Alan Hansen's view on things

[Guest 18 & 4]

From someone we all respect and a very reluctant critic.

 

Taken from today's Telegraph:

 

 

Lack of depth costs dearly

By Alan Hansen

(Filed: 15/12/2003)

 

 

 

At Anfield on Saturday I found myself watching a Liverpool team who were struggling to impose themselves on Southampton. A team struggling to take control of the game. There was a time when it was the opposition at Anfield who would be restricted to a 10-minute spell when they gained the upper hand. Now it's the other way round.

 

When Southampton had the ball they looked like they were going to score. There was a time when you went to Anfield in the knowledge that Liverpool were going to win. Now I go more in hope. I fear for them defensively because they look vulnerable, especially when facing teams who hit them on the counter-attack.

 

I take no pleasure from watching Liverpool in trouble. I know how much Gerard Houllier and Phil Thompson have put into this team and I know how many injuries they have. But there seem to be some fundamental problems with this team that have to be solved if they are going to get the fourth Champions League spot that the club consider so important.

 

Without Michael Owen and Harry Kewell it is only natural that Liverpool will struggle to score. The comparisons with Manchester United without Ruud van Nistelrooy and Arsenal without Thierry Henry are valid and in Jamie Carragher Liverpool have also lost their best defender. He may not be an attacking full-back but he gives the back four a very solid feel.

 

With Milan Baros out of the team as well, Houllier has a real problem covering for Owen. But this is Liverpool we are talking about. Injuries are part and parcel of football and you have to deal with them. Owen's injury has simply highlighted the fact that the goals have come from just one part of the team.

 

It brings us back to an old problem. I was delighted when Emile Heskey signed three years ago and since he has been made a scapegoat too many times. But on Saturday we saw that Heskey is still unsure whether he is regarded as a striker or a midfielder. He has a unique power and pace to hurt sides in the final third that remains unused.

 

I can't help but compare him with Van Nistelrooy playing against Manchester City, bombing forward to join attacks and get in the box. Once against Southampton, Vladimir Smicer and El-Hadji Diouf were leading the attack and Heskey was 40 yards off showing no sign that he would try to get himself into the Southampton box.

 

Owen's pace terrifies defences. They are scared stiff of him and it puts them under pressure constantly. Heskey has the ability to do the same. He has the presence to unsettle opposition and put them under pressure and, in the absence of his strike partner, it is important he does it now.

 

At the back, I fear for a team that cannot defend high up the pitch. Two years ago, Stephane Henchoz and Sami Hyypia, with Dietmar Hamann just in front, looked solid. But Hyypia and Hamann lack pace, which means they have to defend deep. And that in turn means that Liverpool cannot squeeze teams or put them under the kind of pressure that their attackers can thrive on.

 

Those are the technical problems and they affect both ends of the Liverpool side. But beneath that, it is impossible to ignore the lack of strength in depth. Liverpool do not have the depth to their squad which Arsenal, United and Chelsea possess. You are only as good as the players that are there to cover for your stars.

 

It seems inconceivable that the 'big three' in the Premiership no longer includes Liverpool. They have been beaten at Anfield five times already this season, which is painful for everybody at the club. Every team struggle at some point in the season, but Liverpool have been poor too often.

 

I still believe they are good enough to take that last Champions League spot. I know that they have to pull together to get there. It must be hard to play at a club that enjoyed such remarkable success from the mid-Seventies right up to the last league title in 1990. The strain of history always hangs heavy at big clubs - not just on Houllier but on the two managers who preceded him.

 

The present players must be tired of hearing about those days. In this column I use them as a means of comparison, as a way of getting a different perspective on modern football. But at Liverpool, the players have to cast off the pressure of those years and take control of the club's future. And they have to do that by winning.

 

Yes, the buck stops with the manager. He buys the players and he picks the team. But if his players want to help him then nothing beats a win. That takes the pressure off. Winning changes everything. The Anfield crowd will always get behind their team and in Steven Gerrard they have a playmaker of the highest quality. But even he can't do it on his own.