Brendan Rodgers thinks that the switch to a 3-4-2-1 formation has helped unchain the potential in the Liverpool team.
The Reds have gone nine games unbeaten, and a win in this evening’s FA Cup fourth round tie against Bolton Wanderers would see that run move into double figures.
Rodgers first revisited the wing-back system at Old Trafford when Manchester United beat Liverpool 3-0, but the Reds showed some signs of improvement despite the heavy defeat.
Summer signings Lazar Markovic, Emre Can and Alberto Moreno have all performed admirably in the new formation, and have been pivotal in Liverpool’s upturn in form.
The Reds turned in one of their best performances of the season against Chelsea in the Capital One Cup semi-final first leg on Tuesday. For the first time in months, they played the type of football that supporters witnessed at Anfield throughout the previous campaign.
“You see the level of our game now,” the Liverpool manager said.
“I felt that somewhere it would come, it was just a case of finding solutions to allow us to do that.”
“The restructuring of the system has allowed the players to come in and work this way. It’s given them comfort defensively and made us a real creative threat with the ball.”
“Now we’re seeing the quality of the new players and how they have settled.”
“The game the other night was a great measure of that. Where we were when we played Chelsea a couple of months ago was nowhere near that level. We lost 2-1 at Anfield but it wasn’t of the same level of performance or mentality.”
“As the season has gone on we’ve seen the mentality of the players grow. They understand what it takes to play here and their qualities are starting to come through.”
“That was the reason why we brought these players in last summer – knowing they could come in and flourish.”
Daniel Sturridge is close to a comeback – but won’t feature against Bolton – and Rodgers believes the 25-year-old will be an important figure in the second half of the season for Liverpool.
“We’ve got Daniel to come back in who is a big player for us,” he continued.
“You put him back into that team then you have got a real exciting team ready to win again.”
“We’ve shown that over this period of 14/15 games and if that continues then we’ll have a real good foundation come the summer. With one or two (new signings) to come in to add to what we’ve got then we can challenge for sure.”
Rodgers’ starting lineup on Saturday will include several changes from the team that drew with Chelsea in midweek, with this Tuesday’s second leg in mind.
Martin Skrtel, Markovic, Moreno, Lucas Leiva and Steven Gerrard are likely to be given the afternoon off for the visit of Bolton.
Glen Johnson and Joe Allen are set to return from injury, while Javier Manquillo, Jose Enrique and Adam Lallana – who came back from a short layoff to come on as a substitute against Chelsea – are also in line to start.
Lucas has forced his way back into the manager’s plans with his impressive displays of late and Rodgers says other members of the squad must follow the example set by the Brazilian midfielder.
“I’ve shown in my time here that I’m the type of coach who will view you in training,” Rodgers said.
“With the level of your training, commitment and focus you can play your way into the team and Lucas is a prime example of that.”
“He was out of the team last season mainly because of the nature of our set-up.”
“We had Steven Gerrard in that co-ordinating role from behind and I’m not one who likes to play with two holding players as they can get in the way of each other.”
“We played a midfield diamond with one and we played 4-3-3 with one and that was Steven. He became the playmaker for the team.”
“Now we’ve flipped it and we play with two in there with one of them being defensive, Lucas has done that role very well.”
“It’s about players understanding that at times they will be out of the team. They have to respect the manager’s decision and the ethos of the team.”
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