2011/2012 Post Mortem

Wow I can't believe I haven't blogged since November. My reasons have been varied. Work commitments over December the hectic schedule at the time and the whole Suarez affair. Of course the major reason being the abject season we have had.

I have just read my last post which covered the Swansea home game and it would pretty much just require a copy and paste for every game since then! Nothing really changed. 

That is probably why we ended in our worst League position since our 8th place in 93/94 and our lowest points total since the Evans/Houlier experiment of 98/99. Also the fewest home wins since 1956 and if we had not beaten Chelski's reserves after the Cup final the lowest home points since 1904! Lowest chance conversion rate of any clubs in 5 top European Leagues - 8.9% These are the shocking facts about our season.

Never mind the 30-odd posts we have hit and a couple of pens we didn't get. We managed to miss 5 pens anyway so getting one is no guarantee of a goal! The 85 million shots on target we had. These stats gloss over the problem. Our squad was/is not good enough. 38 League games do not lie. Creating chance is one thing but having the composure to take them is what separates the winners from the losers.

That's where our biggest problem has been  - decision making. From the top of the club to deciding whether to pass or shoot in the box. I said from the start that Kenny would be a stop gap. We were in free fall under Hodgson because basically the players didn't fancy his approach and most of senior players didn't try a leg. As result no-one tried and he had to go.

I find it quite ironic that 18 months later he is now the England manager and has picked 5-6 Liverpool players in his Euro squad.

So we leaned on King Kenny and for 6 months we moved from 13th after opening defeat away at Blackpool to more respectable 6th. Although that could have been better but we lost our last 2 games. The owners then had an opportunity over last summer to find a suitable manager to take us forward. Instead they stuck with Kenny and threw loads of money at Comolli and the King. This was slightly worrying when Comolli had engineered the Torres/Carroll mess. No problem getting rid of Torres but giving the Toon £35 mill for an injured lump???

So we spend money on Enrique,Adam,Doni,Downing and Henderson with Bellers coming back for a 2nd spell for free. This all looked like a good, if somewhat overpriced bunch of signings. Especially when you still had Joe Cole,Aquilani and Meireles on the books too.

This for me is when things started to go a bit wrong. clearly signing of Enrique was waiting for some wages to move off the books and Meieles was the one to go as he was promised more wages by Hodgson. Clearly that wasn't going to be honoured. Then we find that Joe Cole is to go as well but only on loan, another wage refugee.

Our pre-season tour of the Far East saw a worrying trend of conceding 3 goals in every game to bunch of minnow teams. It was marketing success but not playing one. Bizarrely at the end of it all Kenny stated in a press conference that Aquilani had been our best player on tour. So no surprise when he is being loaned to |Milan for a season then!

A reasonable bright start to the campaign with a draw at home to Sunderland (if only we knew that was going to be one of our better home results!) Win away at the Emirates against a decimated team and regulation 3-1 win against Bolton at home. Then the wheel stared to come off a loss to Stoke despite 24 shots at goal and the disaster at Spurs when we were reduced to 9 and lost 4-0. Yes we did go on a bit of a run of 8 games undefeated (4 wins 4 draws) but really papering over cracks. So late November and we now have a run of 6 games over the festive season against teams in the bottom half of the table.Result  - 2 wins , 3 draws and a defeat. So not enough points bagged.

This seemed to continue throughout Jan and Feb and into March culminated in 5 defeats on the spin including the surrendering of a 2-0 lead in the last 13 minutes at QPR. Just when we were poised to get back in the mix for a top 4 finish our players and coaching staff showed they are not up to it.

For me Kenny had to go, his tactics were poor especially when we and a 1 goal lead with 10 or so minutes left, the constant adding of another centrehalf smacked of desperation and for the most part didn't give us more control and tighter shape. His blind spot with Henderson was another reason. The guy is a headless chicken who wants to play centrally where he is competing with Lucas,Gerrard,Adam, Spearing and Shelvey.Seriously how is he ahead of these guys???? Sure a few games towards the end of the season he did look better but I still think all these others are ahead of him in the queue. I fear we have signed another Heskey/Babel who looks magnificent in training but never produces on a Saturday.

I know Dirk Kuyt is not everyone's cup of tea but clearly has positional sense works tirelessly in the correct way and was our top scorer in 10/11. But Kenny chose to let him rot on the bench. 

The new signings have not produced.

Enrique has been the most consistent but struggle toward the end of the season and that was probably down to fatigue as we have no real cover there. 6/10

Adam tried to do too much and his set pieces which were his trademark at Blackpool have been a non-event. Too often he barely cleared the 1st man. His passing in the last 3rd is also not up to scratch too often he makes the wrong decision. 5/10

Downing No goals, no assists and even hit the post from 23rd time against Chelski with a pen! For £20 mill that's not good enough. He has pace to burn and generally a decent cross but was used on the opposite wing far to often. Doesn't have the confidence to go past players on the outside and clearly cant shoot. at Villa most of his goals and assists were from free kicks. At Liverpool he is about 8th in line to take them!. 1/10

Bellamy Has been the most positive of our signings and I hope Brendan Rodgers offers him another year. He is quick direct and gives you goals and bit of the devil as well. 7/10

Henderson useless headless chicken fuckwit. 0/10

Carroll has got better but for me I don't see how he can start in team with Suarez,Downing,Bellamy,Gerrard etc. All these players are fleet of foot and thought.Carroll is neither. 4/10

 Again why did we sign him he doesn't fit our system or general style of play. Again Kenny and Commolli at work. We seemed to sign players because they were available rather than able to do a specific job in the starting 11.

The existing players in the squad so didn't perform either here is my assessments.

Reina  if his job was impersonating a statue then he had a 10/10 season. As a Premier league goalkeeper he has had a nightmare. Dropping balls that he shouldn't be not coming for crosses properly and generally being flat footed between the sticks. Seriously when last did he make save or win a 1 on 1????? Got beaten far to easily on his near post several times needs to work on his positioning and footwork. he cost 10-15 points on his own. 1/10  

Skrtel & Agger our best centrehalf pairing. They look calm and assured playing together. Agger get injured too much. 7/10 and 6/10 respectively.

Johnson always injured, rubbish at defending but he did score the winner at the Bridge! Needs to be Garteh Bale'd.Make him our right winger if we cant buy one. 6/10 

Kelly Best rightback at the club although probably morph into a centrback like Carragher. though he played well when called. probably needs to improve crossing but seems to know when to commit to attacking and when to defend. Looks vulnerable when faced with a pacy player who likes to cut inside. 6/10

Gerrard more injuries than God has sheep over the last 2 seasons or so at 31 clearly his lung busting days are over. MUST play the Alonso role from now on. Come from deeper, use the pace we have our wide and with Suarez though the middle. 5/10

Dirk and Maxi  cant rally mark either of these 2. Far too little of Kuyt seen and Maxi is Maxi he will have  spell where he scores loads but at his age will we keep him?

Spearing looks competent against the lesser teams but struggles against the big boys. 5/10

Suarez Racism aside a decent 1st full season but more goals required. 7/10

Its no wonder we did so badly with marks out of 10 like that. Not a single 8,9,10 in the squad and only a couple of 7's.

That needs to improve under Brendan Rodgers and I am sure it will. Kenny and Comolli ultimately paid the price for poor use of the owners money and lack of delivery on agreed target. Sure we won the Carling Cup but stumbling to a penalty shoot-out win over Championship Cardiff will not live long in the memory. Our damp squib performance in the FA Cup Final was even more disappointing. If the players cant get motivated for that sort of game, whats the point. Kenny again bungled the tactics and we only looked better once Carroll was on and we were lumping the ball at him.

I think Kenny tried his best but ultimately too many years out of the game at the sharp end showed him up.Yes we played some entertaining stuff in patches but lacked the guile and ruthlessness to put games to bed. The club have made bold decision with Rodgers and I will be blogging about that separately.

 YNWA