Report by
Dave Usher at Anfield
If I had such a thing as a panic button I wouldn’t be pressing it yet, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be seriously thinking about it. Let's face it, we’re a mess right now. There are numerous reasons for it - some of them beyond the control of Brendan Rodgers, some of them not - but we are a big, stinking, rancid mess all over the pitch. It’s not one thing that is letting us down, it’s every fucking thing. In fact, just about the only thing we have going for us right now is Raheem Sterling. Take him out and you’re left with… well, you’re left with what we saw against Villa a week ago.
I’m feeling utterly deflated right now after three losses in our opening five games. If you’re one of those sneering at all of us knee jerkers and pointing out that we’re actually only one point worse off from the corresponding fixtures last year, then good for you. I wish I was so upbeat and unconcerned about what I’m seeing. I usually am, this is not like me but after last season I don’t want to go back to being nobodies again and I'm finding it hard not to be shitting myself a bit about how we’ve been playing so far.
I keep telling myself we’ll improve and that by the second half of the season we’ll be back on track and I believe that, I really do. But there is also a nagging fear there in the back of my mind that perhaps we won’t? Maybe the sceptics were right, and last year was a fluke; a perfect storm when everything fell into place and players hit form at the same time as we jumped on the back of one of the world’s best players in the form of his life and let him sweep us along on a path of destruction. I'm certainly not ready to admit that yet, but what if last year was just an anomaly and now we’re back to where we we’ve been for most of the last 25 years; just making up the numbers.
Look, I’m pretty sure we’ll be fine when it comes to getting our attacking play back on track. It’s crap right now but we’ll be significantly better when Sturridge comes back in to link up with Sterling and Balotelli again, and I expect Lallana and Markovic to add plenty of creativity and Coutinho will rediscover his form at some point. So there’s still room for optimism that we’ll score plenty of goals again.
That defence though? Fucking hell. It just feels like no matter who we pick, regardless of what pairing or system we select, we’re just shite at the back and always look like we’ll concede goals. To go 2-0 down so early against West Ham was embarrassing enough, but it was the ease with which they did it that’s the hardest thing to take. We are absolutely terrible defensively and most worryingly of all, we seem to be getting worse, not better.
Remember when we rationalised that the loss of Suarez and the crazy amount of goals and assists he provided could be balanced out by a better defence? “Doesn’t matter if we score 20 less as long we concede 20 fewer” we said. Yeah, how’s that working out for us?
It was always asking too much of Lovren to expect him to come in and suddenly make us water tight, that was simply never going to happen. It surely wasn’t too much to expect him to improve things even just a little though, was it? I mean he didn’t come cheap and we spent all summer trying to get him. Of course it’s still early and you have to give him time to settle, but he hasn’t started well at all. How much of that is down to him and how much is the coaching of the defence and the structure of the team? That’s the £20m question really. How long do we keep saying it’s the players?
There comes a point where you have to look deeper, and if we’re still this leaky when we get to December time then the finger needs pointing somewhere other than the players.
* Agger was written off by many as not being up to it and never seemed to be a favourite of Rodgers.
* Skrtel still has plenty of critics and it seems that few are totally convinced by him, including his manager who dropped him for Carragher 18 months ago and seemed quite happy to allow him to leave the following summer.
* Sakho splits opinion with more seemingly doubting than believing in him, including Rodgers who it’s blatantly obvious isn’t convinced by him.
* Coates is a regular with Uruguay but never got a look in here under Rodgers and few were too upset when he was loaned out - again.
* Tiago Ilori...... no, I got nothin'
* Kolo isn’t the answer to anything other than “which Liverpool centre back makes you most nervous”.
Still, these are all international standard, quality defenders we’re talking about here who cost a lot of money (Kolo was a free but City paid a shitload for him a few years ago remember). Surely there’s enough for Rodgers to work with here, to make us at least semi-competent? I look at teams with absolute cloggers at the back who still keep clean sheets. I know a lot of that is down to the entire team being set up defensively, but it’s also about the back four working as a unit and being disciplined and organised. Man City are just as attack minded as us, but they still manage to concede far less than we do so it can be done.
It’s just soul destroying seeing us conceding cheap goals week in week out. I’m seriously pissed off about it now, I don’t want to hear excuses any more I want some fucking clean sheets as this shit has gone on long enough now. I feel as though you could put Baresi and Maldini in the middle of this defence and we’d still ship goals all over the shop and that’s the responsibility of Rodgers. If he can’t fix it, there’s no shame in that as his strength is obviously at the other end of the field. At what point does he admit his failing and get someone in to help him though? Or would his pride get in the way?
Fair enough we’re going to concede the odd goal here and there due to the side being so attack minded, but how many of the goals we’ve let in this year have actually been down to that? The Ludogorets one, certainly, although even that was as much down to poor play as it was over-committing people forward. West Ham’s third came when we were chasing the game but still should have been prevented. We can’t defend set-pieces and the keeper looks shot. We’ve gone from the team no-one wanted to face to one that everyone must fancy taking points from.
All this defensive incompetence has landed us right in the shit because really we needed a period of some stability for all the attacking players to settle in, and a start like last year (with three clean sheets in the opening three games) would have been just the ticket. The opposite has happened though, we’re leaking goals like a sieve and that means there’s just too much pressure on the attacking players to match what last year’s team did.
That’s not going to happen though, not for a while. Suarez has gone, Sturridge is injured, Coutinho has been crap and Balotelli, Lallana and Markovic will need time to adjust. If we had a capable defence we could ride out the storm until the attack clicks again, but instead we’re losing games because defensively (and in midfield) we’re just a train wreck.
Last year we could let in three at places like West Ham and still win. The state of us now you have to worry any time we even let one in. West Ham will have definitely fancied their chances before this one and it showed as they got right at us from the start. Less than two minutes in they had their reward when Downing’s deep free-kick was nodded back by Tomkins to his centre back partner Reid who bundled in from virtually on the line.
Should Mignolet have come for the cross? I’m not sure, maybe. He started to and then went back, meaning he was in no mans land. What concerned me more was that Henderson was left to mark their best header of a ball at the back post. Skrtel saw the mismatch but instead of switching with Hendo he just stood in the middle, doing fuck all. Maybe that’s what he was supposed to do, without knowing how the team are instructed to defend set-pieces it’s impossible to know. Then neither he nor Lovren were alert enough to get close to Reid and just like that we’re a goal down and in big trouble.
They were all over us and it wasn’t long before it was 2-0; their new striker Sakho chipping Mignolet from a tight angle. I’ve seen a few people blaming Mignolet, but I’m not sure I go along with that. Yes he’s only a couple of yards off his line, but he was covering the near post and the angle gives the striker a lot more space for the chip. Initially it just looked like a bad cross but he probably meant it. Again, I don’t know if Mignolet should have done better but I’ve criticised him a fair bit this season for errors, so I’m wary of piling on him harshly. If others want to have a go at him for this display then fine, but I’m holding my fire for now.
At 2-0 down and no longer able to call on the SAS to bail us out, I didn’t see any way back for us at that point. To his credit Rodgers didn’t fuck about waiting until half time, he made a change right away, taking off the beleaguered Manquillo (West Ham clearly targeted him on the back post repeatedly) and sending on Sakho in his place. That meant a tactical reshuffle with three centre backs and no more midfield diamond.
I’m sure most of us had wanted to see the diamond (although not necessary with the four players selected) but it hadn’t worked at all. West Ham had employed similar tactics to us and the bottom line is they executed far better than we did. Our forwards barely got a kick in the opening 20 minutes and Sterling didn’t get into the game until he was switched to right wing back. Following the substitution we did stem the flow of West Ham attacks and even managed to pull a goal back, which was just what we needed for morale and to perhaps dent the Hammer’s soaring confidence a little.
Moreno’s cross was plucked out of the air beautifully by Balotelli and his shot on the turn looked destined for the top corner had it not been blocked. The lively Sterling raced onto the rebound though and lashed the ball into the bottom corner. That gave us a lifeline and we came out with renewed purpose in the second half, especially following the introduction of Lallana for the utterly pointless Lucas.
Lallana was bright and busy, he linked the midfield and attack and we looked much better as a result. We had chances but didn’t take them. Borini got in behind the defence and should have squared to Moreno but instead opted to shoot from a difficult angle. Balotelli then had a great effort saved, Borini shot over the bar and Sakho had a header saved by the odious Adrian (booked for trying to provoke Balotelli into a fight and then fortunate not to concede a penalty after a shithouse studs up lunge on Borini).
We looked like we might get back into it for a while there, but the goal just didn’t materialise and the longer it went the more devoid of ideas we became. Lambert was sent on for the hapless Borini (who virtually had to be dragged off as he wanted to take a corner. Just can’t take a hint that boy), but by that point West Ham had gone five at the back and were in “have what we hold” mode. We never looked remotely threatening after that and it was no surprise when our misery was made complete when we got caught on the break in the last minute.
Sakho’s header was terrible, Gerrard then failed to cut out the pass and Skrtel was unable to get back in time to prevent Amalfitano toe poking the ball into the corner. Just another awful goal, and once again self inflicted. The only thing I’d say in Sakho’s defence is he surely would not have done that if a) we were not losing and B) time was not running out. He knew he needed to keep the ball in play and took a chance in heading it back into the middle hoping it would fall to a team-mate. I don’t know why he couldn’t have just nodded it up the line or sideways to Lovren, but then he’s not the best with his head is he?
We’re a dysfunctional team right now. The goalkeeper is struggling, the defence are shocking, the midfield is arguably even worse and there’s not a great deal happening up front either. Other than that we’re ace though.
In terms of personnel, there’s nothing can be done about the defence right now. These are the players we have, it’s up to them to get it right. More specifically, it’s up to Rodgers and his staff to ensure they get it right. The midfield is a worry too, but at least we know we have Allen and Can to come back and bolster the unit. Allen’s value to the side is appreciated more and more with every game he misses. He can’t return soon enough. Gerrard is having his now customary slow start to the season and isn’t being helped by opposing managers having him man-marked so he can’t get on the ball. Henderson is suffering too as he’s then having to drop deep to do Gerrard’s job. Rodgers needs to find a solution to this quickly as every team we face will do it now that they see it works.
And for fucks sake Brendan, never, ever select Lucas and Gerrard together again. It’s bordering on rank stupidity now, and I know you’re not stupid. Pick anyone else. Lallana, Coutinho, Suso, Rossiter… I don’t care, just don’t ever put Lucas in the same midfield as Gerrard ever again.
We’ve got Everton next and unless Sturridge is back it’s difficult to see us winning that game. Sterling and Moreno are the only two bright spots at the moment, although to be fair I’ve actually been quite impressed with Mario’s contribution considering the difficult circumstances he’s found himself in. He did ok against the Hammers taking into account that the service he got was terrible really. He isn’t Luis Suarez, his style couldn’t possibly be more different in fact, so you can’t just expect him to do what Suarez does and have the team just play as though they’ve got Luis up top.
Get Mario the ball in the box though and he can make things happen. The goal in midweek showed that, as did the exquisite pull down that led to Sterling’s goal in this one. He also worked very hard once again and I’ve got no complaints about him at all right now, the only gripe is that we aren’t utilising his talents properly yet. I do think he’ll look much better when Sturridge is back alongside him, and that can’t happen soon enough really.
As bad as this result was, we pretty much got away with it because you’d have to say right now it looks like we’re playing for 4th place, and the teams likely to be slugging it out with us for that spot all fucked up too. We’ve got problems, but so have the others, thankfully. That doesn’t make our own form any easier to take, but it might keep fingers off the panic button for a little while longer at least. Imagine how bad we’d be feeling if United, Spurs and Everton had all won?
Team: Mignolet; Manquillo (Sakho), Skrtel, Lovren, Moreno; Gerrard, Lucas (Lallana), Henderson, Sterling; Balotelli, Borini (Lambert):
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