Houllier straining a merciful tradition

Dominic Fifield examines how the Frenchman survives at Anfield despite relatively mediocre results

Gerard Houllier has endured another week of frustration, the latest apparently pivotal fixture looming ever larger this lunchtime, though he is becoming accustomed to fielding talk of a crisis.

"It gives me some comfort that this club has a reputation for patience," offered the Frenchman yesterday. "But the board know what we are trying to achieve."

So, too, do the majority of the supporters on Merseyside, though, if Liverpool stutter to a fourth consecutive Premiership defeat to Leeds this lunchtime, Houllier's long-term vision will take another battering.

Suffice to assume that the manager would not be rushing back to his black Jaguar XK8 to tune into the radio phone-ins on his journey back to Sefton Park.

While the Anfield board remain unswervingly behind their manager of five years, the doubters will remain vocal for as long as Houllier fails to translate his side's distinctively remodelled, more attacking style, into a winning formula. The manager is always keen to fall back on statistics - "We have had the most shots on goal this season," he insisted, correctly - but number-crunching can undermine him at the moment.

This remains Houllier's most unconvincing start to a Premiership season since assuming the reins, but reality suggests his side have been labouring for almost a year. Charting their results back 38 games, the equivalent of a league season, to October 19th, 2002, Liverpool have gleaned only 54 points - a tally which would normally warrant an unacceptable mid-table finish. Over the same period Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea have accumulated 88, 78 and 74 respectively.

Champions League qualification remains imperative, as much to meet the club's weighty wage bill as to ensure the squad can be strengthened next summer.

"But that is what we will achieve," said Houllier, whose attempt to arrest the decline is likely to be hampered by Michael Owen's continued absence today.

"Other teams have far worse performances without getting the stick we have had - but that is because it is Liverpool.

"The championship is going to be difficult, but that does not mean it will be impossible.

"I totally agree that this is an important game, coming on the back of recent results.

"We have to be brave enough to keep the same style of play and prove we are going in the right direction. We are maybe six or seven points below what we deserve to be this season, but I won't be changing our style of play. I'll stick to my guns on that.

"The players know what I think of last week's performance, it was unacceptable. But I do not think the players were happy with their display either.

"They let themselves down a bit. And they will be ready for a very important game and I know they will produce something special.

"The game against Leeds is a chance to redeem ourselves from the display at Portsmouth last week. We can miss once, because we were drained, but we can't miss twice. As for me, the backing I get from the board, who know exactly what we are trying to do and achieve, is appreciated."

It is support regularly given by the movers and shakers at Anfield to their manager. Only Don Welsh - a Mancunian in charge when the club slipped out of the top flight in 1954 - has been sacked at Anfield. Even Phil Taylor, the only Liverpool manager never to take charge of a team in the top division, resigned through ill health to make way for Bill Shankly in 1959.

Indeed, since the Merseysiders' monopoly of honours was broken in the 1990s, the directors have, for the most part, stood by their charges. Graeme Souness won only the FA Cup in his three-year reign and might have expected the sack after a disappointing 1992-93 season, especially having sold the story of his recovery from heart surgery to the Sun. But, when it came to it, the chairman, David Moores, opposed other board members and supported the Scot.

When Souness did depart, after his side lost at home to First Division Bristol City in the FA Cup in 1994, it was his choice.

His replacement, Roy Evans, never finished outside the top four and won a League Cup, but he also resigned when Houllier's appointment as joint manager in 1998 effectively compromised his position.

"When you take that job you accept everyone expects Liverpool to be up there challenging, and that's the way it should be," said Evans. "It's a job which will bring a lot of criticism and just the occasional pat on the back.

"I've seen other teams putting in far worse performances than us this season but not getting the stick we do," added Houllier, who was yesterday publicly backed by Peter Reid, in the opposing dugout today and also under pressure.

"This is a challenge. The players have shown in training that they have a strong desire to put things right after that performance at Portsmouth and I'm sure they will.

"We are in this together, win or lose. There is no finger-pointing when someone makes a mistake. So if we have to go through difficult times, we have to stick together.

"Criticism is part of the territory, even if it is a bit fierce at times like this. The profile of the club, the past and the expectation caused by what we have achieved in the last four years, makes people more frustrated and angry. But the true fans are backing us.

"I will accept criticism when things do not work, but I am not going to change my way. We will go for it against Leeds."