Topic: Round Table Discussion: Robbed by the Baggies. Owl faced mastermind accused.

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

OK here is your challenge ladies and gents.  Pick over the bones of that without going over ground you have not covered at least 34 times before this season.


For me I can only laugh at our league season now, it has gone beyond rational explanation.  The only conclusion I can draw is that Kenny has secretly sold his immortal soul to a coven of Scottish hags who have cursed our league season in return for two cups.  I'd accept the trade if it comes to pass.


Or as the bloke behind me said - we should chop those posts down at the end of the season and burn them. They're hexed. 


So yes it was business as usual, stone wall peno denied, woodwork rattled, sitters missed, ricochets going every which way but in.  Can it really go on all season and be laid at the door of luck?  Is Kenny Dalglish, like Murakami's villain in "Kafka on the Shore" overseeing a secret operation to round up and torture black cats.


There are clearly weaknesses.  The defence, despite being generally solid has a tendency to switch off. The midfield does not control the game in the way which we are used to (though our two second stringers did today) and most crucially our attacking players seem singularly incapable of converting the chances they create into goals.

[royhendo]

A ceremonial burning would actually be a good idea! Like a massive funeral pyre for our bad finishing. Shall me and the other Scottish lads send the Tartan Army down to break em for you?

Murda. But I find myself much the same as El Campeador this morning.

When Hodge's Podges came out of their turtle-shells for that split second and scored, the wife went fucking nuts - swearing, shouting, slamming fists on the coffee table. She lost it, seriously. I suppose 20 attempts at goal and 65% possession plus four times the corner count (not to mention a penalty shout or two) will do that to you.

I was not as animated. Up until that point, I thought we were playing quite well. Suarez should have passed, Kuyt should have finished, and Carroll should have put the fucking header on target, for sure.

I just shook my head, and smiled ruefully. Ever since Robin van Persie buried our chance at clinching 4th, my attitude has been similar to that of the players. We lost this race a long time ago, and there's no point in over-reacting to a meaningless game that is lost in spite of complete and total domination.

For me, it's all about winning the FA Cup, and resetting and retooling for next season.

One Day in May.

Seriously, a couple of tweaks and this side is gonna be difficult to face. The big issue, as you say mate, is the need for control in that midfield. But two good buys would introduce that.

[royhendo]

While we're at it, I posted this on TAW last night. Not everyone agrees, obviously, but for me the Liverpool job, whoever does it, is a tantalising managerial position, because the side's on the cusp of resurgence, and the issues aren't that hard to address. Whoever's in the hot seat will win plaudits, assuming the obvious decisions are taken.

---

"And he huffed and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed, and eventually he blew the house in."
Narrator - The Three Little Pigs

---

We all trudged home or switched off our streams in the wake of the weekend game with West Brom, and immediately on gauging the mood online, it was reassuring to see one or two of the wiser heads making suitably 'wise' comments. In amongst the ocean of blert-based panic, that is.

Watching the game, and seeing chance after chance, and save after save, and more of the now customary abuse of the Anfield woodwork, in amongst the despair and panic (the usual), a reassuring minority seemed to feel that there was a pattern to it all. And as an analyst, when you're looking for solutions to your problems, it's always nice when there's a clear pattern you can get to grips with.

We have three clear issues to address.

1. Finishing.

2. Decision making in the build up.

3. Concentration (basic tasks and basic defensive common sense).

That's it.

And guess what? They're nice problems to have. Do you know why?

They're not systemic.

Say we'd stuck with Roy Hodgson as our manager? We'd have retreated further into our new mode of football to the extent that what you saw today from West Bromwich Albion might have been all we had in our locker, save for a little more quality at our disposal in various positions. If that doesn't frighten you, it should.

Set a low block and buy players who lack in both quality and pace, and you find yourself in a spot that, when you harbour ambitions of successful, let alone trophy-winning football, may take years to address (short of a Graham Carr style revamp of your first team squad). To win things, you have to be capable, at least when the big tests come, of imposing your game on the opposing side. When you're passive and you're timid - when your balance is tentative in any way - you're sunk. Say goodbye to any notion of trophies for a few years.

It doesn't matter if Kenny loses his job or gets the bump elsewhere in the summer - we should be thankful our playing squad has something approaching an offensive balance in its locker. Why? Because when the peripheral details aren't quite right, they're relatively easy to address. You don't have to re-establish the whole thing from the ground up.

Slot in the right personnel in the midfield, and a side that seemingly makes stupid decisions and dissipates defensive pressure becomes something a little more relentless - a little less likely to relent. In that context, you build on the already cornucopic generation of chances, and ideally add to their quality. But most of all, you make life less and less easy for the defence in front of you. Wear them down, and the pressure tells. If we can add finishing prowess to that mix, we've truly struck upon a stucture we can build on.

People shouldn't panic - the result could easily have been 4-1 in Liverpool's favour today - and the fact we've all felt that way about the majority of games this season means something.

Stick with it, and integrate it, but most of all, prune and add quality.

The building blocks are almost in place - it's not like the days when Rafa was scraping a Kromkamp in a swap for a Josemi - the squad is getting close.

It was a gutting result yesterday, there's no hiding from it.

But the side's not far off the right blend.

[Cassiel]

Because I was and about, I followed this on Twitter. (Srawl's match commentaries are so pessimistic and despairing I start to worry he'll top himself '63: Kuyt hits the post. Again. I have just managed to hit my jugular vein. with a knife. Goodbye sweet world.'). It was an entertaining, disassociating yet entirely familiar experience. I follow all the usual suspects - Tomkins, Boardman, Barrett, Henderson - and it became increasingly comedic as they listed one miss after another almost simultaneously. It became increasingly clear that at some point WBA would score because that's the kind of snakebitten year we've had. And sure enough they did. I couldn't help but laugh. Then I got a few 'You shouldn't have sacked Hodge' tweets at the final whistle and I teed off a bit in angry bastard mode (funnily enough I didn't get any of those when we beat the soundly at the Hawthorns) . It's been that kind manic-depressive year. The odd mountainous highs and many more stygian depths.

As has been said, who gives a shit now? Win the FA cup and we'll all be happy.

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

Totally agree with that Roy, was talking to my brother on the walk back from the ground last night and saying the same thing.  The silver lining here is the side is a lot closer to where it needs to be than the results or the table suggest. 

[Vulmea]

just tossed a coin for a minute - the longest run of one side or the other was 8 heads

I guess it's possible to get 19 of the buggers in a row - I guess one of the statto's could tell me exactly how likely that is - I hate the old cliche the table never lies or you end up where you deserve to be as though 'luck' and refereeing decisons somehow miraculously balance out over 38 games

think its easy to look for complicated reasons especially when your frustrated and pissed off or maybe its just because I'm thick but for me it all boils down to we just dont score enough goals.

No doubt Carra would have been blamed today for the defensive lapse, or Stevie G for his lack of good captaincy, no doubt any player who didn't play would have made the difference if they'd played.

We defend well enough, we create more than enough chances (decent chances none of this our chances are worse than everybody else's bollocks) whoever is in the team but our chance conversion rate is atrocious - its way beyond below average - the number of missed pens and hits on the woodwork are just supporting evidence really.

Is it quality, confidence, mentality, coaching, luck? Its not just one of those things is it,  they all combine and feed off each other to create the current travesty of a league season. I certainly can't remember a season like it.



 

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

Is it quality, confidence, mentality, coaching, luck? Its not just one of those things is it,  they all combine and feed off each other to create the current travesty of a league season. I certainly can't remember a season like it.

Me neither mate.  And I argued the same thing in the "posts and pens" thread squabble.  It is not either "bad luck" or "profligate finishing", it is both and as you say they combine and feed off each other.  The unlucky striker soon becomes the out-of-form, tentative, overthinking, misser of sitters.  The unlucky team loses confidence and becomes the fatalistic ghosts we saw after their goal yesterday. 

[Yorkykopite]

The cynic in me wants to say that the only difference between that performance and the ones of a few weeks ago is that we lost rather than drew.

The romantic wants to say that if a few of those chances had gone in we'd be hailing the best performance of the season. 

There were moments in the second half when we were exhilarating to watch. The Kop sensed it and drove the team on like the old days. A goal was going to come and we all knew it. Instead Henderson hit the bar, Kuyt's deflected shot smacked the post, Henderson stroked a beautiful curling left-footer just the wrong side of the upright and Suarez turned his markers so inside out that at one point all of Liam Ridgewell's internal organs were on display.   

Yet they won. And we failed at home again.

Is it bad luck? Is it lack of self-belief? Is it self-pity? I don't know. But one thing's for sure, as soon as West Brom scored we gave up.

I'm clinging to the idea it's bad luck though. Perhaps at the end of the season when they take the goals down some intrepid groundsman will get his tape-measure out - "just a hunch lads" - and discover that the goals are a couple of inches short of the legal requirement.

[Yorkykopite]

Say we'd stuck with Roy Hodgson as our manager? We'd have retreated further into our new mode of football to the extent that what you saw today from West Bromwich Albion might have been all we had in our locker, save for a little more quality at our disposal in various positions. If that doesn't frighten you, it should.

Had exactly the same thought during the match Roy. A little shudder of despair over what might have been. That's rich, you might say, given the Baggies won. But one can truly say of Hodgson at West Brom that he has found his level. He's made for low to middling clubs who puke at the thought of getting any higher. There's no question about that.

[the 92A]

Like Wigan this team is alot better than our leauge position shows, saying that doesn't mean that I'm dismissing some of the problems we have but taking an extreme view of this team does no one any favours. The loss of Lucas was more important than any of us could know, having his intellegence in midfield really allowed the team to play football he bound the individuals together without him the teams weakness's are highlighted with him they seem less important. Forget Liverpool, look at Spurs, QPR turned them over and at times for whatever reason they looked deviod of ideas their build up was too slow they couldn't score, at other times they played lovely football, they're in a bit of a crisis but theyre a much better team than QPR ever will be. Hodgson could only ever build super West Brom's and for all our problems I'd rather be Liverpool than West Brom even if they finish higher than us this season and I'd rather have Dalglish in charge than Hodgson, despite the result of yesterdays match. I hadn't read El C's post before Roy highlighted it but it pretty much sums up my feelings. It's no time to make longterm judgements, we're well capable of suprising people next year and the last few games will make it all the sweeter.

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

Had exactly the same thought during the match Roy. A little shudder of despair over what might have been. That's rich, you might say, given the Baggies won. But one can truly say of Hodgson at West Brom that he has found his level. He's made for low to middling clubs who puke at the thought of getting any higher. There's no question about that.

I think we created more chances in the sixty odd minutes leading to their goal than we did in the entirety of Roy's six month tenure as caretaker manager of our football club.

[Col]

It's the same old, same old. We know it, and the players know it.

It isn't luck. It isn't quality.

We're creating more chances than pretty much anyone in the league, but we're not converting them. Our forwards aren't often in the right places, and when they are we often don't find them.

It comes down to two things - decision making, and coaching.

I'm loathe to criticise Suarez for making bad decisions regularly, as he creates so much on his own that he should be entitled to fancy a crack after turning past 3 players on the byline, but... he's fucking stupid at times. It seems like every game, I find myself asking "Why are you shooting from there?" It's not that he's not good enough to squirm the odd one in - he clearly is - but it's the fact that most times when he does it, there is a cutback available to someone who has a far better opportunity to make the keeper work.

It's not just Suarez - the others are guilty too. Much has been said about Adam's lack of ability to make a sensible decision in the final third, and we all know that Downing and Henderson don't gamble in and around the box enough.

The intelligence levels in the final third are ridiculous - and that's before we get to the finishing aspect (which I won't do, because for me it leads right into the next point).


That next point is this: We still don't have an attacking gameplan. We still don't have 'that' goal... you know, the one we score so regularly because it's been drilled into the players that that's just what they do in that situation? We don't have the "get down the byline and drill it low across the 6 yard box for a tap in" like United, or the "keep possession around the edge of the box and wait for the combination of a crack in the defence and a third man run into it" like Barcelona... hell, we don't even have the "put it on Kenwyne Jones' head and play off the scraps".

What we have, is a club-wide lack of intelligence.

If the players aren't capable of making good decisions for the benefit of the team in and around the final third - and they clearly aren't - then they need two or three set moves drilled into them by the coaches which will give them no choice but to bring success following repetition.

The coaches haven't done anything like that this season. What they've done is entrusted our attacking play to players who haven't shown they're able to handle the responsibility. The idea is a nice one, but the reality is that it hasn't worked, and what's criminal is that it hasn't been addressed, despite the fact it's been evidently ineffective for 95% of this season.

The playing staff are technically good but intellectually inept - they essentially live up to the stereotype pretty well. It's the coaches' job to get the best out of them, and to manufacture situations during games that will allow them to thrive. That, simply, has not happened.

We have a good squad, with some great players, some good potential, and some stocking fillers.

What we don't have, is any form of clear attacking routine, and that responsibility lies solely with the coaching staff.

I'd be quite shocked if all of - dare I say it - Dalglish, Clarke, and Keen (and Achterberg, but that's a different discussion) were all in the positions they currently hold come the start of next season.

[Justin Siderbox]

One things for sure, sides are more clinical against us than we are against them.  West Brom only had one bloody chance all game...and we gave it to them.  Story of our season.

[mark82]

Spot on, a Spanish waiter I once met always used to go on about 'Mentality' and 'game intelligence', who'd have thought it was that important eh?

[edeyj]

Prior to the game I watched the skills video on .tv and saw Hendo hit the bar twice out of three. Some skill that from the edge of the box. Then he goes and does it again for real!

If only! If only! If only!........should I go on? It's becoming so common that I am starting to go into each game expecting to hit the woodwork, have at least one stone-walled penalty turned down and to miss numerous chances due to poor finishing and a goalkeeper that has sold his soul to the devil.

However, the last 10 minutes was a bit embarrassing. The fight wasn't there and that's not LFC. Bad luck...ok, but poor attitude is not on.

Stroll on.

[RedinExile]

While we're at it, I posted this on TAW last night. Not everyone agrees, obviously, but for me the Liverpool job, whoever does it, is a tantalising managerial position, because the side's on the cusp of resurgence, and the issues aren't that hard to address. Whoever's in the hot seat will win plaudits, assuming the obvious decisions are taken.

Whilst I don't think the problems are insurmountable, I think we are rapidly approaching a crossroads and whereas you seem reasonable assured that that we will navigate any choppy seas in the near future, I'm concerned we could find ourselves in a Perfect Storm of lack of investment, player departures and rudderless club direction. I'm concerned because the club seems to have a central mantra of fucking things up royally over recent years, but I liked the swiftness with which the owners acted over DC - rightly or wrongly on the details, it showed we aren't owned by an absentee landlord, afraid to act decisively (any more perhaps).

And as an analyst, when you're looking for solutions to your problems, it's always nice when there's a clear pattern you can get to grips with.

Agree but the patterns most obvious have been ineffectual pretty triangles and sending it wide and pumping in crosses. And no pressing, except in fiercely contested cup games which are make or break matches with players running on adrenaline and pumped-up.

We have three clear issues to address.
1. Finishing.
2. Decision making in the build up.
3. Concentration (basic tasks and basic defensive common sense).
That's it.
And guess what? They're nice problems to have. Do you know why?
They're not systemic.

I actually think the problem is Roy they very much are systemic, and that is my greatest worry. It doesn't matter how much you tune your instrument *cough* you need the conductor to gel the whole into greater than the sum of its parts. By conductor I mean direction and vision, a clear outline of who is doing what when, rather than thinking of an individual. I mean tempo, ebb and flow, brains and understanding. You would have thought we had recruited most of our buys from Norway in the summer because they don't seem to have a fucking clue half the time about what to do in a PL game - it's amazing given their up-bringings here and experience. It has helped confirm, in my mind at least, that if you're good enough you're 'PL-ready-enough', and continental technique with and without the ball seem so many light years ahead of British players I wouldn't be surprised if we lined up next year against Obi-Wan-Kenobi and Boba Fett.

Say we'd stuck with Roy Hodgson as our manager? We'd have retreated further into our new mode of football to the extent that what you saw today from West Bromwich Albion might have been all we had in our locker, save for a little more quality at our disposal in various positions. If that doesn't frighten you, it should.

Never gonna happen that, was never an option. The man at the helm has to be Liverpool through and through.

Slot in the right personnel in the midfield, and a side that seemingly makes stupid decisions and dissipates defensive pressure becomes something a little more relentless - a little less likely to relent. In that context, you build on the already cornucopic generation of chances, and ideally add to their quality. But most of all, you make life less and less easy for the defence in front of you. Wear them down, and the pressure tells. If we can add finishing prowess to that mix, we've truly struck upon a stucture we can build on.

What you have said is true, I just thing you seriously underestimate how difficult it is to accomplish it all.

The building blocks are almost in place - it's not like the days when Rafa was scraping a Kromkamp in a swap for a Josemi - the squad is getting close. It was a gutting result yesterday, there's no hiding from it. But the side's not far off the right blend.

I think the signs are blurred; it could be near, but could be slipping away too. The worst poisons from the G&H, Purslow-cnt and Hodge-Podge era are finally being flushed away, but we have to stand up and be counted and make good decisions from now - comparisons with the darkest days would always be a somewhat dubious benchmark given how recently before that we were also tantalisingly close to remounting our perch.

[mally]

Fantastic post. This season has reminded me of an exchange between two characters in the film Apocalypse Now.

Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?
Willard: I don't see any method at all, sir.

[Il Nina]

The cynic in me wants to say that the only difference between that performance and the ones of a few weeks ago is that we lost rather than drew.

The romantic wants to say that if a few of those chances had gone in we'd be hailing the best performance of the season. 

There were moments in the second half when we were exhilarating to watch. The Kop sensed it and drove the team on like the old days. A goal was going to come and we all knew it. Instead Henderson hit the bar, Kuyt's deflected shot smacked the post, Henderson stroked a beautiful curling left-footer just the wrong side of the upright and Suarez turned his markers so inside out that at one point all of Liam Ridgewell's internal organs were on display.   

Yet they won. And we failed at home again.

Is it bad luck? Is it lack of self-belief? Is it self-pity? I don't know. But one thing's for sure, as soon as West Brom scored we gave up.

I'm clinging to the idea it's bad luck though. Perhaps at the end of the season when they take the goals down some intrepid groundsman will get his tape-measure out - "just a hunch lads" - and discover that the goals are a couple of inches short of the legal requirement.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Think its the first match were I have sat in Anfield and totally enjoyed Liverpool's play (obviously pre-conceding) and felt at ease that it was only a matter of time before we scored and then scored another, and it never came. And you're right, we went to pot when West Brom scored. Our subs couldn't get into the game, West Brom's confidence grew (they weren't going to throw away a lucky lead), our's became desperate and I knew we weren't going to score in a month of Sundays. Game went completely and categorically on it's head, to the point were if you didn't laugh to yourself you would cry, lol. And you want to pick out the positives of the performance of 70 minutes, but it doesn't give you the three points. Insead it leaves you scratching your head as you think 'how in the world did we lose that game?!', even a draw wouldn't have done Liverpool's perfomance/chances justice.

I will always stand by the fact that I believe there is a certain amount of luck needed in a match. Most of the luck you create yourself...by playing well, creating chances, scoring those chances etc etc. There is also luck from other factors such as good referring decisions, poor/costly referring decisions and of course the other team's attitude, and environment should also be thrown in there.

An out an out goal scorer brought in during the summer would make me happy. As someone stated, we have brilliant goal creaters such as Suarez, but no one who will just put the ball in the back of the net week in week out, with no fuss. Our team have found it difficult to concentrate most of the 90 minutes this season. Our main defense have been excellent at times, but one lapse and we have gone on to lose, as our attack have not put in their chances at the other end. Our midfield went missing after West Brom scored, although Spearing has really made midfield his own recently and has stood up strong, not to mention I will always believe Lucas' injury had a big loss effect on our team. The new signings have really stepped up too (not including Downings performance as yesterdays sub). Therefore I believe our team are better than the league table suggests, yesterdays performance was better than the score-line suggests. An out and out striker should contribute and complement the team we already have in place.

[Garcepticon]

I wasn't that bothered, I just laughed it off. Great performance, poor result. Same old, Same old.

This free post on Tomkins Times is worth a read, it goes over a couple of the explanations of why we are so poor infront of goal.

There’s no doubt about it. Dalglish has to go. Also, he has to stay. If FSG listen to the fans, they’ll be left in no doubt: only sacking Kenny, whilst simultaneously keeping Kenny, will bring success. The league form is everything, although nothing (bar winning the league) beats a good cup run. Being in the Champions League is the only place to be, but no-one puts a 4th-place finish in the trophy cabinet.

Fenway Sports Group got their first sacking right: Roy Hodgson had to go. No matter what he does at West Brom, his Liverpool side played ugly, anti-football. Daniel Agger, the most cultured defender in England, was told to just “fucking launch the thing”. Ironically, Liverpool might not have lost to the Baggies had Glen Johnson – another thorn in Hodgson’s side, with that pesky passing stuff – just lumped it clear. But good sides play from the back, and accept the occasional lapse. Pep Guardiola doesn’t change Barcelona’s style if Dani Alves gets caught out, and at Swansea, if people want a more down-to-earth comparison, Brendan Rodgers doesn’t berate players who lose the ball in dangerous areas.

No amount of revisionism will change the fact that ‘Royston’ was wrong wrong wrong; just as Lawrie Sanchez was wrong at Fulham before him. Hodgson has had 20-odd seasons outside Scandinavia and won nothing. Nada. Zilch. That doesn’t make him a bad manager, as there are so many different targets each year; but it doesn’t make him a suitable big-club manager, either.

His West Brom side were completely outplayed yesterday, just like his Liverpool side so frequently were. For 75 minutes they were on the wrong end of one-way traffic, and somehow escaped with their goal intact. They grabbed a goal against the run of play, and fair play to them for that; no-one says ‘no’ when that happens, and asks the ref to chalk it off as unfair. But if the game highlighted what’s wrong with Dalglish’s latest vintage – some shortcomings that are costing points – it also showed how the current side at least play with ambition, and unlike Hodgson’s Liverpool, at least look interested.

It’s a results business, but I’d much rather take playing well and losing over playing badly and losing; the main difference between Hodgson and Dalglish in the Liverpool dugout since 2010. Ideally Liverpool would be playing well and winning – that’s the obvious aim – but if people will insist on saying how poorly Hodgson was treated and how prematurely he was sacked, that comparison remains important.

(People keep saying they’d rather be playing poorly and winning. Well, playing poorly and winning is nice, but it’s not like you can build success by looking to offer little and hoping for the best, is it?)

Goals goals goals. Where are they?

If scoring goals is the hardest thing to do in football, then creating chances is the most essential building block. You can of course score a goal without creating anything – benefitting from an own goal, for example – but you’d much rather be a creative side working openings than one riding its luck.

Personally, I prefer this side to, say, the one that finished 4th in 2004 in Gérard Houllier’s final season, where the goals of Michael Owen just about dragged a hugely dull and mediocre side over the line. While this current team is nowhere near as good as it was in 2008/09, it’s got some oomph to it, unlike latter-years Houllier’s set-up. It just hasn’t got a reliably goalscorer.

Newcastle haven’t created hatfuls of chances, but have been clinical. That is to be admired, not least because they’ve bought predators without paying the earth. But is it a platform for long-term success? Is it sustainable?  It may well be, but let’s see. Swansea have played more aesthetically pleasing football than their fellow ‘promotees’, but are 19 points behind the Geordies. Both sides have their merits, and of course, in the cups this season, Liverpool have had theirs. Those teams will win nothing but plaudits, but of course, they also merit their applause.

While Liverpool often haven’t shown enough canniness to take leads in games and then shut them down – although it hasn’t been a problem when the name of the competition has become the FA or Carling Cup – the margins of their failures have been slim.

The move that led to the shot from Jordan Henderson, and the shot itself, were technically far superior to West Brom’s goal, but what could have been a contender for the Reds’ goal of the season (well, runner-up to Coates’ vs QPR) ultimately meant nothing, as the ball bounced back off the bar, rather than in. Even then, it hit the back of Foster but didn’t cross the line or roll to a red shirt; earlier in the season, the same thing happened to Pepe Reina at Sunderland, and the bounce was cruel to the keeper. Maybe Liverpool lack strikers who are quick to the loose ball, but at times it can just roll to the exact point you’re standing, whether or not it’s a good position.

It’s not just about luck, because the finishing from the whole team has been substandard. The worse the finishing has got, the more the players have almost expected to miss. It’s become a joke; a black joke. Here we go again ….

At times, the manager has had a right to expect more composure in front of goal. He can’t run out there and do it himself; not like he could in 1986. Equally, his selections, and his signings, could be said to have contributed to the problem. (And obviously he wasn’t helped by Fernando Torres’ long-standing desire to depart, having scored three times in five games under Dalglish.)

I’d say that there have been a few overlapping problems. Aside from the near misses and woodwork thumping, I’m not sure that there have been enough natural goalscorers in the team. It doesn’t have to just be about the strikers; in the best years under Benítez, we had six players in double figures. Right now, we have one.

While I like the fact that Dalglish trusts footballing defenders, with both Johnson and Agger in his back four and encouraged to play in all areas of the pitch (contrary to the way that Hodgson preferred the likes of Kyrgiakos, Konchesky and Carragher, and the constant ‘out’ ball), the midfield balance hasn’t been so successful.

Losing Lucas remains a massive blow, but that bad luck aside (although some see playing him in the Carling Cup as folly), but there was no-one on the staff who could play that same tactical role.

Dalglish started the season by leaving out Kuyt and Maxi, and they are two who can get goals from midfield, even if neither is 100% reliable (Kuyt misses chances, and Maxi can disappear from games).

You’d expect at least 5-10 from each of them if they started most games on the flanks. By contrast, in the league at least, Liverpool have just one from Henderson on the right, and none from Downing on the left. Given that, in the modern game, at least one central midfielder holds (and therefore hardly ever scores), it’s imperative that others weigh in.

Again, this lack of goals from wide areas needn’t necessarily be a problem in itself; if the strikers were getting 20-30 each, and one of the central midfielders adding 15, there’d be little to worry about, beyond a perceived over-reliance on the prolific players (see Arsenal, and Van Persie). In that situation, Downing and Henderson could simply do what they’ve been doing, knowing full well that someone in the box will gobble up a good percentage of the balls they deliver. It only becomes a serious problem once the other players stop scoring. Despite needing a lot of chances to score, Luis Suarez can get 20 goals in a season; that’s pretty clear. But can he get 20 in the league? What’s his upper limit?

This season, he’s been far more likely to net a goal after just one or two touches; so often he dribbles past three or four only to shoot miles over, as if he gets too excited, or is falling off balance having worked so hard to get into the position.

By contrast, a ball to him in the box when he’s facing the goal often seems to end up in the back of the net; certainly more so than when he’s been running with the ball. Let me take you through this season’s 14 strikes.

Everton last week: one touch into space after receiving Distin’s back-pass, second touch past Howard; vs Aston Villa, one touch – a header; vs Wigan, one touch – side-foot finish from low Gerrard centre; vs Stoke in FA Cup, curled finish from edge of box, shot being his second touch after receiving ball back from Maxi; Brighton, one touch – close-range header; Man United, close-range first-time volley when alert to defender’s mistake; QPR – one touch, a header; vs Stoke in the Carling Cup, winning goal a header from Henderson’s looping cross; vs Exeter, first-time half-volleyed shot after keeper flaps at cross; vs Arsenal at the Emirates, a one-touch tap-in from unmarked central position after good supply from the right; and a deft header from a Charlie Adam free-kick against Sunderland on the opening day.

Stoke away in the Carling Cup is the main exception, as he receives the ball out wide, takes a couple of touches, nutmegs a defender and then curls the ball into the far corner. Brilliant stuff. Wolves at home sees him run in behind the defence, turn Berra one way then the other, then fire in left-footed from a tight angle. Everton (at Goodison) is also an exception of sorts, as he dribbles his way into a dangerous position, but loses the ball. However, it fortuitously bounces back to him, when he’s facing goal on the edge of the six-yard box – as if he’s just received a pass – and he takes a touch to steady and fires in. So that could go in either category.

I make that 11 – maybe 12 – finishes within two touches; nine with just one touch, five of which were headers. It suggests that, while others may benefit from his mazy dribbles and clever touches, he has been more effective finishing off others’ good work. So he can do the poaching, but if you limit him to a central, advanced area of the pitch, you lose his creativity, and his ability to drag defenders out of position.

Having missed a fair chunk of the season, 14 goals – all from open play (although two missed penalties will keep him off spot-kick duty) – isn’t too bad at all. But it’s not especially prolific, either.

Again, that’s not a problem if Suarez is the support striker; it’s a Beardlsey-esque goal tally, for a player who can drift all over the front line. But Suarez isn’t the support striker; at least, not in terms of goals.

The elephant in the changing room

Now, I rate Andy Carroll reasonably highly. I think he’s playing well right now, and is a good target-man. He’s got underrated technique, and looks capable of scoring more goals than he does at present; this analysis by Andrew Beasley points out that he aims for the corners, rather than just blasting at goal. As such, he’s had a lot of near misses by trying to do the right thing, when closing his eyes and belting it, or even scuffing it, might have had better results. There’s a player in there, I have no doubt; the question is, whether it can be brought out sufficiently at Liverpool, and whether it’s worth the time and effort (and money) trying.

Let’s be clear: his record since joining Liverpool is mediocre at best. Again, if he was paired alongside a nimble poacher – or if Suarez could somehow translate his Ajax scoring form – then it becomes less of an issue. Didier Drogba only scored 10 league goals when Chelsea won their first Premier League title in 2004/05, even with the abundance of quality in that side (that was with Damien Duff and Arjen Robben on the flanks, not Henderson and Downing).

A year later, when the title was retained, it was still only 12 league goals from the big Ivorian. But elsewhere, players like Robben and Frank Lampard were banging them in. Drogba could be the menace-maker, while others pounced amid the mayhem. Carroll, though still three years younger than Drogba when he arrived in England, is capable of performing a similar role. (At Carroll’s age, Drogba hadn’t even played in a top division; aged 23, he was with Le Mans in the second tier of the French league, where he’d scored just 12 goals in 64 games. This is not to say that Carroll will be better than Drogba, or even get to be as good, but it does show how big strikers can get better with age.)

While Carroll and Suarez have played fairly well as a partnership, with the Uruguayan scoring more frequently when paired with the big Geordie, there’s a distinct lack of killer pace in the partnership. How many top teams can say that?

Suarez is nippy, but not especially quick. Carroll isn’t as slow as some make out, but is slow off the mark, and even once into his stride, is no Drogba (at his devastating peak) or Emmanuel Adebayor. Perhaps one of the reasons Downing has been chosen over Maxi is his pace; but all the time, no matter how the pack gets shuffled, Dalglish and Clarke have not found a sufficient combination of both pace and goals.

The only way to present a threat in behind defences is to push Suarez up against the last man, with Carroll deeper and, if he wins headers halfway or two-thirds of the way up the pitch (as he did for the equaliser against Everton last week), he has Suarez already in position ahead of him to get onto them. So there’s a logic there, and it was also the way the pair lined up in the 3-0 win over City last April, when Carroll got his only brace so far. Look at heatmaps, and you’ll see Carroll often touches the ball in deeper areas than Suarez.

But if you play Suarez as the spearhead, you lose a lot of his strengths. With five headed goals to Carroll’s one, it’s not exactly illogical to play Suarez as a target-man, and he can be quite brilliant at holding off defenders, but Carroll isn’t going to speed into the box in the manner of a more mobile forward (or, by comparison, in the way Gerrard used to a couple of years back from the second-striker position).

Again, if you switch Carroll to the focal point, you can have Suarez buzzing about, but it reduces the threat in behind teams; Carroll, if isolated up front, can’t do what Torres used to, and turn and run at defenders, either with the ball or without. His only option is to hold it up and wait for support. And Carroll doesn’t have the clever movement, or the pace, to make runs off the back of centre-backs.

So with two strikers who either have yet to mature into goalscoring machines in English football, or who simply may never do so, the onus is on the midfield. And this, to me, is where this Liverpool side have failed. There just hasn’t been enough threat from that quartet.

The Everton hat-trick aside, and the late strike versus Newcastle, Steven Gerrard hasn’t been scoring in the league from open play, although those four goals show that he can still put the ball in the back of the net when he’s in advanced positions. He’s had an injury-blighted campaign, but as he approaches 32, the days of regular barnstorming may be beyond him. Getting the best out of him is another dilemma.

So, with two strikers who, at best, look incapable of scoring more than 25 league goals between them – and right now, share a measly 12 (and have just 19 between them in almost 18 months) – then unless that pair radically improve their chance conversion rates, the midfield has to pose more of a goal threat than it currently does.

I believe that Henderson has the ability to score more goals, but I’m not sure he’ll do so from the right flank. A quick look at some of his career goals, particularly for the England U21s – where four in 16 from central midfield shows his potential – highlights how he seems to prefer instep curlers, and even though his one Liverpool goal to date was left-footed in that manner, he hasn’t had too many memorable shots from right of centre.

He reminds me of a free-kick taker, whose right foot means he only takes shots from either the centre, or left of centre. From the right, with his right foot, he’s provided hardly any goal threat; very few stinging drives across goal. Yesterday, against West Brom, he used his instep to curl a fine effort against the underside of the bar, having received the ball centrally.

He’s clearly a far better player in the centre than out wide, but I understand some of the reasons he’s been used out there: as a ‘solid’ option to counterbalance the winger on the other flank (the Houghton to Downing’s Barnes, although the comparisons end there!), and the fact that he can cross the ball. That said, the goals issue from midfield makes it a problem in terms of him playing there in this side.

(Videos of his 10-or-so career goals to date can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2CHIQcG0CA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9issYqWK_I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvWQ1K5G6Bk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83-_upzwi2w)

Who else can score goals? Craig Bellamy was banging them in during the middle of the season, but then injury blighted his career yet again, and since his return hasn’t looked half as confident. Again, he’s never likely to be regularly prolific enough up front these days, and perhaps is not reliable enough, fitness-wise, to plan a best XI with him in.

Bellamy’s chance conversion rate has been excellent, as has Maxi’s. But both are in their 30s, and both have been behind Downing and Henderson in the pecking order. Kuyt’s not having his best season, but he got double-figures under Kenny alone last season, and has five this time, in his first season as a mere squad player. If Liverpool lose both of these players in the summer, then the squad will have even fewer goals in it; their replacements will need to be ultra-reliable to make it worthwhile.

With Kuyt and Maxi having scored their only three Premier League hat-tricks to date in the second half of last season, as part of almost 20 goals the pair shared within just a few months, it does continually bring us back to why Kenny (and Damien Comolli) felt that new players would do better.

If the manager genuinely felt that they would improve things, then he had to go with that belief; but if it fails, then just as he got heaps of praise for revitalising Kuyt and Maxi after their struggles under Hodgson, he has to take the blame for the new approach falling short. The only way it can be redeemed now is by Downing and Henderson going on to show that this was just a bedding-in period; which is more plausible in the case of the 21-year-old than the man who is seven years older.

Missed opportunities

A key question remains: should Liverpool have signed someone in the January window? I know that, as winter approached, FSG felt Liverpool needed a striker and were happy to supply the funds for one; but that Damien Comolli felt Liverpool needed a centre-back. At the time, I still felt Suarez – who’d just scored four in a tough game for Uruguay against Chile – would suddenly transform into the striker who once netted 50 in a season in Holland; or, at least, the one who gets a goal every two games for his country. But by the time the window opened, it was looking increasingly like Liverpool needed a dead-eye poacher, with ice in his veins (as opposed to the fire in Suarez’s).

There’s no doubt that the January window is not the ideal time to buy. But both Papiss Cissé and Nikica Jelavic were new to the Premier League, and both have been sensations. Yes, they might end up being overnight sensations – we can’t yet say that they are long-term solutions – but the signs are that they are the real deal.

They were inexpensive – the pair combined cost less than Downing – and neither striker commands massive wages. You can argue that the pressure is much tougher at Liverpool, and that’s true. But they’ve done more than could reasonably have been expected at what remain fairly large clubs.

Demba Ba, though no longer scoring as many due to Cissé’s arrival pushing him out wide, only arrived in English football at the start of 2011; in that time, he’s scored 23 league goals. He was another inexpensive January purchase, initially for West Ham.

Kenny to go?

As much as I love Kenny Dalglish, for the incredible amount he has given to Liverpool as a player, manager and dignified grief counsellor, I can see the argument for the league performance signalling the end of his reign. Equally, I can see a valid argument which says it’s crazy to sack a manager who may win two cups in his first full season (in his case, after 20 years away).

I can see why some people think his record in the transfer market is worthy of dismissal (after all, it helped cost Comolli his job). It hasn’t been like when he brought in Steve McMahon, John Barnes, John Aldridge, Peter Beardsley and Ray Houghton within a couple of years of first landing the job in 1985; and as such, it doesn’t provide optimism for the future. Equally, I can fully understand the argument that Liverpool have played some excellent football this season, only to fail to convert total domination into points. While a Barnes would be lovely, it’s perhaps just needed an Aldridge to prod the ball over the line from six inches.

To me, this is not sitting on the fence, but seeing both sides of a complex situation, where a mix of the incredibly good and the incredibly bad leaves individuals deciding if their glass is half full or half empty.

For me, the glass is simply filled to the midway point right now, with an equal mix of sweet and bitter. And I’ve honestly no idea if it’s going to fill up or drain away.

[Mohammad Shahrul]

"Stone wall peno denied, woodwork rattled, sitters missed, ricochets going every which way but in" looks like is
tagged at a greater rate to be a trending topic... It looks like a Liverpool's Twitter currently to understand what
is happening in the Liverpool world... Bloody possession like Arsenal we play but fail to convert the chances
unlike them... If Im an invisible man, having its power, the first thing I do is to sneak in the match official room
before the game, install a remote sensor inside the ball which can be controlled without making any physical
contact and make sure its going to fucking get in the fucking net everytime Suarez or Carroll touch it / play
it. Fuck off the woodwork rattled I cant stand it anymore, its hurting me deeply in the bottom of my heart
and I want Liverpool to score... Yea, Im willing to control it remotely to hit The Owl's face. Damn it I cant take
this any more!!!

[exiledintheUSA]

Until we can crack the code of putting the ball in the net and putting teams to the sword the type of season we are having will continue.  I'm about 99.9% sure it is not just bad luck, we need greater conviction in our play.  Yesterday we passed the ball well, made chance after chance and yet at times really did not look like scoring - the last 6 or 7 minutes were just deviod of any attacking ideas and more alarmingly devios of attacking intent.

The first 5 or 6 games of next season will be very telling in my opinion, should this trend continue well we will be in trouble.

[King_Kenny_4_Life]

This season, we've been just like Barcelona, so close to greatness but can't finish off our chances. We've hit the woodwork at least a thousand times. This year, none of them went in. Next year all of them might go in. Or none of them might go in. One thing is certain though, Kenmy hasn't had any luck this season.

On another day we'd have beaten West Brom 9-0. Just have to put this game behind us and look forward to next year. The future looks bright.

[Redsnappa]

The lack of determination by Agger - fear of injury perhaps - to attack the two stretching chances he had tells me that he at least has his eyes on Wembley.

Of course it shouldn't be down to him to be scoring the goals, but at least he was getting in the positions to capitalise on the far post. Where's the bloody midfielders gambling on those situations?

[mally]

This season, we've been just like Barcelona, so close to greatness but can't finish off our chances. We've hit the woodwork at least a thousand times. This year, none of them went in. Next year all of them might go in. Or none of them might go in. One thing is certain though, Kenmy hasn't had any luck this season.

On another day we'd have beaten West Brom 9-0. Just have to put this game behind us and look forward to next year. The future looks bright.

We've been absolutely nothing like Barcelona.

[john_mac]

I didn't find anything about the game depressing, annoyingly predictable but not depressing. All the signs are there for progress, not dis-similar to Houllier's team in 2000-1. I know that team finished third and qualified for the champions league but it will always be better remembered for its cup exploits, but it was the promise of what lay ahead that was the real bonus as the season drew to a close. Fuckinell how we could have done with a post Christmas Gary McAllister this season.

For many of the players it is their first season, things will get better for them, the team will integrate better. Finishing cannot be as bad again, surely, luck, well I don't want to go there but I've never known anything like it. The woodwork, I don't know if it is some sort of record but I'd doubt any other team has used it as much in the past.

We've got less than two weeks for a FA Cup final, win it and Kenny will have delivered the only two trophies he could realistically have given us this season. For me performances have been a million miles better than results and we sit in the falsest position in the league since Carlisle led it in 1974.

Roy had his day, Kenny has many more in him!

[Black Bull Nova]

End of season

Champions: City
FA Cup: Liverpool
Carling Cup: Liverpool
CL: Barcelona
PL: Liverpool 7th

=good season

Champions: United
FA Cup: Chelsea
Carling Cup: Liverpool
CL: Chelsea
PL: Liverpool 14th

=shite season

End game

[Red Genius]

I believe there are 4 fundamental area's that require attention, some of which have already been expressed above.

1.) Coaching
2.) Balance
3.) Personnel
4.) Experience / Belief

Coaching

It's clear as day that we've been found wanting on many occasions this season in front of goal, and the issue raised it's head early in the season and has continued as a theme throughout, a clear area of weakness in our game. Whilst i suspect we are a little short in quality in the finishing department, we surely could have curtailed our poor form in front of goal with some attention at Melwood. I have no idea whether Kenny and co have identified this and have been working hard on rectifying this trend in training, but if they haven't, well they really should have been. This is one area i feel we could have been more creative with our solutions, of course we could have gone out in January and tried to bring some-one in upfront to help bring competition for places. However on the other hand we could have completed a potentially far simpler deal and that was to bring in somebody to help coach our forwards specifically on composure, technique in striking the ball and decision making when looking to exploit space and engineer space for a shot, a Ian Rush, a Robbie Fowler perhaps even an Alan Shearer. Opportunity missed in my opinion.

Balance

We spent a lot of money trying to get a good balance in a variation of important factors. Skill set weaknesses, lack of competition  for places in various positions, the right attitude, the right balance of ages within the squad - experience and raw energy. It's not  something that i expected the squad to be able to get "right" in one transfer window, and we have improved in certain area's. The squad average age is down, we do have a left winger, we do have somebody that is supposed to be able to take free kicks and corners, we have brought in more competition for places. But even so there have been some glaring omissions, a lack of alternative for when Lucas is not available, a real and viable alternative to Andy Carroll partnering Suarez, an alternative style of right winger to Kuyt or Henderson, one that can carry the ball and take the game to an opposing full back. Having a recognised starting x11 (nobody is able to agree on what our's is and we're not talking by one player or two, completely varying opinions) This is something i would like to see evolve next season and see our team settle down and establish it's strongest team, bar tactical switches.

Personnel

What it says on the tin, we still lack some quality in certain positions and some squad depth in others. I won't go into too much as i'm not interested right now in names, rather positions and the skillset we need there. I think most would agree we need another striker, one who has a reputation for putting the ball firmly between the posts, this would add healthy competition upfront for Andy who is still very much learning his game. A right winger, one who can bring something different to the mix we currently have available in that position, somebody who has the ability to carry the ball as a counter attacking outlet, but also maintains the guile required to work in tighter spaces too. I'd like to see a right winger beat his full back on the outside and get in behind our opposition. A viable alternative to Lucas, most likely as an understudy, but if we were able to find somebody who could also compliment his game but also step in when Lucas is absent and conduct both roles well would be fantastic, but i think perhaps that would be a difficult ask.

Experience / Belief

We've got a lot of young players in our team and players who are only just beginning to get used to what it feels like to win trophies, this is a steady arc of progression for our squad and winning the league cup will have given the team a good taste, winning the FA Cup would be a fantastic addition in building a winning mentality and understanding what it feels like to be winners and breath fresh desire to win more. Those games build experience in players, to believe is the first step to deliver is a whole new one and that experience is essential to any developing squad.

So when people bitch whine and moan about pulling out the patience card or complain that we bleet on about being a work in progress, it for the very reasons above that i think of when i form that opinion, yes we do need patience because we are a work in progress as we attempt to become better hopefully through working on the above issues.

[Always_A_Red]

I'd be quite shocked if all of - dare I say it - Dalglish, Clarke, and Keen (and Achterberg, but that's a different discussion) were all in the positions they currently hold come the start of next season.

[King_Kenny_4_Life]

We've been absolutely nothing like Barcelona.

You've completely missed the point. We're so close to greatness. If some of the chances we've had went in this season we'd be well on the way to a top 4 finish. Hitting the post, and bad officiating has cost us big time this season.

[Yorkykopite]

End of season

Champions: City
FA Cup: Liverpool
Carling Cup: Liverpool
CL: Barcelona
PL: Liverpool 7th

=good season

Champions: United
FA Cup: Chelsea
Carling Cup: Liverpool
CL: Chelsea
PL: Liverpool 14th

=shite season

End game

Ha ha, very good.

It's cheating though. Can you call it now? Right now, I mean, as things stand with all the permutations up in the air?

I'll be seeing my Arsenal pal tomorrow night, as I do every Tuesday, and I have no fear of the conversation after we've had our own match.

We have silverware, they don't. We might get more, they won't. And I'll probably say it like that too - as a little poem.

Both LFC and AFC were too long without trophies at the start of this season. They alone will think the same when it all kicks off again in August. 

[CHOPPER]

I blame the pairings of Diana Dors and Don Estelle in defence and Charles Hawtry and Will Hay in centre mid . They never got going all afternoon.

Bamber Gascoigne should start next week if you ask me and I'd give Michael Aspell a run out in attack as well.

[vagabond]

Just wanted to make a quick point that I think somebody made in the post match thread and deserves to be said again. It is true that the league is basically a dead rubber from now on in. It is also true that players might find it difficult to be motivated for these matches.
However, fans pay good money to watch this so called dead rubber. Very good money, in fact. Surely the players can be motivated for their sakes or am I being naive in expecting a bunch of multi-millionaires to empathise with the common folk?

[Greebo62]

Just wanted to make a quick point that I think somebody made in the post match thread and deserves to be said again. It is true that the league is basically a dead rubber from now on in. It is also true that players might find it difficult to be motivated for these matches.
However, fans pay good money to watch this so called dead rubber. Very good money, in fact. Surely the players can be motivated for their sakes or am I being naive in expecting a bunch of multi-millionaires to empathise with the common folk?

What, like the current government full of rich tory cnuts do?  Clearly naive!

Seriously, I agree.  The cost of going the match has become almost unaffordable.  To see the same lack of fight happening every week is both depressing and leaves me feeling cheated by them

[walshys_mullet]

For the first time in ages i snapped yesterday.

I just could not believe the amount of chances we created, it was like men vs boys and yet again we lost. And its hard to point fingers. Because for the majority we play really good football. There may be a few niggles with Kenny's setup and lineups some time, but we do attack and we do create.

How NONE of those shots have gone in off the post, not even one, i just dont know, it's bloody weird. This season needs to end now, hopefully with a cup win, regather our energies, get some personnell fit for next year and start the ball rolling again.

However i would like to see a few things:

Either sell reina or get him a decent coach, because the guy looks miserable out there and is diving as much as me with a bad back.

Carroll has to go - not because i dont rate him but because to me its clear as day he just doesnt fit in this team at all. We currently have a target man and a playmaker up front but no poacher/finisher. Says it all. Its like having two missing pieces that dont match. One target man with one poacher. one playmaker with one poacher. please.

I'd be inclined to keep Maxi and Kuyt UNLESS we plan on making some decent moves in the summer we cant have Henderson at right midfield again.

Sort Aquilani out

Buy a finisher or someone who stands in the box like Steve Bull, or Aldo. Anyone.

And please please please, for my sanity treat preseason like its a shaping ground for the coming season, not a money making excercise giving fringe players a run out! It is important to bed new players and young players in, into formations and gameplans. Use it dont abuse it!

[Regi]

It's the same old, same old. We know it, and the players know it.

It isn't luck. It isn't quality.

We're creating more chances than pretty much anyone in the league, but we're not converting them. Our forwards aren't often in the right places, and when they are we often don't find them.

It comes down to two things - decision making, and coaching.

I'm loathe to criticise Suarez for making bad decisions regularly, as he creates so much on his own that he should be entitled to fancy a crack after turning past 3 players on the byline, but... he's fucking stupid at times. It seems like every game, I find myself asking "Why are you shooting from there?" It's not that he's not good enough to squirm the odd one in - he clearly is - but it's the fact that most times when he does it, there is a cutback available to someone who has a far better opportunity to make the keeper work.

It's not just Suarez - the others are guilty too. Much has been said about Adam's lack of ability to make a sensible decision in the final third, and we all know that Downing and Henderson don't gamble in and around the box enough.

The intelligence levels in the final third are ridiculous - and that's before we get to the finishing aspect (which I won't do, because for me it leads right into the next point).


That next point is this: We still don't have an attacking gameplan. We still don't have 'that' goal... you know, the one we score so regularly because it's been drilled into the players that that's just what they do in that situation? We don't have the "get down the byline and drill it low across the 6 yard box for a tap in" like United, or the "keep possession around the edge of the box and wait for the combination of a crack in the defence and a third man run into it" like Barcelona... hell, we don't even have the "put it on Kenwyne Jones' head and play off the scraps".

What we have, is a club-wide lack of intelligence.

If the players aren't capable of making good decisions for the benefit of the team in and around the final third - and they clearly aren't - then they need two or three set moves drilled into them by the coaches which will give them no choice but to bring success following repetition.

The coaches haven't done anything like that this season. What they've done is entrusted our attacking play to players who haven't shown they're able to handle the responsibility. The idea is a nice one, but the reality is that it hasn't worked, and what's criminal is that it hasn't been addressed, despite the fact it's been evidently ineffective for 95% of this season.

The playing staff are technically good but intellectually inept - they essentially live up to the stereotype pretty well. It's the coaches' job to get the best out of them, and to manufacture situations during games that will allow them to thrive. That, simply, has not happened.

We have a good squad, with some great players, some good potential, and some stocking fillers.

What we don't have, is any form of clear attacking routine, and that responsibility lies solely with the coaching staff.

I'd be quite shocked if all of - dare I say it - Dalglish, Clarke, and Keen (and Achterberg, but that's a different discussion) were all in the positions they currently hold come the start of next season.

Must say I find myself agreeing with just about all of that.
Luis is guilty of some bizarre decision-making...shooting when you want a cut-back, then cutting it back or cutting inside when you are screming for him to pull the trigger.
But as you say, we lack intelligence in the final third so badly it hurts.
What's the point lumping it up to Andy when not enough players have the wit to run into space for the knock-down?
What's the point crossing a ball into the box when no-one is there and no-one is following in from midfield to pick up?
As you say, the coaching is surely to blame

[djschembri]

When asked whether we do extra training on finishing due to our profligacy in front of goal this season, Dalglish said no.

It's not just down to luck when you know what the problem is but you make no attempt to solve it.

[Red Genius]

When asked whether we do extra training on finishing due to our profligacy in front of goal this season, Dalglish said no.

It's not just down to luck when you know what the problem is but you make no attempt to solve it.

Do you have a source for that? I'm just interested to read it in context having never seen / heard that before.

[Not A Scouser]

There's been lots of talk (and quite rightly) about how we create a lot of chances and don't convert them.  There has even been statistics taken from opta about how we don't take "clear cut chances."  Watching that game we created a ton of chances, and some of them were decent chances.  You would think at least one of them would have gone in.  However, at no point (to my recollection) did we create any chances where it was 1 on the goalkeeper, or 2 vs 2, or 3 vs 3.  Everything was two thirds of our team against most of their team.  Therefore any shot we had was in out of the penalty area or in a very congested penalty area.  To my memory they had a couple of pot shots from extreme distance, one chance from a corner, and then two gilt-edged chances, one on a break up field, one from pressing Johnson into a mistake leading to a 1 on 1 against Reina.  They had almost no chances, but those chances were far better on average than ours.  They were created from a set piece, a fast counter, and pressing our defence.

We passed the ball beautifully.  We had all the possession.  We took a ton of shots.  With that number of chances you would expect us to score, and a clinical striker would have got at least one, but the chances generally weren't that great.  I would prefer 10 chances rather than 27 if the quality of the chances were better (pass the fucking ball Luis!).

The lack of finishing has gone beyond a statistic anomaly.  There is not a single attacker (to my knowledge) who has converted chances as well as he did the previous year.  When there's a problem that goes throughout the team and lasts for an entire season then the problem isn't just the players, it's the system.  When Kenny came back last year he returned the system to that which almost the entire team knew and understood, Rafa's 4231.  Over the summer he had enough time to buy the players he wanted to fit a new system that he had used in the past.  It works great in defence and poorly in attack. 

Our style of play has been the same all season.  Drop deep to defend.  Wait for the opponent to make a mistake in attack.  Once we have the ball pass it around and slowly move it up field.  Pass it around until we get a chance.  Snatch at the shot.  It's old-fashioned pass and move.  The only time we attack against a limited number of defenders is when the opposition is trying to win the game.  A truly good team can press, play on the counter, possess the ball.  We can do one of the three.

It is always hard to score against teams that park the bus.  It was the same problem we had under Rafa.  We could easily have had three goals in this last match.  But when a match like that is so familiar that it is our standard performance for a year, then there is something systemic going on.

[djschembri]

Do you have a source for that? I'm just interested to read it in context having never seen / heard that before.

Rory Smith ‏ @RorySmithTimes

Before I was booted off Merseyside for being too tall, we asked Kenny if he'd had them in for extra shooting practice. He didn't. It shows.

I wouldn't take it too seriously because the context isn't known, but this team has regressed compared to the game we saw vs Sunderland on the first day of the season. It does make you wonder what is done during training.

[leivapool]

.  There is not a single attacker (to my knowledge) who has converted chances as well as he did the previous year.

Thats a good point.  Why have ALL of our attackers performed worse this season?