A great game taken on its own merits; a great result taken in isolation; and a performance to be proud of, from both the team and the supporters. It is games and nights like these that will keep the big players at the club as much as trophies. I'm certain they can feel that something is bubbling at Anfield, and that there is a sense that the team will go from strength to strength. It bodes well not just for the medium term future, but also for the rest of the season. I think all the motivation the players needed to finish strongly in the league was given to them on Thursday night. They will want to taste that again, and will do everything they can to get back sooner rather than later.
As for the game itself:
Zenit’s System – Zenit played, for all intents and purposes, a 4-4-1-1. It was possibly conceived to be a 4-3-3, but the two wingers spent more time tracking back and adding numbers to the midfield. A standard back four, with the fullbacks staying in defence rather than making too many attacking overlapping runs, bolstered by Denisov, Witsel and Shirokov, with Danny and Semak as the wide support for Hulk. However, a combination of their lack of need to actually force the issue, and Liverpool’s possession dominance meant that Semak had to drop back to cover Johnson’s forward runs, while Danny had to play a little bit more centrally to look for the ball. This led to them playing a 4-4-1-1 shape; Danny, though, became as much a part of the central defensive roles of the midfield as Denisov or Shirokov, which meant Hulk was isolated (although not a bad thing to have – as we saw from the goal, he’s everything you need in a central target player – power, pace, touch, and finesse in the finish). The shape was most notable on the Zenit goal:
Denisov was their most influential player, with Witsel and Hubocan seeing almost as much of the ball. Hulk saw relatively little of the ball, but was a danger every time he got it. Apart from the volley from Hulk’s cross, Danny didn’t have much impact on the game, and his substitution wasn’t a surprise. The touches per player (for at least the first half players) are shown here:
Liverpool’s System – Liverpool had one of those games where the approach play was once again excellent, possession was dominant, and pressure was exerted. On the other hand, we did only score 1 goal from open play (although really Shelvey’s attempt should have led to something more (in the run of the play the shot seemed right, but as he was approaching the ball if he’d taken a quick look he might have seen he had time to take a quick touch and either draw the foul or touch it to the side for one of the two more open players who would have had a clearer shot). What was interesting, though, as it was in the games against Sunderland and Norwich (the first game), was the shape of the team, and more importantly the balance and spacing in the team. We can look at the average positions in possession here:
What stands out is that there are three clear lines of play, and once again it points to a 3-4-3 shape in possession of the ball, again reminiscent of that Ajax 95 team. It also shows the importance of Lucas to this set-up, holding that space in front of the back two. Henderson’s recent forays as a tucked-in “1.5” left mid saw him perform well in the 4-3-3/3-4-3 shape, as the job essentially didn’t change – effectively making him usable in the two shapes we’ve played in the main since December (4-3-3/3-4-3 and 4-2-3-1/4-1-3-2). The balance through the lines and through the three channels is something we’ve seen before, and if there is to be a Plan A and Plan B delineation, I think this is it – with Sturridge in the team, we play a 4-4-2 variation by necessity, and without him, we play a 3-4-3 shape (and I would imagine if Suarez were to get injured, we would play the same shape, but with Sturridge central and two wide players playing off him. This might be why Rodgers is still looking for a number 10 – if we have to play without Sturridge, we’ll need someone who can get goals from that position behind him). We can see the three lines more clearly here:
Within this shape, we were able to control much of the game, applying maximum pressure on their defence, but again, without quality finishers apart from Suarez, we had no real end product (although Joe Allen’s goal was a hint of what might come – the header, for a start, was very good – a reaction header that was technically exemplary, and a reaction finish that was perfectly weighted and technically quick). There was danger on the break in the sense that there was a gap between Lucas and Allen and Gerrard at the point of transition, but we managed the gap fairly well. Everything we did was like clockwork on the ball in terms of circulation – pressure in midfield, mobility in attack, and reset pass option to keep the ball cycling through the shape and maintain the pressure and possession. For this, Enrique and Lucas were vital, with Gerrard taking more of a backseat than the last few weeks; here he concentrated more on getting forward to support Suarez than with dictating the pace of the attacks from the back:
What is interesting is the lack of touches that Allen had. By all visual and written accounts, he has as good a game as he’s had for Liverpool since he signed, and capped it all off with a goal. But much like Coutinho against Swansea, he had comparatively very few touches against the rest of the team. This indicates that what touches he did have, were actually of a good quality, and that he brought efficiency to his play. This is the sign of a good player, and perhaps we’ll see him blossom next season when he has settled more and has more goalscoring threats in front of him to play to.
The key factors to the dominance of this game can be seen below:
We can see that there were three key areas that were important for the domination of the ball we saw (notwithstanding Zenit’s own desire to hold their 2-0 lead and hit on the break). Firstly, the front three did a good job of keeping Zenit’s back four under pressure. We forced them to play narrow in the back which forced them to turn their 4-3-3 into a 4-5-1, thus isolating Hulk. Because of this, Carragher and Agger and Lucas had less to worry about in terms of defending, and did a largely decent job of keeping him quiet, apart from the crucial goal, of course. Lucas’ positioning and discipline also meant that Danny couldn’t get into the game much, and was subsequently substituted for Faizulin. The third key factor that was important was the work of Gerrard and Allen in keeping both the pressure on the Zenit defence and the support for Suarez going forward.
Although Enrique saw more of the ball, Gerrard was still the metronome for the team, and kept the tempo high with his switches of play and his forward aggression. If he had one fault in the game then it was the schoolboy error that put Carragher under pressure, who then followed it up with a second error (and remembering that most goals are the result of 2 or more errors in a row); it was the one moment in the game where Gerrard needed to be calm rather than dynamic, and sweep the ball away rather than drive it at the player in an attempt to win a throw in. Other than that, though, his performance, along with Allen, Downing and Henderson was a large part of why we could keep the pressure on Zenit for much of the game. It is a wonder how much different things would have been with Sturridge to get on the end of the other 13 shots that didn’t go in, and how much different if Coutinho or Sturridge had been in Shelvey’s place for that chance near the end.
The Away Goal – The goal Zenit scored is an important one in the context of the development of the team, because it highlighted several things that need to be noted in terms of the next step in the evolution of Rodgers’ ideas. Firstly, let us look at the overall set-up before the goal happened:
We are in good shape at this point – 4 players surrounding Hulk, Enrique capable of tracking Danny, the ball in the attacking third, in the right channel, being challenged. The shaded area indicates the area of recovery, as spoken about in the Centre-Halves thread.
At the point that Gerrard cannons the ball off the Zenit player and it bounces towards Carragher, Agger should be dropping in behind to offer support to Carragher if he gains possession, and cover if Carragher is forced to defend.
Instead, he gets caught square at the moment that Carragher loses balance and composure, and under pressure from Hulk, tries to play a back pass to Reina that was scuffed. Once Hulk gets the ball, there is only one route he will take (to the near post) and Agger is stranded as he tries to recover against Hulk’s pace. Reina did what he could, but it was a powerful run and a fine finish, but it was a perfect storm of three errors that led to the goal being conceded in the first place:
- Gerrard trying to play the ball off the Zenit player and not succeeding
- Agger playing square to Carragher instead of adding depth to the play
- Carragher not checking his shoulders as he turned and so not knowing where or how close Hulk was, thus so coming under pressure as soon as the ball settled in front of him, forcing a technically unbalanced pass attempt that left Reina with too much to do
With just one change of decision from one of the three players involved, the goal might have been prevented – if Gerrard controls the ball first and plays it sensibly then Zenit don’t get the opening. If Carragher fakes Hulk, who was running on his right side, and turns left and upfield, we regain the ball and go on the attack again. And failing both of those, if Agger drops into the space behind Carragher, Hulk might be slowed enough to force him to shoot rather than finish and Reina stands a better chance. It’s these little details that are always the difference between dissecting a great game with a sense of regret, or looking forward to the trip to Basle.
Hope for the future – There are more positives than negatives from this game, though. We didn’t lose the tie over two legs and were undone by the away goals rule. We did enough in the first leg to have won the game there. We have two players eligible for the future who could have helped put the nails into the Zenit coffin. Finally, we had a taste for all the new players of what an Anfield night is like in full flow in Europe. That, more than anything any manager can ever say or do, is the best motivator to sustain success. You get what you play for in football – and if you play for hungry, passionate and positive fans, then you will get hungry, passionate and positive football.
