West Brom 0-0 Liverpool: Post-Match Analysis

Well let’s face it, there’s not too much to say on this game. Even the commentators, who considering they are getting paid to watch and talk about football should always be happy, sounded bored out of their minds for the majority of the game. Other than a decent half-volley from Balotelli, a speculative effort from the halfway line by Coutinho and a good save from Myhill to deny Henderson from close range, there was really very little to get excited about; the fact that it took almost an hour for the first shot on target says all you need to know.

Of course, the Liverpool defence have to take at least some credit for making this game so boring. The lack of action was largely because of West Brom’s ridiculously deep line couple with Liverpool’s attacking impotence, but on the few occasions that the hosts did threaten the Reds defence coped admirably. Lovren in particular deserves credit: he has taken a huge amount of flak since his 20 million pound move in the summer, but he didn’t let that weigh on his mind. Other than a few poorly thought out “Hollywood balls” in the early stages he didn’t put a foot wrong, consistently beating Anichebe in the air and making a couple of vital challenges and interceptions. Mignolet had very little to do at all, but he will be pleased with the clean sheet: it takes him joint top in the running for the Golden Glove, something that nobody would have expected after his shaky start to the campaign.

However, encouraging though the newfound defensive strength is, it is almost meaningless when we don’t have anyone capable of doing the job at the other end. Sturridge’s almost constant injury problems have been a real blow, and unsurprisingly the genius of Suarez has been missed this season. His ability to draw three defenders and then beat them left space for the rest of our attackers to work in – with the exception of Coutinho, nobody has managed to reproduce that sort of thing this season. This has meant that Liverpool have been reduced to aimlessly passing it around just outside the edge of the 18 yard box, occasionally taking pot shots in the hope that they can be bailed out by a wondergoal. Come the summer, whoever is in charge of the club by then will have to prioritise bringing in players who can create and score goals: the links with Depay are encouraging, but if recent history is anything to go by then we’ll probably fail to secure his signature and instead settle for Milner.

Balotelli was given a rare chance by Rodgers in this match. He proved all of the vacuous critics wrong in that his work rate could not really be faulted – he made multiple good runs and showed willingness to press the opposition at times. However, he was still ineffectual. This was largely down to the service he was provided, but he does of course have to take some blame for failing to make anything happen: when you’re out of favour, you have to grasp any chance you’re given. Rodgers looked a defeated man at times, slumped against the wall of the dugout, and this view was reinforced when he threw Borini on with just under half an hour to play. The Italian is even more out in the cold than his compatriot Balotelli, and everybody knew that he would be unable to offer the incisive input needed to break down the West Brom back line.

It was a pointless change from a manager who rapidly seems to be running out of ideas – none of the formations he tries are making any difference, and his press conferences are becoming gradually more ridiculous by the day. Am I saying he should be sacked immediately? Not necessarily, no. Rodgers has an ambition for the club which we saw a snippet of in our excellent campaign last year, and if he is given more time then there is every chance that he’ll be able to get us to sustain that level of performance and consistently challenge for the league. However, you couldn’t blame FSG for pulling the plug on him; he wasted all of their money in the summer, transforming the team from a 100+ goals per season outfit to one who consistently struggles to find the net. Again, the injuries to Sturridge and the almost unavoidable departure of Suarez have to be taken into account here, but Rodgers cannot absolve himself of all blame like he seems to want to do in press conferences. Especially considering Klopp might be available, it wouldn’t be too surprising if Rodgers was shown the door at the end of the season.

Be it the manager, the personnel or simply the style of play, something clearly needs to change for next season. This campaign is pretty much a write-off now, but we cannot afford to carry on with these disappointing performances into the new season. We have a good young team with bags of potential, but we need more: we need to bolster the squad with prolific goal-scorers and set them up in a way that allows the goals to start flowing freely once more. One season of mediocrity after a squad overhaul that saw our best player leave can just about be forgiven – if the trend is not reversed in the next campaign, then all of the progress we seemed to be making last season will be undone.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013 

West Brom 1-1 Liverpool: Post-Match Analysis

Yesterday, Liverpool were hosted by West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns. Despite looking in control for large periods of the match, Liverpool were unable to hold their 1-0 lead, and ended up taking just one point away from the game after drawing1-1.

Liverpool didn’t start quite as brightly as usual. West Brom were clearly fearful of getting hit on the counter-attack, so didn’t commit many men forward. This made it tough for either side to create any chances, leading to a cagey opening 20 minutes. Eventually though, Liverpool’s supreme attack was able to break the deadlock- Luis Suarez produced a lovely cross after some great trickery on the edge of the box, resulting in a simple tap-in for Daniel Sturridge.

This opened the game up a little. Our failure to strengthen in defence in January means that our back line is still very vulnerable, and the Baggies proved this. They produced multiple half-chances, and though they didn’t really test Mignolet in the first half it wasn’t for a lack of trying. The trend continued after the break, with both sides looking like they had the potential to score. Suarez came close to the doubling LFC’s lead, denied only by a good 1-on-1 save by Ben Foster. Gareth McAuley also came very close for Albion; his headed effort was kept out thanks to one of the saves of the season from Simon Mignolet. Just as Liverpool seemed to be getting into their rhythm and shutting West Brom out of the game, disaster struck.  Kolo Toure, who was only in the team due to an injury to Mamadou Sakho, attempted a ridiculous pass across his own back line. Presumably he didn’t see Anichibe lurking nearby, as his pass went straight to him. Anichibe was then left with the task of smashing the ball emphatically past Mignolet, which, to be fair to him, he did very well.

This defensive error is by no means an isolated incident. Throughout the season, the defence has looked very shaky, and it has undeniably been costing us points. We were all gutted when Liverpool failed to sign Konoplyanka on deadline day, but the more worrying issue is this: why were we trying to sign a winger? Other than Sakho, all of our centre-backs are sub-standard. Flanagan has proved himself to be better than we first thought this season, but he is by no means a player one would associate with a Champions League club. Cissokho has been dire all season, although to be fair to him he actually performed quite well against West Brom. In short, we need an overhaul of the defence, and whether it is the fault of FSG, Rodgers or Ayre, we aren’t getting it. The current squad is by no means beyond finishing in the top 4, but our lack of defensive signings has certainly made it harder. If we can still reach it, hopefully a positive multiplier effect will ensue- better players will want to join us as we have Champions League football, so our team will improve, resulting in us doing even better. On the other hand, if we don’t manage to get in the top 4, we risk losing our key player, Suarez, without whom we will really struggle.

Anyway, back to the match. After the shambolic concession of the equaliser, Liverpool, as one would have expected, pushed harder in attack. Sadly though, they lacked their usual attacking potency. Sturridge was operating in a wider role than usual, which made him quite a lot less effective, and by his standards Suarez was having a bad game. Sterling was our best attacking player, but even his pace and quick feet weren’t really able to create anything threatening. Matters weren’t helped by the amount of times West Brom fouled our players to prevent a promising attack. In spite of our efforts to force the issue and get a winner, the game finished 1-1.

Overall, the result is a really disappointing one. Fortunately Tottenham also dropped points at Hull and Manchester United were beaten by Stoke, so the loss didn’t allow our rivals for 4^th place (other than Everton) to gain on us too much. We are also still only 3 points adrift of Chelsea, who today go to City. It is clearly by no means a season-ruining result, but the players will need to be at their best even in the ‘smaller’ games if we want to maintain a proper challenge for 4^th place or higher with the squad we have.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

West Brom vs Liverpool – My Thoughts

On Saturday 18^th August 2012, Liverpool played their opening match of the season against West Bromwich Albion. They lost 3-0, with goals from Zoltan Gera, Peter Odemwingie (penalty) and Romelu Lukaku. On the face of it, there are very few positives to be taken from this games, and lots of negatives. This is partly true, however there was more to the game than the result might suggest.

The first thing to mention is that in the first half, the game was not at all as one-sided as the scoreline suggests. In fact, Liverpool created more attacks than West Brom in the opening 45 minutes. Their build up play was extremely good (mostly), and they crafted a lot of good chances. However, the problem was once again their finishing. I have had to say this hundreds of times, but Liverpool are still not showing the clinical finishing required from a club that wants to compete for a top 4 position. If this cannot be improved, then I fear that hopes that LFC might break into the Champions League again this season are unrealistic. Despite this, it shouldn’t be forgotten that lots of attacks were made, which is a very good sign.

Unfortunately, Liverpool could not continue creating attacks in the second half. Zoltan Gera had scored a stunning volley at the end of the first half, and it seemed that took the life out of LFC. However, this was not the main reason for Liverpool’s decline in the second half. By far the biggest contributing factor to Liverpool’s poor second half was some dubious refereeing by Phil Dowd. Early into the half, Shane Long managed to break through the Liverpool defence. Daniel Agger attempted to get back at him, and Dowd deemed that he had used excessive and illegal levels of force to do so, and gave West Brom a penalty. This in itself was a little controversial, as the incident was right on the edge of the area, but that was nothing compared to what happened next. The referee sent off Agger. Now I am a massive LFC fan, but I am also reasonable, and accept that Agger fouled Shane Long. However, it was certainly not a foul worthy of a red card. Although Pepe Reina managed to save the subsequent penalty, with LFC only having 10 men and having to chase the game they were as good as beaten.

As if this wasn’t enough, Dowd then decided to award West Brom another penalty! Now I may be seeing this differently to everyone else, but to me it seemed that Shane Long came up from behind Skrtel, tackled him, and then fell over. When I saw the referee pointing to the penalty spot I thought it must be some kind of joke. Odemwingie stepped up to take this one, and unlike Long he managed to bury his penalty. This left Liverpool two goals down. There was nothing controversial about the third goal, which was simply a good header from Lukaku. However, Liverpool would probably have been able to clear it had they had 11 players on the pitch.

To sum up, it is hard to draw any meaningful conclusions from this game. Liverpool may well have come back in the second half, but the match was ruined by some shocking refereeing decisions. However, Liverpool will need to show some better finishing in subsequent games if they want to get results.