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.
Uem
Roar Rookie
Great comment mate top notch analysis, i agree with your points and they explain what Liverpool have been missing this season, they should be top 4 certainties but they are shooting themselves in the foot, mark my words if they don't finish top 4 Rodgers is out.
Rob McHugh
Roar Guru
Liverpool had a release clause on Suarez's head of 75m. Barca took it to 75 m, and it was out of LFC's hands. While I'll agree with you that we've made some transfer blunders; namely exits, I'm not keen to judge our ins yet (though Balotelli makes it very difficult) I wouldn't say Lallana, Origi, Markovic, Moreno have "nothing about them". Markovic was rated a year ago as one of the best young prospects in the world - he's in a trough now (and lack of games is a worry) but talent like that doesn't go away overnight. I think Lallana proved last season he was good enough to excel in a top side and I still think he can, Origi is banging 'em in for Lille and he has the potential to be a world class striker, and if Moreno can learn to balance his defence then he also has the potential to be LFC's best attacking full back in... er.... Why I think we're sucking is because: 1. I feel like even though it's november we still haven't had our best team on the park - through both injuries AND shite team selection. Ironically the 1-0 game where BR got slaughtered in the press for "throwing it away" was closer to the side I'd like to see playing. Gerrard, though he does take a couple of months to get going, should be on borrowed time at the moment. Rodgers is seemingly playing him in a role which does not suit him - and compounding the matter is we have players better placed to play in it. 2. We're low on confidence. Defeats are breeding defeats at the moment, and with wholesale changes we've lost something of our team identity; a problem compounded by results. I.e. New players are struggling to understand and buy into our system because it just isn't working. Famliarity in defence isn't being forged amongst the team because the players don't have the faith in each other that you get from winning and clean sheets. 3. Tactical mistakes. We've lost speed and incision to our play. We spend far too much time passing the ball between our centrebacks instead of getting the ball up the pitch into the midfield. We haven't won in 5 games, 3 of which we have scored first in. What this says to me is that we still have enough in attack to put in goals. It also says to me that we're shaky at the back, and we're taking the pedal off. With a team so bad in defence, why, WHY do we so frequently sit back and allow our opponents to pin us back? Once we hit the front we should be looking for more so people CAN'T score one and be back on level terms, we need the insurance if nothing else. 4. It's apparent we can't play Lallana, Markovic, Coutinho, Sterling, and Ibe all in the same team. Their average age is 21. Why did we think we'd need another project winger in Markovic? The unders' are littered with glittering wide prospects; Ibe, Teixeira, Suso, Canos, Wilson and more - did we really need to go after another one? Final thought: LFC bought in big in just about every position (bar GK) this year. The most disappointing thing is that none of them are currently up to the grade. I'd also like to apologise for making this comment so damn long :P
Chris
Guest
you can say not to a team like barcelona, liverpool are just storied. il agree that a non english player maybe cant say no to barcelona. and definitely that liverpool could not say no to barcelona with suarez because saurez wanted to leave. i dont see it as liverpools fault at all, saurez wanted out. liverpool are not really falling, with the team they have they are not a top team anymore even though i wish they still were.
Christopher Brown
Guest
I agree (sadly) with most of your Liverpool FC critique ..... except about Suarez. At some stage, concepts such as 'decency' and 'civility' must come into club culture, and even 'brand reputation' if human emotions fail to work. The guy is a genius footballer but a grub of a man. I am proud that my club (eventually!) stood up against his violence, his racism and his cheating. If we have to lose a few games to pay the price of doing the right thing then so be it. Let's get our priorities right. cb
melbourneterrace
Guest
Yeah i can't agree with a lot of this. 1. You can't just say no to a team like Barcelona. Suarez would have kicked up a stink and Liverpool would have been left with an unhappy player who is totally under pressure after the world cup, taking up huge wages and last but not least a huge ban. Suarez not playing would devalue him both by loss of form and the potential of running out his contract. If anything, they would have been worse off now if they kept him. Liverpool did the right thing to take the money. 2. Reina had a signifigant drop in form in 2012 2013 and was making more mistakes, Liverpool were going to sell him anyway. He only got loaned because signifigant interest other teams never eventuated. The real reason they are falling away is a) Bad player signings which you have touched on and b) Brendan Rogers moving away from his game plan that he developed at swansea with a focus on patient build up and quality passing to a more direct one with a preference for hard working midfielders with stamina over technically minded players. The likes of Sturidge and Sterling are being asked to run directly at defenders rather than pass their way through which means they get isolated and have to rely on speculative efforts or inidividual skill. Rogers has also shown preference for playing the likes of Henderson, Leiva and Gerrard ahead of Coutinho, Lallana and Can. Gerrard has clearly declined to the point where it is debatable whether he should start and Henderson whilst useful as a Destroyer is being used as a box to box player or even a deep playmaker which is clearly not his best role.