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| craftsman |
As the hangovers on the red half of Merseyside cleared in
the aftermath of last week’s derby victory, it may well have been that they
were replaced by the sober realization that, despite winning a first trophy
since 2006 (and since securing passage to Wembley for an FA Cup semi-final),
this has not been a season in which Liverpool have covered themselves in glory.
The long and protracted Suárez / Evra imbroglio soured
already fractious relations with Manchester United and drew incredible
interpretative contortions and opportunistic exaggerations from either side of the chasm – very little of it borne of reason, the vast majority a simple reflex of
blind and intractable loyalties that already subtly and unconsciously pre-form
the ‘objective’ evidence (one can only wonder how the supporters’ accounts of
the ‘facts’ would alter in the admittedly unlikely event of the two
protagonists, or antagonists,
swapping clubs…).
Thus,
lay students of body language on Merseyside decided that The Handshake Affair was precipitated by Evra – I think it’s safe to say he didn’t offer his hand up gladly and that Suárez was idiotic to prolong the stand-off, perhaps out of some
misguided attempt to play to the gallery – just as they acquired the ethnolinguistic skills to decide that “negrito” wasn’t racist in rioplatense Spanish. (Incidentally, it
didn’t help that the whole issue was debated according to totally false premises: namely, that
the meaning of a word is entirely internal to it and stable, rather
than a variable property of the whole context of its enunciation, including the
tone of voice and, yes, the kinesics [i.e. body language]. Thus “negrito” can be used in an affectionate,
non-racist manner, but it’s reasonable to surmise that in this instance it
wasn’t, given the alleged repetition and the situation in which it was uttered.)
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| What if they swapped clubs? |
Anyway, whether or not it was pressure from Liverpool’s
corporate partners alone that brought The Handshake Affair to resolution before
its toxic fallout could spread further, it’s safe to say that the whole protracted episode
placed Dalglish in an invidious position (another interesting hypothesis: would
his support have been quite as unstinting and vehement had it been a player
less central to the team’s fortunes?). And, coincidentally, it was the feelings
of said corporate partners that were recently cited by Dalglish in order to
underline the progress – measured in pounds sterling, presumably – that have
been made at the club, where the kit deal with Warrior Sports and a thriving
academy are undoubtedly reasons to be cheerful. Even so, one had the impression
that the manager was being as elusive as he once had been as a player, all this
a diversion from the fact that the club’s most recent headaches have been principally
on-field – which, certainly more than are fundraising or PR, is undeniably his domain.
Now, one doesn’t need to go quite so far as the preposterous
#kennyout hashtag – perhaps the work of an agent provocateur – to assert that
the oft-heard and somewhat vague refrain of “we’re better than last year”
hasn’t rung entirely true. Indeed, had the league started on New Year’s Day,
then the derby win would have had Liverpool clambering to one rung above the
relegation spots, having gone into the game with only beleagured Wolves beneath
them (on goal difference). As it is, over the whole season they are only those
three points better off than this time last year and, while the squad does have
more depth, it is still woefully short of regular matchwinners.
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| goallessness |
The £71m outlay on Carroll, Henderson and Downing still
looks (at least) £25m too much. The big Geordie’s woes have been well
documented, and the other two have but a single Premier League goal between
them, but goallessness is invariably a function of the overall quality and
speed of ball circulation, particularly in midfield, as it is about the simple
making and taking of chances (not all of which are equal, of course, regardless
of Liverpool having had more shots per game than all bar three teams). For all
the woodwork-banging and inspired opposing keepers, only Stoke and Wigan have fewer goals from open play this season.
The midfield dysfunctions can be partly attributed to the
loss of the control brought by last year’s Fans’ Player of the Year, Lucas
Leiva, while Adam’s form as a deep-lying playmaker has been patchy, to say the
least, and if he is not playing incisive passes then his lack of mobility can
be a problem. Then there’s last week’s hat-trick hero. For all Gerrard’s final
third thrust, he lacks the sang-froid of a true playmaker and, actually, when
he plays in the centre often confuses those of more
sober temperament and lesser physical gifts around him. Better to have him purvey his unpredictable and slightly
frenetic brand of making-things-happen in more advanced positions.
All this may be true, yet much of the midfield muddle and
toothlessness can be traced back to the deadline day exit of Raul Meireles,
ostensibly over demands that his £30,000 weekly salary be doubled, as reported
to have been verbally agreed with Hicks and Gillett when he signed. From an
idealist’s perspective, Dalglish was surely right to jettison someone he felt
wasn’t sufficiently committed to the cause (although, if the evidence for such
a view is his attitude after his pay wasn’t reviewed, this is somewhat chicken-and-egg).
From a pragmatic perspective, however, letting go a player who was voted last
season’s PFA Fans’ Player of the Year (that is, by all fans in the country) looks to be a serious mistake. Whether Lucas and Gerrard are
available or not, the playing staff simply didn’t have another player with
Meireles’ qualities.
Following their New Year
revival, Liverpool finished last season in rampant form, using a 4-2-3-1
system beloved of Rafa in which the most advanced player, Suárez, had licence
to drop deep and the advanced midfield trident – Maxi, Kuyt and Meireles – were
free to interchange positions when in possession. Not only did Kuyt and Maxi suddenly
start scoring freely (23 goals between them over the season, 17 of which came after Hodgson’s exit), the whole
team played with a discernible flourish, a style that seemed to be the living,
breathing embodiment of that Boot Room pass-and-move tradition in which
Dalglish was steeped, and one that appeared to foreshadow how the team would
play this season.
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| Liverpool's pass-and-movers |
However, if that blueprint wasn’t
already seriously problematized by having a large, Carroll-shaped peg to fit
into these shifting holes, then it was effectively binned with the departure of
the midfield sophistication and guile of Meireles, a latter-day Terry McDermott
who, after a five-goals-in-six burst, thrived when Gerrard was sidelined with a
thigh strain and knitted the play together so intelligently. It was to the
surprise of few on the Kop that the Portuguese went promptly into compatriot
André Villas-Boas’ first-choice midfield at Chelsea, taking with him 50 international
caps and that Iberian gift for subtle positioning and rapid ball circulation
that means a partially unlocked defence is not allowed to recover due to
ponderous or careless touches, the sort of quick-witted link-play that makes
those around him more effective and that consequently enabled Suárez, in
particular, to take up more dangerous positions in which to receive the ball.
As Liverpool huff and puff away in
the league, further now from the leaders than they were twelve months ago, rarely
finding the solutions to win games at Anfield and yet evolving in a cross-based
stylistic direction that makes such an event increasingly unlikely, it would appear
that – for all their recent cup successes – the wrong one of their midfield
surplus was sacrificed in August. Even the most ardent Koppite would struggle
to imagine that, twelve months from today, Kenny’s trio of North-Eastern signings
will have improved enough to propel Liverpool
to challenging for Champions League qualification. And with the emergence of
Spurs and Man City, treading water is no longer
enough.
A version of this piece was published by The FCF.
