The Kopite View

When The Heart Goes, The Manager Must Go

There is a crisis at Anfield right now, and even a win at Old Trafford yesterday would not have convinced me that things will improve with Brendan Rodgers in charge because Manchester United are not a great team and were there for the taking yesterday.

But the difference between United and Liverpool was they played with heart, they were sharper to every ball and Liverpool were well off the pace. The attitude stemmed from Rodgers setting a team out to play for a 0-0 draw as the team showed no intent to get forward for the whole of the first half and only managed to get forward when United sat back after taking the lead.

Liverpool had a few chances to score in the period after United took the lead because their defence is fragile and it was ridiculous for Rodgers to set the team up so defensively and not put their defence under pressure until going behind.

It is stark contrast from last season’s 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford when Rodgers changed his tactics and had a real go at United and although Liverpool lost there were many positives that came out of the defeat with the United goalkeeper being named man of the match for his performance that day.

But yesterday’s defeat and performance by Liverpool was shocking with the players showing no heart and the manager showed he is scared of losing his job with his defensive tactics.

The defeat against West Ham was probably a worse performance than yesterday but the reaction and lack of a response from the team in such a big game is inexcusable and if a team has lost heart then it’s time for the manager to go, and Rodgers must go before the season is over for Liverpool.

Rodgers Must Avoid Defeat At Old Trafford

Liverpool playing against Manchester United is one of the biggest fixtures on the Premier League calendar, but this fixture takes on a greater significance with both respective managers coming under scrutiny by their supporters after an underwhelming start to the season that has both worried about their chances for the rest of the season.

But a win on Saturday will provide the perfect tonic for the victors, but a defeat will only intensify the pressure on the losing manager.

From a Liverpool perspective, Brendan Rodgers has to prove that the disastrous defeat to West Ham a fortnight ago was only a one-off and he has the chance to redeem himself against the Reds’ greatest rivals.

Coutinho’s absence is a blow for Liverpool and it will be interesting to see if Rodgers’ sticks with Lovren after his nightmare against West Ham. I expect him to select him but the expensive defender must be running out of chances after so many poor performances since arriving at Anfield.

Sturridge has resumed full training again but the United game will come too soon for the England striker and Rodgers will probably play with just Benteke up front on his own.

Playing away from home might suit Liverpool, where you expect United as the home side to take the game to us, where we can play counter-attacking football that worked so well in the 0-0 draw at Arsenal.

It is still very early in the season but the result at Old Trafford could have a massive influence on the rest of our season and Rodgers’ future.

Don’t Put All The Blame On The Supporters

Liverpool’s famous Anfield atmosphere is being criticised in recent years for not producing the noise and vocal support that frightened the opposition. But times have changed in football over the years, like the famous wall of faces that frightened the visiting goalkeeper as he stood in front of the Kop trying to defend the goal against the many thousands that on many occasion sucked the ball into the net.

The die-hard working class Scouser can’t afford to go anymore and the global fan-base, has now made Anfield a tourist attraction with supporters taking photos of the famous arena and sitting in their seat waiting to be entertained.

I was one of those ‘tourists’ last weekend, that doesn’t get to many games, like many, due to a number of reasons, like finding it almost impossible to get match day tickets, never mind the affordability in paying for them.

Last Saturday was a great example of why the atmosphere is suffering at Anfield and it is not all down to the changes affecting the Liverpool support.

Last Saturday the supporters had very little to cheer about and although the team needs the supporters to back them and lift them when they are struggling, they need some encouragement from what they are seeing from the players, and in the last year or so, there has not been much for Liverpool supporters to cheer about Anfield.

Last Saturday there was nothing from the Liverpool team that inspired the supporters to get behind their team as the players showed no desire, understanding and a lethargic attitude that plagued the end of last season’s performances.

When Liverpool were in the title race a couple of season’s ago, the supporters were magnificent and proved that they can still provide the famous Anfield atmosphere, but they need the team to help, and they have been very poor at home in the last year, so people shouldn’t be laying all the blame on the supporters because they are not getting much to cheer about at Anfield these days.

Rodgers Doesn’t Rate Ilori As Much As Lovren

Liverpool let Tiago Ilori go to Aston Villa in a loan deal for this season. If he does well, Villa have the option to buy the 22-year-old. The deal has angered many Liverpool supporters, and the deal is hard to make sense of because if Ilori struggles then we’re stuck with an unwanted player next summer and if he does well, we will lose him to Villa.

Liverpool paid £7million for Ilori in the hope that he would be a player for the future but after being loaned to Bordeaux last season, expectations were high that he might push on for a first team berth in Liverpool’s defence.

But it looks like Brendan Rodgers has given up on Ilori and is hoping to eventually move him on to another Premier League club without giving him a chance at Anfield.

Supporters don’t see what goes on behind closed doors or on the training field but with Liverpool’s lack of quality central defenders it seems crazy to let Ilori go without giving him a chance, especially with the extra games in the Europa League Liverpool have to play this season.

Maybe Liverpool supporters don’t see what happens in training but they certainly see what happens where it matters, in games and many are wondering how Dejan Lovren has had so many chances in Liverpool’s defence when he has been hopeless more often than not, and Ilori has had no chance to prove his himself.

A couple of days after Lovren’s latest disaster against West Ham, Rodgers allows Ilori to leave without giving him a chance and supporters are angry at this decision by a manager that is supposedly renowned for giving youth a chance.

Liverpool only have Skrtel, Lovren, Sakho, Toure and Gomez as options to play in central defence and none are convincing as good enough defenders for the club, so it seems very strange why Ilori has departed.

We are left to trust Rodgers judgement on Ilori and believe that he is not as good as Lovren, but do we really believe him?

Liverpool’s Big Problem

Watching Liverpool play West Ham on Saturday raised a big concern more than the disastrous drubbing from a team that had never won at Anfield in the league for over 50 years.

Liverpool had no width other than their two full-backs, Clyne and Gomez who did their best to hug the touch line to give the central midfielders options wide. But far too often they were overlooked as the Reds tried to play their way through a packed West Ham midfield and defence that played a high defensive line resulting in no space for Liverpool’s midfield to play through because they knew that Liverpool didn’t have the pace in their lone-striker Benteke to get behind them.

Even when Gomez and Clyne received the ball out wide it was often passed too slowly for them to run on to and they would have to pass the ball back inside. Clyne got down the flank a few times but his final ball was disappointing and Gomez didn’t look comfortable going forward down the flank, after all he is used to playing in the centre of defence.

The biggest worry is that Liverpool don’t have many options in regards to playing wide players that can hurt the opposition, Liverpool need to stretch the opposition with good wide men when teams come to Anfield to defend.

Rodgers brought on Moreno and Ibe in the second half on Saturday but although Moreno is pacey and industrious he lacks quality and an end product and Ibe is still young and adjusting to the pace of the Premier League and has struggled since the start of the season.

The decision to allow Markovic to go out on loan seems ludicrous after spending so much money on him last season and he would have been another option to play out wide with his pace.

Rodgers has used Coutinho, Lallana, Henderson, Milner and more recently Firmino out wide but none have the pace to hurt teams and all of them would prefer to play centrally so Liverpool could have big problems breaking defensive teams down this season, especially at Anfield.