Post 2nd syndrome seems to be striking again. What’s that? It’s the poor season we have the year after we have finished 2nd. It happened in 02/03 following our 2nd place finish the year before. A 12 game unbeaten start to the season was followed by an 11 game winless run and an eventual 5th place finish. It happened in 09/10 as well. 2nd place in 2009 was followed up with a horrendous 7th place ending to 2010. You may also be interested to know that we went out in the group stages of the Champions League in both of those seasons as well. Great.
There’s a worrying trend in the transfer markets as well. Now it’s far too early to judge the players that Brendan has brought in this year but even in this early stage no one has set a consistent marker down for a successful career at Anfield just yet.
Here are the most important names we have lost in the 3 summers following a 2nd place Premier League finish:
Luis Suarez
Daniel Agger
Pepe Reina
Xabi Alonso
Sami Hyypia
Alvaro Arbeloa
Nick Barmby
Jari Litmanen
Gary McAllister
Here are the main signings we have made in the preview two summers following a 2nd place finish:
Bruno Cheyrou
Salif Diao
El Hadji Diouf
Patrice Luzi
Alou Diarra
Alberto Aquiliani
Sotirios Kyrgiakos
Glen Johnson
Granted Nick Barmy, Gary McAllister and Jari Litmanen had not been key players come the end of their time at the club but they still made big contributions during their spells with us and whatever you think of any individual in those lists one side is obviously much stronger than the other. Unfortunately if you want to progress from 2nd to Champions then the stronger list is on the wrong side. I still think the signings we have made this year have a lot of potential and quality. I still hold a lot of hope for Moreno, Lovren, Lallana and Balotelli in particular and don’t think they will go on to join the likes of Diouf and Cheyrou on the Anfield flops list but they need to settle in and start performing and they need to do it fast.
In terms of Saturday’s game the importance of Sturridge was even more evident and dare I say it, even Joe Allen. He started the season decently and the diamond doesn’t seem to be half as efficient without him on the left side of it.
Borini was poor. I was happy for him to play alongside Balotelli because I thought Mario played better last Tuesday when his fellow Italian came on but it didn’t work. Some people were arguing the case for both Lambert and Balotelli to play but I think Rodgers has a slight reluctance to play with two target men. In the end he had to make that change and we were stuck on Saturday between actually going long and delivering into the box to maximise the strength of our front two or keeping to Brendan’s philosophy of short passing. I don’t want to see us play long ball’s all the time because under Brendan we have played some wonderful football but you have to play to your strengths and if you have two target men then the ball has to go into them more often than it did.
Rodgers has started to take a lot of criticism lately but I still think it’s too early to be targeting him. Brendan recognised the problems early on at Upton Park and changed the system to a 3-5-2 and that enabled us to get back into the game. The half time introduction of Lallana was also a positive move allowing us to control the 2nd half with the former Saints man having a positive influence and providing a link between midfield and the forwards. We are so weak defensively though that it looks as if we are going to have to perform to an offensive level possibly even higher than last season in order to win games. Jamie Carragher made a good point when he said that having lost Suarez trying to replace him and replicate last season’s offensive success was going to be almost impossible so the focus had to be on strengthening defensively.
I thought the change to a back 3 might actually help us in that department but West Ham were evidently targeting the flanks where their promising, pacey and creative forwards were shuffling to the wings. Like in the diamond the flanks are very open in a 3-5-2 and neither Skrtel nor Sakho looked comfortable defending the channels or the wide areas.
Ultimately it was a really poor performance and something has to change quickly. Competing on 4 fronts means the games come thick and fast so there is little room for error. I’m actually hoping Brendan keeps a strong line-up for our League Cup clash with Middlesbrough. Tiredness and fatigue is not a problem at this stage of the season. The players need to get as many opportunities to play together, to build some cohesion and improve defensively. Boro will be up for it and the Championship doesn’t produce easy opponents so it will test the players. We should really come away with a win and that might breed some confidence and belief ahead of next week’s clash with Everton.
Last year Liverpool actually took a bit of a counter attacking approach to the Merseyside derby at Anfield. We only had 39% of the possession and came away with a 4-0 win. Everton have threatening offensive players and we will have to defend better than we have done to keep them out. Whilst we all want to see us take the initiative in games, especially at home, approaching this fixture in the same manner as last year might not be the worst idea.
Follow Jake on Twitter @JakeLakin