Liverpool currently sit 12th on the English Premier League table after recording a 3-1 loss to Crystal Palace last weekend.
They have lost their best player, Luis Suarez, to Barcelona and their second best scorer Daniel Sturridge to a long-term injury. They are currently facing a do or die final day match against FC Basel to determine if they will progress to the Round of 16 in the Champions League after failing to beat Ludogorets in what was supposed to be a walk in the park.
How did everything go so wrong of Liverpool? It was not meant to be like this, just a few short months ago they were on the cusp of becoming English Champions and were expected to mount another challenge at the top of table.
However, this has not materialised at all and Liverpool are in danger of running all their good work from last season and crashing back to where they were before Brendan Rodgers took over.
In today’s article I look deep into what I believe has caused Liverpool’s shocking decline this season. As it turns out, there are a number of decisions and issues from a few seasons back that are directly and indirectly responsible for Liverpool’s current form.
Releasing Daniel Agger (defence)
Selling Daniel Agger back to Denmark for nothing was a poor move. He is only 29 and still in his prime, a classy defender, a player so passionate about the club he has You’ll Never Walk Alone, Liverpool’s motto, tattooed on him.
A senior player, a vice captain and a trusted and respected dressing room leader. Selling him has made Liverpool lose a leader and a warrior for the team.
Now, more pressure falls under the shoulders of Steven Gerrard. This burdens and adds pressure to him and affects his game.
Dejan Lovren, his 20 million pound replacement from Southampton, is not impressing and it makes you wonder why Liverpool sold a good player only to waste more money for an inferior replacement.
Selling Luis Suarez when there was no need to (attack)
Selling Suarez to Barcelona, even though Barca has Messi and Neymar upfront, was a mistake. Suarez scored 31 league goals, was the most determined and passionate player in the team as well as the player of the year in the English Premier League and was by far Liverpool’s best.
Liverpool is safe financially and they did not need the cash that they received from Barca. His fee was undervalued because of the world cup, which makes it even more wrong to sell as they did not get the real value for Suarez.
The morale he brought to the club during that late season run was priceless. Players like Philippe Coutinho, Raheem Sterling, Steven Gerrard and Daniel Sturridge gained second winds thanks to him and stepped up their games and performances to unprecedented modern day levels of Rodgers LFC.
Now with Daniel Sturridge out indefinitely with a recurring injury, Liverpool have to rely on a constant stream of goals from the odd band of Rickie Lambert, Mario Balotelli and Fabio Borini.
These guys have no hope in hell of doing what the SAS did last year.
Getting rid of Pepe Reina and using Simon Mignolet instead (goalkeeper)
This decision was not about form, reputation or wages – this was clearly Brendan Rodgers using a personal vendetta to get Liverpool favourite and top class keeper Pepe Reina to leave the club.
He was a mainstay for most of the past 10 years and was the undisputed first choice for every Liverpool manger he had played under including Rafa Benitez, Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish.
Things only changed for Reina once Brendan Rodgers had arrived into Merseyside. He played in the first season of Rodgers’ reign, but once that had concluded Simon Mignolet was bought from Sunderland and Reina was told that he had no place in the team.
Reina had not declined in ability and was still in his early 30s, so this was a strange move by Rodgers when there were clearly more pressing issues to worry about such as the recruitment of a world-class midfielder, which Liverpool still do not have.
Reina was then reunited with Benitez, a man he called ‘The best Liverpool Manager I have worked with’ and spent a good season with at Napoli on loan and then leaving in a cut-price deal to sit on the bench at Bayern Munich behind Manuel Neuer.
Liverpool fans can only wonder what goes through Rodgers mind when they see Mignolet fumble easy shots, stray from his area at the wrong times and not reach out to grab crosses at critical moments.
Mignolet has not improved since he has arrived at Liverpool and Reina is still a better goalkeeper than him. This downgrade in goalkeeping has been another issue in Liverpool’s decline.
Last season Liverpool came second but they conceded around 50 goals that year. There are only 38 games in a season so that is over one goal a game. If they had conceded about 10 less, then they would be champions.
Think about that.
Signing lower-tier player instead of head hunting world class talent
Liverpool signed Rickie Lambert, Mario Balotelli Adam Lallana, Divock Origi, Lazar Markovic and Dejan Lovren in the summer transfer window.
The total expense paid to recruit these players was over 100 million pounds. Now here’s the thing – none of these players are world class, elite or special.
Heck most of them were unknown players two years ago bar Balotelli. Liverpool is a football club that should be completing and aiming for first place in all competitions every year simply on historical prestige and should not be settling for players that a club of say Aston Villa or West Ham would be happy with.
100 million pounds could have bought Liverpool two or three world class additions to the squad. Add in the promotion of a few youth players like Jordan Ibe and Brad Smith and they would be in the hunt for the Premiership this season.
Instead they did a Tottenham and went for quantity over quality and now are languishing mid-table with several defeats to their names already.
Diego Costa went for 35 million, Cesc Fabregas went for a similar amount. Medhi Benatia, a world-class centreback went to Bayern Munich for less than 20 million.
Even Toni Kroos was sold for less than 30 million. These are all the ilk of player Liverpool should have been aiming to recruit for this campaign, not a 33 year old journeyman who has one good year left in him called Lambert.
The fact that Liverpool aimed so low in the transfer window is why they haven’t been able to arrest their decline this season and it will only get worse until a major shake-up in policy occurs.
Whether that means getting rid of Brendan Rodgers or not remains to be seen. Steven Gerrard is only getting older these days and there is not much time before he will have to hang up the boots.
Let’s hope that Liverpool can get back on track as they are a team that should always be up in the mix fighting for titles.
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