Triple A Rating

By AM Sunday, March 25, 2012

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Liverpool have won 5 out of 15 home games this season - Abysmal. They got beat 3-2 at home by QPR during the week and lost 2-1 at the same ground to Wigan on Sunday - Atrocious. Manager Kenny Dalglish blames fatigue – Awful. They sit 13 points behind Tottenham.

Many of us remember when a good Liverpool side were beating Spurs 7-0 and were capable of producing a goal of memorable quality from Terry McDermott after a well coordinated team move.  Little sign of coordination, fluency or flair in the side of today. There is more chance of herding cats than getting the current crop to function as a well heeled pack.

As a coach in the world of modern soccer King Kenny reigns no more, the Midas touch, if it was ever there, has gone AWOL. He has been deposed. He has no clothes but the adults cannot see it and praise him for his attire. The club owners think he is well suited and booted. Or maybe they just fear incurring the displeasure of the fans who are more tolerant of the current manager than they should be. But even they booed at the end of the defeat against Wigan.

In terms of efficiency, endeavour and success, Dalglish has delivered little. If he wants to claim responsibility for bringing the Carling Cup back to Merseyside, then he should also take it for the string of humiliating defeats and abject performances sustained by the worst Liverpool side in five decades. Exhume the late Bob Paisley, place him in the in the coaching technical area during games: would the results be any worse than Dalglish is securing today? 

Former club captain and a playing contemporary of Dalglish during his Liverpool sojourn, Alan Hansen, wrote after the Carling Cup victory that:

Liverpool’s penalty shoot-out victory against Cardiff will have given Kenny Dalglish’s team an incredible injection of confidence, belief and crucial momentum at what is approaching crunch time in the season.

On the basis of that performance he thought the club had to aim for a top four position. But the bottom four would more reflect the quality of their play. Hansen must now wince at that statement. He also wrote about the sense of doom and gloom at the club under Roy Hodgson.  If Dalglish has turned that around it is only in the order of things. There is now gloom and doom rather than doom and gloom.
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To have won the League Cup, unconvincingly, reached the semi final of the FA Cup, and to be playing Premier League Football, is fatiguing but it is an excuse rather than a reason, which does little to explain Liverpool’s dismal run. They have stopped and started repeatedly ever since Dalglish took over, apart from the rare exception stumbling their way through games. Rafa Benitez was a much more consistent performer and while his decisions particularly in the transfer market were at times dubious they were certainly no worse than those made by Dalglish. Andy Carroll has become Andy Capp and unless there is some transformation in his fortunes his current form strongly suggests he might not add to his miniscule number of international caps.

Dalglish has been critical of his detractors, arguing that in failing see progress at the club over the past twelve months they have demonstrated their suitability for an "intelligence check."

An easy put down that might serve as a balm for an injured ego but which ultimately does little to mask the serious dearth of strategic intelligence on display at the club.