After a disappointing display against Aston Villa last weekend, the reds looked to bounce back in their long awaited return to the Champions League and despite the 2-1 victory, the performance was somewhat uninspiring. Rodgers set up with a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 formation with the same back 5 of Mignolet, Moreno, Sakho, Lovren and Manquillo. Ahead of them Gerrard, Henderson and Coutinho formed a midfield three whilst the attack contained Mario Balotelli, Adam Lallana and Raheem Sterling. A good team selection it seemed, but on the pitch they didn’t click at all.
1) It’s going to take time
After the Villa game I raised this point, but it’s something that needs to addressed yet again after seeing some of the reactions on social network sites. When you overhaul the squad as much we have this year the first few games were never going to be easy. Football players aren’t robots; you can’t throw them together and expect them to be cohesive or fluent. But the best way for them to get used to each other is by playing together in competitive games and by winning games, confidence will grow.
Even last season we didn’t start particularly well despite the league positions, it was only really the second half of the season where we hit our best form. So let’s just calm down a little bit, we won the game at the end of the day and we’re one step closer to qualifying from our group.
2) Is Mignolet good enough?
I was quite happy with the signing of the Belgian keeper back in 2013, but that was when we had top 4 ambitions. Now the goal has changed, we want to be challenging for the title. Is Mignolet good enough for a title challenging side? I’m not so sure.
He’s a very good shot stopper and in one-on-one situations he’s particularly strong. But he’s not very good with the ball at his feet which puts us under pressure, he’s poor at coming for crosses and he doesn’t command his penalty area either.
For their goal there was plenty of mistakes but did Mignolet have to rush off his line? If he stays back it forces the goal scorer to have a shot. But by coming out it makes it all too easy for him to simply take the ball around him and pass the ball into the open net.
All goalkeepers make mistakes, it’s inevitable. But for my liking he makes too many of them and they could be the difference between a 2nd place finish and a first league title in 25 years.
3) We play better with two up front
Even though I’ve mentioned it every game this season it still needs to be talked about. Rather than putting the star names on the teamsheet, Rodgers should put the system first and play two up front even if that does mean one of his multi-million pound signings finds himself on the bench.
So for the game on Saturday I’d bring Fabio Borini to partner Balotelli, allowing Raheem Sterling to play in the number 10 role where he has much more influence on the game. The midfield always looks more solid on the ball too and we also seem more compact defensively. Combine that with the striking partnership it allows and it seems the obvious way forward.
4) Balotelli and confidence
After the Italians first goal for Liverpool you could see what it meant to him and his confidence sky rocketed. He started pressuring the opposition, running with the ball at the defence and in general his performance levels grew massively. If Rodgers can give Balotelli half as much confidence as he gave the likes of Jon Flanagan, Raheem Sterling and Jordan Henderson then we’re going to have some player on our hands.
Once Daniel Sturridge regains his fitness I think we’ll see a partnership close to that of SAS, which is not going to be easy. But they’re two players so have immense talent who are yet to reach their full potential and by working together they may be able to reach it.
Conclusion
It wasn’t pretty but it was a win and that’s the most important thing. But to do anything of note this year our performance levels need to improve drastically, however we have plenty of time to rectify that. Rodgers has proved he’s capable dealing with situations like this, I’m sure he’ll figure something out to sort the poor performance levels so far.
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