Anfield Index

Jim Boardman and Jay Reid are back as Liverpool win 6-0 in Europe, finishing comfortably inside the top eight and earning a month off from European games. All the ingredients for an upbeat episode, you’d think, but whatever sweetness there was from Qarabag is drowned out by the sour taste of what came before - like that 3-2 collapse at Bournemouth.. Before the game the buzz around Anfield wasn’t a ‘buzz’ at all. The same question you kept overhearing, on the way in and once you were inside, was simply: “Stay or go?” The manager, of course, is the subject of that question. Everyone has their own views, and at a club like Liverpool, where we traditionally give our managers time, where we support them through thick or thin, it is never easy for anyone to answer that question with “Go”, especially if it’s one who brought only our second league title in over three decades. But, as will be seen at the next Legends game at Anfield, what you did before is what gets you invited to be involved in those Legends games, given a corner in the museum, your face on a banner, the eternal gratitude of the Kop. It’s what you do now that keeps you at the club, and if it’s not enough, for whatever reason, it’s “see you later”. For Jay and Jim this manager hit that point in that shameful quarter-season slump. The overhyped unbeaten run looked more like running on the spot than moving forward, opportunity after opportunity wasted as other clubs slipped up. That was an opportunity to banish all the doubts, instead it cemented them. Then bringing that to an end against Bournemouth shattered the illusions of many a Red who’d been trying to ignore their instincts, hoping it was all going to sort itself out. In this week’s show Jim and Jay try to explain why they feel the time is up - even after a 6-0 win. They also dig into injuries, selection calls and whether Liverpool are managing this squad responsibly in a season where legs and hamstrings are clearly being pushed to the limit. You may agree with their calling time on the manager, you may need persuading, you may be a long way away from that, but everything said on this show is with the good of the club at heart, because the club comes first. Nobody who has come to this way of thinking is doing it with anything other than sadness, for the man we are talking about and for the state of the club. And everyone is hoping above hope to be proved wrong, in style. But every league game that goes by dissolves even more of what’s left of that hope. Another question being asked around the city, and so on this show, is: “What if he wins the Champions League, does he stay then? Surely he has to stay… doesn’t he?” …