Liverpool’s Corner: Wigan Horror – 5 Reasons Why Dalglish Should Go To Trial

By Akarsh Sharma
13 years Ago

Is Kenny Dalglish sweating nervously yet? Perhaps, not. One man who would be heavily sweating soon, if he isn’t already, would beAi??Liverpool owner John W. Henry. If results don’t change soon at the club, he’ll have the toughest decision of his reign at Anfield. Legends don’t come bigger at a club than Kenny Dalglish is at Liverpool, so when Henry appointed him as Liverpool manager, he instantly earned the the backing of the supporters.

Resurrection, revival and revolution were just a few words associated with the homecoming of Liverpool’s undisputed king. But now, it seems that the club has gone through a full cycle. The 1-2 defeat at home to Wigan took Liverpool to new depths of misery.Ai??Here are five reasons from the Wigan game that reflect on why the Liverpool manager is the architect of his side’s current downfall.

1. Terrible starting formation

‘Rotation’ is widely used in football, but should be used wisely after taking into consideration the adequacy of the players on the bench. Stewart Downing’s exclusion, for example, at Sunderland was one of many random team changes that have hampered Liverpool’s and an individual’s rhythm throughout the season.

However, on seeing the team selection against Wigan, you would’ve felt a sense of relief. The front six of Gerrard, Spearing, Suarez, Downing, Kuyt and Henderson did represent a familiar feel to a Dalglish line-up. If you replace Gerrard with Adam, it would represent a line-up that played in an unfortunate home defeat to Arsenal, where the performance deserved a lot of credit. So, surely the performance would only improve and nothing could go wrong? Wrong.

Dalglish tinkered with his formation. Liverpool could’ve lined up in a straightforward 4-4-2, which utilizes the width provided by Downing on the left and also yields ample support to Suarez in the form of another striker.

Instead, Dalglish decided to line-up in a 4-1-4-1 with Dirk Kuyt bizarrely playing – or attempting to play – on the left for the first time this season. Stewart Downing started on the right, naturally cutting inside towards a midfield already packed with three central midfielders.Ai??And finally, in a home match against the bottom club in the League, Luis Suarez was playing as a lone man upfront.

The first twenty minutes were a staggering display of how far away from the tacticalAi??bulls-eyeAi??a manager could go, with his team cramping itself up in the centre of the park and his players lacking positional sense.

2. Stubbornness towards change

The Liverpool manager switched the wingers after twenty minutes. This meant both Stewart Downing and Dirk Kuyt were able to occupy more familiar positions. However, other defects of the formation remain untouched.

Jordan Henderson, Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez could be seen within a few yards of each other too often. Luis Suarez was still battling three Wigan defenders on his own upfront, forced to take pops at goal from outside the area. Wigan’s task was made easier by the lack of red shirts near the goal or in the penalty area and the away team snuffed out attacks easily by crowding the midfield. Liverpool’s formation seemed more like an ineffective 4-5-1 than the targeted 4-1-4-1.

Kenny Dalglish refused to switch to a more orthodox 4-4-2 in the first half even though he had the personnel to do so. Throughout the season, he could’ve easily taken off Henderson early in matches because the player was struggling in the correct tactical set-up. Instead, when he finally decided to take off Henderson early in a match, it was due to the player’s performance in an incorrect and confusing system itself.

3. Handling Of Andy Carroll

Dalglish’s handling of Carroll has been highly questionable. Just when it seemed that the club’s much-maligned record signing was gaining momentum from putting in decent performances and was striking a good partnership with Luis Suarez, he has been inexplicably kept out of recent starting line-ups. This is how Liverpool’s form reads when Andy Carroll has started: WWDWWWW.

After Liverpool thumped BrightonAi??in the FA Cup and beat Cardiff City in the Carling Cup final with both Suarez and Carroll getting starts, the big man was dropped for the game against Arsenal. He was also dropped away to Sunderland and was excluded from the line-up at Loftus Road following two decent individual performances against Everton and Stoke City.

Worse still, Carroll’s introduction from the bench leaves him with nothing but a mere jog on the pitch; having been subbed on in the 69th, 83rd and 90th minutes in recent league encounters.Ai??Now, it seems Andy Carroll is back to square one. His confidence has taken another huge hit and he’ll have to rebuild his partnership with Suarez.

4. Lack of learning curve – long term trouble?

Kenny Dalglish has a reputation of being a straight-talker, but his lack of accepting blame in press conferences is baffling and embarrassing. After consistently blaming luck in the previous months, Dalglish decided to blame ‘fatigue’ for his team’s failure on Saturday. Now, one could sympathize with him on grounds that the season is nearing its end, but if you take a closer look at the Liverpool line-up, fatigue definitely didn’t play a role. Only Pepe Reina, Jose Enrique, Martin Skrtel and Jordan Henderson could claim to be fatigued. The rest were either in and out of the team this season, injured for long periods or missing a full month due to a ban.

Another important aspect of Dalglish’s management is that his impact through substitutions has been virtually non-existent. In fact, Carroll’s half-time entry into the game represented a major positive move relative to Dalglish’s general trend. His substitutions, in general, have either been poor time wise (leaving it too late – most often, around the 70th minute mark or later) or poor personnelAi??wise (for example, substituting Downing for Carroll, thereby taking out crossing ability but bringing in an aerial threat).

Liverpool have been labeled as a ‘long term’ project, but people make a mistake in interpreting the rightful owner of this project. It isn’t Kenny Dalglish’s project and rightly so. It is FSG’s long-term project and they need the right man to steer it forward, but Dalglish doesn’t seem to show signs of learning from his mistakes and improving.

5. Lack of motivation

What stood out in the defeat against Wigan was the lack of effort in the last few minutes. It was disgraceful to see how Wigan were passing the ball around and red shirts were simply watching them. In fact, Andy Carroll looked like the only person in the end who was putting in any effort, flailing his arms at others to get a reaction out of them. It was almost as if a point at Anfield wasn’t worth their troubles. The players’ lack of motivation and efforts are a direct representation of the manager’s ability to handle them – take Sir Alex Ferguson’s team as an example, or David Moyes getting the best out of players. On Saturday, the players out there didn’t look as if they believed in the manager’s tactical set-up.

Liverpool have won only 2 out of their last 10 league matches, including a trio of defeats to relegation-battling Bolton, Queens Park Rangers and now, Wigan Athletic. It is simply a record not suitable for any sort of Liverpool team – whether a rebuilding one or not. The club is also only 6 points off the 14th placeAi??in the league table.

Alarmingly, if the league had started at the beginning of 2012, Liverpool would’ve been in the relegation zone.Ai??This is nothing short of disastrous for such an illustrious club. Of course, there is an FA Cup semi-final to look forward to but every manager who comes in boldly claims the League is the “bread and butter” for any club, the one that we should judge managers on.

So, with five defeats in the last six coupled with horrendous performances, would any manager other than the legendary King Kenny have survived at this club?

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Categories: COVER STORY, English Premier League, Liverpool FC
Tags: Liverpool FC

1. Terrible starting formation

2. Stubbornness towards change

3. Handling Of Andy Carroll

4. Lack of learning curve – long term trouble?

5. Lack of motivation

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