Initially this post was going to be about the European Cup Liverpool won ten years ago after a magical night in Istanbul, however yesterdays performance meant that a radical rethink and an earlier season review post.
Yesterday saw the end of the 2014/15 Barclays Premier League season for Liverpool FC, where the team took part in a match, if you can call it that, at the Britannia, where Liverpool suffered their record Premier League defeat losing 6-1. Definitely the most embarrassing defeat I have ever known as a Liverpool FC fan.
But what about the season overall? Well it all started to go downhill right at the death of last season where Liverpool lost their chance to win the league accumulating in a shoddy defensive display against Crystal Palace, letting a 3-0 lead slip to only draw the game now known as "Crystanbul". The defensive displays all through that season led to concern, however the one thing Liverpool had was the goals, experts at outscoring their opponents. Then Luis Suarez left. And in came what turned out to be pretty inadequate and/or overpriced replacements such as Lambert, Lovren, Markovic, Moreno, Lallana, Balotelli, Can, Manquillo. Liverpool also signed Origi, who for some reason went back to Lille on loan, Origi has just finished in Ligue 1's worst team of the season.
Now I'm not saying all these players need to go, now we have Lallana we should keep him, but we paid far too much, Can, Markovic and Moreno all have some brilliant potential, but have either been misused or underused. And these players were meant to take Liverpool to a next level with Liverpool knowing they could attract a certain calibre of player being back in the European Cup since 2009/10.
I'm trying to think of matches now that I can be positive about, matches that I can say Liverpool turned up. I can find one match and that was the away game against Spurs where Liverpool won 3-0. That was really the only time the Liverpool that myself and many other Liverpool fans had come accustom too.
Now negative games, losing 3-1 to City was argued as "oh it's the champions and it's away" yet a week later Stoke won there, then there was a 1-0 home defeat to Paul Lamberts Benteke-less Aston Villa, a 3-1 defeat to West Ham at Upton Park and at this point the only positive was how badly United had started. Then there was that Champions League campaign where Liverpool mustered a measly 5 points, 4 of them earn't against Ludogorets from Belarus and the final point in what was a piss poor performance against Basel in a game Liverpool had to win, yet other than Gerrard the team looked content to lose. Then there's the humiliating 3-0 defeat to Manchester United before Liverpool went on a welcome unbeaten streak, even if it included poor results against teams such as Swansea, Bolton, Blackburn and Burnley. But after another defeat against United and a hugely controversial interview from Raheem "I need a dollar" Sterling everything capitulated and the season died, losing 4-1 at the Emirates but then it got even worse as Liverpool's one chance of silverware remaining disappeared as the team lost 2-1 despite briefly having the lead against Aston Villa.
Obviously, since January 2nd the second we all were aware that Steven Gerrard had decided to end his career in the MLS, but in May all we found ourselves playing for was Steven Gerrard, to send him off in style. Something you would imagine would fire up the players. But did it? No, Liverpool conceded 9 goals, scoring 2 in their last two games of the season going down 3-1 to Crystal Palace, again despite having the lead briefly before the biggest defeat in over half a century against Stoke City leaving Gerrard humiliated as he left Liverpool. This was subsequently followed by the majority of the squad going on a holiday to Dubai whilst fans were left absolutely furious by the lack of passion, desire, character or whatever else you want to call it!
But who can you blame for such a disastrous season? Well you start with the manager. Any manager that signs a right back and refers to another less than a year before as "one of the best", regardless of anybody disagreeing, should start with one or the other rather than a midfielder like Emre Can who is utterly exposed there. His last team used him once or twice, as a left back, but only as a last resort, however it is quite obvious that despite his talent, he is as bad as it gets as a right back. Any manager that doesn't realise the talent that a team like Palace have on the wings and therefore plays no full backs is also a big factor to his blame. A manager that changes nothing as a match goes from 0-0 to 5-0 down is completely unacceptable (especially when it's completely obvious it's not working at 1-0 down, never mind 3,4 or 5 down!). A manager who spends £116m but gets 22 points less, regardless of "mitigating factors" is appalling. Especially when you have a whole summer to sort one of those factors out (Suarez) and the other one is well known about before (Sturridge - spent a lot of last season out - people just don't notice because a certain Suarez went on a mental scoring run). Therefore this makes both less of a mitigating factor. So honestly, I didn't say it until yesterday this season but Brendan Rodgers has to go. Klopp is my first choice on the basis Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid has said if sacked he will take a year out, Benitez is another option and even Big Sam would be an improvement putting some iron and brute into the performances, his defensive way of playing with West Ham, Bolton or Blackburn wouldn't be so much the case either, being that he is a brilliant manager and makes the most of whatever he has, still he's a way off top choice with the others mentioned being considerably preferable and much more "Liverpool".
Regarding players, I'll start with Sterling, if he wants over £100k a week, sell him, he's overrated, he can't shoot nor can he cross, Suarez made him look so much better, Sturridge helped too, without them, he is dreadful, so get as much as you can and run to the bank. Regarding new signings, Balotelli and Lamberts use depends really on who manages Liverpool next season, if they somehow don't change the manager, it's clear neither will suit the tactics, to the other new signings, they probably all need an extra year, some need a different manager who will use them though. Six months ago I'd have told you Mignolet needed to go, but he has massively improved since and warrants a season, however Jones is being released, rightly and Liverpool need a very good keeper to challenge Mignolet, like Chelsea, United and Arsenal have. I would also release Toure, no pace left, makes mistakes, but apparently he's getting a new deal. I'd consider keeping Johnson if Liverpool didn't have enough money for a new right back as this season proved that four at the back is better than three.
In conclusion though, ten years on from the greatest night of football in my lifetime, ten years on since the pinnacle of my Liverpool supporting life, rather than celebrating we as fans should be looking at how it's come to this shambolic state of affairs and asking how can this be fixed. Because right now another night as great as Istanbul looks centuries off.
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