Par, such a simple and non-offensive word.
Just 3 little letters, it’s hard to get upset by a word like Par isn’t it?
Well thats what you would have thought this time last week. However, since a certain Mr Rodgers uttered that non-offensive little word in a press conference, I’ve seen it written more times than a pro-golfer would write it on their scorecards.
Perhaps Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers would have been better to use a phrase such as “we expected to finish within the top 5 this season, and given our expenditure and wage bill, if the season finished tomorrow we’d have hit that target. We are, however, bitterly disappointed that we haven’t made it into the top 4″.
The problem with mentioning a club’s expenditure and wage bill when talking about league positions is that football isn’t played on a balance sheet, it’s played on grass, and as we’ve seen particularly this season, football cares not who pays the most in wages and transfer fees.
If it did, we wouldn’t bother with managers or coaches. We’d just tally up the ledgers and hand out the trophies based on those results. It’s never going to be that simple.
Liverpool’s most recent game at Anfield against QPR is a great example of this, a par result should have been a comfortable 2 or 3 goal win for the home side. Liverpool have a higher wage bill, spent more on transfers and are 14 places higher than QPR in the league table.
The reality: It was another nervy 1 goal win for the home side. Liverpool got the 3 points but it was an underwhelming performance. There are numerous other examples of this involving every side in the Barclays Premier League this season, but in particular this current Liverpool side, both home and away a lot of our performances and results this season have been well below-‘par’.
Someone has to take responsibility for that and for me, that lays firmly at the feet of the manager. You can’t sit there with 4 games left of the season and say we’re on par for what we should achieve, when at the exact same time last season, still with the 5th highest wage bill the team sat at the top of the Barclays Premier League table.
Football is all about overachieving and underachieving.
As the manager himself said in his press conference,
“If you take the emotion out of last weekend this was a team which overachieved last year… we weren’t expected to get into the top four and that same team had a world-class striker (Luis Suarez) in it and someone on fire in terms of Daniel Sturridge, who has the potential to be that (world class) when fit and playing.”
Brendan is right, we achieved a lot last season and a lot of that was based on the performances of the £12million pound man Daniel Sturridge, the boy wonder from Brazil Philippe Coutinho, a snip at £8.5 million pounds and, of course, the genius of Luis Suarez who arrived at a measly £22.5million pounds.
In footballing terms, those fees are not high. If anything, Daniel Sturridge’s and Phillipe Coutinho’s fees are on par with what a middle of the table side such as Southampton or Swansea may pay for a player.
You simply cannot rely on just spending more money to make you a better team. Liverpool have tried to buy their way back to the top recently, remember the side with the £35million pound front man and the £20million pound midfielder?
Big fees, big expectations, massive under performance.
Compare that to Chelsea, the newly crowned Barclays Premier League Champions. They strengthened this summer with a 30+ million pound striker and a 20+million pound midfielder, the results speak for themselves.
It’s never been about how much you spend, it’s about who you spend it on.
Liverpool’s manager and transfer committee need to get back to that idea and stop kidding themselves and the fans.
Liverpool were expected to get into the top 4 this season, finishing 5th or lower is not par, it’s an underachievement.
i didnt expect i read this kind of article from this site…
am really disappointed… i really am
Why are you dissapointed with facts Jeshua. I think this is agreat article in pointing out the scam that is BR.
Well said.
Who defines par? Liverpool finished second last year, lost their two main strikers (over 50 goals between them) and then replaced them with Lambert and Balotelli. Of course it’s still up to the club and the manager to get the right players in but going past the first game of the season, given the players we have and the strikers we had … who decided a top 4 finish was par?
Manchester United, Aston Villa, Ludogorets Razgrad, Basel, and Besiktas are some of the things which define par.
Adam, i think you had kind of just answered your own question. Now who bought players like Mario, Lambert and than decides that they kind of “does not fit in” ? More than 200 million spent since BR tenure, apart from Coutinho and Sturridge, all either had been flops and simply did not shine enough.
Brendan Rodgers should stop making excuses. Last season when we came the closest in winning the trophy (no thanks to you as i credit the players completely for it Suarez, sterling, sturridge coutinho and even gerrard!) you throw it away in the chelsea game u Friggin idiot! And then be content by saying that we overachieved. This year you very well knew you din have the 25 goal machine way early(not like he was sold in the jan transfer window). You spend all of the suarez money plus the transfer budget on various players. U still make an excuse after every bad match that u lost suarez and this was bound to happen! If so then why not resign to the fact and not spend on players at the start of the season itself. After spending 117 mill you want to make excuses such as we lost suarez and sturridge??!!!!??? F&*K off! If u accepeted your mistakes and worked upon it instead of being an egotistical prick of a media person then probably we would have been in a better position. Look at Southampton. U took half their team and for most of the season they were above us in the table(they look likely to still finish with europa league qual like us). Suarez’s departure has exposed your tactical naivety. You should work on that rather than talking bullcr&p in the media. I believe Klopp is a no nonsense manager way better than rodgers and we should pursue him if we do not acquire 9 points in the next 3 matches and give man u a fight. Not saying this because of klopp being available but clearly there are way better managers in terms of tactics and winning mentality around.
Why don’t you just piss off across the park and support the other moaning shower. You are typical of the younger generation, given everything they wanted growing up and still wanting instant gratification, so in actuality not yet grown up,
I think you are the type of fans who are so use to medicority, you would he happy just to avoid relegation. Oh not to mention gullible too in believing THAT BR hype. That is why we have not won the league for 20 odd years.
Please read my post below to understand what we are dealing with here.
We all know (except his own fans and the man himself) that he is delusional beyond doubt but we all hope for the sake of this great club of ours, JH and FSG does not believe this hype.
Here is a man given 3 years and hundred of millions of pounds, except the fluke of last season, delivers absolutely nothing, zero, ziltch, no trophies, no success. No place else in the world where a manager is given time and money delivers absolutely nothing and was not held accountable. Only LFC and FSG would allow this sad state of affairs.
His fans and the man himself tout him to be a tactical genius. Well i was struggling to find this genius at work in the losses to Villa,Hull, MU, Arsenal, WBA and we were lucky to win at QPR as our Captain Marvel saved us. He wants us to believe that the loss of just 1 player had brought us this disaster of a season. I thought he was supposed to be some tactical genius and all this happened because of the departure of 1 player however good he is ? Oh, if a better caliber manager were in charge last season, we would have won it, not finished second.
His transfers ? I think 100 mill spent just this season alone with no notable success says it all.
Can you just imagine what proven winners, those managers of the caliber of Rafa or Klopp would bring if given 3 years and hundred of millions pound can bring to LFC ? Rafa had to deal with those 2 cowboys plus limited funds and yet brought us a CL title in his first season, come close to a second, 2nd place in the league and an FA cup. Similarly Klopp won bucket loads of trophies with limited resources and was very successful with young players at Dortmund. I think these people can be classified as geniuses, sorry not you BR. The much maligned KD in his second spell won at least the League cup. BR ?
Another point is which world class player would feel excited to come and play for a manager like BR ? NO CL football ? Does not seems to bother Di Maria or Falcao at MU this season. Why ? Because they know they are playing for a world class manger in LVG. Alexis Sanchez choosing Arsenal rather than LFC ? I think it has more to do with a certain Mr. Wenger than our city Mr. Rodgers. These type of players would take one look at BR and instantly knows they would not go far with him, if at all. Now imagine, the type of players Rafa or Klopp would be able to attract, CL football or not.
This season, FSG had a very small window of opportunity to right what is wrong as Klopp and Rafa is available. Do the right thing and appoint either one as the new manager, our club would progress and prosper. Ponder or much worse lack the courage to act, we would continue to see our club drop further into the abyss. I do not care what Jamie says, THAT banner says it right. What would it be JH and FSG, do you have the courage to do the right thing for LFC ? Do you have the courage to admit your mistake in believing the load of BS in THAT dossier and right what is wrong ?
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FSG’s policy is to NOT buy “stars”, but rather create them. This is what BR does better than any other manager in the league and that is why I think he stays. Getting klopp or rafa wouldn’t make sense because they are going to want to buy expensive stars. Fans just need to patient. We just have to make sure we can keep them here once they develop.
Rafa or Klopp prefer to just buy stars? Where had you been for the last few years Eric? Dortmund are not the sort of club with a lot if can
Rafa or Klopp prefer to just buy stars? Where had you been for the last few years Eric? Dortmund are not the sort of club with a lot of cash to throw around. They have no choice but to use young players. Rafa when he was our manager did not have much cash to burn either. I think they did enough and won a few trophies with all this constraints.
As for BR, after more than 210 million GBP and 24 players later what has he got to show? This season alone more than 100 mill. You see BR spends a lot more too, only to buy mostly dudes. Klopp or Rafa when they spend serious cash they end up with a certain Reus or Torres. Even KD got us Suarez.
So why when KD spent serious cash and sacked when there was no CL after just one season? How come BR is not held accountable after spending 200 mill with nothing to show? At least KD won the League Cup.