LIVERPOOL THE GREAT CLUB
Kab Hakim
August 15th, 2010
August 15th, 2010 is a date that will go down in history with a club that has had the greatest history in English football. It is the Premier League debut of Roy Hodgson's reign at Liverpool Football Club. Anfield is shaking with excitement for this new era that cannot come soon enough. After 12 years of foreign management, anti-football tactics, millions of pounds wasted on inept foreign players, and millions of excuses to why Liverpool had failed each season to win the trophy that 20 years ago was the club's bread and butter, finally Liverpool FC has returned to a British face. This is a face that is giving Reds' fans across the globe a sigh of relief, rather than cause for great celebration because it brings the club back some down to earth humility and common sense. It is the hope of the fans that it is the kind of face that will bring back the football that made Liverpool the most famous club in the world. Simplicity played at a pace that had you on the edge of your seat. Attacking football home and away. No more fear, no more caution, no more sitting back and hoping to hit on the break. Football that will reignite the passion of the Kop and have Anfield a cauldron of noise once again for which it used to be admired and respected. Roy Hodgson's appointment is seen as a step in that direction.
While the previous 12 years were not all bad, since 10 trophies were collected in that time which included the club's 5th European Cup to keep forever, the overriding frustration is that win or lose the team all too often played some horrible football. If the 2010 World Cup was the worst in living memory, the dire football watched for that month could not compare to regular Houllier or Benitez style football in their efforts to beat the likes of Wigan and Blackburn home and away. It is one thing to fear the caliber of Man United, Chelsea or Sunday's opponents, Arsenal, but when you play two holding midfield players at home to Stoke and Fulham, the lack of creativity is going to hit a Liverpool fan's nerve like a root canal done by Stevie Wonder. Instead of observing the grace and flow of the likes of Heighway, Callaghan, Keegan, Dalglish, Rush, Souness, Nicol, Barnes, Beardsley, McManaman, Fowler and Owen, Liverpool fans have been subjected to the horrendous efforts of Meijer, Cheyrou, Diao, Smicer, Morientes, Josemi, Kromkamp, Sissoko, and Nunez, et al. You could create a list of 50 players who should never have worn the Liverbird on their chest, never mind when fans used to complain of 1-2 a season.
So poor judgment has been the downfall of the club from it's pole position on top of the league to scrapping for 4th place as an "achievement." Not even a Carling Cup Final can make up for such a downgrade. However, bring in Rocking Roy, who took a below average Fulham side to the final of the Europa League, defeating the once great Juventus along the way. Here's a guy who has spent just as much time coaching abroad as he has in England and that gives him the experience to successfully deal with a multi-culural environment which Anfield has become but still boost the British players to playing to their mental and physical strengths.
After making big impressions to convince Gerrard and Torres to stay at the club this season, the added signing of Joe Cole, England's most skillful player, gives Liverpool an attacking dimension not seen since the rollercoaster attacking days of Roy Evans' Liverpool of the 90s. Adding Poulsen as the attacking balance to sit in midfield and dictate the flow of play, you can only imagine what an attacking wave of Gerrard, Cole, Torres and Kuyt will produce assisted by the overlapping support of Johnson and Aurelio. Let's not forget Jovanovic is a player that may surprise a few (we hope), and maybe Hodgy will finally get something out of the ever frustrating Ryan Babel. Let them run with the ball and take players on, I say. Let them attack and enjoy themselves and we just might see Liverpool slamming 4 or 5 goals in at Anfield and have every team in the Premiership running scared.
Sadly, I don't see it, right away. I actually feel Liverpool are 4-5 top players short of being that kind of team. If only a new investor could buy the club this weekend, pay off the debt, have the cash to splash on the new Anfield and still offer Hodgson a budget to buy 5 top level players this summer. The team needs players of pace and skill that can compliment the likes of Gerrard, Cole and Torres. British players like Aaron Lennon, Ashley Young, Micah Richards, Gareth Bale, Walcott, Bellamy and Bent and even top internationals like Robinho, Elia, Snyder and Neymar. Bring Joe Hart as a back up to Reina and add the brilliant ball handling of Seedorf, and Liverpool would be too hot for any team in England and then Europe. Since a squad of 25 must be declared, Liverpool should immediately offload Itandje, Cavalieri, Kyriagakos, Insua, Lucas, Plessis, Mascherano, Rodriguez, Ngog, Kuyt, Babel and dare I say, Jovanovic. Simply put, if they are not top class that fit into an attacking structure of pace and creativity, then they need to go. But that's the dream, and since this won't happen, it's back to the simplicity of Hodgson with what he has got.
So it's Arsenal at Anfield on Sunday. I can't see an unfit Liverpool without an in form Torres doing anything against this mob. 2-1 to Arsenal this time round. I think even Hodgson will be too cautious for this match. After all, he has Man United, Man City, Everton and Chelsea all in his opening series of matches from which he will be judged and even he may not have the courage to set forth an over elaborate attacking Liverpool team as he did in the Europa League against Robotnicki. But if he answers my dreams and does, win or lose, I will praise him above Houllier and Benitez as a real genius. The team has the potential to unleash havoc against any team in the league, but they just need the direction, or rather the freedom to do so. If Liverpool can attain that freedom, the Premiership title may well be headed back to Anfield 21 years since it last called Liverpool L4 home, a home with a British face.
