After the disappointing season that followed Gareth Bale’s move to the Spanish capital, many pundits and fans decided a similar fate would curse the Reds after Luis Suarez’s transfer to Barcelona. After a rather indifferent start to their league campaign, Liverpool’s emphatic win over Tottenham Hotspur is a step in the right direction to proving the doubters wrong. Facing a rejuvenated Spurs side under the leadership of Pochettino a point would have been a good enough result, not many predicted such a dominant display by Rodgers’ side.
1) The Clean Sheet
After the poor defensive display against the champions last Monday, the clean sheet is even more of a surprise. The clear deficiencies were painful to watch and to many people’s surprise, the same mistakes weren’t evident at all at White Hart Lane. The most likely explanation for this improved form is the fact the personnel has changed; injuries to both Glen Johnson and Martin Skrtel gave Manquillo and Sakho an opportunity to force their way into the first team and both of them were up to the challenge.
The centre back partnership of Sakho and Lovren looked much more cohesive than any defence that Martin Skrtel has been in for the past year and a half. Their positioning was brilliant and it gave very little for Emmanuel Adebayor to work with, which neutralised the attacking threat that spurs possessed. People seem to think just because Sakho looks clumsy on the ball that he is. His passing success rate last season was 87% which is very impressive for a CB. And his range of passing is underrated too; plenty of times we have seen him bypass the opposition’s midfield with just one pass. So even though he did make a few mistakes it’s purely down to a lack of match fitness rather than technical problems.
The two fullbacks provided both defensive stability and attacking prowess, something we’ve been lacking from these positions for a very long time. In his opening game Moreno hinted at what we’d see from him during his time at Anfield and he carried on in a similar fashion, with an attacking performance that you’d see from Dani Alves or Jordi Alba. On the other side Manquillo looks a brilliant defender, not much gets past him and for a 20 year old he shows a maturity that is way beyond his years.
2) Squad depth
Sometimes the achievements of last season are vastly underplayed due to use not winning the league. Rodgers had 13 players to choose from that he could trust to put in a performance and then the likes of Iago Aspas and Victor Moses who were useless. But the victory in London showed how this season we have so much more depth to our squad. After two disappointing performances from Phillipe Coutinho, the Brazilian had to settle for a place on the bench with Mario Balotelli taking his place as the 4-1-2-1-2 returned.
For some games we could potentially see Lazar Markovic, Coutinho and Adam Lallana all on the bench. That’s some serious firepower and aside from Chelsea and Man City, no other club in the Premier League can match that. It gives Rodgers a lot more options this year, he can be much more flexible in his tactics and team selections which will hopefully allow Liverpool to take that extra step to regaining their perch.
3) The Diamond is the way forward
I know I’ve mentioned this in the last two weeks but again it’s something that needs to be mentioned. Firstly having two strikers helps Daniel Sturridge a lot, when playing the lone striker role he often becomes isolated and drifts out of the game for long periods. But this wasn’t the case against Spurs, and some of his link up play with the crazy Italian will have Liverpool fans very excited. Who knows, it could become a more lethal partnership than SAS was which would be something special indeed.
It also brings the best out of Raheem Sterling. Another sublime performance saw him take the Man of the Match prize which is something that we’re becoming accustomed to seeing these days. His pace is quite frightening, his dribbling is wonderful but for me his tactical awareness is what sets him apart from every other young player in the premier league. He knows when to make runs in behind the defence, when to drop deep, when to shoot and when to pass. 95% of the time he makes the right decision and his execution is usually first rate too.
The midfield looks strong too, Gerrard no longer has the legs to make up for his poor defensive positional sense and the midfield diamond makes up for that greatly. Although his passing was poor, his defensive contribution shouldn’t be overlooked. He tracked his runners much better and his positioning ensured that he didn’t have the chase Eriksen’s shadow for 90 minutes which would only have ended badly.
4) Rodgers knows how to handle Mad Mario
Can anyone remember when Man City were on a pre-season tour and Mario Balotelli tried to showboat and score a back heel? Mancini lost his cool and subbed him. So when Balotelli failed miserably at a long range shot from 45 yards Rodgers had two options, either get angry (an approach that clearly didn’t work) or laugh it off. He did the latter.
But he’s also giving him responsibilities, even if it is only marking from corners. In an interview Rodgers revealed that the Italian said that he “doesn’t do corners”, the Irishman went on to tell him “you do now!”
It’s a bit like when you’ve got a child who’s naughty. He just wants to be loved and accepted for who he is. He might be a bit crazy but as long as he doesn’t bite someone who actually cares? I have no doubts that under Rodgers he will thrive.
Conclusion
After the disappointment of the Man City games, things are certainly looking up again. Performances like that don’t usually happen until 10 games or so into the season so we’re exactly where we want to be right now. We can into the international break with confidence, let’s just hope we stay clear of injuries!
Comments.
Loading comments…