Results and actions since point to the notion that it actually could well have been a fork in the road and the club and manager have taken the direction signposted “mediocrity” and decided to sprint down it.
Steven Gerrard’s retirement has obviously been long anticipated and the tribute to him at his Anfield farewell was well stage managed. Like many a Liverpool performance lately the game itself no doubt got in the way of a good day out for many. The lack of desire,and lack of any strategy to deal with the most basic of opposition tactics (a couple of strong running forwards) was alarming but could, if you really wanted to think the best, be excused by the emotion and distraction of the captain’s final home game.
If you were in the mood to shrug that one off and focus on the disappointment for Gerrard and the realisation that we may never see his like again in a red shirt then that was understandable. If you were not absolutely livid at the performance at Stoke this past weekend then you should ask whoever is closest to you to check for a pulse.
I went to my first game in 1973 and in over 40 years of watching the reds I cannot remember feeling so despondent during the first 45 minutes of a game. There have been times under all managers since Kenny’s first spell in charge when the team have looked lethargic or simply not good enough. There have been plenty of times when anger was the only rational response to what we were witnessing. However, I don’t recall incompetence, player disinterest and managerial inaction ever combining in such a toxic brew.The players should clearly go off to their summer holidays with a burning sense of shame. I suspect that they won’t. There was no individual professional pride on display let alone any sense of fighting for their captain, manager or the shirt so its hard to imagine much self reflection happening at whatever exotic poolside they have journeyed too.
The other thought that was inescapable was that Brendan Rodgers has entered a phase in his Liverpool tenure that can only be described as "the death throes”. Rodger’s has a pugilist’s stare and I have always found his stoicism on the touchline comforting after Roy Hodgson’s physical manifestations of his inner indecision. Watching Rodger’s demeanor on Sunday, however, it seemed clear that his customary calm exterior was masking an inability to come up with a response to what he was seeing from his side. By the time the third goal went in it seemed obvious that waiting until half time to make changes was neither a prudent nor effective strategy yet still the horror show was allowed to proceed unabated by substitutions or a change in tactics.
The build up to the final game was dominated with the antics of Raheem Sterling and his agent but putting him on the bench and not bringing him on indicated the same kind of mixed thinking that taking Gerrard off against Chelsea demonstrated. Rodger’s explanation that it was so that Gerrard could enjoy an ovation from the supporters of that club was either a disingenuous attempt to deflect criticism for subbing Liverpool’s best hope of a winner or a sign that his thinking has passed through the looking glass. Gerrard rightly poured cold water on the idea in his post match interview.
Similarly naming Sterling on the bench on Sunday was indicative of a weakness of purpose. If Rodgers really wanted to send a message to the player then they should have dropped him from the squad altogether. It was as if Rodgers wanted to show that he wasn't afraid to pick Sterling despite the fact that he was likely to receive an unpleasant reception from the traveling fans, or because he felt he wasn't committed, but by not playing him he did exactly that. Aidy Ward must have chuckled at the half arsed gesture of defiance.The club needs to instill a winning and ruthless mentality throughout and quickly. Rodger’s has unfortunately not demonstrated much of that attitude lately.
Gary Neville, always someone I would turn to to get an unbiased view of Liverpool, received a fair amount of publicity for his concerned trolling of the club in his Telegraph column this week. To my mind he got it almost as wrong as he could, not surprising when his column seemed just an extended dig at both the club and city. His prognosis that Liverpool is in danger of becoming a “provincial” club comes at a time when the biggest steps away from that very prospect are being taken in years.
Steven Gerrard’s retirement from English football takes away the final scouse heartbeat from the first team if not the club. If Neville thinks the current team, a Northern Irish manager and American owners intent on maximizing worldwide commercial revenues is the recipe for kowtowing to what he calls the “emotion” of the supporters he has imbibed one too many beers in the bars of Manchester that he is apparently free to wander unaccosted.
The club is being run as a business and it is extending the stadium. Neville’s suggestion that the building of a stadium in Stanley Park was delayed because of nostalgia for the Kop ignores the fact that had anyone ever come up with the money the club would be playing in it by now. It is a bonus to my mind that such funding was never forthcoming. Short of leveling the whole of L4 Neville would also have been driving through pretty much the same streets to get to what he would have considered a symbol of Liverpool’s forward thinking that he feels are indicative that Anfield is currently in the “wrong location”. Moral of this particular story: once a Manc always a Manc.
What is really amiss at Anfield is the quality of the football thinking that goes on not the overall vision of the club though obviously they are linked. FSG need to show their cards now. When I think of them charitably, and I do it really just because the opposite thought that they are carpet baggers fattening up the club for a resale is so unpalatable, I think that they have determined to stop the club veering from crisis to crisis and that period of their plan has now been successfully navigated. Steeped as he is in the heartless world of American business I don’t think John Henry will give a second thought to ending Rodger’s time at the club if he feels it suits his best interests.
What is of concern is that they are clueless as to who to replace him with should they decide to do so. I had hoped that Rodgers was an astute coach that would lead Liverpool forward. Having seen the collapse of his team this year, and particularly the Stoke humiliation, whether it is altogether his fault or not, I don’t see how he can regain an air of authority that he has clearly lost. Hence I think now (and that thinking has changed post Palace and Stoke) it is only a matter of time before he is gone. News of both Klopp and Ancelotti planning sabbaticals and Rafa Benetiz (not that I think FSG would ever consider him) seemingly heading to Madrid will make any shortlist harder to compile and require a deeper understanding of the game than currently exists within FSG’s inner circle.
FSG need to find an authoritative football voice that they listen too, not Ian Ayre obviously, and put in place a managerial structure that works whether that is a Director of Football with a talented coach or a dominant manager and fund the playing side properly. That is going to involve paying some talented players hefty wages. They have cleared the decks to make such a move by reshaping the squad away from a high salary/low performance level model that they inherited. It is understandable why they might be shy of carrying out such a policy without some major changes in who is making those player picks given last summer’s intake but that is what is required to supplement their ongoing policy of taking punts on potential. Extending the contract of Kolo Toure is not, however, an encouraging statement of intent but more a flaccid recognition that the club is lacking in leadership figures.
Whether they see Rodgers as the man to initiate the next stage of this wishful thinking scenario or not they need to implement something along those lines if the club is to enjoy any success. If they choose not then that road they are sprinting down may well end in mediocrity but it is just as likely leading to a ‘for sale’ sign and all the uncertainty that comes with that. Out of those two choices I would roll the dice on new owners if that's what it takes to avoid the former but unfortunately a roll of the dice is what it would be.