Drained of cash and confidence, Liverpool’s English Premier League priorities and targets have been steadily downgraded in the space of a year.
At Anfield there is a new realism for a team that went into last season making bold predictions about ending its 20-year title drought, only to finish seventh — an 11-year low — and miss out on qualification for the Champions League.
Just returning to Europe’s lucrative competition by rejoining the top four is the number one target for the players, and the hierarchy, who are trying to sell the heavily indebted club.
Masterminding the revival is the well-travelled Roy Hodgson, who replaced Rafa Benitez when the Spaniard’s six-year reign ended in June after repeatedly clashing with the board.
In luring Hodgson from Fulham, the Reds have a manager who can operate in austere conditions — and overachieve, having steered the London club to the Europa League final in May with an amazing run of results.
And with funds in short supply at Liverpool, Hodgson will have to revive its fortunes with a squad largely unchanged from last season.
“For clubs like Real Madrid and Inter Milan, it’s a disaster if they don’t win the league, so they go out and spend big money on new players,” veteran defender Jamie Carragher said. “Liverpool can’t do that — we have to build. Next season, rather than thinking too much about the title, we have to concentrate on getting back into the top four.
“It’s a rebuilding process again and hopefully we can get ourselves right up there.”
By the time Benitez left, memories had faded of the successes he delivered in his first two seasons — the 2005 Champions League and the 2006 FA Cup.
Early successes
Hodgson’s biggest early successes have been just persuading captain Steven Gerrard and star striker Fernando Torres not to push for transfers to clubs still among Europe’s elite.
The main addition to the squad was Joe Cole — a free transfer from Chelsea, who subsequently replaced the 28-year-old England midfielder by paying Liverpool £5-million for 30-year-old Yossi Benayoun.
The same amount was received from Olympiakos for winger Albert Riera, and was reinvested in recruiting defender Danny Wilson from Rangers, while Serbia forward Milan Jovanovic arrived, like Cole, for nothing.
The foundations were already there for a strong team, but one of the main problems last season was keeping the players fit.
Hodgson wants to get the team back playing a more fluid passing game.
“The club has great style and has always played in the right way,” Hodgson said. “They play a passing game, where players work very hard for each other and that ties in very nicely with my philosophy of how the game should be played. There should be no conflict of interest where that is concerned.”
One of the biggest conflicts will remain with north-west rivals Manchester United, who hold the record with Liverpool for the most English championship crowns: 18. — Sapa-AP