Report by
Dave Usher at Anfield
Too much too soon I’m afraid, Brendan. Introducing so many new players to a team that was doing just fine was never going to end well, and although most of those changes were forced upon Rodgers he really couldn’t have picked a less opportune time to leave out his best player.
We all know Sterling will need to be managed carefully this season and everything Rodgers said in the build up to the game about his teenage star was spot on. The danger of burn out is always there with young players upon whom great hopes are placed, and had he been given the night off against Ludogorets this week I doubt anybody would have taken issue with that.
I don’t even have an issue with him being left out of the occasional Premier League fixture, but for God’s sake wait until 1) Daniel Sturridge is back and/or 2) the new boys have at least taken their coats off and gotten comfortable in their new surroundings.
Adam Lallana and Lazar Markovic were not bought to sit in the stands and watch; we need them on the field making contributions and I’m sure both are going to be real assets for us this season. But putting both of them in alongside Balotelli - giving us three home debutants in the forward line - was risky in the extreme.
We were terrible in this game. Absolutely awful. I can’t think of a single positive to take from it. We were toothless in attack, completely lacking in creativity and as usual managed to give away a bad goal.
Everything we did was in front of Villa. Everything. We couldn’t get behind them because the build up play was too laborious and they usually had ten men behind the ball by the time we managed to get into their half. Side to side, backwards, side to side, forward then immediately back and side to side again. Clueless football and the antithesis of what we’ve been watching in 2014.
There was no cohesion at all, but that really has to be expected given the total unfamiliarity of the line up. You simply can’t expect this team to play like last season’s team, and not just because “you know who” isn’t here anymore. He’d have been suspended anyway so bemoaning his absence is pointless.
When you break it down, only three of last season’s first choice outfield line up started this game. It was only afterwards that I realised that. In fact, you could even argue it was only two and a half as during the run in last year Coutinho often found himself sharing playing time with Sterling or Joe Allen.
Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson were the only two starters who were 100% first choice when we tore shit up in the second part of last season. Six of the team that faced Villa had started four games or less and even Sakho still kind of feels like a new signing as he’s not established himself yet.
It’s not an excuse for the woeful performance but it is an obvious explanation for it. The best case scenario would have been to just find a way to win, or at the very least not lose. It was never going to be free flowing “Rodgeball” as that will take time. We needed to be able to get down the sides but rarely managed it.
Manquillo started well and got some decent crosses in, but the longer it went the harder he found it. I felt sorry for him, the way the game went we needed a right winger out there, not an orthodox (and therefore 'limited') full back. In the second half it almost seemed like his team-mates were reluctant to even pass to him, despite him usually being the spare man in space.
On the other side Moreno was a threat but didn't get enough of the ball. He hugged the touchline and did his job well enough, but we needed to use him more and he suffered as much as anyone from the lack of cohesion with the forward players.
Villa are obviously well organised and make things difficult; we know that better than most after our recent troubles against them, but this was probably the worst they’ve played at Anfield under Paul Lambert. Unlike their previous two trips here they didn’t do anything in attack other than the one scruffy goal they managed from a corner (poor play by Sakho led to the corner, poor marking by Lovren resulted in the goal). In fairness, they didn’t need to, they were so comfortable in defence that I don’t remember Brad Guzan making a save all day. Not one. Shameful that.
We started slowly, finished slowly and for most of what went in between we didn’t do much either. There was a little spell just after half time when it looked like we might be building up a head of steam, but Villa held firm and it just fizzled out when we didn't score in that period.
After the problems Villa caused us last season I think Brendan maybe outthought himself this time. Putting so many new players in at once can perhaps be justified (technically 'only' Sterling was rested), but the way we lined up just didn’t work at all. We looked shite playing 4-2-3-1 against Southampton, but most of us put that down to the presence of Lucas.
We looked shite playing 4-2-3-1 again here but Lucas wasn’t on the field this time. So maybe we’re just not suited to playing 4-2-3-1? Not against a side doing what Villa were doing anyway. We lined up the same way against them last year too, but the big difference was in that fixture Henderson didn’t sit in there with Gerrard, he was going forward and Villa just exploited the gaps he left with quick counter attacks.
This time Henderson was just as deep as Gerrard in the first half, sometimes he was even deeper. I looked across the backline at one point and both Gerrard and Hendo had dropped into the middle and Lovren and Sakho had split wide with the full backs pushed right up. It was not what we’re used to seeing at all and it didn’t do anybody any favours. Apart from Villa, obviously. It did nullify any counter attacking threat from them I suppose, but it also helped nullify our own attacking play too.
We changed after the break and went to a more traditional 4-3-3 and we did look a bit better. Still nowhere near threatening enough though, and that has to be a worry. We've looked shite all season any time we've played anything other than a midfield diamond with two strikers, but with no Sturridge you can see why Rodgers wants to play with one frontman and three supporting. Maybe he'll be able to make it work but he's not going to have much time to work on it with the games coming thick and fast.
Balotelli couldn’t get into the game at all and seemed subdued, perhaps due to putting all his concentration into not lamping the odious Senderos who was doing all he could to test Mario’s suspect temperament. Referee Lee Mason was happy to turn a blind to it all, the enabling baldy manc twat. The Italian showed admirable restraint but was largely a peripheral figure and got no service or support.
Lallana took an age to get going (and was then subbed just when he had!) and Markovic was largely ineffective too. I don’t remember him attempting to take anybody on at all, not even once. It was all just tippy tappy passing with no end product or penetration. The game was crying out for Sterling’s directness and positivity, but by the time he came on he was swimming against the tide.
The three playing behind Balotelli were neat, tidy and busy enough, but totally ineffective. They were just completely out of sync and unbalanced - like strangers - meaning everything was in front of Villa. The only time I can remember us getting behind them at all was late in the first half was when Moreno raced clear but opted to cross instead of shoot. In fact, he was the only one all game who looked capable of running in behind. None of the forwards did, they kept coming short and wanting everything to feet.
On paper that Villa back four is awful, yet how comfortable were they against our multi million pound attack? It wouldn’t have even been acceptable had Ron Vlaar been playing, but without him we should have been slicing through that defence at will. Alan Hutton? Senderos? Fuck's sake Reds.
The absence of Vlaar and Christian Benteke make any complaint about Sturridge being out sound rather desperate. I agreed with a lot of Rodgers’ post match analysis, and to be fair he only mentioned Sturridge when he was asked about it. Still, talking of budgets a “third of the size” of some rival clubs was clutching at straws and did him little credit.
There were a number of reasons we lost to Villa but transfer budget was not one of them. Furthermore, while we clearly missed Sturridge that was surely countered by Villa being without their two best players?
We may well have a budget that is a third of some of our rivals, but we were not playing any of those rivals on Saturday were we? How does our budget compare to Villa’s; twice as much? Three times? Five times? While Villa were picking up Joe fucking Cole, Kieran Richardson and Senderos from various London charity shops, Rodgers was going on a fifty million pound shopping trip to Southampton, coming back with Lambert, Lallana and Lovren.
When Paul Lambert was gratefully picking up Aly Cissokho - rejected by Rodgers - we were replacing the departed Frenchman with sixteen million pound rising Spanish star Moreno. Villa needed another striker and had to offer an olive branch to the previously unwanted Darren Bent, who spent last year on loan at Fulham. We needed a striker and went out and bought Balotelli. I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point.
Brendan has every right to be pissed off about what happened to Sturridge and the circumstances around it, but we still should have had enough to beat Villa and that we didn’t is mostly on him. It’s not the first time it’s happened and it won’t be the last, but like I’ve said on the previous occasions his team selection has cost us points, more often than not he gets it right. Every manager makes mistakes and Brendan makes fewer than most.
He should not have rested Sterling, he should not have played 4-2-3-1 and he should have switched to the midfield diamond with - crucially - two up front much sooner than he did. When he eventually made that switch he’d taken off Balotelli and went with a front two of Lambert and Borini. Did anyone think we were going to score after that? Borini’s first touch was to put the ball out for a throw in. I remember him doing shit like that last time he was here too. I actually like Fabio but I have no confidence in him in this kind of desperate situation. He's a "bring him on when we're three up" kind of striker.
Lambert put himself about at least and did have one opportunity, but he appeared to not have been expecting the cutback from Moreno and the ball got stuck under his feet. He needs a goal soon before this becomes an issue and starts to affect his confidence. I’d definitely start him alongside Balotelli against Ludogorets, for the team's sake as much as his own.
Coutinho went closest to an equaliser when his shot hit the post, but other than that he was incredibly frustrating. I keep saying it, but he needs telling that shooting from outside the box is just not his thing and to pack it the fuck in. He’s brilliant when he’s got space to play in and runners in front of him, but when faced with a packed defence he doesn’t tend to do much does he?
We’re going to face that a lot this season so we need him, Lallana and Sterling especially to provide that creative spark when teams park the bus, or it’s going to be a long old season.
Is it too early to panic? Probably, but it depends on what your goals are from this season. If like me, you were harbouring ambitions of another title challenge, then I think it’s more than fair to be getting a twitchy arse right now, especially given how Chelsea have started. I'm not overly concerned because we lost to Villa, or that we’ve lost two of our opening four (although obviously that’s not good!). The big worry for me is how disjointed we’ve looked in both home games against sides who will likely be in mid table or lower.
Our title challenge last year was built around brilliant home results, although funnily enough we’re actually two points up on those fixtures from last season. It’s surely too much to expect to match the results we had against the rest at Anfield which makes it more important to beat the likes of Villa.
I'm not concerned too much long term, but the short term has to be a worry based on what we've seen so far. I do expect us to grow stronger and stronger as the season goes on but the way it’s going we’ll be too far back by the time we get our act together and Chelsea and perhaps others will be well out of sight.
If the extent of your hopes for the season was simply a top four spot, however, then there’s certainly no reason to be fearful yet. There are mitigating circumstances for the patchy start and once the new players have settled we should be fine.
The biggest potential spanner in the works (aside from injuries) is that all these extra fixtures will greatly impact on the work Rodgers is able to do with the team in training. We all wanted to be back in the Champions League and even if you leave aside the financial benefits of being in there, in terms of attracting players and keeping your existing ones happy, it’s absolutely essential that we qualified. It’s going to really fuck up our league campaign though isn’t it?
You can tell already, we’re going to see loads of “rotation” which is fine if your squad has been together as long as Chelsea, City and Arsenal's have, but not when you’re starting games with over half a new team on the field. The continuity we had last season just isn’t going to be there for a number of reasons, not all of them under our control.
Rodgers doesn’t have any prior experience of this to draw upon and is learning on the fly. I blame him more than anyone for us losing to Villa but at the same time I don’t want to be too critical and it certainly doesn’t shake my belief in him. It’s all part of the learning curve and it’s something we’ll have to go through.
I can't help thinking it's going to be a bumpy ride over the next couple of months and this won’t be the only disappointment we suffer. We need to find a way to just hang in there and grind out results until the flowing football is ready to return. Having a defence that doesn't continually let in stupid goals would help, but we don't have that.
Star man wasn’t easy. Sakho did well aside from the one moment of hesitation that allowed Agbonlahor to win the game winning corner, but I’m going for Moreno as the best of a bang average bunch.
Team: Mignolet; Manquillo, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno; Gerrard, Henderson; Markovic (Borini), Coutinho, Lallana (Sterling); Balotelli (Lambert):
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