The biggest problem facing us at the moment isn't the managers tactics or who we need to sign this transfer window it's the effect that the last few years has had on the fanbase. We're slowly turning into the worst type of Newcastle fans, (not you, Black and White Paul). The type of fans we used to laugh at a few seasons ago, constantly looking for the 'new messiah' and in their impatience dooming every manager to failure irrespective of how good they are. It may be a cliche but it's the most important lesson any football fan can learn; it takes time to build anything of worth, unless you have an oil shiek or a Russian gangster willing to throw millions at your mistakes. You still make the mistakes but they don't matter, a bit like football manager you're not playing in the real world.
We were different, make no mistake. That difference came about many reasons but was reinforced over a long period. We were a managers club. A club where we were immune from the tittle tattle of the sports journalists with their short term mentality based on who's doing well this week. We laughed as they lynched another Ingerland manager,knowing we would never be effected by such idiocy. We'd learnt through experience of watching Shankly dismantle his first side, we watched as it took a few wrong turns to get the mix right. Nothing teaches a manager more than the experience of defeat.
Slowly things changed. Towards the end of Houlliers reign someone unfurled a banner with 'Houllier Out' at a home game. Unthinkable to the majority but the start of the process that leads us into the mess we are in today. Rafa Benitez delivered two Champions League finals in three years. Think about what an incredible achievement that was. Yet many of our fans could not see that he was being fucked over by a pair of shysters destroying the club from within. They believed the football genius's of the press and old player brigade who told us he was negative playing two holding midfielders with only one in attack, a system that won a World Cup and is being played by nearly everyone today. The same football genius's who laughed at rotation and zonal marking both accepted orthodoxies today. The same people who said we were two man side, Gerrard and Carragher, while Xabi Alonso et al played for us, yet used it as a stick to beat Benitez with later on. You couldn't make it up. We were lucky enough to be sitting in a bar outside the Bernabaeu, thanks to Rafa, listening to Sky News on our phones, worried that Rafa was being sacked before we beat Real in their own back yard and totally destroyed them at Anfield. So who was right then, the football genius's of the Media and those influenced by them or the the fans that ignored them and made the banner 'Focusing on Supporting our Manager.
Kenny Dalglish has forgotten more about football than anyone on here. He went along with the Comolli mistake because of his love for the club and his pleasure at being back in charge, he even refused to cut him lose when it would have been advantageous to him to do so. Honour is a commodity we're not used to seeing in football but then Kenny had very good teachers. He likes a tight defence coupled with total flexibility up front, for those who were prepared to wait it would have been an exciting journey but there were far too many 'experts' who knew better than Kenny, that contributed to the background, where FSG felt confident to cut a legend adrift, out of touch with the modern game, behave. Towards the end of last season I listened to a podcast that I enjoy listening to and apart from one dissenting voice I couldn't tell it apart from the mainstream criticism of Kenny, and on RAWK lets have a critical voice but also make sure we spend as much time discussing what we're doing right, defending the manager from the shite that's aimed at Liverpool from those who love to see us fail, otherwise all you see is the criticism despite the good intentions.
When FSG felt confident enough to sack Kenny I'd have loved the return of Rafa but that wasn't happening with Ian Ayer still at the club, with his 'inexperience', so I hoped for a young manger with ideas and a vision, so I was not disappointed with Rodgers appointment.
Yeah, it's easy to see he's inexperienced at this level, this is a step up for him. Anyone can see that we like to push our fullbacks up, and our midfield's vulnerable defensively, not providing protection for the two centrebacks leaving a gaping hole, although at Stoke it was setplays that undid us rather than this. I sometimes think Brendan's too open with his vision, and talks as if all his ideas are new to fans brought up on a passing game but the point is if this is what we concentrate on we'll do in another manager and that will be a total disaster for us.
If we can see the gap in our defence, Brendan can and will be working on it, he's sticking with it for a reason, let's speculate on that rather than talking about him as if he's a total knob, leave that nonsense to the journalists who want do us harm. We are a side with marauding fullbacks, set up to play exciting attacking football but through the 'inexperience' of FSG we were left with no one in attack. Brendan obviously thought we had a striker in the bag when he agreed to Carroll's loan, that wasn't the time for FSG to play hardball over a few million, it didn't take a talksport genius to see we'd struggle for goals in this situation but at times we've created fantastic chances, it's fixable and will be at the top of Rodger's agenda.
Rafa started the ball rolling, but Rodgers has brought through some fantastic young players into the first team squad with all the advantages and yes disadvantages that brings. If we only look short-term and come out with utter shite like QPR being make or break, we'll fuck up this club for a long time maybe for ever. Rodger's isn't infallible, no one is but he is reflective and he'll learn from his mistakes like Rafa does and like the great duo Shanks and Paisley did before him. However he needs more than half a season, even a deadbeat like Alex Ferguson got six or seven seasons before he sorted it out. Rodgers is our chance to break out of midtable mediocrity, with a team playing exciting football, but he'll need support now, when there's a storm around him, not amateur smartarses pointing out his mistakes and pretending he thinks possession is the new goalscoring. It's precisely because we all care what happens to this club and won't accept mediocrity that we should be supporting him now. As some very wise Kopites put it, now is the time to be 'Focusing on Supporting our Manager.
