Where is it going wrong at Liverpool?

Kenny Dalglish in despair

After only taking eight points from eleven games in the Premier League since the turn of the year, where is it all going wrong? If you you purely look at the statistics, it is difficult to tell. First things first, we haven't scored anywhere near enough goals. Luis Suarez has consistently played well, exceptionally so at times, but has not scored enough goals; a conversion rate of 7.7% is well below par for a player of Suarez's calibre. Carroll is starting to play better and better all the time, but needs to start hitting the back of the net on a regular basis. And our most consistent striker Craig Bellamy is at the wrong end of his career to be playing twice a week. In minutes per goal, Bellamy is nearly twice as effective as Suarez.

All round, scoring less than one in ten shots at goal is not even close to being anywhere near acceptable enough for Liverpool Football Club. 1.2 goals per game is never going to win too many games in the Premier League, particularly when your defence starts to falter. Until the last few weeks we have had one of the best defensive records in the Premier League, but with mistakes creeping in at the back, our frailties around the rest of the pitch have been highlighted. I was also surprised to read that Liverpool have only scored two goals from set pieces all season. Set piece goals are your bread and butter, so if you factor that in with poor stats from open play. Dalglish suggested fatigue was a factor in yesterdays defeat to Wigan, but if that is the case then the squad is not big enough. 


Aside of the lack of goals, individual mistakes have started to happen at the back. Against Queens Park Rangers on Wednesday Jordan Henderson, Martin Skrtel and Jose Enrique were at fault for the goals in my opinion. Henderson and Skrtel should have done more to stop QPR winning the ball in the air in our penalty area, and the last goal with Enrique was just one of those mistakes that happens every now and again. Skrtel is not normally one for giving less than 100% (to our cost on the odd occasion) so that was out of character. And Henderson has never really settled. For me, he is not and never will be a right midfielder so some below par performances can be forgiven. I think he may have been bought as a long-term replacement for Steven Gerrard, but these are incredibly big boots to fill and he will need to step his all-round game up if he is to get anywhere close. 

Albeit there are things that are not quite right at the moment, there are many positives for Liverpool. We have got one trophy in the cabinet already, and we are in the semi-final of the greatest domestic cup competition in the world. We have some fantastic young players that have forced their way in to the team this season, and a few more that are waiting in the wings. Jay Spearing continues to prove that you don't have to be six foot tall to be a success in the Premier League, and Martin Kelly has performed exceptionally at right full-back when called upon. As good as he has been at full-back, I think Kelly is an ideal long term successor to Jamie Carragher. He has all the attributes as far as I can see. We also have Jon Flanagan, Raheem Sterling, Jonjo Shelvey, Sebastien Coates and Jack Robinson who have made positive cameos here and there. 

We might not be where all Reds fans want us to be, but is it all that bad? No. Is Kenny Dalglish the right man for the job? Yes. People forget that before Mr Henry and his Fenway Group took charge of the club we were hours away from RBS calling in a rather large debt that would have sent us in to administration. We also had a squad that was thin on the ground to say the least, so without doubt things are heading in the right direction. Despite early season optimism we were never really going to win the Premier League this year with bringing in so many new players, but at least we have won a trophy with the potential of another, and hopefully this will create the hunger in the squad to make bigger strides in the league next year. 

Time will tell......

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Football finance: How long can it go on?

With events last week seeing two massive clubs in Britain entering administration (Portsmouth and Glasgow Rangers), this week saw a Football League founder member Aston Villa reporting a loss of £53.9 million for the 2010/11 financial year. The Birmingham based club claim to be happy with the situation, and on the face of it they have no reason not to be. They have increased overall revenue by 1.3% and commercial revenue by 15.9%, as well as decreasing borrowing by 8.3% so Randy Lerner is certainly steering the good ship Aston Villa in the right direction; but with the Aston Villa fans becoming increasingly unhappy with things on the field it highlights the balancing act that club chairmen have to perform. 

Villa Park Stadium

This led me to look a little deeper in to the general finances. I sought out the Deloitte report on finance for the top twenty clubs (based on revenue) in Europe and it does make interesting reading. (read the full report by clicking here or see overview below) Perhaps the most interesting point to note is that broadly German clubs take the large part of their revenue from commercial exploits, as where around the rest of Europe most clubs see Broadcast rights bringing in the lions share. Also, if you'd asked a group of people to guess the top ten in this Money League, not many would have put Schalke 04 in there; I'd also hedge my bets that nobody would have put Hamburger SV in the top twenty bearing in mind that they haven't even played European football. Manchester City fans will constantly tell you that they are now the richest club in the world, but they haven't even made the top ten;in fact their revenue is only just over a third of that of the top club Real Madrid. 


Perhaps the most interesting fact I found in this report is that in the group of teams between places 21-30 in this list, (see full report) you will find Everton and West Ham United. I don't think fans of these clubs would place them in the financial European top 30, bearing in mind that the lack of money at Everton has been making headlines for years and West Ham were nearly bankrupt a few years ago. It brings to mind a phrase said many times by Duncan Bannatyne of Dragons Den fame; "Turnover's for vanity, profit's for sanity!"

I think this phrase hits the proverbial nail right on the head, and I think if British football does not get its act together we will start losing the 134 professional clubs in England and Scotland at an alarming rate. Eighteen months ago, my club Liverpool were days away from administration and our £350 million debt being called in by the bank before Fenway Sports took over the club and rescued the situation. If this situation can nearly happen to Liverpool it can happen to anyone. To return to my points at the start of this article, Aston Villa are reducing debt and increasing revenue but their fans are probably as unhappy as they've been for years, so I guess my over-riding message is - Be careful what you wish for!

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The Deloitte Sports Business Group presents the Football Money League 2012