Liverpool’s embarrassing defeat to Bolton this weekend marked the side’s 2nd league loss in just 3 weeks and manager Kenny Dalglish made no effort to hide his anger in the post-match press conference.
The club’s latest miserable performance has raised further doubts as to whether Dalglish’s new breed of players possess the ability needed to resurrect Liverpool from the underside of English football.
Draws against the likes of Blackburn, Wigan and Stoke have already been recorded by the Merseyside club this season, but their persistent 60-year-old leader has remained positive throughout. However, it appears the club’s most recent defeat, which came at the hands of an unmerciful Bolton side, has left the ‘King’ with an unexpected change in heart.
Dalglish, in unaccustomed fashion, proceeded to publicly slam his own players in the wake of the fixture, claiming his side lacked inspiration throughout their pathetic performance.
“The result is disappointing, but the most disappointing thing for me was that I don’t think we were ready to play the game. I don’t think the approach was correct and I don’t think the way we went about our work was correct.”
He went on to brand the loss as a much-needed wake up call for his players and their flawed mentalities.
“If they needed a lesson to be taught to them then today was it. If they think they can just turn up and get a result, not be as competitive and not match the opposition for effort and commitment then they’ve got a lesson today.
“If they’ve learned it then fine. Without trying to take anything away from Owen and the way Bolton played, we have to look at ourselves and see what we can do to try and prevent it from happening in the future. That’s what we’ll do.”
The fuming Reds boss compared today’s generation of footballers with their predecessors, stating that fresh levels of disrespect among certain players are the reason for Liverpool’s continued demise. Kenny’s proposed solution is apparently to remove the problematic players, though many believe that in doing so, he would be allowing for increased amounts of chaos to arise at Anfield.
“There’s nobody been at this football club that’s not had respect for other people. If that is what the problem was then, that they thought this game wasn’t as important a game as the next one, then fine but they’ll not be here.”
“The foundations of the football club have always been built upon respect for other people and the philosophy that the next game is the most important one – not the one that is two or three down the line.”
Kenny’s side have already erased their chances of Champions League football this season courtesy of a succession of poor results, however, all is not lost as Liverpool could still manage to clinch the final Europa League spot if they can simply avoid dropping points against weaker sides in the coming months.
Yeah, there’s only 15 games left with a 5 point gap into the top four…that race is totally over…jeez
It is a break from tradition, but I think a much needed outburst from Dalglish. He is usually very defensive of his players – at times too much so for my liking – but Liverpool certainly need a boot up the backside.
Their top players this season have been Bellamy and Enrique (Gerrard has shone, but he’s only been back for half a dozen games, so we can’t really start commenting on his form), not the 80 million pounds worth of signings they brought in this summer.
With that kind of money, I think many (myself included) thought that Liverpool would be competing at the top of the table. Instead, they find themselves outside the European spots just after the half way point of the season. Champions League might be a jump too far for them, but I don’t see why they can’t get themselves back in the Europa League. They are competing for that position with Arsenal and Newcastle – and are only a point off Arsenal – both are teams that Liverpool can beat.
Dalglish and Liverpool fans will not be too pleased when they see the numbers though. Although they remain undefeated at home, they’ve only won four games at Anfield. That’s not something that you expect from any Liverpool side, regardless of form.
Downing has lost his confidence, it appears, and is not the same player he was in the first third of the season. Henderson is not a winger and plays well in the middle for England U21′s. He’s a good enough player to compete in the Premier League and I wouldn’t mind seeing him in the middle of the park alongside Gerrard. Charlie Adam has been a huge let down this season. Once the man Sir Alex Ferguson said was worth 15 million pounds “for his corners alone”, Adam’s set pieces have been among the poorest in the league.
This said… they’ve still got 16 games to pull it all together. Europe is within reach.