A second 1-1 draw in the space of four days turned out to be no respite for Brendan Rodgers. A manager who awoke to reports that his club had already been house-hunting on behalf of his successor would have vastly preferred to win the Merseyside derby, especially if he had an inkling it might be his last, for the timing of Liverpool’s announcement suggests it was lined up for the international break regardless of the Goodison result.
On paper a draw at Everton was not in itself a sacking offence, even if for both clubs involved this derby was far too tame for anyone to feel pleased about. Everton simply proved what many suspected, that every time they go into a meeting with the neighbours as favourites they shyly fail to live up to the billing. Liverpool were not great either – little about this derby was – though they did not look like a side in paralysis or crisis.
Rodgers and Roberto Martínez went into the game with a couple of things in common – apart from making their names at Swansea. They both wanted their teams to play possession-based football and they both had their sights set on a Champions League place. You would never have guessed either from this forgettable affair, a mid-table contest if ever there was one. Both sides surrendered possession with appalling regularity. The number of joined-up moves involving more than two or three passes could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
There were good players on show, Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley for the home side, Emre Can and James Milner for the visitors, though they operated as individuals standing out from the ordinariness rather than finding a purpose that might produce a result for the team. Some players, Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge among them, hinted at quality but were involved only fleetingly in the contest, and the impression was that both these sides are fooling themselves if they imagine they are ready for the Champions League.
Liverpool have picked up only six points from their past six matches, and when Rodgers began talking after the game about needing time to build again following the departures of key players, several observers felt he might be writing his own epitaph rather than actually appealing for patience from the club’s owners. Time is a commodity that managers have to buy for themselves with results, as Rodgers knows very well. He might have felt there was still enough of the season left to improve on what has gone before, but by getting his excuses in early he seemed to invite a suspicion that the Fenway Sports Group had already decided otherwise.
It is true that Liverpool have had to rebuild on the hoof. Few clubs could cope with losing players of the quality of Luis Suárez, Raheem Sterling and Steven Gerrard within a short space of time and simultaneously having Sturridge on the sidelines for practically a season. Yet Suárez has been gone for over a season and Sterling’s departure was not exactly out of the blue. Liverpool received good money for both of them, and their faltering progress this season suggests the replacements have not been up to scratch.
Part of Rodgers’ problem, in fact, is that some of last season’s replacements have already been discarded or marginalised, and newer arrivals such as Roberto Firmino, Danny Ings and Divock Origi have proved underwhelming.
This was certainly an average derby, the quality alarmingly low at times, though derbies can be like that. They often have a life of their own, separate from the rest of the season. Liverpool did not appear distracted or disunited, and Rodgers even claimed afterwards he has never felt anything other than secure in his job, though it is doubtful he has been going around whistling a happy tune in the past few weeks.
Just about the only reason Rodgers would have had to be cheerful going into the second international break was that when the Premier League resumes Liverpool find themselves away to Tottenham Hotspur, where 3-0 and 5-0 wins in the past two years have represented the high points of those seasons. At their best, and those performances were among their best, Rodgers’ Liverpool were all but unstoppable, as well as playing an exciting and stylish brand of football. The question for much of last season and all of this one has centred on whether that style could be recovered. Liverpool’s American owners have delivered a blunt answer.
