A quick note before I commence to write (and you, the readers, commence to read) the article. All views are my own, and whether the club is performing up to expectations or whether they’re underperformance really differs from fan to fan. Do not take any statements to heart, but try to read and approach each part of the article with an open mind. Thank you, and enjoy.
If anything, Liverpool FC has been going through a stage of major transition for the past season or two, not only financially, managerially and in terms of personnel, but the appointment of Brendan Rodgers in the summer also signalled a change in the club’s play style.
Brendan Rodgers is “known” for his passing style during his time at Swansea, where his club a season ago, did very decently considering they were newly-promoted. He labelled his style of play as “tiki-taka”-like, as seen by some of the most successful teams in the world, ie. FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team.
The first half of the season consisted of games marred with defeats to Arsenal, West Brom, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and Arsenal. The only highlight games were a 5-2 win against Norwich, coming from behind to win 3-2 against West Ham and measly draws against the Blues of Chelsea and Everton.
Surely this is no coincidence, considering 5 wins and 5 losses isn’t too normal, while 7 draws are just way too many points dropped. We have the back four healthy for most parts of the season, Steven Gerrard and recently Lucas is back healthy, Luis Suarez is on the form of his life, while young players like Jonjo Shelvey, Jordan Henderson, Suso, Raheem Sterling and Andre Wisdom are all involved in games and playing alright.
So this begs the question – What’s going wrong? In my opinion, the approach to games are slightly.. “off”, for a lack of a better term.
Top Priority: Retaining Possession?
Now Rodgers has a saying (paraphrased, of course) that if you keep the ball away from the opposition as much as possible, they will have less chances of scoring. In a nutshell, higher possession should equal to less goals conceded.
Now on paper that makes a lot of sense, but the reality of it is far, far off.
Let’s take the Aston Villa game for example. We were dominating possession for most of the game, but still lost 3-1. And why? The answer’s simple: They made full use of their chances.
As far as I know, I don’t remember Villa having a proper chance at goal, and when they did, Benteke made full use of it. Their next “real” goal-scoring chance fell to Andres Weimann, and he doubled the lead. Meanwhile, the Liverpool side continued to squander chance after chance after chance.
I do agree that possession is a big factor that can influence who wins a game and who loses, but something more important than actually retaining possession itself, is to make those chances count – something that Liverpool has been struggling with since the time Steven Gerrard went out injured and Fernando Torres had a dip in form. Oh, and that was years ago.
By narrowing down the focus of the team to retain possession, this leads to the next subject for discussion.
Why doesn’t anyone SHOOT?
That’s the main difference between the passing game that Liverpool plays and the one that Barcelona plays. Retaining possession doesn’t equal to goals. Shooting equal to higher chances of goals. With the lot of Lionel Messi, David Villa, Andres Iniesta and Xavi to name a few, they know when to hold the ball, when to pass it on, and when to shoot..
..but that’s not the case with the Liverpool squad. From my personal observation, most players seem to have that intention to dribble past the whole opposing defence before even willing to take a shot. If you see many chances by the club, many shots are taken after the player is closed down, hence the shot gets blocked more often than not.
It isn’t a question of whether we have the right personnel to take a shot, but rather would they take the shot with a risk of losing possession? We have the almighty Steven Gerrard that seems ever so hesitant to shoot, same goes for Jonjo Shelvey who has a powerful right foot himself. Let’s not forget Luis Suarez and Glen Johnson, as well as the left-footers in Daniel Agger, Jose Enrique and Stewart Downing, just to name a few.
It becomes quite obvious that we definitely have the players that can take a shot from reasonable distances. However, it is just whether they are willing to compromise the focal point of the team (which is to retain possession) by taking a shot.
Vulnerability to Counter-Attacks
By playing the possession game as stated above, it is simple that by slowly building the momentum forward, the rest of the players would also slowly move up the pitch. This is also why Jose Enrique, Glen Johnson, and even Stewart Downing gain benefits by playing at full-back spots, as they are generally allowed to play a more offensive role when the team is on the offence.
However, that leaves the back very vulnerable to counter-attacks. In a passing-oriented style of play that Brendan Rodgers employs game in, game out, one has to take into consideration the vulnerability of the team when it comes to counters. Both Joe Allen and Lucas Leiva aren’t the fastest of players, while the full-backs who double-up as wing-backs can tend to be stuck up front, leaving just 2 or 3 players back to take on opposing players.
Liverpool doesn’t have good defence when it comes to defending in transitions. That’s a fact, and a sad one at that. We are dearly missing Javier Mascherano, a former defensive midfielder of the club, who sits right in the middle of the field when attacking, but is always able to run and chase down opposing players on the break.
By now, I’m sure you want some proof. Again, let’s revert back to that Aston Villa game. When Joe Cole gave away the ball in our own half, Christian Benteke made full use of it and ran towards goal. During that, Martin Skrtel postured himself in a way that opens up the middle of the box for Benteke to run into, while Joe Allen was just clearly outmuscled by the young Belgian striker, allowing him to take a shot on goal and ultimately, scoring it.
Now after a long read that highlights the main issues (in my opinion) with the club and the “struggles” on the field, what are my ideal ways to improve on them?
Tweak the philosophy.. slightly.
I’ll start of with an example of what’s going on at Swansea right now. Michael Laudrup got appointed as their manager, and while only 2 key players of Rodgers’ era has left the club (Joe Allen and Gylfi Sigurdsson), Laudrup decided to maintain part of Rodgers’ play style and philosophy while tweaking it with his own preferred style.
The Swansea we see now is a near-perfect blend of a passing style of play as seen under Rodgers’ era, as well as smart counter-attacks and having a blend of ‘pass masters’ and attacking masterminds. The purchase of Michu and Pablo Hernandez along with the loan of Jonathan De Guzman brings attacking personnel to fit players like Wayne Routledge, Leon Britton, Danny Graham and Nathan Dyer that excelled in Brendan’s philosophy.
Maybe that’s what we need at Liverpool as well. We may just need that slight tweak in tactics, formation and player roles in order to do better. We have the likes of Lucas, Joe Allen and Jordan Henderson who are all capable of retaining possession. At the same time, we have Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard, Jonjo Shelvey, Glen Johnson and Raheem Sterling (to name a few) that contributes to attacks.
Maybe Brendan Rodgers needs to let go of the strictness and reduce the focus of the team to retain possession, and implement a more attacking mindset to the team in order to improve. Maybe he should get the team to let go of possession, but at the same time work on defending effectively and consistently, while catching oppositions on the break.
I’m not a coach myself, so I wouldn’t know as to what extent changes should be made, but ideally, I believe a blend is needed. The passing game is one that is beautiful to watch, as seen with the title-winning Arsenal side, the magicians of the Spanish national team that won 3 major tournaments in a row as well as the Barcelona side under Pep Guardiola, but focusing on it solely and exclusively can hinder performances of the team.
Buy wisely, transfer smartly.
Nothing improves teams faster than transfers, no doubt. If one had the money, changing a division four side to a Barcelona or a Real Madrid side using money to purchase players of said clubs would instantly improve the team.. but that’s just metaphorically speaking, of course.
While the squad is rather solid, we are missing quite a bit of experienced players to fill up the numbers and at the same time, we have a lot of dead wood that would be more useful if converted to cash.
With Jose Enrique finding his most useful place in the team at the left wing instead of being a left full-back, it becomes clear that we need to get a left-back for that area, while a more experienced centre-half than Coates would prove useful. A new goalkeeper that is ready and is willing to develop would be very much welcomed. With the team lacking goals and clear-cut chances up front, a striker and a creative forward/midfielder would be essential.
Now that seems all fine and dandy on paper, because who wouldn’t want to see an inflow of players to the club? Realistically though, money is the main problem. Therefore, what Liverpool, FSG, Brendan Rodgers and the scouts need to do is get players who have high ‘value for money’.
What that means is that no more overpaying for players, no more paying extra for players regardless of their credentials and reputation. With limited funds brings smart buys. We need players that can perform regardless of their price tags.
For example, anyone remember Roque Santa Cruz? Yes, that Paraguayan player that played for Blackburn previously? Low transfer fee, high returns. Anyone else remember a certain Robert Green that now plays second-fiddle to Julio Cesar at QPR? He was magnificent at West Ham, although the club paid little for him. No? You don’t remember any of the two? Alright then. Michu – that’s all I need to say.
That’s what we need. Buy players early, but quietly. Buy players of quality, not of prices and world recognition. Buy smartly, spend moderately, bring in quality, improve significantly.
Patience, but the clock is ticking.
I’ve said in a previous article that patience is what the club, the owners, the manager, the players and especially what the fans need. We have barely reached halfway through a season and many are already calling for Rodgers’ head. Is that indeed what we need? Is sacking a manager the right way to approach it? Yes, but not when it’s only been almost half a year.
If we are to truly achieve consistency on matters off and on the pitch, we need to give the personnel of the team a reasonable amount of time before letting them go. This applies to both players and managers.
For example, before the season truly started, many were hoping for the departure or Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing, just to name a few. However, given a bit of time, many of them has proven they may just step their game up.
Jordan Henderson has established to become one of the few vital players of recent weeks, very often coming on as a substitute and strengthening the team, even stabilising the team and making them a better attacking unit going forward. Stewart Downing has also improved immensely from his miserable first season under Kenny Dalglish. His game against Aston Villa highlighted what he can or may bring to the club in the near future after being arguably one of the standout performers in said game.
Same goes with Brendan Rodgers. I personally am starting to think that if performances don’t improve, he won’t have a long-lived managerial career at Liverpool. However, I won’t be so quick to judge him. In fact, I give him until at least the end of the season before fully evaluating what he has done throughout the season.
While patience is very much needed, we also have to be reasonable with the amount of time to be given. If the performance of the team or if performances of players don’t improve, then we need to evaluate and reconsider if certain personnel are worth keeping or not. For example, if the team fails to perform well on a consistent basis, I wouldn’t be surprised if Brendan gets the axe.
All in all, we would all need to be patient because we can’t expect great results week in, week out, but at the same time, we can’t sit around and watch the team crumble each and every game while waiting blindly for improvement.
As always, I kindly ask for feedback, input, suggestions and your own personal thoughts on the matter. My target with these articles is definitely not to close out certain matters, but instead to spark debate an encourage interaction among fans.
Thank you very much for reading this article. It’s one that I’m particularly proud of, as a lot of time was put into it. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Thanks once again. Have hope in your heart everyone, and You’ll Never Walk Alone.
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