Liverpool Yet To Reach Top Gear
Article by Red Phil
Follow e-Football on Twitter!
Things are looking quite rosy at the moment but perhaps we are still not firing on all cylinders?
The Southampton game was supposedly going to be one of our hardest this season, with the Saints above us in the league so a 0-2 win surely ticks most of the boxes? It’s hard to be negative when a result like this comes around but I base my views solely on the fact that, other than the goals, we hardly caused Southampton any problems with forwards INSIDE their penalty area.
Great, we won, but when one goal is a wonder-strike from 30 yards and the other comes from a slip by the Saints defender I cannot help but ask what other chances did we create? Two goals and hardly another real attempt at goal is one thing but I’d rather it had been two goals and seven or eight good chances to score further goals.
The whole team played well, with no real weaknesses, and the defence and midfield especially coped well with whatever the opposition threw at us, but with Raheem Stirling playing up front on his own, at first, we are putting all of our eggs into the fact that he has exceptional pace and can go past people. He had no support and probably had one of his less effective games even though his work-rate was excellent. I doubt very much if he has personal hygiene issues so the fact that he was so isolated must have been down to tactics.
As I’ve said before, I’m old-fashioned in that I like predators to hunt in pairs. Keegan and Toshack, Rush and Dalglish, from Liverpool, and Clarke and Jones from Leeds, Gilzean and Greaves from Spurs are examples of what I mean.
We can’t expect Raheem Stirling to attack a defence, and a penalty area, effectively on his own with the midfield players offering a back-up. We brought Daniel Sturridge on and then he began moving all over the place looking for the ball whereas what I would have liked would have been for us to attack with him through the centre and with Raheem closely supporting him.
We still seem to make very nice patterns and shapes around the pitch with an excellent passing style but the intricate stuff we are playing is hindered by, often, an empty penalty area from the Liverpool point of view. Ian Rush didn’t go wandering out to the wing very often, leaving the central defenders with nobody to mark! Robbie Fowler also didn’t, Roger Hunt didn’t and Michael Owen most certainly didn’t.
We need to use Daniel Sturridge’s pace against the last defender in the same way that a speedy Ian Rush used to burst through from one of King Kenny’s through balls so, Daniel, please operate in a straight line between the centre spot and the penalty spot!
I was pleased to see Dejan Lovren given another chance in place of “Train Crash” Sakho and, in general, this result, and the performance, set us up nicely for the City game and the nuisance of a game in Turkey in mid-week.
© e-Football 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football
Follow e-Football on Twitter!
Things are looking quite rosy at the moment but perhaps we are still not firing on all cylinders?
The Southampton game was supposedly going to be one of our hardest this season, with the Saints above us in the league so a 0-2 win surely ticks most of the boxes? It’s hard to be negative when a result like this comes around but I base my views solely on the fact that, other than the goals, we hardly caused Southampton any problems with forwards INSIDE their penalty area.
Great, we won, but when one goal is a wonder-strike from 30 yards and the other comes from a slip by the Saints defender I cannot help but ask what other chances did we create? Two goals and hardly another real attempt at goal is one thing but I’d rather it had been two goals and seven or eight good chances to score further goals.
The whole team played well, with no real weaknesses, and the defence and midfield especially coped well with whatever the opposition threw at us, but with Raheem Stirling playing up front on his own, at first, we are putting all of our eggs into the fact that he has exceptional pace and can go past people. He had no support and probably had one of his less effective games even though his work-rate was excellent. I doubt very much if he has personal hygiene issues so the fact that he was so isolated must have been down to tactics.
As I’ve said before, I’m old-fashioned in that I like predators to hunt in pairs. Keegan and Toshack, Rush and Dalglish, from Liverpool, and Clarke and Jones from Leeds, Gilzean and Greaves from Spurs are examples of what I mean.
We can’t expect Raheem Stirling to attack a defence, and a penalty area, effectively on his own with the midfield players offering a back-up. We brought Daniel Sturridge on and then he began moving all over the place looking for the ball whereas what I would have liked would have been for us to attack with him through the centre and with Raheem closely supporting him.
We still seem to make very nice patterns and shapes around the pitch with an excellent passing style but the intricate stuff we are playing is hindered by, often, an empty penalty area from the Liverpool point of view. Ian Rush didn’t go wandering out to the wing very often, leaving the central defenders with nobody to mark! Robbie Fowler also didn’t, Roger Hunt didn’t and Michael Owen most certainly didn’t.
We need to use Daniel Sturridge’s pace against the last defender in the same way that a speedy Ian Rush used to burst through from one of King Kenny’s through balls so, Daniel, please operate in a straight line between the centre spot and the penalty spot!
I was pleased to see Dejan Lovren given another chance in place of “Train Crash” Sakho and, in general, this result, and the performance, set us up nicely for the City game and the nuisance of a game in Turkey in mid-week.
© e-Football 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football
To suggest everything was a fluke, you do the team no justice. Liverpool's pressing game leads to a high rate of defensive errors.The recovery of the ball in dangerous places didn't start this season, it's been a trademark of Rodgers' Liverpool. Coutinho has been putting in the hours to improve his shooting. At some point it was going to come good. Anyone who slugs through the drudgery hopes that at one point, all labor will count. The more this team wins, the more analysis of their supposedly 'deficiencies'. BR and the team will continue to look for solutions as they trod along, that's what great enterprises do.
ReplyDelete''Train Crash'' Sakho that shows your knowledge of what you have been watching of late,i for 1 think he has done very well of late even starting to show abit more composure on the ball and him and Skrtel and Can have looked very solid and good together.Glad to see lovren get a game but as soon as Sahko is fully fit he be back in the team..
ReplyDelete