Thirty games down and we’ve seen the best and worst of Liverpool. We’ve seen our shining strengths, and glaring weaknesses. We’ve seen top class football, and sluggish efforts.
What can we say about the 3-1 away loss to Southampton that we haven’t said at some point before this season? The lack of physicality in midfield was an issue once again, opposition high pressure put us under plenty of pressure and – whilst he has gotten it right more often than not – there were highly naïve decisions made by the manager.
From the word go Southampton got in our faces and pressured our back line. Their long aerial balls were not dealt with at all by any of our players and they played the ball very effectively around our defence. Without Jamie Carragher in defence, we lacked character and grit at the back, as well as a commanding voice on the pitch.
The decision by Rodgers to start an effectively 4-4-2 formation, changing our usual style, cost us dearly. The inclusion of Joe Allen for Lucas who was not entirely fit was poorly judged by the manager. The positioning of Allen was far too much around the centre of the pitch, and there was a lot of space for Southampton to exploit in front of our defence. We effectively had a flat two-man midfield.
Usually, we naturally set up with a 2 man defence, with Lucas dropping in between the defenders. The fullbacks push up very high and Gerrard usually sits a bit deep and helps out defensively as well as spraying long passes. This was substituted for a regular 4-4-2 where our fullbacks were very deep and struggled with defensive work.
We did improve late in the first half when we appeared to go to a 4-3-3, with Downing dropping in midfield and Coutinho, Sturridge and Suarez playing up front. We seemed a lot more menacing, but generally sluggish play by forwards means we created few chances.
Our midfield and passing was generally incoherent. Player movement was horrendous, and there were no real opportunities to play passing triangles to gain some momentum. As a result, we usually resorted to playing hopeful killer-passes, which did usually find a forward, but once again poor forward play meant they did not result in chances.
The main issue that Saturday’s game raised was Liverpool’s complete lack of squad depth. The issue isn’t particularly that we don’t have anyone to fulfil the position, but what is a definite problem is that no two players in any given position fulfil similar roles.
This is an issue from goalkeeper to striker; player roles are far too different to be able to effectively make little changes in starting line-ups and continue playing with our philosophy.
No-one else in the Liverpool team can fulfil the role of Lucas Leiva, and we are majorly hamstrung without him as a result. Similar case when we have seen Wisdom come in for Johnson, and so forth. Rodgers is therefore forced to look at changing the game plan in order to make concessions for player profiles.
This is an issue that must be addressed to some degree in the next transfer window. We have an idea of Rodgers’s ideal first XI and we have got to make purchases that reflect players on and off the pitch.
Next season’s transfer window, then, will be a telling one. In addition to the depth issue, there is a physicality issue to address as well. The names that have been cited such as Swansea’s Ashley Williams and Newcastle’s Hatem Ben Arfa appear somewhat promising. The former being a commanding centre-half and the latter the right-sided inside-forward that we lack.
Whilst it would be great to see Liverpool linked with perhaps a higher calibre of player, we have to accept that we just don’t have the package to attract the world class. We have to be practical and look at the best, realistic, options.
It was, to be honest, an extremely shoddy performance by all 11 players on Saturday. What else can we say about it? It’s difficult to know who’s really to blame: Rodgers or the players. Truthfully, both have to be questioned as it was by far our worst 90 of this season.
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