Dominic Fifield on Liverpool's under-pressure manager ahead of today's clash with Everton
There was a moment when Gerard Houllier cracked at Melwood yesterday. Amid his insistence that he was unflustered by the spiteful criticism spat at him through Liverpool's spluttering start to the new season suddenly came heart-felt clarity.
"This means more for us than Everton," he said, considering today's derby which can either deepen or lift his gloom. "Never mind playing well. We need a result."
There is a sense of change on Merseyside these days which will either be confirmed or quashed at Goodison Park this afternoon when the 169th local league spat erupts. That Everton are a club rejuvenated under the zestful management of David Moyes is not open to question. What most certainly is debatable is whether Liverpool, in danger of opening the season with four winless games for the first time since 1911, have stagnated after progress under Houllier.
Such is the reality for the Frenchman. After a summer when the carefully selected additions to his ranks appeared to complete his strongest-ever squad - Steve Finnan providing width, Harry Kewell flair - Liverpool have stuttered ingloriously from the blocks.
Wednesday's goalless draw with Tottenham may have deserved more but it did little to quell the increasingly dismissive mutterings. One bookmaker promptly lengthened the odds on a first championship since 1990 landing at Anfield from a pre-season 8 to 1 to 33 to 1.
"Some of my players have to start repaying my faith but I trust them," was Houllier's emotional response.
"I know some managers like to slaughter their players in the press but I will never do that. If we'd played badly against Tottenham I would have put my hands up. But what can you say to your players after a game like that?
"In the last 20 yards you depend upon somebody creating a bit of magic and, at the moment, I'd say that vital spark is missing. But it will come. We are playing better in the approach to that final third. We were very disappointed with the result but the performance - the movement, the pace, the flow and fluency - was right. Criticism of the manager always eventually affects the team. That's why I think it's unfair. I am here to represent the team which is why I think, at times, they are hard done by."
The conception away from Merseyside is that Houllier is on borrowed time, that Liverpool are racked by over-caution and devoid of attacking intent with each faltering display surely raising hackles in the boardroom. The reality is different.
There may be grumbling discontent in the stands, fuelled by frustration at the sight of Manchester United and Arsenal pulling away, but the vocal ones who plague the phone-ins are a minority.
Those players who have been critical - such as Blackburn's former Liverpool midfielder David Thompson - have come from without, not within. As a club and a board Liverpool remain utterly behind Houllier.
This is a club, after all, which shies away from sacking managers. They stood by the Frenchman through a dreadful 11-match winless run last season and saw him claim the League Cup, his fourth trophy in three years. They are hardly likely to consider removing him after a home defeat to money-flushed Chelsea and a couple of goalless draws.
Should the Champions League places disappear into the middle distance next March, Houllier will be on less sure ground with his chief executive Rick Parry, given the financial implications of a second year outside Europe's elite. Until then Liverpool will be aware that, when they last failed to win any of their first three league games - under Roy Evans in 1997-98 - they still finished third.
"I'm still really confident we'll do well this season," added Houllier. "So what if the criticism grows? An FA Cup final, a League Cup final against Manchester United or a UEFA Cup final - that's pressure, not what I'm experiencing now. Sure, the derby's all about pressure, but we've not had too many bad results in it. It's early in the season, some of my players have not been delivering at the level I'd expect but they'll come good.
"I'm put under more pressure when people like Thompson criticise me. That's a lack of respect. I'm pleased he's out of this club. Have you seen any of my players disparaging another player since I've been at this club? No. We have a code of conduct: to respect the opposition and your team-mates. That's an important value in the modern game. What Thompson said was rubbish and stupid."
Yet it has added to the sense of deflation that only a win today can lift. Liverpool are unbeaten in seven derbies and have won their last three at Goodison Park, though Everton's impressive start to the new campaign threatens that supremacy. "We are getting closer to eclipsing Liverpool," said the midfielder Steve Watson. "Over the last few years we've been miles from them, but last season we got a hell of a lot closer. Now we're going into matches thinking we can win every game; this will not be any different." The worry for Everton is that the ferocity of a derby might just awaken Liverpool from their early-season lethargy in front of goal.
Two seasons ago they recovered from successive defeats which had left them loitering in 16th position to win 3-1 across Stanley Park.
They appear to thrive in adversity. "It's a special occasion and we have to show a special resolve," added Houllier. "We know what's at stake: it's a game for them, for the fans and the pride of the club. It's a derby and we're ready."
