Your Not Very Good

The King is Dead

"...It has been compounded by our own mistakes in a difficult first two years of ownership" John W Henry may not have gone as far as naming his mistakes, or any mistakes made since he bought Liverpool from their previous American owners, but we all knew what he was alluding too.

It was a bold step by Henry to release an open letter to the Liverpool less than a day since a 2-0 home loss to Arsenal and just over two and a half days since the transfer window shut with Brendan Rogers hands trapped underneath but a step he felt he had to take, it was one not only to get the players on board but seemingly the manager too.

Henry went onto say such things as;  "we are still in the process of reversing the errors of previous regimes", "spending is not merely about buying talent. Our ambitions do not lie in cementing a midtable place with expensive, short term quick fixes" and "We have no fear of spending and competing with the very best but we will not overpay for players." The 62 year old laid some blame at the feet of the previous owners but more tellingly at the previous manager's, Kenny Dalglish.

When Dalglish was given the job in January 2011 it seemed like an odd decision and one that seemed odder the more times Dalglish dipped into the transfer market starting off with the £35 million transfer of Andy Carroll and finishing nearly £100 later after Stewart Downing, Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson had joined and now, 18 months later, that odd decision seems to have derailed not only Liverpool's campaign last season but also for the forseeable future.

The Boston Red Sox owner talked about his disapointment at not being able to sign a new striker but defended their transfer dealings by talking about the likes of Joe Allen, Fabio Borini and Nuri Sahin, even though the latter is only on loan, the ability to keep hold of their current players, such as Luis Suarez and Daniel Agger and UEFA's upcoming sanctions on teams who spend beyond their means. This lack of spending stemmed from the transfer mistakes of the last 18 months.

The man known as "The King", from his playing days at Anfield, made many mistakes that ruined Liverpool's season last year it seems now he did far more to ruin the longer term too. The King may well be dead.

Rather Striking

Let's not pretend that, given the chance, most of us would have tried to move Andy Carroll on had we taken over at Anfield this summer however that decision, and Brendan Rodger's actual implementation of it, now seem ridiculous. Liverpool are left with 2 front line strikers and a mix of young talent, this is a Liverpool side attempting to play 3 upfront.

This has led to critisim of the manager for not replacing Carroll, though this has quickly subsided since the owners open letter, and thoughts of bringing in an out of contract player to the club.

Among those mentioned is former Kop hero Michael Owen. Owen has long since tainted his name at Anfield by playing for Manchester United and this, as well as injuries, seem to have soured the idea to many fans. Yet these fans also forget that Owen is certainly not 'passed it' as many would have you believe and is in fact a very viable option considering his recored off the bench for United during his time at Old Trafford.

Perhaps what many have forgotten in all this is not simply Liverpool's lack of options from the bench in case of injury but also the fact that Fabio Borini and Luis Suarez, the only epxpereinced front men, are currently under no pressure to perform as they simply cannot be dropped.


Too soon to be crap

So far this season I look a bit foolish in my thinking that Andre Villas-Boas would be a good replacement for Harry Redknapp at Tottenham Hotspur and would in fact be a better manager that 'Arry.

My assumption was based on the fact I think Redknapp is highly overrated and that AVB, unlike his predecessor, would be a master tactician. It is therefor ironic that Spurs under the Portugese manager's tutelage look all over the place and without any tactical discipline.

But Villas-Boas' early plans have been in part ruined by the ego of his boss, Daniel Levy, and the insistance on eeking out as much money out of Real Madrid for Luka Modric. In a strictly business world this would have made sense but in footballing terms it was a disaster and left the Portuguese manager with only a couple of days to buy who he needed, missing out on the likes of Joao Moutinhio.

It is not the first time that Levy has pulled this trick having waited to sell Dimitar Berbatov till the last minute. Then, as now, the team struggled early in the season. Hopefully unlike now, when the transfer of Modric was done with enough time to get in Moussa Dembele, the manager will be given time to prove his worth.

Oops, Butterfingers

The number of high profile goalkeeping errors at the beginning of this Premier League season is quite out of the ordinary, especially as some of the league's best 'keepers' have been at fault.

We've already seen mistakes from Hart, Cech, De Gea, Given, Green, Federici and Reina to name but a few.

It can't be long before the roundness of the ball is blamed, after all who wants a round ball!