ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:THE WAIL of anguish was audible. Steven Gerrard's attempted pass for Luis Suarez had not been well calibrated but the Uruguayan's petulant reaction appeared disproportionate. As Newcastle United exerted growing control during Sunday's 2-0 win over Liverpool on Tyneside, so the body language of Kenny Dalglish's players hinted at inter-camp tensions. A few looked ready to wave white flags.
By the time the final whistle blew on Liverpool’s sixth defeat in seven Premier League games Andy Carroll had stormed down the tunnel, swearing and looking close to tears after being substituted, while Jose Reina reflected on a red card after an idiotic attempted headbutt. As if their worst league run since 1953-54 and eight points from a possible 36 during 2012 was not bad enough, Dalglish’s squad had added indiscipline to their problems.
In a cameo which can be interpreted as emblematic of his waning powers, Dalglish marched on to the pitch in the wake of Reina’s dismissal only for Gerrard to shoo him off it. While it would be exaggeration to say that represented the midfielder’s most incisive contribution, the suspicion Gerrard and Suarez have become disillusioned is inescapable.
If Gerrard perhaps pines for the days when his perfect through balls serviced Fernando Torres, Suarez’s record of three goals in his past 19 League appearances represents a poor return for such a gifted forward. Fortunately for that pair most attention is diverted to Carroll, the €43 million former Newcastle striker with three League goals this season. Should Liverpool’s US owners replace Dalglish during the summer, Carroll’s signing in January 2011 will be identified as the moment decline set in for a club legend.
When the Scot last won the title, at Blackburn Rovers in 1995, he did so with an almost exclusively British squad. Key components included a Geordie striker called Alan Shearer and a former Middlesbrough winger named Stuart Ripley but Dalglish’s attempts to make history repeat itself with a raft of British buys including the Gateshead-born Carroll and the Teesside-bred Stewart Downing threaten to ensure this season ends in tears. The League Cup has been secured and an FA Cup semi-final against Everton looms but €66 million spent on a winger who appears to have forgotten how to cross and a centre-forward whose feet seem to have turned to clay surely haunts the 61-year-old’s nightmares.
John W Henry and his Fenway colleagues must puzzle as to how a man boasting a detailed knowledge of world footballers ever paid Sunderland €24 million for Jordan Henderson. Or imagined that Charlie Adam could become the new Xabi Alonso. Of Dalglish’s principal signings, the best are Craig Bellamy, Suarez and Jose Enrique at a cost of €36 million.
When it comes to media strategy Dalglish has also been found wanting, his ridiculous defence of Suarez in the wake of the Patrice Evra affair merely serving to suggest he is operating in a pubic relations time warp.Going into denial over Suarez and Carroll’s loss of form, Dalglish resembles a child who, having covered his eyes with his fingers, believes no one can see him.
Guardian Service
