KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Martin Hole on Liverpool's defeat to Arsenal

Let the finger pointing commence! As the final whistle blew on the crushing and thoroughly undeserved loss to Arsenal Liverpool’s faint hopes of CL qualification evaporated. It was by far our best performance of the season and even with a weakened line up Arsenal were comprehensively outplayed. But as ever, we couldn’t score and it cost us dearly. In light of this bitter defeat the managers and players alike have been called out from all quarters. Going by the current common consensus the most obvious and beneficial solution would be to sack them all. Unsurprisingly it’s not a solution I necessarily agree with.

The first player to feel the brunt of the backlash from this game was Charlie Adam. With Henderson busting a gut and clear through down the wide right, with the game still at 1-1 Adam inexplicably chose to ignore (or perhaps somehow didn’t see) his team mate and go it alone. The move broke down and Liverpool conceded possession in a threatening position.

With this costly error firmly etched in the fans minds the next failing to be flagged up was his failure from set-pieces, which were admittedly very poor in today’s game. This is of course an attribute shared by all the players in the Liverpool squad. We don’t have an effective set piece taker and for all our corners and free kicks we rarely beat the first man. For a man signed for this in particular, the fact that it has so far only yielded 2 goals is disappointing.

That being said I thought Adam played well today. I realise I might be alone in this, but I thought generally he had a good game with a decent range of passing, good industry and he set the tempo well. Certainly had we gone on to win the game and his error of judgement not proven so costly I think he would be rightly commended for today’s shift. The midfield worked fantastically well today, particularly in the first half where the reds were sublime. I’d even go as far as to say that the midfield actually looked more balanced and effective than it has with Gerrard in of late, as blasphemes as that may be.

Restored to his natural position Henderson blossomed as predicted. Full of energy, dynamic and with the confidence to drive forward which was lacking in his early games. I trust that he will develop into a fantastic player for us over the coming seasons and also a very important one.

Downing gave another encouraging display as well. I maintain that I am not a fan of the player and still see the left side of midfield as a weakness in need of address (albeit a less urgent one) , but it’s good to see something of a return on our £20mil investment. I still think he will go on to be a expensive squad player, but if it means we actually win the league then so be it.

Kuyt was another who had a good game on the right of midfield. He has had a very poor season by his usual standards but finally looks like the player of old with his form returning. He’s certainly a more viable threat down the right than Jordan Henderson. Although in the aftermath of the defeat the likes of Adam were being lambasted left, right and centre Kuyt seemingly got off scot free. This was despite missing a penalty, a rebound and a very good chance which deflected off the bar for the 21^st time this season. This is not to take away from Kuyt performance which was of a high standard, but to highlight how I believe Adam is being unfairly singled out for this defeat.

Our defence was also very good yesterday, despite conceding two chances. Of course there was an obvious weak point which was highlighted by the goals conceded.

At 34 I think it’s safe to say that Carragher’s best days are behind him. Whether Agger will ever shake off his injury concerns is doubtful, but his place in the team is not when fit. With Champions League seemingly an impossibility and Europa football already guaranteed I think now is the time to blood Coates into the team. He is a good defender and needs premier league experience to develop. I’d much rather he mess up a few opportunities and learn from it than remain on the sidelines whilst someone who isn’t going to develop any further does the same. Carragher has been a tremendous servant to the club and we owe him so much. But it isn’t right that at this stage of the season he is in the side at the expense of the development of a younger player.

I have a lot of time for Coates. To be voted young player of a tournament which contained Lionel Messi is not mean feat and I think he has a tremendous future ahead of him. Alongside Skrtel he could form a fantastic bedrock with the youth and vitality that Carragher fails to offer. If nothing else he should be in the side to give the Anfield faithful a chance to evaluate the player. He might make a few calamitous errors, or he might prove to be one of the best defenders of his generation. Without seeing him in action how will we ever know?

Upfront is where we have fallen short all season and today was no exception. Suarez was back to his brilliant and frustrating best which only served to highlight the necessity for a fast and mobile striker in front of him. I think if we saw that in practise our goal scoring woes would be eradicated overnight.

I really can’t fathom our profligacy in front of goal this season, it really doesn’t make sense. To not even have an average shot conversion rate for Liverpool is worrying to say the least, particularly because if we had we’d sit comfortably in the top 4 right now. At first I put it down to a statistical blip, an anomaly likely to be rectified with a glut of goals come the end of the season so all in all it balances out. But that seems unlikely now.

I certainly don’t think it’s down to the players being particularly poor. We know from experience how goal-hungry these individuals have been in the past. Even if it was the case that our strikers were poor that wouldn’t explain our problem with penalties this season. The fact that we’ve spurned considerably more than we’ve converted is terrible and suggests that this problem might be more mental than it is physical or tactical.

Much like Torres at Chelsea Liverpool as a team are undergoing a sustained mental block in front of goal. It’s not that the players aren’t capable; we know that they are, it’s just that it’s got to the stage where so many of them don’t believe they are going to score. That is the only explanation I can muster for what we have undergone and it has cost us dearly. We know Suarez can score, we know Kuyt can score, hell we even know Downing can score but the fact that we’ve hit the woodwork and spurned more penalties than anyone else this season suggests the problem is in the mind.

I have a lot of time for Andy Carroll, and I think he’s shown in recent weeks what he is capable of when given the chance. But the fact he remained on the bench and for so long yesterday to me demonstrates a deep lack of faith in the player from the manager. If that is indeed the case then perhaps it’s best that he moved on. I think Carroll will prove to be very successful wherever he ends up, but only if he gets the games he needs to build momentum.

Bellamy is a fantastic weapon for both the wide areas and upfront. However he is also 32 and dogged by a persistent knee injury. He is very much a short-term option, albeit a fantastic one to have at our disposal.

What is abundantly clear is that we need a new striker in the summer window. But I’d argue that we’d be better off bringing in 3. In my next article I will discuss this in greater detail.

And what of Dalglish? To some this defeat was the final straw. The last insult and justifiable cause to end his tenure as manager. Thankfully the vast majority are still not reading from the Abramovich school of football.

Let’s be clear, this term has not been a successful one for Liverpool football club. Success in both cup competitions is fantastic and should really be commended but without qualification for the champions league we cannot consider this season to be a success. Dalglish would say the same himself I’m sure.

The most annoying thing is we could have done it too. This baron spell in front of goal has plagued us all season and we’ve dropped so many points in games we should have won that it’s cost us dearly. It hurts, and we should be doing better.

But all the problems we have suffered this season cannot be put on one man. The team has been playing very well pretty much all season and even if we had an average conversion rate in front of goal we’d be sitting pretty. That’s the one problem Dalglish has yet to rectify but when he does we’ll see the benefit and then some. Having a carousel of managers is not the answer, stability is key to success and when we’re clearly on the verge of something big (poor finishing aside) then it would be wrong to start from scratch.

So for the time being we will unfortunately have to take it on the chin. It’s not what any of us wanted, but it seems that the rebuilding job is indeed only half complete. Another year on the periphery is a bitter pill to swallow I know. But progress is being made slowly but surely and good things come to those who wait. It won’t be long until we have a team 20 years in the making.

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YNWA

Martin Hole

* You can also read Martin's articles on the KopTalk app.

thats on the money for me anyway. great article.

great read and just love the quote above.

yup agree.... its just not the right way to do things!

good article! Very much on the money

It doesn't really differ from many of our thoughts, but some of it was just plain nonsense. (even if it is your opinion, that's fine)

Charlie Adam is a perfect example of a player becoming to comfortable at our club. Theoretically if form doesn't improve, the manager should say, look son, your doing this, this, this and this wrong. Let's work on all of them, get them right and mold you into a Liverpool player.

The fact of the matter is, Charlie Adam is still pathetically and annoyingly doing the same things now, as in the first game he played for us. I can't count the amount of times he's gone on some run, not looked up once and chose to slide the ball out wide to an open player for a square and better chance at goal.

No, he run's a t goal, head down, shoots wildly without even looking, It's happened far to often, and I'm afraid it's so so so poor.

I watch him in games with an eagle eye, on and off the ball. At times he looks like a total amateur, or someone having a casual kick about over on the field on a Sunday afternoon. Positional sense defensive wise is appalling, which leads onto him making numerous stupid half-hearted tackles all over the pitch with no intention of trying to get the ball. (Remember Tottenham away?)

This can be put down to laziness, and we don't need laziness in the middle of the park, of all places, if at all.

Let's take Lucas for instance, he was also guilty of these silly fouls.....what did he do about it?

....and now, ironically wins virtually every single tackle he goes into, he understands and has learned when to commit.

What has Charlie Adam done or tried differently?

For me, if he's a professional footballer, you'd think he would look up and around when on the ball. One of the first things you get taught if your playing football at an early age.....and he doesn't do it.

At Blackpool he ran things, scored goals, assisted goals. Put in lethal crosses, put in lethal corners (which he has scored directly from) he was there talisman.

When he arrived I genuinely thought that this was the man in a game, when Gerrard wasn't in a game. He could replace the black hole we still had when Xabi walked away. Linking our midfield to our attack.

Oh how wrong was I!

As for the "building a squad for 20 years" what utter rubbish. Some of the players are bound to improve, but if you honestly think that this current squad and the signings we've made over the past year or so are seriously going to send us on some sort of Man United carbon copy run, then think again.

Some of these players need to replaced with better, or do drastically better themselves.....and we still need to make at least 3 or 4 top top top signings before we even think about Champions League, never mind seriously challenging for 1st in the Premier League consistently.

Money isn't everything, management is. Swansea and Norwich have teams full of virtually nobodies who've just been promoted. Yet they play some of the most organized and best football in the league without millions and millions. This cannot be overlooked. Because at clubs like this, the players know that they are playing for survival, so they fight, they also know that a good showing, might get them to a bigger club.....and the management is absolutely key.

Kenny should be giving some of our players a right kick up the arse, if still no improvement, then a kick out the f*cking door!

It's interesting to read thorough analyses of matches rather than the usual scapegoating that we are all guilty of after a defeat.
Anyway in the real world. KD like him or not has brought silverwear to the club after 6 years. Even thinking of 'getting rid' is at best trouble making. The general concensus was give him one full season. Which he hasnt had yet. Its beginning to ring home that we are not getting 4th and the defeat by arseanl just confirmed what most of us know already, it's not easy even with money (abramovich) to win the title or get close. Spurs are a good example of how long it takes to organise into a title threatening team.

Most people will concede that Redknap is a good manager but he didnt take 5 minutes to turn things around at spurs. Spurs has for a long time had a few rotten apples and I am not talking about the players. Everything has to be in place for a title run, with everyone pulling together.
I am not suggesting that the future of lfc lies with KD because he is the 'king' or any of that nonsense. The fact is that he has united the team and club in a way that has n't been the case since 2008. The only objective way to look at his success (at the end of hte season) is to ask is the league position worse than last year. The coca cola cup can help in his favour if there is a doubt.

I don't think Mr HOLE watched the match frankly if he thought that Adam played well. Forget the decison making in attacking areas any player can be nervy and make hte wrong choice. The simple things he does wrong, that is the problem. He is robbed of the ball repeatedly. This has occured all season. Now liverpoll under Dalglish is a team that plays most of the time rightly or wrongly while keeping the ball, to wait for space to open up and to exploit it. Clearly adam is not used to this, and at his age he never will be. I will not mention the 10 or so misplaced passes Adam committed while under no pressure either.
Henderson played better, but disappeared in the second half.

It is funny when people call for the head of the manager at a club, their memory becomes short term, and talking about the 'last straw'. The fact is Lfc while playing badly and they did play badly against arsenal have suffered because the players brought in have failed to do their job. The question is who exactly brought them in and what are they going to do about it.
The worst thing for a team is when the player refuses to admit his 'mistake' and keeps under performing players on the pitch in the same position.
To his credit KD has benched the 35 million pound striker, which is a pretty brave step. I personally will judge KD on how he handles Charlie Adams slide into averageness. I think Adam has hardly ever been benched. KDs persistance with Downing probably worked, although personally I prefer to see him starting on the left rather than the right.
Even the most fervant fans of Dalglish will admit that his buys on the whole, and we must assume that htey are his buys? are disappointing.
Does this put pressure on his job? No because he is good at making the most of the players he has got as he proved with lfc at the end of last season.
I think KD has earned himself (in the eyes of NESV) another year in charge, by the looks of it with no money, and personally he has done enough for me to justify another run next season providing liverpool finish in the top 6

Some may mock Abramovich's methods, but his club has won more premier league titles than us with our 'patient' approach to management which has left fans 'satisfied' when kenny brings over the line in 7th. Who is to say he has got it wrong?

Endless pots of cash allows you to do this. Something we do not have. Also evidence suggests long term it is not a succesful way of running a club.

In managers alone he has splashed out in excess of 60million on fees in the last 4yrs. Neveremind his interference in team affairs which has brought them Crespo, Shevchenko, Torres for a bragain 120mil + wages in excess of 60mil - even written off Mutu for 20mil+. Do you really think we should operate in this manner? players undermining the manager? constant turbulance at the club?

This is not footy manager on the play station.

Maybe they mock it because Abramovich has spent the same on managers since 2005 as Manchester uniteds total net transfer expenditure in the same time period.

Martin Hole is definately a glass half full man wouldn't you say?