Gerry Cox
FORGET the X factor – it’s the K factor that has got Liverpool fans around the world buzzing again.
Since Kenny Dalglish returned to Anfield four months ago, the transformation from a club in apparently terminal decline to the rude health they enjoy now has been astonishing.
It is not just in the results that lifted the Reds back into the running for a European spot, although the Europa League is the likeliest destination now. Nor is it the run of form that shows Liverpool would be second only to Chelsea if the table had Premier League had started when Daglish returned in January.
It is the way they are playing, and training, and the signs of a return to the Liverpool of old that has brought the feelgood factor back to fans who were beginning to lose hope that they would never return to the promised land.
Liverpool’s 5-2 demolition of Fulham on Monday, the day after Manchester United all but confirmed a new record of 19 League titles, was a fitting response to Sunday’s events at Old Trafford.
No sooner had one bloody-minded Scot laid down his trophy haul and issued the classic football challenge of “show us your medals”, than another pugnacious Glaswegian was sending out the clearest warning yet that the Reds of Liverpool are ready to do business with the old enemy down the East Lancs road.
Five goals – and it could have been more – without the departed Fernando Torres or the injured Andy Carroll, showed that Liverpool are playing with a swagger again. Seasoned observers looked at the way Liverpool’s Anglo-Latin axis bamboozled Fulham, who had won six of their previous seven league games at home comfortably, and talked of the best football played in those famous red shirts for a decade or more.
Forget Istanbul 2005 and that freak result in the Champions League final, enthralling as it was. The Benitez years rarely saw the purity and simplicity of football we saw at Craven Cottage on Monday, the sort of beautiful football that inspired generations of fans around the world.
Have you heard the one about the Uruguayan, the Brazilian and Argentine? It was no joke for Fulham as Luis Suarez, Lucas and Maxi Rodriguez combined to put them ahead with barely 30 seconds on the clock.
By the time another 15 minutes had passed, the Reds were three ahead and Fulham had hardly touched the ball. Danny Murphy, the former Anfield midfielder now skipper at Craven Cottage, was given the runaround by Jay Spearing, who is to be rewarded with a new contract, and Jonjo Shelvey, two of the young English lads emerging to keep Steven Gerrard on his toes when the main man recovers.
There are other bright markers for the future. The emergence of full-backs Martin Kelly, Jack Robinson and John Flanagan shows great promise – they are young but look classy already.
Pepe Reina will be unquestionably the best goalkeeper in the Premier League when Edwin Van der Sar retires, and of course there is the raw promise of Carroll to come.
And underpinning it all is the man who has been there through thick and thin, Jamie Carragher, the biggest link to Dalglish’s previous era. Having been signed as an Everton-supporting schoolboy, Carragher played his 666th game for them on Monday, moving ahead of Emlyn Hughes and behind only Ian Callaghan in all-time appearances for the club.
He has seen it all, so when he says the good times are on the way back, you know they really are; “The manager has come in and made a big difference. We’re playing well and going into every game believing we can win it. Confidence is really high and everything is enjoyable. We come in every day with a smile on our faces and looking forward to games.”
Murphy played under Gerard Houllier as Liverpool won the FA, League and UEFA Cups in 2000, and also finished second in the Premier League, so he knows what he is talking about.
“I thought some of their play was top quality. Suarez was electric and caused us all sorts of problems. We hold our hands up to our mistakes but you also have to admire quality when you see it. Some of their performances like, Maxi Rodriguez’s hat-trick, and their one-touch football was like Liverpool of old and it was pleasing for their fans.
“I certainly think with Kenny in charge and a few more additions Liverpool can be pushing for the top four again. They have the young, local lads coming in and doing brilliantly and mix that with Stevie G coming back and some investment from the American owners and I would imagine they will be pushing for a top-four place.”
Gerrard goes farther – his ambition is to get even with United. “It hurts to lose a record we held for so long, but we are on the way back and won’t give up the fight to overtake them (United) again.”
Amid all the optimism, however, a note of caution needs to be sounded. Dalglish has never been one to make rash predictions, and almost apologised for trotting out the old ‘one game at a time’ cliché.
But he is taking nothing for granted once the season finishes. He won’t reveal whether talks are taking place to convert his position from caretaker to full manager, and nor will the club.
“We’ll say something when we’ve got something to say,” was his mantra on Monday.
But behind the scenes there is thought to be some tension between the Scot and Damien Comolli, who was promoted to Director of Footnall in March, having arrived two months before Dalglish. The Frenchman currently has the final say on all player dealings, and Dalglish will want more influence if he is to take the job permanently.
But would he walk away now? And would the new owners, having seen him turn around a team that was second from bottom last Autumn, risk the wrath of the fans by letting him go? It seems that there may be a few twists and turns in the tale before it is resolved, by which time Liverpool could be in a position to challenge again for a title they have not won since 1990 – when the manager was a certain Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/IvTz8dZ9vCw/post.aspx
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