Cronky

It's more accurate to say that, as a manager at least, he's been in and out of the game. At our club, the pressure did get to him and the experience seemed to blunt his appetite for management. Even at Blackburn, he ended up being kicked upstairs after questions were raised about his commitment, and then of course he left altogether. Celtic didn't seem to work at all. In his first spell at Liverpool, he resigned due to stress, albeit more understandably in that instance, having lived through two major tragedies. He went upstairs at Blackburn because he wanted to do as he'd seen done, and did himself, at Liverpool, which was when you win a title you add more strength to the team before the next season, keeps everyone on their toes and gives more options. Blackburn thought they were good enough already and rejected his request, thus he went upstairs and Ray Harford took over. Kennys heart was always back at Liverpool and he regretted resigning when he did although everyone understood why. Despite the early successes, it's a patchy, stop-start record. You can understand why there are question marks about his ability to handle the bad times. His comments about refs felt a bit weird. He complained that they were biased against Liverpool, and then he seemed to back-track by saying he would talk to the owners about the problem and wouldn't do anything to harm the club's reputation. Well, you either withdraw the comment or you stick to your guns. It all felt a bit weak. In the Brighton interview, he actually looked a bit stressed and tired, I thought. Defending your team is fine, but he actually seemed a bit rattled by the question. I saw another interview a short while back where he was asked when Steven Gerrard (I think it was) was likely to be back. It was a reasonable question, but his response was 'I don't know, I'm not psychic'. A bit rude. He's always answered like that, much of the time with a smile though. I like it myself and the day I worry about a journo being spoken to rudely is the day I'll give up watching football. I think he's got a lot of the qualities of a good manager, but also has some vulnerable areas. First time round at Liverpool, he inherited the best team in the country and at Blackburn he was able to outspend every other club. The characteristic of a really top class manager is an ability to over-achieve on the resources available, and I don't think we've seen that yet with Dalglish. KD did inherit the best team in the country but he took it up to a much higher level. He had a vision of how he wanted his team to play and brought in the players accordingly, Barnes, Aldridge, McMahon, Beardsley, Houghton all great players, all but one costing less than a million, wonder who that could have been. I can't remember any team, other than Arsenal, and maybe Everton, who have over achieved on the resources available. Most teams finish the season, give or take a place or two, in the position they're expected to. Not many will make the CL without spending, Getting in the top half is easy, making that last step in to 4th is very hard indeed and actually stepping up to first is nigh on impossible for most clubs no matter how good the manager is if he doesn't have the resources. On your first point, you're close to saying he lost interest when the money dried up. I don't know how true that is, but it seems clear he lost interest. On your second point, in the past, Kenny has often used humour to disarm journalists. It seems to be eluding him at the moment. Whether or not journos deserve it or not, the issue is of whether Kenny is actually keeping his composure is the more important one. On your third point, by the standards of what English clubs were paying in transfer fees at the time, none of the players you mention were cheap buys at all. They were established players and Liverpool paid the market rate. He wasn't taking a chance on any under-rated hidden gems. I'm surprised at your point about over-achievement, because that's something that you see quite regularly in football. Moyes is the chief example of that at the moment. One can also see managers who have taken a club that's in a bit of a rut and moved them forward, like Ferguson at Man U and Wenger at Arsenal. Dalglish certainly took Blackburn to the top, but he was so heavily bank-rolled compared to other managers that it's hard to assess the achievement.

It's a bit early to judge with Pardew. He's been here less than a year and he's only just started putting his own stamp on the team and the club. I'm optimistic though, because we've been getting results despite some ordinary performances and when we have Ben Arfa and Marveaux fully fit we should - as AP would say - carry more of a fret. Just because we've not spent big in terms of transfer fees doesn't mean he hasn't been backed. The players that have come in all look decent. Dalglish's situation is very different. I doubt whether he'd have taken any other job in management, or been considered for any other job for that matter - at least in the Premiership. He's in a place where he's already respected and supported, financially and otherwise. My question mark is over what happens if or when he's pushed out of that comfort zone. He's done well up to now, but the momentum is bound to flag at some stage.

It's more accurate to say that, as a manager at least, he's been in and out of the game. At our club, the pressure did get to him and the experience seemed to blunt his appetite for management. Even at Blackburn, he ended up being kicked upstairs after questions were raised about his commitment, and then of course he left altogether. Celtic didn't seem to work at all. In his first spell at Liverpool, he resigned due to stress, albeit more understandably in that instance, having lived through two major tragedies. Despite the early successes, it's a patchy, stop-start record. You can understand why there are question marks about his ability to handle the bad times. His comments about refs felt a bit weird. He complained that they were biased against Liverpool, and then he seemed to back-track by saying he would talk to the owners about the problem and wouldn't do anything to harm the club's reputation. Well, you either withdraw the comment or you stick to your guns. It all felt a bit weak. In the Brighton interview, he actually looked a bit stressed and tired, I thought. Defending your team is fine, but he actually seemed a bit rattled by the question. I saw another interview a short while back where he was asked when Steven Gerrard (I think it was) was likely to be back. It was a reasonable question, but his response was 'I don't know, I'm not psychic'. A bit rude. I think he's got a lot of the qualities of a good manager, but also has some vulnerable areas. First time round at Liverpool, he inherited the best team in the country and at Blackburn he was able to outspend every other club. The characteristic of a really top class manager is an ability to over-achieve on the resources available, and I don't think we've seen that yet with Dalglish.

As an opening question, it would have been irritating, but it's the sort of question that managers get all the time, and they usually handle it far better than Kenny did. I think he's quite thin-skinned, and beginning to feel the pressure.

It looks like an impressive bit of work by Poyet. As individual players, they didn't look anything great, but they all played with a lot of confidence and combined well. We found in our season in the Championship that although some teams could match us and more, they had difficulty in punishing us in the final third. That looked like Brighton's problem tonight - no surprise their only goal came from a pen. I've had the impression before that Liverpool will start games at full pace and then run out of steam in the second half.

He is so wrapped up in his own act that he doesn't really engage his brain. 'I could have signed for Arsenal, you know' won't impress his team-mates.

Elliot may have been at fault for the first goal, but I don't think he can be blamed for the others. As CT has said, Marveaux's piece of skill to create the penalty was brilliant.

I'm a bit surprised at the lack of physical presence in attack. Maybe Gosling can play there. The ball won't stick with Lovenkrands.

Oh! Poor guy! You can bet that on the other side of Manchester, another manager is smelling blood.

Feck me, Pardew can be a complete dickhead at times. Roughly translated, he's saying the player can be trouble and he's not sure about his ability to recover his confidence after his injury. I hope this is a piece of smart psychology - challenging the player not to live up to these features of his reputation. Sometimes Pardew can be too smart for his own good though.

The question mark over Kenny is how he copes when things aren't going well and the pressure mounts. He's now going to be tested. He made a ludicrous comment last week about consulting the owners about what he should say about referees being biased against them. From Liverpool's point of view, that was a worry.

We were up against a midfield of Bannan - Petrov - Delph - N'Zogbia who looked reasonably good in possession, but who didn't close us down at all. There was little pressure on the ball so a major weakness in our passing game - exposed against QPR - wasn't so significant. It's still there though.

TBH, the biggest difference between Monday and today was the opposition. Villa had a powder puff midfield, we had plenty of time and space, but we didn't see them off. The passing through the midfield still isn't quick or confident enough. We often seemed to pass the ball out of promising situations just in order to keep possession. In Marveaux and Ben Arfa we have the players who can change that though.

I actually feel a bit disappointed, because Villa looked there for the taking. Pardew has to show a bit more courage with Marveaux and either start him or bring him on a lot earlier.

We need fresh legs. We look like giving it away.

I'd bring on Sammy for Obertan as first change.

Neither are exactly high-energy, pacey players, so it boils down to them not being an ideal combination. We've had plenty of play, but we look a bit predictable. We need Marveaux to add a bit of the unexpected.

We're getting an amazing amount of space to play in, but we've not taken advantage. We seem to be relying a lot on individual efforts down the wings. There's not much clever interpassing to open things up, but I guess that's the way we're set up.

We're getting a lot more time and space than we did against QPR. Well, both teams are getting a lot of space.

He conveys that star-struck feeling really well. I bet Sir Bob would have broken up that all-French group by now though.

One player - particularly in that position - can make a big difference to a side (eg Bellamy, Beardsley). I have high hopes of him.

Wouldn't play him left at all, Jonas is our left winger and a very good outlet he is too. I'd ply him up front with Leon best and send Shola to the glue factory. for f***s sake man, this preoccupation with wingers, 4-4-2, target man flicking on for a little speedster is so totally and utterly s****. It's not as daft as whacking the ball towards two big target men because you think they will dominate the opposition centre backs through size without thinking through where the ball will land in some random area of the pitch. I give you tactics a la Pardew. not last season......this season though i'm at a loss as to what we are playing at. fairly sure he'll play ben arfa behind the forward and with the bog standard middle 4. That'll be an improvement, though I hope it's not the only change we'll see. I'd agree with your earlier point that playing two strikers, with one hoping to feed off the other's flick-ons, is a poor and outdated tactic. It's predictable and the strikers can end up isolated from the midfield. If we have two strikers, one should be in an advanced position and the other withdrawn, linking with the midfield, rather than playing side by side. Similarly, in a 4-4-2 there's the danger that the two players in the centre end up alongside one another and therefore not testing the opposition defence. That's the trap we fell into against QPR. Someone has to be getting forward, even if the players take it in turns to do so. I do believe that we now have the players who can play a more modern 4-3-3-type style. I'm hoping it's just a matter of getting players fit and ready. Good player though he is in a 4-4-2, I'm not sure if Jonas can adapt to playing in that way. I hope so, because we could use his energy and determination, but he is more of a specialist winger. We'll see in time.

I'm a bit worried that opposition managers may have sussed that out and instructed their teams to put him under pressure. Last season, Pardew talked about getting Tiote to move into more forward positions. There wasn't much sign of that against QPR, but I just wonder whether Tiote's lost a bit of focus and confidence. He always looked very sure of himself before, and now he looks troubled.

Didn't something similar happen with Carroll? IIRC at the last minute, Carroll represented himself over the transfer. There was then a dispute that involved the agent who Carroll sacked and another agent who was supposedly representing Liverpool. In Barton's case, it just sounds like a tax dodge. If it's legal under the letter of the regulations, then there's nothing anyone can do until they close that particular loophole. If it's not legal, then someone's in trouble. Either way, human beings not behaving terribly well when large amounts of money are at stake is not headline news.

The kind of attacking formation that I thought that Pardew was aiming for was something like - .........Striker Ben Arfa........Marveaux / Obertan Cabaye...Tiote....Gosling / Jonas Now maybe with Ben Arfa out in particular, Pardew figures that it wouldn't work. The other issue is that, with going to a three in midfield, you really need full backs who can support the attack down the wings. Maybe we'll see it tried fairly soon, but in the meantime, we stick with this rather crude style of play. Like many though, I'm a bit mystified why Marveaux hasn't been given more minutes. Despite his size, he doesn't look overawed by the hurly-burly of English football. Like Modric, he seems able to cope with that side of things. Before anyone starts, I'm not saying he's as good as Modric.