---
title: "Why We Annihilated Arsenal"
canonical: "https://readliverpoolfc.com/articles/why-we-annihilated-arsenal/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Tim James"
section: "Articles"
published: "2014-02-09T13:33:14Z"
modified: "2014-02-09T13:33:14Z"
---

# Why We Annihilated Arsenal

Saturday morning was defined by an atmosphere of pessimism, and this wasn’t helped as the two sides’ team-sheets were released – Joe Allen was again left out in favour of the mercurial Phil Coutinho. However, our worries were soon alleviated. Liverpool produced the best 20 minutes of football I’ve ever seen from the club (yes, that includes Istanbul). A 6-0 scoreline wouldn’t have flattered us at that point. Had Sturridge scored his one-on-one, or Kolo Touré netted his open goal, or Suárez’s thunderbastard ricochet in off the post, then it could’ve got very ugly for Arsenal.

What I’d like to add at this point is that I can only go so far in analysing the tactics of the game. Whilst it’s certainly useful to an extent, the main reason we won the game was because the players were just really, *really* fucking good.

Whilst the side was unchanged in personnel, Rodgers did make a slight change to his base shape. In previous games, the Liverpool manager had been flirting with a return to his favoured 4-2-3-1/4-3-3/4-1-4-1 with Sturridge and Suárez alternating on the left-wing in defensive phases whilst Gerrard dropped in behind the midfield to create a ‘1-2’ shape in the centre of the park – a formation which benefits Jordan Henderson greatly.

For the Arsenal game, Rodgers decided to switch Raheem Sterling onto the left flank with Luis Suárez on the right hand-side with Sturridge often right up on the shoulder of Per Mertesacker. However, the influence of Suárez was vital as he terrorised Monreal and stayed on the right for the entirety of his time on the pitch rather than regular switching with Sturridge as he had done in the past. There was switching between the two, but this was in the fluidity of counter-attacks where Sturridge would often drift wide to give Suárez space for a run through the centre, as opposed to the mechanical rotation we’ve seen in the past few weeks. If Suárez found himself up front, then Sturridge would drift out wide to cover him.

This means the shape was as follows:

![The shape](https://cdn.readeverything.co/readliverpoolfc/2014/02/Screen-Shot-2014-02-09-at-13.25.07.png)

**Makeup of the Front Three**

The reshuffling of the attacking trio of Sterling, Suárez and Sturridge proved to be something of a masterstroke from Rodgers as all three had terrific games. The key to this incredibly vibrant counter-attacking style, was the fluidity they were given by Rodgers, as proven by the foul Suárez won in the opening minute. Sterling and Sturridge had both been forced deeper and Per Mertesacker chases a ball over the top. Suárez comes over from the right-hand side, harasses him, and wins the free-kick which Martin Škrtel gets on the end of. 1-0.

However, in their base positions of Sterling – left, Sturridge – central, Suárez – right, the Liverpool forwards were set up against the defenders they could trouble most. Per Mertesacker, despite being the league’s best central defender on form, was targeted with balls over the top where the pace of Sterling and Sturridge was absolutely deadly. A great example of this was the fifth goal where a simple ball over the top left Mertesacker for dead and Sterling had all the time in the world to slot home on his second attempt. Usually, Mertesacker relies on his fantastic positioning to get him out of trouble, and Koscielny will sweep in behind if the German is caught out. But an excellent first touch from Sterling and really poor positioning from Mertesacker meant neither of the Arsenal central defenders could get near him. I do feel a bit sorry for Mertesacker, in that Arsenal were told to play a particularly high line, and he’s quite obviously not suited to it. Wenger made it his priority to dominate possession and his high line was a big part of that – but Rodgers was just fine with that. He’d already made the alterations necessary by moving Sterling onto Mertesacker’s side and telling Coutinho to play even more through balls than normal. Rodgers’ pragmatism was one of the biggest factors in determining the result.

The fifth goal also highlighted the brilliant anticipation and pace of Sturridge, who was able to break away from his man Koscielny as an alternative to the shot. This footballing IQ from Sturridge is one of the main reasons the side has come on so much as a counter-attacking unit over the past couple of months. Whilst Rodgers originally planned for the side to hold onto the ball and play the majority of our football in the organisational phases, the side has become lethal on the counter-attack. This suits almost every player in our team far more than Rodgers’ ideal possession-based philosophy and it’s fantastic to see him mould his ideas to the personnel available, to tremendous success.

**Deep defensive line – the way forward?**

Allowing the opposition to have large amounts of the ball also suits us in the defensive stage – Liverpool have no defenders who are even remotely good at defending in transition, however, in the organisation phases, it’s a completely different matter. Steven Gerrard is much maligned amongst Liverpool fans for his lack of dynamism in midfield, which is a massive problem in defending against potent counter-attacks, such as against Chelsea over the Christmas period. However, in the organisational phase, the Liverpool captain is able to use his experience to read play well. He won possession back for Liverpool nine times in total, and, honestly, I’m still not sure if Mesut Özil actually played the game.

I know some will disagree with me, but I do feel that Gerrard’s defensive performance was the key to the win today. Despite the fact that the team operated mainly on the basis of quick transitions, in defence, the pressing game was as strong as ever. Often overloading the man on the ball with 2/3v1’s, our defensive shape would often be pulled apart and there’d be lots of space between the lines and our defensive line was much deeper than usual. Usually, you’d expect Mesut Özil to flourish in such situations, but he was largely anonymous. This was due to the good work of Gerrard who would often shut down the second ball when the passing lanes weren’t properly closed by the onrushing pressers. The altered intensity to our pressing was one of the main differences from our excellent performance against Everton to the game against Arsenal – we went from a Mourinho-esque performance to Bielsan. The screenshot below indicates the amount of space that Gerrard was expected to cover as the sole man between midfield and defence:

![Screen Shot 2014-02-09 at 13.25.36](https://readeverything.co/readliverpool/readliverpoolfc/2014/02/Screen-Shot-2014-02-09-at-13.25.36-778x439.png)

Sitting deep also worked in our favour due to the lack of Aaron Ramsey. For years, the Welshman had been considered inferior to his English counterpart, Jack Wilshere. This season, Ramsey’s been arguably the best midfielder in the league. This is largely because of his relationship with Oliver Giroud, who has become more than adept at holding up play and supplying the onrushing Welshman with through balls. Wilshere didn’t provide this weapon and with Özil & Cazorla so out of it, Giroud was often left isolated, mainly due to the inspired performances of Gerrard, Touré and Škrtel. The one time Arsenal did show any sort of potency was when Wilshere decided to make one of these forward runs, as he traded a quick one-two with Giroud. Luckily, good ol’ Jon Flanagan was there to stamp out (literally) the danger as Wilshere went down. Again.

**Coutinho, the magician**

Gerrard did put in a wonderful defensive display but he was aided by the performances of the players around him. Martin Škrtel and Kolo Touré were both able to step up into midfield to halt quick Arsenal breaks and Philippe Coutinho put in his best defensive display since he joined the club. It’s now well-renowned that Oscar’s defensive work-rate is key to Chelsea’s counter-attacking system, but Coutinho did that and more today. Chelsea under Mourinho are more than happy to sit back and let the opposition attack them, as they have a number of talented one-on-one defenders such as Ivanović and Cahill. However, Coutinho was expected to press much higher and much wider than Oscar usually does for Chelsea and this was one of the main reasons it was suggested Henderson should be pushed further forward into this role prior to the game. But Coutinho’s lateral movement without the ball was simply wonderful and he was a key part of our performance.

With the ball, the #10 was absolutely outstanding in transition. His ability to beat a man and create overloads for the front three meant that more often than not there was a free man to pass to. I often think that beating a man is a much underrated skill in football due to the overloads it can create, and Coutinho proved why it’s so vital today. Combining that with his vision and execution meant he had an almost perfect game. At one point he even beat three onrushing defenders before playing a fantastic ball to Jordan Henderson. The reason he was so improved today was the fact he’s so good in transitions – when Liverpool have more possession and expect to grind the other team down, Coutinho tends to try to force passes that aren’t there, or take a long-range shot which he’s generally no good at. However, today, he had far more space and was able to help utilise the pace of the front three. The Brazillian’s performance showed that the Arsenal midfield was crying out for the presence of Mathieu Flamini – an excellent transition defender. As it was, Arsenal were left with Mikel Arteta to do the majority of the defensive work against an on-song Coutinho.

**Rodgers – spot on**

All in all, it was a decent day for Liverpool, wasn’t it? Rodgers completely outwitted Wenger, as he had with Andre Villas-Boas and Roberto Martinez before him. Wenger believed Rodgers would stick by his possession football philosophies but the Northern Irishman proved to be far more pragmatic. Whilst half the LFC world was convinced we had to use Allen to shut Arsenal down, Rodgers was more interested in using Coutinho to exploit Arsenal’s weaknesses. Then, every single player put in a really excellent performance. Previous weak-links such as Aly Cissokho put in a fantastic defensive shift as he managed to shut down the dangerous Oxlade-Chamberlain. Flanagan was equally strong defensively – early on he was physical with Cazorla, who never seemed to recover. Whilst offering little going forwards, the positioning of both players was fantastic as they were able to push high and wide up the pitch to create more space in the centre of the pitch.

The key was obviously the midfield though, mainly in Gerrard & Coutinho. Henderson was fantastic in linking play between midfield and attack, and helping in initiating the quick transitions which Liverpool thrived on. Then, the front three were lethal as ever. And it was beautiful to watch.