far behind them as we’ve ever been.
I’m not calling for Brendan’s head, I’m still behind him and I desperately want him to succeed as I believe he’s got a lot to offer, but things are getting away from him and when that happens it’s very rare for someone to turn it around. Alan Pardew’s example at Newcastle provides some hope (and how depressing is it to clutch at THAT straw) but he’s very much the exception as usually once the snowball starts rolling downhill you can’t stop it.
Brendan lost a lot of the fans this week between one thing and another and I’m not going to argue with anyone who’s had enough. I’m not there myself, but I can see why others are as I’m not seeing any signs that he knows how to fix this. The crowd reaction to the substitutions will have shocked him and I thought it was excessive. I get why people were outraged that Coutinho was hooked, he was probably the only player on that pitch who (based on how he played) might have got in the Chelsea team on the day. In the first 20 minutes especially he was dazzling but he did fade and was doing next to nothing in the second half. I could see why he was subbed but I could also see why the fans hated it.
The decision to take off Can also drew loud boos which was unfair as the young German was clearly flagging. In fact, he has run out of steam after around an hour in every game he’s played. He did play well while he was on though and I quite like him. My beef was more to do with who came on rather than who went off. Joe Allen played well, he was bright and looked to go forward whenever he got on the ball but did we really need a player of his type when we were chasing it against a team like Chelsea? We needed goals, and Allen is not going to give us that.
Mind you, who is? There was not a single boo when Balotelli’s number went up, which is telling I suppose. Poor old Rickie though, fucking hell. That moment when he fell in front of the Kop when chasing a ball was painful to watch and summed up his Liverpool career so far. I feel for him, I really do, but I feel for us even more as we’ve gone from having Suarez and Sturridge tearing teams apart to having Balotelli, Borini and Lambert fail to muster one Premier League goal between them. Three months with no goals from our strikers (even Sturridge only managed one before he got injured). For all our other failings, that’s what is killing us more than anything.
And just what the fuck is going on with Adam Lallana? He was Brendan’s number one target, the man he spent all summer chasing and eventually paid £25m to get him. We keep hearing how great he’s doing in training and it’s not as though he’s played badly when selected, yet in the last two games when we’ve found ourselves a goal down and not creating anything, Lallana couldn’t even get on the pitch. I’m baffled and I expect Lallana is too. He left high flying Southampton for THIS?? Bet he’s kicking himself now, I know I would be.
We’ve lost five of eleven games and slipped into the bottom half now and unless there are big changes that’s probably where we’ll stay. Can anyone really see us winning at Palace in a fortnight? I don’t see us coping with their direct style at all, in fact all I can see from that game is more abject misery. Even if Sturridge is back he hasn’t played for so long he’s bound to be lacking in sharpness. It doesn’t get any easier for us after that either as Stoke have just won at Spurs and will be salivating at the idea of facing us at Anfield. I’m not entirely sure we’ll beat Leicester a week later either. Those three games SHOULD yield nine points for a club with the ambitions we had back in August, but it would be a minor miracle if we managed to come through those games unscathed in our current fragile state.
Brendan needs to find a way to add goals to the team and he needs to find a way to stop leaking them. So far he looks incapable of doing either. Gerrard’s position needs looking at too because the role he’s playing has been made totally redundant due to the lack of movement up front. He’s effectively a quarterback with no wide receivers to throw the ball to. It’s not even that he’s playing especially badly, he’s just very, very average and in our current state there’s an argument to be made that he’s a luxury we can ill afford until there’s more passing options ahead of him. That’s just one of a number of issues that Rodgers needs to address in this break.
Usually I hate these breaks, but this time it’s come as a big relief because it gives Rodgers time to regroup and give his head a wobble, and it means I don’t have to worry about next weekend being ruined by the Reds. It's sad that I feel like that but I bet I'm not the only one, am I?
Team: Mignolet; Johnson, Skrtel, Lovren, Moreno; Gerrard, Henderson, Can (Allen); Coutinho (Borini), Balotelli (Lambert), Sterling:
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