Midseason Review: Liverpool

Merry Christmas Sportskop readers! After dozing off for most of my winter break, I decided to write an article to review Liverpool's pathetic season so far. So much was expected, so much was promised, but none of it was delivered. We have become another mid table team in the league where nobody really cares anymore. Reminds me of the Roy Hodgson days. Remember the brilliant signings of Paul Konchesky (who somehow isn't bald anymore), Christian Poulsen, Milan Jovanvic and Soritos Kyrgiakos? My goodness me. Atleast this team is young and has a lot of promise, but watching them play is just as boring as it was in 2010. Out of the Champions league with ONE win against Ludogarets (Are you kidding me?) and 9th in the league with a goal difference of minus 2! Atleast we have the semi final of the League Cup to look forward to vs Chelsea. That will probably be the highlight of this season unless somehow Liverpool go on a magical run like last year post Christmas. 

Well what is there to really recap about? I'll start by evaluating Brendan Rodgers. I'm struggling to have a definitive opinion on whether he still is the right man to take Liverpool forward. It's easy to have a knee jerk reaction and just hire and fire managers, but is he really to blame for most of Liverpool's problems? So I broke it down in 2 categories:

Is Brendan Rodgers the man to take Liverpool forward?

Reasons to fire Rodgers: Well, his transfer dealings have been pretty awful so far. He sold Pepe Reina and replaced him with the marvelous Belgian Simon Mignolet who has been nothing short of shambolic this season and was quite awful last season as well. He decided to fill in the void of Luis Suarez by signing Ricky Lambert and Mario Balotelli, and while Ricky atleast gives all that hes got at the age of 34, Balotelli has been awful. The additional fixtures this season haven't helped Rodgers at all and it seems like he has become an arrogant manager who refuses to sort out his defense and just go for a high pressing, attacking style that has left our defense wide open for the opposition. Last season, scoring 102 goals (with 52 goals coming from Suarez and Sturridge) helped paper over the defensive cracks that this team had to resolve, but this season, the team has just stopped scoring goals. He also seems to have lost the identity of Liverpool that he dreamt of establishing when he took over the job 2 years ago. The team lacks the firepower up front to score goals and is defensively shambolic. And those problems will not be solved by just having a formidable midfield that seems to lack creativity for the most part. Combined with the splurge of cash on buying a bunch of mediocre players, the lack of a setting up a proper defense and a goalkeeper and the pretty awful results so far this season, it seems like its time for Brendan Rodgers to get the sack from Liverpool.

Reasons to keep Rodgers: Losing a player the caliber of Luis Suarez is not going to benefit any team and it is extremely hard to replace someone of that ilk by just one world class signing. The team was certainly built around him last season and the loss has been hard to cope with. Also, the likes of Jordan Henderson, Lucas Leiva, Joe Allen and Phillipe Couthinho seem to have lost the incredible form they had last season and their performances have been sub par at best this year. Losing Sturridge to injury has been talked about widely and it certainly is a huge loss, but so is the loss of Jon Flanagan, who certainly brought in a different dimension from the full back position in attack for Liverpool last season. Steven Gerrard's form has predictably dipped as he isn't getting younger anymore and it does take time for new signings to bed into a team. Markovic and Lallana seem to be improving and finding their stride, Alberto Moreno seems to be a nice signing for the team and Emre Can's performances have seem to be very promising. Therefore, regression was expected from Liverpool this season after losing a world class player in Suarez but the injuries and the time to bed in the new signings for Liverpool have also slowed down progress. But it is a young team that with Sturridge in the mix might be able to fire from all cylinders and climb up the table once again. Atleast the team is young and hungry for success, and keeping Rodgers at Anfield to see his own signings flourish and thrive as a team will be ultimately beneficial in building success for a franchise that values stability highly. 

Rodgers' signings seem to be finding their stride 

Other than that I really don't have much to recap or talk about. Yeah we won against Burnley on Boxing day but it was such an uninspiring performance and I just went back to sleep after halftime (it was 7 AM here and it was freezing outside, don't judge). I guess the Arsenal game gave us glimpses of what this team is capable of, but to be fair, Arsenal did not bring their A game either when they came to Anfield. I've just given up at this point. What else is left to play for this season? Oh right, the semi final of the League cup against Chelsea. Well, that's going to be brutal. I guess we can try to have a good run in the FA Cup and the Europa League. Winning the Europa League will give us a berth into the Champions league next year but based on the performances from the team right now, I highly doubt that's happening. Last season, we went on to have a magical ride for 4 months after Christmas before ultimately it all slipped away came crashing down. Yeah, I'm pessimistic. I just don't care anymore. However, I will still be watching this team play at 4:30 in the morning because I just love this team way too much. 

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About Aditya Sriwasth

Aditya is the Founder, President, and Publisher of SportsKop. His favorite sports teams are the Oakland Athletics, San Jose Sharks, San Francisco 49ers, and most importantly, Liverpool FC. He is a student of the game, who has mastered the rules of the sports he covers, and brings passion, humor, and a fan’s perspective to the writing he contributes. He never really fared too well as a baseball player and therefore called it quits and decided to just mumble about sports. He's fat and obsessed with Steven Gerrard and Bryce Harper, and also has a massive celebrity crush on Kate Upton.

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