Lee Dixon: A soft spot for Liverpool

Opinion

As A teenaged Manchester City fan, I once stood on the Kop at Anfield at a Liverpool-City match with my City scarf hidden, only to betray my allegiance by screeching when City scored.

The classy reaction from the Liverpool fans (more later) is only part of the reason I admired their club so much, and I have an enduring affection for everything they stood for in their heyday.

But looking simply at the way they're functioning as a football team, I have to be fearful on their behalf. As a defender for 22 years you'd expect me to say any great team should have solid foundations at the back, and I do believe that, emphatically.

Yet I look at Liverpool's defence and I don't see a cohesive unit. Both fullbacks are struggling, Glen Johnson looks sluggish, as if carrying some weight, and a shadow of his former self.

Paul Konchesky is a decent fullback, but he is being judged by a different, higher standard. Being decent is not enough to fans that have questioned the signings of many a recent player. That in itself brings its own pressure.

Jamie Carragher has been a great servant to Liverpool and has been rewarded quite rightly by a contract extension. However, he is slowing down and I'm not certain the combination in the middle is good enough to compensate.

Given that part of Liverpool's indomitability in the 1970s and '80s was a solid defence, it's not reassuring for fans to look at the current line-up and detect weaknesses.

Liverpool find themselves in a position that's so alien, but their demise has been unfolding for more than a year. They should have won the league in 2008-09. But they lost some good players - Javier Mascherano and especially Xabi Alonso.

The gap left by Alonso leaves one heck of a weight on Steven Gerrard's shoulders. He's played heroically but others haven't stepped up.

Of the signings: Alberto Aquilani stands out as a mistake and the jury's still out on others.

In such an extraordinary situation as Liverpool's, at some level the off-pitch stuff will filter down: the fans have certainly been restless. But you can't use what's happening as an excuse off the pitch to justify what's happening on it. The owners aren't the ones kicking the ball. It's not as if we didn't have distractions at Arsenal when George Graham was the manager. The problems off the pitch of Paul Merson and Tony Adams were well documented but George used to bring us together and reiterate the strength of being a unit.

Which brings me to Everton. Liverpool's drop into the bottom three is more surprising than Everton's into the bottom four but I'm surprised . I had them pegged as top-four contenders this season and yet they haven't won at home, drawing 1-1 with Wolves, 3-3 with Manchester United and losing 1-0 to Newcastle.

I've seen them a few times and they're not playing too badly, and the noises from David Moyes tell me he thinks the same - and he's not one to make false assessments of his own team. The win at Birmingham last time could be the turning of the corner.

The pressure will be greater on Liverpool tonight; for Everton it's a hugely important derby, for Liverpool it's that and then some. Part of me wants to see Liverpool turn things around. I'm a football fan, with lots of Liverpool-supporting friends and colleagues. And, of course, there has been a rich seam to mine in taking the mickey over their situation and results.

But I've got a real soft spot for them. I was a City fan, and that's how I found myself on the Kop that day. I had my blue-and-white scarf tucked away as I listened to Liverpool songs and swayed with them.

Then City scored and I screeched and this big bloke, a Liverpool supporter, made towards me and I thought he was going to throttle me. But he just pulled my scarf out and said: "You should always be proud of your colours, lad."

That was it, the Kop mentality. So there is a little bit of me that really does want Liverpool to be great again.Lee Dixon is a former Arsenal and England defender.

- Independent