Tuesday 26 August 2014

Premier League Focus: Liverpool

Each Tuesday of the season I will take an in-depth look at the progress and prospects of a Premier League club, evaluating their season up to that point and envisaging what lies in store for the rest of their campaign.
Where are all the world class signings then lads?


Having just watched Brendan Rodgers’ side fall to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the champions Manchester City, Reds fans can certainly take some comfort from a game that they bossed for long periods. For the first 30 minutes or so they played their usually passing game at a high tempo, with Gerrard finding his range and Sturridge looking bright.

However at the very top level you must take advantage of the possession you accrue, perhaps a Liverpool team containing a certain Luis Suarez would have, but this side displayed a distinct lack of quality in the final third (a rarity in contrast to last season).

In a continuation of last season, Liverpool also lacked quality at the back, which cost them dearly just before half time as Stevan Jovetic pounced on hesitant defending from new signing Alberto Moreno, firing past Simon Mignolet.

Any attempted comeback looked doubtful as a beautiful piece of individuality from Jovetic allowed Nasri to expose gaps in the Liverpool back line, setting up the Montenegrin for a deserved second. This lead to Rodgers introducing £25 million man Lazar Markovic, however it was Sergio Aguero’s entrance into the fray that sent Liverpool crashing to the canvas, as the forward beat Mignolet from the angle.

Rodgers threw on Can and Lambert, changes that arguably should have happened at 2-0. The former Leverkusen man injected some energy and drive into the midfield whilst Lambert got his sizeable forehead on a stunning yet seemingly effortless Sturridge delivery, which was almost matched by Hart’s superb initial save, only for Zabaleta to unfortunately bundle it over the line.

Liverpool’s new number nine was then presented with a glorious chance to reduce the deficit to one, a chance that the previous bearers of that hallowed shirt would have buried, however Lambert produced a feeble finish that perhaps highlights his own reservations about being a Liverpool player. With that the game was gone and City celebrated their first home win of the season, leaving Rodgers with much to ponder.

When you compare this game to the corresponding fixture from last season, it is fair to say Liverpool fell some way short of matching it. They may even have come away with something from that game, if it wasn’t for Raheem Sterling’s incorrectly disallowed goal. I can’t help but think that this result justifies my pre-season thoughts that Liverpool, rather than strengthening have stood still in terms of their squad.

The arrival of Mario Balotelli is of course a genius bit of business and he could well recreate Suarez’s form from the previous campaign, he has no less talent than the feisty Uruguayan. This signing could certainly see them achieve Champions League football again, but in terms of progression from one season to the next, I just don’t see it.

Lovren looked a tad exposed at times tonight and is no better than the centre halves sitting on Liverpool’s bench, whilst initially showing good energy, Moreno will naturally take time to adjust to Premier League football. Can looks like a dynamic player, but is he any better than Henderson or even the re-emerging Joe Allen, and the combined fee of £50 million for Lallana and Markovic looks horrifically misjudged.

Then there is Rickie Lambert, with their neighbours across Stanley Park tonight confirming the signing of Samuel Eto’o on a two year deal, I have no doubts as to which ageing forward I’d rather be bringing off the bench with 20 minutes to go. I’d also rather have exciting Ghanaian International Christian Atsu in my squad as opposed to Markovic.

In conclusion, the Balotelli deal may have just have revived Liverpool’s season, add in another world class player and we could be talking about potential title contenders. Having said that I can’t see there being much money left for Rodgers to play with and ultimately I feel he has wasted the vast majority of it, very much in the same way Benitez did with players such as Babel, Gonzalez, Riera and Aquilani.  


Sunday 24 August 2014

5-3-2: Is it all that? - My post game thoughts

Following an uneventful performance yesterday against a solid MK Dons side, many of the travelling City fans came away disheartened at what had been a rather limp display. No creativity, an inability to pass and a lack of movement were the cries from the deterred Sky Blue Army (Especially from those on Sky Blues Talk), with some still calling for the return of ‘God’ (that’s Carl Baker to the non-believers) to ‘make things happen’. For me the main reason for the performance yesterday and those previously, stems from the 5-3-2 system Pressley has chosen to deploy, a system that has come into prominence following Louis Van Gaal’s inspired use of it throughout the Netherlands successful World Cup campaign.

5-3-2 is in no way a flawed system however it is only needed in certain situations, in certain games. Van Gaal initially implemented it to counter the tiki-taka style of the Spanish in their opening game, the way they soaked up possession and at specific moments broke out in slick counter attacks, worked so well that Van Gaal saw no reason to change it. His loyalty to the system almost lead to an embarrassing exit to minnows Costa Rica, who were afforded far too much time on the ball which lead to them maintaining sustained periods of possession. The Dutch squad contained the players to romp to an easy victory over the Costa Ricans, in theory, however Robben, Van Persie and Sneijder were left unnecessarily isolated as seven Dutch individuals (The back five and two defensive-midfielders) sat ignorantly behind the ball. I’d seen this Dutch team ease to qualification destroying equally matched teams to Costa Rica, (Romania, Hungary and Estonia) playing the classic Dutch style of 4-3-3 and yet for some reason they had decided to set up in an overly defensive system against a weak opposition (In reality a surprisingly naïve mistake from an experienced manager).

This is where Pressley needs to be a touch shrewder, in my opinion it is perfectly fine playing a 5-3-2 system away from home against opposition that will be fighting with us for a place in the play-offs (I consider the point gained yesterday a very good one indeed). Against lesser teams and especially at home however, we need to go out and attack teams like we did last season, whether this be in a 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 it doesn’t really matter. What is key to our success this season, is setting up in a way that enables our forward players to get into the areas where they can positively affect the game, which is unachievable in a 5-3-2. For the majority of yesterday we had eight men behind the ball, the five at the back are relatively flat and the wing backs attacking threat is rather limited. The midfield three are similarly flat and find themselves passing sideways and inevitably backwards to a centre half, who ends up putting his foot through the ball and thus possession is lost.  


The strikers in our ranks all look more than comfortable on the ball and have scored goals at some point in their careers (barring McQuoid), what they are not is target men, they need support, they need advanced wingers to give them service, they need to be given the opportunity to turn and run at the opposing defence and ultimately they need options. Jordan Clarke doesn’t possess an attacking bone in his body, so we are relying on an 18 year old novice to provide any width in the team, which highlights the attacking limitations of this system. One of John Fleck’s best attributes is his ability to switch the play with consummate ease, however in this system he cannot do this, his options are to pass left to Swanson or right to O’Brien who then concede defeat and play the ball backwards. These players are creative but they can’t get into positions where they can use this creativity, which leaves the strikers with little to play off, barring their own individual brilliance. From a defensive point of view we have improved marginally, however a lot of our defensive errors are down to individual mistakes (As was evident with Webster yesterday). If it wasn’t for Reda Johnson we could have easily lost the game, he exudes everything you want from a captain and with this in mind I’m positive he could marshal a back four just as well.  Listed below are the possible alternatives open to Pressley, each offer us a more balanced style of play in which we can remain defensively stable whilst carrying a consistent attacking threat.