Is the sale of Luis Suarez really much more important than everybody thought? Possibly. Is the absence of Daniel Sturridge really much more important than everybody thought? Hopefully not. Are there too many new parts to integrate all at once? Too easy of an excuse. Did John Henry fire Brendan Rodgers and replace him with Roy Hodsgon? I really, really hope not. Have we noticed any owl sightings on the sidelines? Can’t say I have. Not enough Kolo Toure? Eureka! Too many questions? Yes, certainly.
In the post-game interview ensuing the Reds’ Swiss disappointment against Basel on Wednesday, Steven Gerrard was spot on.
“We were too soft all over the pitch and I think they wanted it more all over the pitch, which is hard to say, but it’s the truth. We cannot keep defending like that from set-pieces we made it easy for them.”
It’s momentary lapses and horrific set piece defending, exactly the same symptoms that plagued Liverpool last year. The scout is out on how to get points off Rodgers’ men: get enough dead ball opportunities and you’ll score, then hold on to what you’ve got. The Reds haven’t proved that they can sustain pressure and break down a parked bus yet and that’s what’s done them in against lesser opponents. Aston Villa and West Ham specifically have designed and executed that blue print. Southampton and Tottenham tried to play with Liverpool and failed, which is disheartening because more teams will be discouraged from trying to, you know, actually play the game. There’ll be more banks of four, a sight that would bring a single proud tear to Roy Hodgson’s eye.
After Liverpool strolled into White Hart Lane, fizzed around the park and shellacked Tottenham 3-0, it appeared as if the Reds were in for a favorable run of games. Then Aston Villa happened and that one hurt.
An inordinate amount of keyboard warriors and apparent self proclaimed elite tacticians have been moaning about why Rodgers would switch away from the diamond. Last year Rodgers would alter the formation seemingly every match and his squad didn’t miss a beat. With Sturridge out they didn’t have the personnel to play the diamond, their best eleven fit into a 4-2-3-1.
Liverpool put in a toothless performance as Villa left Anfield with points yet again. But it is football and on any given day anybody can beat anybody. Just ask the fans who visited Old Trafford last year.
One thing that needs sorting is getting Steven Gerrard more touches on the ball again. Managers have been sacrificing a midfielder or withdrawing a forward to simply shadow Liverpool’s captain and it’s worked wonders. The front of the team has shown they’re interchangeable positionally, Gerrard and Jordan Henderson should be no different. Whoever is tailing Gerrard will find it hard to get forward after chasing the number 8 into his own defensive third.
However that isn’t why Liverpool are conceding and not the whole story as to why they’re not scoring enough. Sometimes you can search and search for a problem to the point where you create one. There’s no real identifiable problem other than momentary lapses, set piece defending and overall sub-par performances.
Sitting on just seven points after six games, Liverpool are perched in 14th place in the league and tied for second in the Champions League. The negative takeaways are obvious that they can’t afford to continue dropping points. However the positives are that they’re still one point ahead of Everton despite this horrendous start to the season and they’re only three points behind Arsenal in fourth place. With 32 league matches left, at least four more European bouts and the FA Cup still on the horizon, there’s more than enough time for things to be straightened out.
