Andy Townsend, Jamie Redknapp, Thierry Henry, Michael Owen, Ian Wright: I apologise. I thought – still do, actually – that you are among the worst pundits in the history of televised football, but you pale into significance (yes, that’s the word I meant), compared to BT Sport’s woeful effort tonight. David James and Steve McManaman: what on earth are you on about?
Liverpool’s new manager Jurgen Klopp has been in charge for less than a couple of weeks. He met the majority of his players eight days ago. The squad is ravaged by injuries. He did not sign any of the players. Klopp has seen his team play once before tonight. But James and especially McManaman argued vociferously that Liverpool should have been far better against Rubin Kazan in tonight’s Europa League. Well, perhaps they should, but let’s look at James’ and McManaman’s coaching credentials. James has had a less than glittering managerial career in Iceland and India. McManaman has never coached anywhere. Klopp does have some coaching experience, funnily enough, but he can’t possibly know about managing Liverpool as James and McManaman, right?
Now, I retired from playing very low level football some 16 years ago. I never coached and I never managed but even I could see Liverpool’s problems tonight. The team is devoid of confidence and they aren’t playing very well. They are not bad players anymore than they are world class players, but a team without confidence is a team who probably won’t win. Believe me: this applies at the top of the Premier League every bit as much as it matters in Sunday football. Confidence isn’t, literally, everything, but given the fine margins that apply in football, it usually makes the difference. When your team is playing well and giving everything, you think you can never lose. The pressure disappears as confidence builds. Every win, every positive result, builds the confidence. You don’t notice it straight away if you are leaving a fallow period, but sooner or later, it sort of clicks. Not every player is the same – some retain the belief, always – but this is how football works. Do you remember Arsenal’s invincibles? That was confidence and belief as habit.
Why can TV pundits not see this? McManaman raged like a fan, by which I mean a fan who has never seriously kicked a ball in anger, but he has kicked a ball in anger. He does not strike me as the archetypal thick footballer so perhaps a decade or so away from the game has seen his memory fade.
I saw Liverpool huff and puff against a team that sat deep from the off and then sat deeper when their captain was (wrongly) sent off. A goal of someone’s arse might have changed everything. McManaman and James made no reference to some of Liverpool’s intermittent swift passing movements and, presumably, didn’t notice a high class performance from Adam Lallana. They noticed Clyne getting the wrong side of the striker allowing him to put the visitors ahead, but Stevie Wonder would have seen that one coming. There there was no analysis whatsoever.
Even BT Sport’s “experts” acknowledged that Klopp will not turn Liverpool into a title winning outfit in a weeks, but only just. Always, just below the surface, was the impression that he had had long enough by now and that this was no different from the Rodgers days. If McManaman had announced it was time for Klopp to go, I would not have been surprised. Andy Townsend’s tactics truck looked positively visionary compared to this.
To say that BT Sport is new to football is to miss the point. Tonight, we had punditry of the level of Ian Wright on a bad day, it really was that poor. Liverpool will surely do better, but I don’t see how BT Sport can without some major team changes.
