Ask a Liverpool fan about the 05/06 season and most answers will centre around the FA Cup and for good reason. Games against Man Utd, Chelsea and West Ham will live long in the memory. But in my mind one league game stands out. It was a relatively dull match away to Blackburn. A Robbie Fowler goal was enough to settle it. However, I remember many things about that game... that the goal was in part down to the then new(ish) interpretation of the offside law, Morientes' slick square pass to Fowler, Cissé hitting the post when clean through, Sissoko's song to the banana splits tune getting stuck in my head, hearing afterwards that Bellamy had spent the whole game telling Carragher how much he wanted to join in the summer and perhaps most potently... messrs Tyler & Gray saying that they could play in goal for Liverpool. The first reason that comment stuck out was the basic misunderstanding of what a goalkeeper's role is. Having to make a save is a last resort. It's when everything else has failed to stop the opposition from scoring. The organising, the communicating, the sweeping, the coming for crosses, the positioning, the early distribution... basically everything other than shot stopping was apparently irrelevant in Reina's work to them.
"our plan worked very well for us... we sat back and tried to hit them on the counter attack... that is exactly what we managed to do." Rafa Benitez 16th April 2006
But the main reason and the point of this preamble was the little amount of goal mouth action Blackburn were able to muster. We scored early and then basically sat back and dared Rovers to try and score. The defensive set up for the last hour of that game was what I saw as the prototypical Benitez defence. We sat in our zones, allowed the home side's centre backs the ball as long as they liked and then the individual Liverpool player closed whenever the ball entered their territory. It was so simple and it seemed like Blackburn had possession for the entire 2nd half but they could never penetrate our penalty box... hell, they rarely got the ball behind our midfield. I'm sure we did the same thing to the same effectiveness on numerous occasions during Rafa's tenure, but that 2nd half at Ewood Park always stuck in my mind as his textbook defensive set up.
To try and put that into context with yesterday's game, I felt there were 2 moments, close in time, one on the ball and one off, that will be forgotten by most eventually if not already, but I feel will stick with me throughout Brendan Rodgers' time here. They were the opposite of what that Blackburn game was... that was the culmination of nearly 2 years of hard work and instilling defensive discipline into the side. These were 2 moments that I thought stuck out like a sore thumb from the beautifully manicured hand that was the closing 25 minutes of the 1st half. Moments that were un-Rodgers' Liverpool:
“You win the ball back when they are are thirty metres from their goal not eighty.” Pep Guardiola 2009
The first was around 40 minutes into the game when Yaya Toure received the ball in the centre circle. He turned, he looked up, and played a ball over the top intended for his striker to run onto but the pass was overhit and went out for a goal kick. In of itself, nothing; but it seemed like the only occasion in that 25 minute spell that a Man City player named something other than Joe Hart or Kolo Toure was allowed time and space on the ball. Seeing the superior Toure brother having the opportunity to receive the ball, turn, pick out a pass and play it while not under any pressure during that sequence was akin to seeing the Anfield cat stroll onto the pitch with a dodo riding bareback. Man City were not given time. They were hurried and harassed, hunted in packs. They knew if they took a touch or a moment to look up that they would always have at least one red shirt snaring at their heals.
Now, don't get me wrong, this is nothing new. We've done it for longer spells on bigger occasions under previous managers. However, there was something different about yesterday. Previous managers would sometimes speak about denying the opposition time and space but it often felt like it was big stage philosophy. We'd do it against Juventus but not Wigan. Sure, Man City are the champions and as such we can count the game as a big one and if I'd never heard the new manager speak then I'd be putting the excellent pressing down to that. But I have heard Brendan Rodgers speak and to hear his belief in his 4 P's makes me believe that what we saw yesterday was the all encompassing, non prejudicial approach to closing down. We won't discriminate between good & bad, rich & poor, English & European, big & small, home & away... you're all getting the same treatment. The proof of the pudding is in the eating of course, but it's a pudding that's going to take a long time to bake before it's fully edible. Building up both the physical and mental fitness to press and press and press for 90 minutes week after week after week isn't going to be finished in time for Arsenal next weekend. In some cases it will be a complete change of character and approach for individual players, in others it will require new personnel. In both instances it's a work in progress that might not be fully implemented to the boss's high standards for 18 months. In the past we would watch us closing down high up the pitch in some games and wonder why we didn't do it all the time. My hope is that in the coming months & years we will start to see the games where we don't do it as the anomalies.
“A true friend is the best possession.” Benjamin Franklin
The second moment was again late in the first half. The ball was played wide to Borini on the right wing and with no real support he decided against taking on Kolarov and instead attempted an 'ambitious' through ball to Suarez that was never on. Kompany and Hart comfortably watched it go out for a goal kick. The reason this stood out? It was the only time in that first half spell that a Liverpool player on the ball was isolated. Borini had no real options, no-one showing, no-one making a run, no-one close enough to give him a shout. Now this is something we saw plenty of in previous years and even last week at West Brom. But again this is a positive in a way... the fact that that moment was a glaringly unusual instance of play in that 25 minute taster shows that the players are taking on board and presumably now believing in what the boss is telling them. "When going forward, the best way to move the ball up the field is to create angles of diagonal pass". Every other time a man in red had the ball it seemed like he had 2 or 3 players in position to receive a pass. Movement, creating space, wanting the ball, options. To see that not happening and consider it a strange occurrence is a wonderful thing.
Forgive me but I'm going to quote Joe Cole after one of the pre-season games: "Of course it is going to take time but you can see the mind-set changing." It's not a quick change, again it's both a matter of changing the philosophy of current players and replacing other current players. But to see us put it together for a lengthy period of time against the champions of this league is hopefully a pleasant sign of things to come. Green shoots of progress and all that.
