Liverpool vs Villa: Rodgers Rests Raheem and Pays Painful Price

Yesterday, Liverpool took on Aston Villa at Anfield. There was a definite sense of nervousness in the days leading up to the game; our key man Daniel Sturridge was out, and Villa are a team we’ve struggled against in recent times. Rodgers, however, was apparently not concerned. The day before the game, rumours started circulating that Sterling, who has been without a doubt our best, most influential player so far this season, was going to be rested. I dismissed it as rubbish, but, sure enough, when the team sheets were released an hour before kick-off, Sterling was notable only by his absence in the starting eleven. We went on to perform extremely poorly, and ended up losing 1-0.

Of course, blaming the defeat entirely on Sterling’s absence is unreasonable, but it did play a very large part. Right from the outset, we missed his pace and urgency. A lot of our players seemed to be strolling around the pitch, barely exerting any effort at all. When we did get the ball in a decent area, there always seemed to be a whole crowd of Villa players barring further progress. Even a 9^th minute goal for the visitors (surprise surprise, it came from a badly defended set piece) didn’t seem to jolt the Liverpool players into action. Rodgers eventually seemed to realise that we needed Sterling’s creative impetus and spark on the pitch, and brought him on midway through the second half. The difference was immediately apparent; he made space not only for himself, but for others. Sadly, it was too little too late, and the closest we came to an equaliser was a curling Coutinho effort which struck the post.

Another reason we put in such a lacklustre performance is the formation we used. The 4-2-3-1 simply doesn’t suit us, and it showed. Neither Henderson nor Gerrard (particularly the latter) work particularly well in a defensive ‘2’, and whenever we use the formation our lone striker looks woefully isolated. Some would point to the injury of Sturridge and say that playing one up front was forced on us, but again I have to come back to Sterling. Although arguably better in the hole, he has proved already this season that he can do a good job up top. Playing our usual 4-4-2 diamond with Balotelli and Sterling as the attacking partnership would surely have improved our performance immeasurably. Even when Sterling did come on (for Lallana) the formation wasn’t changed- Coutinho played where Lallana had been before, and Sterling operated down the middle. The change may well have been more likely to lead to an equaliser if Sterling had been moved up top with Balotelli.

With twenty minutes to play, yet another bizarre decision was made from the usually extremely tactically astute Rodgers. Fabio Borini and Rickie Lambert came on in place of Mario Balotelli and Lazar Markovic- admittedly neither Markovic nor Balotelli had been particularly effective, but the change, if anything, made us look worse. Lambert was clumsy and often wasteful whenever he got on the ball, and Borini barely had a touch! I genuinely forgot that he’d come on; he made no notable contribution whatsoever in the time that he was on the pitch. To be fair, seeing as both Joe Allen and Daniel Sturridge were injured, our options off the bench were limited. That said, it seems clear, at least in hindsight, that no change would have been better than introducing Borini and Lambert.

To sum up, what we witnessed yesterday was a rare tactical misnomer from Rodgers. He doesn’t make them often, and it certainly doesn’t change the fact that he is an excellent manager who is extremely well suited to LFC, but there’s no denying that he messed up. Obviously some of the blame has to fall on the players- up until Sterling came on, none of our attackers were working anywhere near hard enough- but I maintain that if we’d started Sterling up front with Balotelli then we would have won the game.  Hopefully we’re able to move on from this defeat and bounce back with a win in our return to the Champions League (yay!!) against Ludogorets on Tuesday.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

How Will Liverpool Line Up Next Season?

Photo: David Rawcliffe

The warning signs are there in the title to this article- the following piece of writing will contain no solid fact whatsoever. It will be almost entirely speculation on my part, and will, in all probability, turn out to be totally wrong. I am not blessed with the footballing brain of Brendan Rodgers, and as such my ideas of how Liverpool should play their football next season may not exactly tally up with his! Still, I’ll give it a shot.

One of the reasons it is so hard to determine exactly how Liverpool will look to play in the coming season is because the exact personnel of our starting eleven is unknown. It is a fair assumption that our midfield will be subject to a lot of rotation; we have more games this season due to being back in the Champions League (yay!), and Sterling, Markovic, Coutinho, Lallana, Ibe, Suso and Texeira are all capable of stepping up to the plate. All of these players can ply their trade in the number 10 role or in a wider position-this gives the side a huge amount of versatility. In some games we could opt for the raw pace of Sterling, Ibe and Markovic- this would lead to a deadly counter-attacking style. In other fixtures we could go down the route of sheer technical ability as opposed to pure pace; Coutinho, Lallana, Suso and Texeira are all extremely gifted on the ball. A combination such as this would lead to a shift towards the ‘total football’ style so widely discussed when Brendan Rodgers first took the reigns at LFC, as all of these players have exceptional passing ability. This ability to mix things up not only from game to game, but also within games, gives us a huge adaptability. This was something we were, to an extent, lacking last season.

All of this goes on the assumption that we will be playing three attacking players behind a lone striker- it is feasible that this might not be the case. The signing of Loic Remy from QPR looks imminent, and he is undoubtedly a talented player. It is inconceivable that he should push Daniel Sturridge out of the side, so perhaps Rodgers is planning on playing two up front. Of course, it could just be that Remy is being brought in to strengthen the squad, and is only being purchased as back-up, but the possibility of a two-man front line has to be considered.  With Remy out of the equation, a 4-2-3-1 would make the most sense: two of Can, Henderson, Gerrard and Allen could occupy the deeper roles, with a combination of the aforementioned midfielders in the three and Sturridge up front on his own. Once Remy is factored in, it becomes harder to predict what Rodgers might do. It is possible that he could revert to a formation he used at times last season- the formation he dubs ‘the 4-4-2 diamond’. Better known to some as the 4-1-2-1-2, this features one holding midfielder, two central midfielders and one out-and-out attacking midfielder playing behind two strikers. This was utilised sometimes last season to allow the SAS partnership to thrive; there is no reason to suggest that it might not be used once more to make full use of the SAR partnership (admittedly not quite as catchy). Though this could be deemed the most beneficial for Sturridge and Remy, it means there is only one attacking midfielder in the line-up, meaning multiple attacking midfielders would have to be played out of position. The signings of Lallana and Markovic this transfer window suggests to me that Rodgers is not looking to regularly go for the 4-4-2 diamond, and his preference is to opt for something closer to the 4-2-3-1 in order to make full use of our massive amounts of quality in the attacking midfield area.

The question many fans are most eager to find the answer to is whether Liverpool will play more defensively next season. Our one obvious shortcoming last season, the flaw in the team that ultimately cost us the title, was clearly our defence. As such, it would be ludicrous to suggest that Rodgers will not look to strengthen the team’s defensive qualities in one way or another. However, I don’t think he will look to address the defensive frailties by lining up in a more defensive manner. Liverpool’s main asset is their great attacking football, so to compromise that by committing fewer men forward would be akin to shooting oneself in the foot. Instead, I think it likely that our defence will be strengthened by means of new acquisitions in the transfer market. We have been persistently linked with Dejan Lovren since before the window opened, and he would not be a bad signing. The fees being bandied about are ridiculous, and I certainly don’t think he is worth the £20 million figure being cited, but he seems to be a solid centre-back. Other than Sakho we have no defenders who are good enough to be regular starters if we want to mount another serious title challenge, so the signing of Lovren (or similar) and at least one new full back is imperative. If we manage to bring in the right players, we won’t need to play in a manner any less attack-minded than last season, as we will have a defence which can be relied upon.

To sum up, there is no way of knowing for sure exactly what we’ll be seeing from Liverpool next season, but that’s all part of the excitement. On August 17^th the plans of Brendan Rodgers will start to be revealed, and we can begin to see for ourselves what Liverpool have in store for us in 2014/15. All we can do until then is hugely over-analyse pre-season games, get whipped up into frenzies about made-up transfer targets and altogether get carried away by the whirlwind of madness that is the close season. The only certainty is that, come what may next season, we will be behind the club with the huge support that can only be given by the best fans in the world.

 -James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

What Formation Should Liverpool Play Next Season?

Last season Brendan Rodgers experimented with a lot of formations, but towards the end seemed to settle for a 3-5-2. This seemed to be relatively effective, and Liverpool put in some great performances, going unbeaten in their last eight Premier League matches. However, Rodgers has made some additions to the squad, so will the formation need to be tweaked?

Firstly, I must make it clear that all formations need to be flexible. If each player stuck rigidly to their assigned position, there would be no fluency, and the team would also become extremely predictable. That said, formations are a very important part of the game, and it is crucial to find the one that best suits the club. The 3-5-2 we settled upon last season was quite effective, as it moved Glen Johnson and Jose Enrique into more advanced positions, encouraging them to push forward without having to constantly worry about tracking back. However, now Carragher has retired, it would be quite hard to play this system. It uses 3 centre-backs, and currently Daniel Agger is the only one I have genuine faith in. Skrtel is extremely error-prone, and Coates is still very young. Martin Kelly has potential, but he seems too susceptible to injury to be a viable option, and (though he has played centre-back in the past) is a full-back by trade. For the 3-5-2 to continue to work for Liverpool, Rodgers would probably have to make two quality signings at centre-back. There were strong rumours linking us to Papadopolous, but recently they have cooled slightly. As such, it seems a new formation may be the way forward.

One possibility is the 4-4-2. It is not the most adventurous formation, and a lot of people discount it due to the fact that it is so widely used, but there must be a reason why it has proved so popular over the years. It suits our squad better than the 3-5-2, in that it only requires 2 centre-backs, and also provides cover in the wide areas of defence in the shape of two full-backs. However, it does have its drawbacks. The success or failure of the formation hangs largely around the performance of the two central midfielders, who are forced to be both positive in attack and also good at tracking back, providing cover for the defence. This is a lot for two people to manage at the best of times, but if either of them have an off-day the whole team tends to fall apart. In our team the central midfielders would most likely be Gerrard and one of Henderson, Coutinho, or Lucas. None of these players are naturally central midfielders, and due to this I don’t think this formation is right for Liverpool.

Another option is the 4-5-1.  In terms of the defence and midfield, this takes the best from both the 3-5-2 and the 4-4-2. It only requires two centre-backs, and provides wide threats in the form of wingers. However, there is still the problem of central midfielders. As I mentioned previously, Liverpool have no real out-and-out central midfielders (except perhaps Joe Allen), and this formation requires three. Of course, players such as Henderson, Coutinho and Lucas are good enough to adapt, but nobody plays to their full potential in an un-natural position. Also, as the three central midfielders have to consider tracking back, they aren’t usually committed too far up the pitch, which leaves the lone striker very isolated. Consequently, I think the best formation for us next season is a variation on the 4-5-1.

I am referring to the 4-2-3-1. It is clearly similar to the 4-5-1; however it is different in some key ways. Instead of three central midfielders, it uses two central defensive midfielders and one central attacking. This solves almost all the issues of the previous formations. The central attacking midfielder no longer has to worry about tracking back due to the cover of the two defensive midfielders. The two wide players (one of whom will potentially be new signing Iago Aspas, a right forward) can also stay high up the pitch. Because of this, the lone striker is no longer isolated, as he has the support of the three advanced midfielders. It is not, however, perfect. Lucas is naturally a defensive midfielder, but Gerrard is not. He would have to adapt slightly to play in a more holding role. He is very versatile and could of course manage this, although it is not ideal. On top of this there is Coutinho, who, were another attacking midfielder to come, would be shifted out to the left. He has played in this position before and is still extremely effective, but not quite as deadly as he would be in his natural position of central attacking midfielder.

Although the 4-2-3-1 requires that two minor compromises be made, it still seems by far and away the best formation for Liverpool next season. It allows the majority of the team to play in their natural positions, and allows the attacking midfielders (and also, to an extent, the full backs) freedom to roam whilst still providing cover in the shape of the two defensive midfielders. If Rodgers can get this system working for us next season, it has the potential to be mightily effective.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013