Bottom of the league. 0 wins, 3 points. 1-9 loss in the cup you hoped to have a decent run in. At home, no less. You sack the manager. Obviously. What other course of action is there?
Since Gareth Taylor joined Liverpool officially in August, one line has been used most often by him in press conferences, “things take time.” It’s clear that Taylor’s role at the club isn’t to
win games immediately, to have Liverpool competing now. His job is to build something, a project. Things take time.
Surely, however conceding nine goals on your own home turf is enough to see a project ended prematurely out of a belief that the project isn’t heading anywhere. Even really bad teams struggle to
concede nine goals.
Currently it’s evident that Taylor is working with a bad squad, probably even the worst in the league. Leicester and West Ham spring to mind as competition for that title, but West Ham have names
such as Shekeira Martinez, Katrina Gorry and Riko Ueki and Leicester are the cockroaches of the WSL who, despite the squad and the manager, flat out refuse to be relegated.
Thus, manager’s aren’t miracle workers. They’re not out there on the pitch kicking the ball themselves. There is only so much a manager can do if the players they’re in charge of are incapable of
playing to a high standard. Gareth Taylor must be cut some slack based on this alone, but other issues have plagued his tenure through no fault of his own.
Things that need no explanation as to why they would impact a team and a manager have very much been at play. Injuries have reared their ugly head as they so often do at this club with; Marie
Höbinger, Sophie Roman Haug, Grace Fisk, Risa Shimizu, Emilia Syzmczak, Alejandra Bernabe, Hannah Silcock, Sam Kerr and Leanne Kiernan all spending significant time on the sidelines.
Taylor was also brought in to the club late, reportedly due to a clause in his old contract with the City Group, meaning he spent less time during pre season with the players than he would have
liked. It also impacted summer recruitment as he himself has said, meaning he still is yet to have a real transfer window at the club, the reason January has been touted as so important for the
club.
I would also be remiss to not mention the elephant in the room. Liverpool Football Club have routinely underfunded the women's team. We are reminded of this fact every year when accounts are published and Liverpool once again have one of the lowest wage bills in the division. Now admittedly, this alone does not necessarily lead to poor performances, teams in sport often outperform what they are being paid, however we know that the men's team are one of the highest wage spenders in the Premier League. To then be one of the lowest spenders in the WSL is clear mismanagement. Until Taylor is properly backed with the correct resources, he is not the problem. Plain and simple.
It may not feel like it right now, but the club is moving in the right direction, especially if we are to believe that reinforcements will arrive come January, the results against Chelsea
and Brighton and the performance against Arsenal at the Emirates give credence to this idea. Things can only improve from here. We know, also, that the club have been building towards January
under the leadership of Taylor. Recruitments brought in will be by Taylor for Taylor with deals likely to be at an advanced stage already.
Sacking the manager who wants these players could be catastrophic and undo any of the good work Taylor and his team have done with the squad over the past couple of months. Forcing a new manager
to come in and try to build with a squad they don’t want. It becomes a revolving door of managers not having time to do anything. We’ve seen this happen with so many clubs across the sporting
world. One of the most prominent examples in football of the ‘revolving door’ is Watford men. They have an eye watering manager turnover season on season and it could be argued that as a result
of that, they’ve struggled to sustain themselves in the Premier League whenever they’ve been promoted, resulting in eventual relegation.
Liverpool needn’t do that. What the club needs right now is long term stability with at least a 3 year planned out project. It’s clear we have that in Gareth Taylor, even if the here and now
doesn’t feel too good.