Bad news or good news first? Rhetorical question, obviously bad news. Folk who prefer to build into bad news with good news are cynics.
Well, this is regarding Liverpool Football Club, there are a lot of cynics surrounding this team.
But let’s start with the bad and revive ourselves with the good.
The bad news: yes, Liverpool lost at Anfield 3-0 to West Ham. Yes, Philippe Coutinho was sent off and will be suspended for Liverpool’s trip to Old Trafford. Unfortunately that was not just a bad dream nor a glitchy FIFA 15 simulation.
The good news: the Premier League is just 4/38ths through its current cycle. There’s time to change.
However, a lingering issue in a Brendan Rodgers side is the inability to break down an inferior side that sits deep. Not only do Liverpool fail to break them down, they absolutely capitulate.
The match against West Ham is just the latest version of the same story. In their pair of grubby 1-0 wins to start the season, Liverpool never showed the capacity to aptly dismantle a deep defending team.
Stoke didn’t sit as deep as their prior Tony Pulis history would’ve suggested anyway, but it took a 35-yard wonder strike from Coutinho to secure the spoils. That cannot be relied on every week.
Bournemouth came to Anfield and were brave, but it took a goal two touches removed from a set piece that shouldn’t have stood.
Peering to the back end of 2014-15 it was apparent. The 2-1 loss to Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final; the 0-0 draw to West Brom and 1-0 loss to Hull City when Champions League qualification was still plausibly attainable; the 2-1 victory against QPR required a Steven Gerrard header from a set piece. Then on what was meant to be Gerrard’s big day, his last match at Anfield, Liverpool couldn’t break down Crystal Palace and certainly were decimated that day.
But why?
In looking at this year’s team that Harry Redknapp labeled as Liverpool’s “worst in years,” (he mustn’t have owned a TV when Roy Hodgson was around) as it’s useless and depressing to gaze upon last year’s version.
On paper, Liverpool have it all going forward. A big target man forward to bully teams if passing doesn’t work in Christian Benteke. They have two samba boys with Coutinho and Roberto Firmino that’re meant to create space when it’s not there, as is Adam Lallana. James Milner and Jordan Henderson manufacture the right blend of quality, simplicity and perpetual motion. Jordon Ibe provides natural width, pace and dribbling. Emre Can is a bull. The full-backs get forward well more than competently.
Then what’s the problem? Scott Dann and Crystal Palace are meant to be futile in attempts to stop this beautiful machine.
Unfortunately, all of the aforementioned players cannot play at once. If Brendan Rodgers feels he wants more quick combination through the centre of the pitch around the box, then Lallana, Coutinho and Firmino play together and naturally occupy the same space. The defence can contract and coil even tighter when there’s no threat on the wings. If Clyne and Gomez maraud forward, Liverpool are highly exposed for a counter, leaving the centre-halves responsible for an excessive amount of space.
If Rodgers wants Coutinho and Firmino in the team every week, as he probably does and should, but tell them to provide the width, they’ll drift out of position. They’ll gravitate to the middle of the park. It’s not their fault. It’s Brazilian science.
Against West Ham, Liverpool included the samba boys as attacking mids/wingers with a trio of central midfielders behind them. Both players thrive through the middle.
Firmino picks up the ball through the middle where Coutinho and Milner are residing, with Lucas and Can behind them off camera, likely in the same channel. Clyne works his stones off to provide Liverpool’s no. 11 with an option and to give the team width. Then after Firmino hits the bar, Clyne has got to jog back. It’s unrealistic to ask him to constantly cover so much ground attack after attack.
In this screen grab a moment before Firmino exercises his only option, a shot from about 30 yards out, the Hammers leave a man on Benteke and are able to send four others within five or six yards from Firmino.
Liverpool’s lack of width creates no seams, no gaps. West Ham simply contract their back line and holding mids, suffocating the space Liverpool thrive on. Slaven Bilic’s men did this expertly on the day whilst taking their chances when Gomez and Clyne would be left out of position from frequently foraying forward.
The first 45 minutes were rather drab after West Ham got the goals they needed. They then could drop even deeper and be even less adventurous. In that time, Firmino and Coutinho mainly gravitated to the middle of the pitch, playing right into West Ham’s strength; the massive numbers crunched into the width of the 18. They made the pitch smaller, more congested and Liverpool didn’t challenge them on the flanks.
Then a few minutes into the second half, Coutinho removed himself from the match with a mistimed challenge for his second yellow, ending the pairing of he and Firmino.
Liverpool will line up the same at various stages of the season; it’s inevitable. That formation gets both Coutinho and Firmino playing together with little defensive responsibility, and the inclusion on Can in the midfield allows Milner and Henderson license to get forward together. But there needs to be a more concentrated effort to establish width to pry open the final third a bit more.
Width is crucial and key against sides that they should be beating easily. It’ll be interesting to watch how it shapes up going forward.
