Newcastle 1-0 Liverpool: Discontent Grows as Reds Slip to Defeat

For the last few weeks, Liverpool have been nowhere near their scintillating form of last season. At first the excuse was that the new players needed time to gel to with the team, and that we were still adapting. We are now 10 games in, and the finger is pointing in a much more worrying direction: Brendan Rodgers. His stubborn refusal to switch the formation and put someone up front to partner Balotelli has led to woeful performances and lots of dropped points. It was the same story today, as Liverpool lost 1-0 to an average Newcastle side.

The performance was sadly one we have become very much used to this season. It was lacklustre, uninspired and frankly poor. Nobody could create any chances – Sterling was wasted out wide, Coutinho was far from his best and Balotelli was horribly isolated. These problems would have been addressed by putting Sterling up front with Balotelli, but Rodgers opted to stick with the 4-3-3. Fortunately Newcastle were putting in a fairly poor shift as well, or things could have got very embarrassing. One of the dullest first halves of football Liverpool fans have witnessed for a long time ended goalless, and this scoreline flattered the reds.

The second half saw a slight improvement in quality, and it looked for a while like Liverpool might be able to take all three points away from St. James’s Park. Steven Gerrard’s inclusion in a midfield three (alongside Henderson and Allen) gave him licence to push up the field, and he rolled back the years with some good passes from advanced positions. That said, no clear cut chances were being created; the only genuine test of Krul was a close-range header from Coutinho, which was incorrectly called back for offside anyway. The referee had a poor game, and both Janmaat and Sissoko were lucky not to see red. As it was the magpies were allowed to carry on with a full compliment of 11 men, and there was an awful inevitability about their goal in the 73^rd minute. A failure to clear the ball from Moreno allowed Ayoze Perez the opportunity to nip in and smash the ball past a helpless Mignolet, giving the hosts the lead.

Any hopes of Liverpool being fired up by going behind quickly faded. By contrast, they had looked much more of a threat prior to conceding. It was Newcastle who played the better football for the last 15 minutes, and it would have finished 2 or 3 nil had it not been for some excellent saves from Simon Mignolet. The introduction of Lambert had absolutely no effect, throwing into question whether he was really worth buying as a ‘Plan B’. The game ended 1-0 to Newcastle, and Liverpool now find themselves 12 points adrift of leaders Chelsea.

Unless these performances can improve rapidly, we can wave goodbye to hopes of a top 4 spot, let alone another push for the title. The return of Daniel Sturridge towards the end of the month will definitely be a help to us, but certainly doesn’t solve the core issue of defensive frailty. Brendan Rodgers opted to spend a sizeable proportion of the money from the sale of Luis Suarez on Dejan Lovren: this is a very painful thought. Suarez was one of the best players in the world, whilst Lovren is an utter liability. A defensive pairing of him and Skrtel is laughable, and Rodgers’s continued insistence that we don’t need a defensive coach brought in is worrying indeed. The first step to curing any problem is acceptance that the problem exists, and until Rodgers does that we’re in big trouble.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

Why Next Season Looks Promising for Liverpool

 

Following Liverpool this season has been infuriating. After a run of two or three great games you start to think ‘we could really make it to the top 4 this year’, then they put in a couple of truly lacklustre performances against fairly low-level opposition. To be honest, it is unrealistic to hope we may still qualify for the Champions League this season, although there are lots of promising signs for the future.

Firstly, it has to be remembered that this is Brendan Rodgers’ first season at Liverpool. Adapting to a new managers style is hard for the players, and whilst they get used to it consistency is bound to be an issue. By the time the 2013/14 season starts, as long as FSG have been sensible enough to keep Rodgers, the players will be used to the manager and to his elaborate, precise method of play. This should mean that the snippets of brilliant play we’ve seen at points this season is maintained throughout the next.

Also, there is the matter of new signings. The players Liverpool have just brought in (Phillipe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge) show great potential, and once they have settled in to the side they have the capacity to be extremely effective. Daniel Sturridge in particular could be key, as Luis Suarez has shown he operates brilliantly with a second striker. Sturridge may well be the answer to the questions being asked about Liverpool’s chance conversion rate. As well as this, there will be a chance for us to strengthen the squad further come the summer, meaning the current weaknesses in our team can be ironed out by new arrivals. The defence in particular could do with improvement, and if we are able to bring in a good new defender before next season it could go a long way to helping us get the right results.

Furthermore, there are a lot of players who were brought into the side in the Dalglish era who are only just starting to come into their own. In recent games Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing have been playing brilliantly, in fact they have arguably been two of the best players in the side. If they continue in this run of form, something they didn’t manage at all under Dalglish and have only just started to show under Rodgers, they could be key in helping Liverpool to reach 4^th or higher next season. Henderson in particular could play a huge role in the future, as Steven Gerrard, though still currently playing excellently, will have to retire at some point, so Henderson will be needed to ensure the central midfield remains a strong point for Liverpool.

In conclusion, although a lot of fans are upset with the inconsistency of Liverpool this season, to the point where some are calling for Brendan Rodgers to be sacked, on the whole Liverpool are showing a lot of positive signs. Everyone should be patient, because there is a lot of potential in the current team, and by next season I think everything will fall into place, and the performances and results will finally start to come on a consistent basis.

The Rodgers Regime

Brendan Rodgers was appointed as Liverpool manager on the 1st June. This means he has been in charge of the club for over 5 months, but what has he achieved?

The key thing that Brendan Rodgers has changed at Liverpool is the style of play. We were never a team totally reliant on long balls, but under Dalglish’s management possession was never exactly a priority. Rodgers has changed that. He has shifted the team’s focus, implementing a tiki-taka style of play that worked so well for him at Swansea. This has taken a while to bring in to the team, as even for the most seasoned professionals changing to a new style is hard, but it seems we are getting there. LFC have now gone 7 Premier League games in a row undefeated, so it is clear that after a shaky start, the results are starting to come.

However, it isn’t just the style of play Brendan Rodgers has changed. He has also altered the formation. Whereas before Liverpool normally played 4 at the back, Rodgers has modified it so there are three main defenders, with two more defenders slightly further up the pitch, sort of like wing backs. Then there are three in midfield, who’s role it is to pull the strings and control the play. Finally, there are three strikers, two of them (usually Sterling and Suso) playing wider with the other (almost invariably Suarez) playing down the middle. This formation switch has worked well, particularly the introduction of the wing backs. Jose Enrique and Glen Johnson, who were both attack-minded full backs in the first place, can now play with a lot more freedom. This allows them to contribute a lot more to attacks, without constantly worrying about tracking back. The success of this was highlighted in the Wigan game on 17th November, where Liverpool were able to get three goals, with Enrique scoring one of them and assisting another.

Finally, Rodgers has also made some significant personnel changes. For me, Joe Allen has been the best summer signing. He passes brilliantly, and is the perfect candidate for controlling the play from the heart of the team. Nuri Sahin, who was brought in on loan from Real Madrid, has also been moderately successful, with a few solid games in midfield. However, where Rodgers has really disappointed me was the purchase of Fabio Borini. To be fair to Borini, he hasn’t had much chance to prove himself, as after only a few games for the club he broke his foot. However, in the small amount of games he did play, he looked really poor, and I can certainly think of better ways the 11 million pounds could have been spent. Hopefully Borini will come back from his injury refreshed and I will be proved wrong, but at the moment it does look like he was a waste of money.

Overall though, I think Rodgers has had a generally very positive effect on the club. He has retained the club’s brilliant work ethic, whilst also bringing in some new ideas of his own. Admittedly his first few results were very poor, but implementing new ideas always takes a while, and given enough funds and time I can see Brendan Rodgers guiding us back into the top 4, maybe not this season but certainly in the near future.