Now we all know that Kenny Dalglish is getting a lot of stick recently, particularly on these boards, and there's no doubt that for the amount of money he has spent and who he is and who Liverpool are the team should be doing a lot better. As a Chelsea fan, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy Liverpool's current form. However, here I am going to stick up for Dalglish by citing a very similar situation from history:
A man arrives to coach a club at which he was a club legend. He has a vision, one of the main factors being that of focussing on home-grown or at least native players, and a lot of the foreign favourites fall out of favour. However, the first season is a disaster and a poor league position threatens the job of the manager. However, persuading the owner that this is a work in progress and that the vision remains and by being a club legend the manager survives. The difference in the team is evident the next season, and the club gets better and better. The vision lives on after the manager goes and many years later it climaxes perfectly, the team widely hailed as the best ever.
The man? Johan Cruyff and his Barcelona
Anyone else see a potential direct parallel?
Sure, the home-grown players policy has not worked as of yet; however, I put this down to poor English players rather than poor choice of them. What I can see happening however is that with new player development rules in the English game and the new academy that has been/is being built and the already excellent Liverpool academy the Liverpool team will pull away in a way that Barcelona has in terms of home-grown players.
Stick with the manager, otherwise you will never know what might have been. Barcelona would be very different today if they had not.
Please don't rate badly just for disagreeing. Leave a comment please
Thanks for the constructive comments.
Kenny Dalglish = Yohan Cruyff?
posted on 23/4/12
OP I agree. We are in the process of building something here and that doesn't happen in 15 months.
When Kenny talked about the whole club a few months ago, about the commerical deals, the kits deal and the academy, every rival fan took the p ! ss. At no point did he say that kit deals were better than winning games. What he did say was that the club as a whole was moving in the right direction.
The academy is being headed by ex Barca men, who know what they are doing. We've brought in lots of young players and hopefully over the next few years we'll see some of them in the first team.
The academy teams are playing in a similar way to the first team in term of style of football which is important for them to progress into the first team squad.
What people tend to forget with Kenny, when they say that has been out of management for too long, or he is dated, is that his Liverpool team of the late 80s was way ahead of other teams in this league. When everyone else was playing 4-4-2 we were playing 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1. We played a great brand of football. And you can see the start of that again. Although our form has been poor this season, we're played some nice football. And this will get better as we become stronger team.
Think of this season as the first step in rebuilding the team. It is not the finished article.
I like the comparison to Barca. Guardiola has said that our youth systejm is one of the best he has seen outside of his own and Ajax. Hopefyully that is true.
What Cruyff did at Barca has come to fruition recently.
posted on 23/4/12
andre's samba scarf
U cannot be serious. Kenny is not introducing a new style of play that will take over the world like Cruyff. He is stuck in the 80s.
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And in the 80s he was way ahead of everyone else. As I said above, while everyone else was playing 4-4-4-2, with Kenny we were playing 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. He was ahead of the game because he is a intelligent footballing man.
posted on 23/4/12
FJM
If it wasn't Kenny Dalglish in charge the people who are pleading for patients would be calling for his head! All this, building a team takes longer than 15 months is rubbish, how long do we give Dalglish when results are nothing else but dire?
posted on 23/4/12
If it wasn't Kenny Dalglish in charge the people who are pleading for patients would be calling for his head! All this, building a team takes longer than 15 months is rubbish, how long do we give Dalglish when results are nothing else but dire?
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How long did we give Houllier? Rafa? Souness? Evans? We gave them all longer than 15 months. So what's changed? Why suddenly have we beomce a club that sacks amangers after 15 months.
posted on 23/4/12
Because we are in danger of becoming a bottom half team???????????
posted on 23/4/12
Because we are in danger of becoming a bottom half team???????????
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No we're not. Stop being so b loody melodramatic.
Under Hodgson we were about to become a bottom table club, because we were losing and playing awful football. Under Kenny it is different, we've played really well in some games and not got the result. Someone posted on here yesterday half a dozen games in which we'd played really well, but dropped points 12-18 poionts dropped. Had we got what I though our performance deserved in those games we'd be amongst the top 4.
I know you;ll say its not about the perfromances it about he results, and you're right. But what I see is a team that is playing better football than we have in the last decade, creating lots of chances but not finsihing. That means we're close to being a good team. I'd be muchm uch more worried if we were playing badly and losing.
We have to be more clinical. We have to take our chances when we get them and finish off games. Saying that we have also been a little unlucky - hit the woodwork 25 times. Its becomeing a bit of joke how many times we've hit the woodwork this season. I've also seen some keepers come to Anfield and have the best games of their season- Ruddy at Nowrich, Poom at Swansea, El Habsi at Wigan, even De Gea raised his game after having an average start to teh season.
It really is fine margins. I honestly believe we need to tweak the team by adding a bit more quality and we will be fine next season.
For me that is ok right now, because I can see progress from where we were 2 seasons ago.
posted on 23/4/12
FatJanMolby (U4297)
Writing sense again I see. Ridiculous.
You should knee jerk and ignore the success we've had and put us back to square one again you chump.
posted on 23/4/12
Poom at Swansea El Habasi
posted on 23/4/12
Oops, meant Vorm and Al Habsi.
Thats what happens when you have a good job, need to rush your posts.
posted on 23/4/12
Cruyff created The Barcelona Blueprint with Magnificant Players. Kenny errrrrrrrr