Topic: RAWK Round Table: Liverpool 2-1 Sunderland

[E2K]

When John O’Shea’s tame header drifted wide a couple of minutes from the end last night, along with breathing a huge sigh of relief I was immediately reminded of the 1-1 home draw with Everton in January 2009 (the League game rather than the FA Cup one six days later which also finished 1-1, Steven Gerrard almost inevitably scoring in both). That Derby match was the meat in the sandwich of three draws that month, our only League games in January (the others being 0-0 at Stoke and 1-1 at Wigan), which ended up being a large part of the reason why Liverpool found themselves chasing a 10-point deficit to Manchester United during the business-end of the season which ultimately proved insurmountable despite a 4-1 win at Old Trafford (any excuse to mention it). That night against Everton, back when David Moyes still had the power to be a mild irritant to Liverpool as opposed to a complete irrelevance, at the same end of the ground in virtually the same minute of the game (maybe 60 or 90 seconds earlier), the home side faced a very similar free-kick situation as they tried to see out a crucial one-goal win. On this particular occasion it was Mikel Arteta rather than Adam Johnson standing over the ball and, perhaps more significantly, Tim Cahill rather than John O’Shea rising to meet it. In 2009, Pepe Reina was given absolutely no chance with a trademark Cahill header shot through with enough venom to drop 44,000 men, women and children; last night we could just be thankful that O’Shea, along with being ostensibly unable to float like a butterfly, is also uncomfortable when it comes to stinging like a bee. Or maybe you only get to floor Anfield once in your lifetime and O’Shea already used all his credit up with that goal in front The Kop back in 2007? Seriously, think about it – Wayne Rooney’s done fuck all at the ground since Jerzy Dudek allowed his shot to squirm under his body in January 2005; the high-point of Andrei Arshavin’s Arsenal career was the four goals he scored there in April 2009 (greedy bastard) and his time in England tailed-off alarmingly (almost imperceptibly) after that; Didier Drogba scored how many goals at Anfield, one? And some never get to have their moment at all, like Cristiano Ronaldo or Eidur Gudjohnsen whose miss in that game in 2005 is the only one I can remember right now that brought me quite as close to the brink of voiding my bowels as O’Shea’s last night (brink, I said brink).

Rafa Benítez’s zonal-marking always got plenty of criticism heaped on it back then, much of it unfair in my view, but the potential failings of its man-to-man counterpart were twice laid bare last night as Sunderland threatened to do exactly what Everton did in 2009 and break Liverpool hearts into a million tiny pieces. Many of us said back then that it wasn’t the system, that zonal-marking has its merits just like any other system in football but that its overriding, defining ingredient is the players behind it, the ones who stand in the positions dictated by the system and then have to exhibit the intelligence and ability to make that system work. Zonal-marking didn’t work on that occasion with Cahill and, last night, Liverpool’s man-marking system on set-pieces fell apart twice as Jon Flanagan lost Ki at the back post for Sunderland’s goal (there’s also a school of thought, articulated by Jamie Carragher, that Martin Skrtel or Daniel Agger should have already had the ball cleared at the front post, but that doesn’t diminish Flanagan’s error), then Skrtel let O’Shea go for a wander in the box with a couple of minutes left on the clock and got the aural equivalent of a forearm to the temple from his captain for his trouble (how great was that, by the way?) With games on the way featuring Vincent Kompany, John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic and Jan Vertonghen (whose last visit to Anfield yielded two goals, one from a cross, one from a free), the kind of mistakes that we saw last night are virtually nailed-on to cost us points and, possibly, a first League Championship in a quarter of a century (because it’s on, we all know it’s on, Steven Gerrard sure as hell knows it’s on, and if we’re in this thing we may as well fucking win it). Is Mamadou Sakho therefore becoming harder for Brendan Rodgers to ignore? Maybe he is. He’s certainly our best centre-back in my view and the last 20 minutes last night may well have hastened his return to first-team action.

Something else which last night’s game may draw a (presumably temporary) line under, at least for the Spurs game, is the diamond formation. Again, every system has its weaknesses and sometimes it’s a trade-off of positives vs. negatives. Once again last night (as with the Southampton game in particular), the weaknesses of the diamond were illustrated as Sunderland got joy down our flanks (without the personnel to actually do much, thankfully), but the positives we’ve seen in recent weeks were largely negated by the three centre-backs and two holders in front of them which proved very difficult to play through. We were also quite narrow for most of the game, with both full-backs coming inside often and providing none of the overlapping runs we saw to such effect against Cardiff on Saturday. At one point in the second-half, Luis Suárez picked the ball up maybe 30 yards from goal and played a pass into space to where he expected Glen Johnson to be. Had Johnson been making the run, he wouldn’t have had a Sunderland player within 10-15 yards of him but instead he was inexplicably hanging back rather than attacking the yawning chasm of space in front of him (this was before Sunderland’s period of pressure towards the end). Whether this was an instruction or just a lapse on Johnson’s part is unclear (my suspicion is the latter), but we had some struggles in those wide areas all night both going forward and defensively and it made it easier for Sunderland and their three centre-backs alongside Cattermole and Bridcutt to deal with Suárez and Sturridge by squeezing the space they had to work in. Indeed, Liverpool’s two goals came from the one time that Suárez actually managed to get goal-side of that defensive line (ably assisted by Coutinho brilliantly robbing Cattermole) and a magnificent strike by Gerrard, and a goal out of nothing by Sturridge which took a deflection off Wes Brown. Other than that, Mannone had little enough to do. Spurs are likely to be more open so the diamond formation might work a little bit better, but it might also be a good time to bring back the formation that worked so well against Everton and Arsenal (a midfield two of Coutinho and Henderson ahead of Gerrard, with Sterling and Sturridge/Suárez drifting wide), particularly given the likelihood of Kyle Naughton starting again after what Sterling did to him in December.

A few odds and end to finish. The welcome for the team outside the stadium was magic, well done to all involved. Coutinho was magnificent too. His comfort in possession is a given at this stage but some of the work he did chasing down and nicking possession back was also very impressive and reminded me of the Arsenal game where he lined up in the centre of midfield and was head and shoulders above everyone else. Kevin Friend, on the other hand, had a really poor night. It’s all very well saying that Sunderland showed a lot of heart, fight, guts and could have had a draw, but they should have also had ten men for most of the game. Fair enough, Brown might have made the saving tackle on Suárez and the decision to brandish a yellow didn’t piss me off nearly as much as Phil Dowd letting Kieran Richardson off with similar in August 2011 at the same end against the same team, but Vergini should have absolutely seen red after another bookable offence minutes later. I’ve heard it said for years by an assortment of talking heads talking bollocks that referees should be allowed to use their common sense – God no. Not on things like this. Referees are hard-pushed enough to interpret the laws of the game without trying to use something that most of them don’t even have. If Vergini had gone for an early shower, I think we can assume that the second half would have been a bit more straightforward for Liverpool, but fuck it. The three points were won and that’s all that matters. Sunderland did well last night and here’s hoping we see as much fight from them at the Etihad and Stamford Bridge in a few weeks (and that Poyet starts Ki and Johnson). For Liverpool the journey towards the top of the mountain continues, nothing has changed except the distance left to go. It’s closer now. It may be closer again after Sunday.

[Red_Mist]

Lucky enough to be upper centenary, halfway line for this one, and it’s debatable if there’s a better seat in the house. From this perfect view, I want to pick out three things that are still spinning around my head from the game.

Coutinho

At times he was unplayable. We’ve become used to him picking up the ball and running at the opposition, but last night he was making the supporters laugh out loud at the brilliance of his movement, twisting and turning at pace with the ball stuck to his foot. "Stop it now Phil", laughed one fan. His sudden changes of direction seemed to defy the laws of physics, wrong-footing the Sunderland players time and again, gliding cross the pitch then stopping dead, the poor defenders like dust carts trying to block off a superbike.

Sunderland

Despite Coutinho's tormenting, it has to be said it was a great performance by Sunderland and Gus Poyet. He set them up to frustrate, 3 across the back, packed the midfield and the players did their bit by pressing us high up the pitch. I was impressed with the way they didn’t give up, although why would they whilst it was only 2-0. Poyet’s subs gave them extra momentum, Johnson caught the eye when he came on, and as a team at one point in the second half, we suddenly looked as worried and weary as we’ve been in a long while. We stopped doing the thing we do best - moving the ball around at pace - and suddenly Sunderland were on top.

Tension

It all could've been so different if Suarez had added a third immediately after the 2nd goal, as it looked for all the world like he was going to....until he collapsed in a heap. It looked like a foul, haven't seen any replays so I don't know if it was another strange one by the ref (it was a poor performance from him in general), but it probably would've sapped Sunderland's spirit if he'd gone on to make it 3-0.

After being treated to the Coutinho show, the last 15 minutes added several grey hairs to my head. In fact, it all started before their goal which had been coming a while before it actually came. We lost our way and the crowd could see a result coming that we’ve got so used to over the years. Here comes the needle to burst our bubble.

The tension was palpable, fans all around twitched with nerves, shook their heads, made strangled, involuntary noises, stood up and shouted at the ref, sucked in and held their breath as a another Sunderland cross swung into the area. “The desire to win was an agonised one” to quote from the famous Panorama programme in ’63. My blood pressure still hasn’t recovered.

So all in all, a very poor ref, a very determined Sunderland fighting for their lives, and maybe some unrealistic expectations around the ground…all these things added up to an extremely hard fought three points.

Huge relief at the end as Stevie turned to our stand, raised both fists and pumped the air. We all felt the same.

[the 92A]

Another treat from E2K,


I'm not a tactician but it was obvious to me that Poyet came on a mission to stifle and frustrate. Three at the back kept morphing into eight as we patiently probed looking for a weakspot, knocking the ball about trying to find an opening, anything, a mistake, a moment of brilliance that could result in a opening and a possible goal.


The initial buzz in the ground slowly ebbed as some of the crowd bottled it and signaled their capitulation with groans and moans as they grew inpatient with a young team literally on the cusp of bringing home the Premiership. I sat behind Poyet and as the first groans became audible he turned away from the pitch and unconsciously gave us a knowing smile and clenched his fist to himself, his plan was working and he couldn't hide his delight. Never was there a more important time to be patient with the team as they went about their work. Frustration was the enemy, as you hoped that they would be free to express themselves unburdened from the fear of making mistakes of not trying the unusual but I looked around with distain at some of The Main Stand Moaners as they couldn't hold back their groans not even on an occasion like this. You fuckers don't deserve what Rodgers is building You make me ashamed to be sitting in the same stand as yous.


But thankfully they're in the minority. The fans who are in the ascendancy are the ones represented by those who welcomed the team with their banners and smokebombs before the game, the ones who made the banners, the ones who sang so loud to encourage the team with minutes to go. For all the worry and nervousness i felt this was a measure of how far we've come, a game where it didn't all click into place but we still tried to do it right. I felt some satisfaction last night not only do we play some exhilarating football but this team is learning so quickly, you'll never win nothing without learning to deal with games like last night and that goes for the team and the crowd. I'm enjoying this run-in so much. It was never going to be easy and the important thing was last night we won three points. I loving it, haven't felt so happy at the direction of the team for years. Savour every last moment of this, we're living our history... it's fucking great.

[PhaseOfPlay]

These are the games in which champions are forged, and if not this season, then sometime in the next three seasons could see Liverpool crowned Premier League champions. And the basis of it all is being sown in this part of the season, where a run of 7 wins on the trot has pushed Liverpool into the last 7 games as true contenders for the title, in only the second year of Rodgers' reign. As much as Liverpool were the focal point of the game, Sunderland themselves played their part with a solid, structured and disciplined tactical plan.

Shape

Liverpool played the Diamond 4-4-2 that has been common in the last few games, and although it has its critics, the shape of the team was less problematic than the tasks performed within the shape, because after all, formations are neutral. Sunderland lined up in a pre-match predicted 5-3-2, which looked more like a 5-2-1-2 in terms of roles of the players. It was designed to keep things tight and close, and was clearly a ploy by Poyet to keep the game defensive until the second half, and then add the quicker and more energetic attackers onto the field at the right time. The plan was almost working - in conjunction with some very bad refereeing - until the free kick before half time. The second goal in the second half probably made sure of the points for Liverpool, despite the brief comeback from Sunderland. However, the way we played, more than the formation itself, added to the nerves and frustration for much of the match. Three key factors are obvious from how we played.

Lack of a left side

If we look at the average positions, parsed out for the formations each team played, then we can see one of the main areas that caused us problems was our almost complete lack of a left-sided attack:



With Joe Allen working hard but lacking any real quality in his touches, and being predominantly right-footed, together with Flanagan's lack of forward movement and Suarez and Sturridge drifting more to the right and central zones in the attacking third, there was very little balance in the attack across the field. This made defending for Sunderland's back five easier, especially for their central defenders, who put on a very disciplined performance. One of the overriding principles of defending is to make play predictable by forcing the ball to one side, and locking it in on that side by cutting off the inside passing lanes. We made Sunderland's job easier by overplaying our attack on the right side, and we effectively left ourselves relying on individual moments of brilliance to create chances, which didn't really happen for us, save for the free kick and Sturridge's goal. Without that balance in attack, we lacked any kind of creativity and improvisation as a group, and the result was a very nervy performance that got bogged down with a lot of midfield possession.

Suarez and Sturridge

Part of the "making play predictable" mantra for defenders was helped by the fact that, collectively, Suarez and Sturridge had possibly their least cohesive game all season. Rather than performing well as individuals, but not connecting as a pair, they actually got in each other's way, and this, coupled with Henderson and Johnson's combinations on the right side (they had the most touches of the ball of anyone on the Liverpool team, individually), meant that we had four players operating in the same attacking zone, with the end product not amounting to very much. Add Coutinho to the mix as well, and we ended up with 7 defenders defending 6-7 attackers in a single area of the field for the most part, with little penetration. In fact, for probably the first game this season, we didn't have a single through-pass in the entire game that was completed. Given that this is a huge part of our attacking threat, this represented both a failure on our part to make our possession dominance count, and a triumph of sorts for a well-organised Sunderland defence.

The Gap Between the Lines

The problem with our possession dominance is that in order to maintain it, we had to create depth behind the ball - especially to compensate for our lack of attacking width. This gives the defenders a little extra time to possess the ball without immediate pressure. The trade-off is that there is space between midfield and defence in which a canny team can operate and exploit. Thankfully, Sunderland were intent on playing a defensive game up until the last 15-20 minutes. Had they played their more thrusting game like they did in the last quarter, they might have had a lot of joy. The switch to 4-3-3 from them and the overloading of Liverpool's left side, with the resulting switch to 4-5-1 for us, only served to emphasise the spaces between our back line and midfield, with Gerrard uncharacteristically (compared to recent performances) foregoing his defensive role to try and push the team forward on attack:



The substitution of Sterling (as opposed to what would have been the more obvious substitution of Lucas for Allen, say) was designed to give Liverpool more impetus going forward, to exploit the increasing risks that Sunderland were taking in the search of an equalising goal. Unfortunately, momentum was with them and the tactical adjustment Rodgers made didn't really gel, especially with Suarez having an off-day and Coutinho being on another level to the rest of his team-mates. Thankfully, apart from a dangerous free kick needlessly given away by a disappointing Johnson, Sunderland couldn't capitalise on Liverpool's below-par performance, and the title-tilt maintained it's run with Spurs at Anfield to come at the weekend.

Overall

It was a "professional" performance by Liverpool, but by no means was it an "ugly" win. The most possession, the most passes, better passing accuracy, most shots, most shots on target and two goals all point to a performance that was enough to win the game but nothing much more. It was the kind of performance that, for title-winnin teams, gets looked back on as a "defining game". It could very well turn out to be - more than United, more than Arsenal, more than Southampton - the defining game of the final run of games. The day Liverpool ground out a win by only scoring two goals.

[royhendo]

My word we have some writers on the site. Great start to the day.

On the space between the lines, I thought Ki changed the game - a player I have a soft spot for.

And the referee, as Alan X said at the time, was determined to manage the game rather than actually referee the bloody thing. An utterly shambolic performance from start to finish. Refs shouldn't feel comfortable refereeing that way at Anfield.

[007.lankyguy]

On the space between the lines, I thought Ki changed the game - a player I have a soft spot for.

He did, if Poyet had had any sense, he would've started Ki. People think the midfield diamond is just vulnerable to dynamic width, which of course it can be, but one of it's issues is actually when that width is utilised, the diamond loses shape and then space opens up between the lines. That was the area where we were vulnerable.

I wrote a little piece yesterday for The Anfield Index on the game http://anfieldindex.com/8081/liverpool-2-1-sunderland-in-depth-tactical-analysis.html

I thought Sterling should've started wide left - we should've been looking for more wall pass combinations to get in behind so we could threaten through cutbacks in the box. Rodgers had, imo, clearly instructed only one full back to move high up the pitch at a time and we were very unable to create space between Sunderland's backline when play was switched. If we'd played 4-3-3 and had Sterling retain tactical width on the left and wait for wall pass combinations to get in behind, it wouldn't have mattered that Flanagan was often so deep.

Having said that, I thought we were in control for most of the game until Ki came on and they started to connect lines a little bit better and play more aggressively.

Oh and some of Coutinho's play was utterly brilliant.

[No666]

The initial buzz in the ground slowly ebbed as some of the crowd bottled it and signaled their capitulation with groans and moans as they grew inpatient with a young team literally on the cusp of bringing home the Premiership. I sat behind Poyet and as the first groans became audible he turned away from the pitch and unconsciously gave us a knowing smile and clenched his fist to himself, his plan was working and he couldn't hide his delight. Never was there a more important time to be patient with the team as they went about their work. Frustration was the enemy, as you hoped that they would be free to express themselves unburdened from the fear of making mistakes of not trying the unusual but I looked around with distain at some of The Main Stand Moaners as they couldn't hold back their groans not even on an occasion like this. You fuckers don't deserve what Rodgers is building You make me ashamed to be sitting in the same stand as yous.


But thankfully they're in the minority. The fans who are in the ascendancy are the ones represented by those who welcomed the team with their banners and smokebombs before the game, the ones who made the banners, the ones who sang so loud to encourage the team with minutes to go. For all the worry and nervousness i felt this was a measure of how far we've come, a game where it didn't all click into place but we still tried to do it right. I felt some satisfaction last night not only do we play some exhilarating football but this team is learning so quickly, you'll never win nothing without learning to deal with games like last night and that goes for the team and the crowd. I'm enjoying this run-in so much. It was never going to be easy and the important thing was last night we won three points. I loving it, haven't felt so happy at the direction of the team for years. Savour every last moment of this, we're living our history... it's fucking great.

This should be an eye-witness report.
I haven't been able to watch many of our matches live at the moment but there are some cracking writers on here whose eye for detail offers a lot of compensation when I catch up later.

[blert596]

With Joe Allen working hard but lacking any real quality in his touches, and being predominantly right-footed, together with Flanagan's lack of forward movement

Great stuff as usual PoP and E2K but I feel I have to pull you up on this bit about Flanaghan not getting forward.  Watching from the Upper Centenary Flanaghan got forward an awful luot and had numerous opportunities to be played in behind the defence. His getting forward was very good, but time and time again he was ignored by both Allen and Courtinho who both repeatedly turned inside, when a simple ball would have seen the defence being turned. It was actually quite frustrating to watch, and I actually thought there may have been a lack of trust (maybe of his delivery), or instruction to go central.

It also didn't help that Johnson did'nt really overlap much. He picked the ball up and ran (usually aimlessly) at the defence, but very seldom did we manage to feed him in behind the defence.

Maybe the heat maps will show me as being wrong but certainly at the time I remember shouting for both Allen and Courtinho to "play the easy bleeding ball sometimes"

[RooiBefok]

You can précis this match in one statement.

‘Kevin Friend looked more disappointed at the final whistle than what Gus Poyet did!’

[Gnurglan]

I enjoy these tactical analysis. That map from PoP, the main concern for me is the gap between midfield and defence. That distance between Skrtel and Johnson... Against a decent attacking team, or a couple of good individuals, Skrtel is on really thin ice. Just imagine if Suarez, Sterling or Sturridge had played down their left.

Agree with those saying Ki improved them. My impression was that while we found ways to get the ball forward before, something changed when Ki came on. Then they closed the field better and we ended up deeper. I would have liked to see Lucas on, to make us more solid defensively, but I suppose the idea with Sterling was to make them worry about us.

[Red_Mist]

Great stuff as usual PoP and E2K but I feel I have to pull you up on this bit about Flanaghan not getting forward.  Watching from the Upper Centenary Flanaghan got forward an awful luot and had numerous opportunities to be played in behind the defence. His getting forward was very good, but time and time again he was ignored by both Allen and Courtinho who both repeatedly turned inside, when a simple ball would have seen the defence being turned. It was actually quite frustrating to watch, and I actually thought there may have been a lack of trust (maybe of his delivery), or instruction to go central.

It also didn't help that Johnson did'nt really overlap much. He picked the ball up and ran (usually aimlessly) at the defence, but very seldom did we manage to feed him in behind the defence.

Maybe the heat maps will show me as being wrong but certainly at the time I remember shouting for both Allen and Courtinho to "play the easy bleeding ball sometimes"

I agree with that. The wide ball to Flanagan was often obvious, but often ignored. He took up some great positions down that flank.

[slimbo]

The substitution of Sterling (as opposed to what would have been the more obvious substitution of Lucas for Allen, say) was designed to give Liverpool more impetus going forward, to exploit the increasing risks that Sunderland were taking in the search of an equalising goal.

Thought this was crucial. Felt we really needed Lucas to help bring some of the control and discipline we started to lose before Sunderland scored their first goal.

[royhendo]

Really enjoyed that Lankyguy.

(The article he posted I mean. Not some random lanky guy.)

[the 92A]

Really enjoyed that Lankyguy.

(The article he posted I mean. Not some random lanky guy.)

Seconded. Formally .

[Crosby Nick]

Really enjoyed that Lankyguy.

(The article he posted I mean. Not some random lanky guy.)

Crouchy's gone Roy. Let it go.

[steveeastend]

You look at the way the team did press in the first half was very much falling back into old habits of hyperbole pressing for the sake of it with the consequence of being exhausted at the end of the second half. The players looked totall fucked at the end which is only normal when playing two games within a couple of days at this intensity and the danger in this, when looking at Dortmund, obviously, that this sort of game apporach will wear the players out over the length of a couple of seasons with PL and CL football.

Personally, I am not the biggest fan of pressing as the one and only way in order to win games but Rodgers has been talking of "attacking minded" instead of "pressing" in the first place anyway so maybe the players, or some of them, are still likely to fall back into old habits? Allen, probably because this level of pace in our passing maybe too difficult to manage in some situations, Gerrard still having problems to remember playing as a part of a defending unit rather than a atttacking/direct one? Henderson and Johnson maybe because of being very tired right from the beginning of the game? For that, I don't think he, Rodgers, will be too happy with this performance, a lot of running, a lot of sloppy ball control, a lot of energy wasted with being impatience in the final third with rushed finishing... we had that before and it will take us nowhere.

I´ve been reading about our training sessions quite a lot, heard about it and saw a little bit of those patterns Rodgers puts the players through and as much as it was only a fraction of the overall coaching of Rodgers I still thought there could be something missing which I think is pretty important for players to pratice on a daily basis as it's so important. Pretty hard to describe on a football forum as I don't quite have the words to describe this but overall I would say the players still don't put enough emphasis on practisicing their first touch and what's it all about in football. There are some natural top talents in our squad who won't need this practise, Gerrard, Suarez, Lucas, Coutinho and maybe Sturridge. The rest though still needs too much time to manage this "first touch" together with thinking what to do next, whereas in practise it shouldn't really look like a first touch and a player having to think about what to do next. Top players pretty much skip this and have the "second touch" right away, without the need for any extra effort, and seconds, for ball control in the first place.... so basically, there is no "first touch". I hope this doesn't sound confusing but to me having no Plan B in periods in our attacking play besides pressing and direct counter is probably because of having too many players in our first eleven who STILL don't feel confident enough with the ball in order to vary the pace of the game and trying to outplay our opponent rather than outpress them.

At this point, as a title contenter with CL football just around the corner, I think we should be able to outplay a team like Sunderland or at least try to. Pressing for the sake of it in every game will lead us nowhere, a lot of injuries and empty player after a full season of PL and CL football. To me this game was a very good example to illustrate the question how we gonna manage our pressing and implement it in an overall strategy without making it the one and all solution to it all.

[royhendo]

Crouchy's gone Roy. Let it go.

I can't. It's like an electric fence.

[End Product]

You look at the way the team did press in the first half

Did we press that high though?

I thought we were noticeably willing to let Sunderland play at the back and press only when the ball reached the half way line, which we did successfully for the move that set up the first goal. We were certainly not closing down with the same aggression as we did against say Arsenal where we want them to hit it long, where as Sunderland we don't want them to go long and make them play through the thirds as Lee Cattermole is no Xavi.   

[Robinred]

I love the quality of writing - and it's commensurate analysis - that we're being treated to these days. It's very educational and thought - provoking. I keep learning and at my age that's important; the more I learn, the less I know. This despite an early lifetime coaching the game at amateur and schoolboy level.

It's not productive to try to add to the analysis already presented, but I will say this: There appears to be an increasing and identifiable schism in professional coaching/management with a growing gap in style of play, flexibility of game management and tactical purpose. I don't think it's a false dichotomy, we have on the one hand "old school" men like Allardyce, Moyes and Pulis, and newcomers like Poyet, Rodgers and Pochettino - young coaches who perceive the game, and make demands of their players, in a fundamentally different way. I think Manchester Utd.'s biggest mistake was appointing not the wrong manager, but the wrong TYPE of manager. Poyet (for example) would have served them much better.

[steveeastend]

Did we press that high though?

Pressing can happen everywhere, I was refering to the way we tried to win back the ball, with pressing, and the way we tried to outscore them early in the game which was all about pressing and pace, but without the ball. When it doesn't work, you are fucked at the end as there will be too much energy wasted for this sort of game approach. With two games a week we need to develope another way of making the difference in quality count. At the moment, a lot of players work their socks off for our star players which is fine but won't work for the top level. I think we should try to outplay teams like Sunderland as a team, just as we have to defend as a team. Basically a couple of players have to take more responsibility when having the ball, which doesn't mean playing the killer ball at every opportunity, more about varying the pace. Working for the team only won't be enough which sounds a little unfair but I think there is no way around it when playing CL and PL football two games a week.

Yes, Cattermole is not Xavi so why the pressure, they will make mistakes anway when closing down passing options..

[dirks digglers]

Some great comments on here, it's always a pleasure to read the thoughts of some of the more tactically clued up writers.

Just an observation: Watching the game in general, other than the specifics of what was happening, it raised the question: are we now moving into a different phase as a team, where rather than trying in the first instance to assert their offensive plan on us, teams are going to increasingly set up to stifle the way we want to play? Because we're ahead of the arc we've caught teams on the hop this season and reaped the dividends of that. It's felt like we have vulnerabilities but our attacking prowess means it hasn't actually mattered in terms of results. But after hammering in goals for fun for a long period now, was Poyet the first (thinking about it, was Solskjaer the first and therefore two managers in a row have adopted the same tactic to cause us problems?) manager to set up specifically to stifle? If so, firstly this is a compliment to our development and a positive in the sense that sides are aware that what we are doing is a major problem to be solved and ties in with the new fear factor this Rodgers' team instils in opponents. If this is the case it speaks to a new respect for what we are building. It also might mean that in the near future we're going to need to polish our skills at breaking down resolute defensive set ups and solving a new set of problems. It's interesting to consider the next step and what we'll need to do to improve in that department.

[No666]

Part (and only part) of the reason Gerrard is always going to be preferred to Lucas is that a team set out to stifle will concede fouls and will consequently always be vulnerable to set-pieces.

[Frizzo]

Part (and only part) of the reason Gerrard is always going to be preferred to Lucas is that a team set out to stifle will concede fouls and will consequently always be vulnerable to set-pieces.

If you'd said before this season that we would play Gerrard as our sole holding midfielder when Lucas was out you would've stirred up all sorts of drama.

What a fucking amazing job our manager (and captain) have done.

Football is such a beautiful game.

So many surprises. Things you'd've never thought possible. Things that seemed crazy not 6 months ago seeming so natural now.

Such a beautiful game.

[GrkStav]

While we shouldn't have, we have in fact gotten spoiled rotten by our team in the last previous few games. Not to draw direct parallels with FCB, but even they look a bit disjointed and wasteful when their passing isn't "on".

We played some wonderful football at times, even though it wasn't ideal from a "command of the field of battle" point of view. What didn't happen is we didn't convert chances, okayish chances, that we have been converting with aplomb, and a bit of frustration set in, both among the supporters but also among the players themselves.

Everyone knows I've not been Glen Johnson's biggest fan. Still, I do believe that his performance vs Sunderland was not a matter of him reverting to bad habits ad hoc, but his trying to be more direct at times (without getting much of any joy out of doing so) because the Lahm-like approach he'd been taking in previous matches simply didn't seem to him to be effective. If we had been 2-0 within the first 35 minutes, he'd have not tried anything 'new' (old, in fact).

I hope and pray Suarez hasn't entered a 'regression to the mean' period, after a period during which he's had the 'magic touch', whereby pretty much everything he tried 'went in'. He continues to battle as if his very life and honor depends on it, but the less he scores off (for him) easyish chances, the more willing he becomes to try increasingly difficult stuff one-on-one. If/when they come off, he's back on track. If not, the more frantic our entire approach gets.

[nico 8]

This should be an eye-witness report.
I haven't been able to watch many of our matches live at the moment but there are some cracking writers on here whose eye for detail offers a lot of compensation when I catch up later.

Agreed. Isn't this exactly what Brendan was saying this week. It is about being calm  and having a calmness in dealing with pressure. He expects this of his players and importantly from the fans. As a fan you TRULY have to believe and need to transfer this calmness to the players. Instead you have those who bottle it and add to the pressure.

[Broad Spectrum]

Brilliant analysis on here of the teams performance, really informative.

I agree with the posters calling for Sterling to start, I was slightly disappointed when I seen Allen start ahead of Sterling particularly as this was a home fixture against Sunderland. Although the need to retain the ball is important, attacking the full backs (Dossena in particular) with a player of Sterling's ability would have been my top priority. In addition, it would have forced both full-backs to think slightly more defensively and take up slightly deeper positions with Sterling on the left of the diamond and Henderson on the right. The position map by PoP shows how Henderson's attacking play (combined with Glen's offensive play as well to be fair to him) forced Dossena to take a deeper position on average during the match when compared against Bardsley. Although Sterling definitely can't be classed as your typical winger, he would have offered more width and offensive play than Allen on the left.

One thing which I think is going to become more and more common place at Anfield is teams coming with a view to 'park the bus', and play a deep defensive line. You could see against Sunderland that by playing an extra centre back combined with a deep defensive line, they continuously allowed our midfielders time and space when outside the area. I'd like to see us counter this by producing more shots/chances from outside the area. Unfortunately based on the starting XI against Sunderland Suarez & Sturridge were the only real attacking players who you would feel could score from outside the box. With Gerrard playing in a deeper, more defensive role, it's becoming increasingly difficult for him to take up advanced positions where he is able to take shots on goal from areas just outside the box. I hope this is an area which Rodgers addresses in the Summer, perhaps bringing in a winger or midfield player who's comfortable with striking the ball at goal from any range when given the time and space which Sunderland offered us on Wednesday, because I think given our home record under Rodgers, this is going to become a familiar tactic implemented by opposing teams.

[The Mule]

As stated, some amazing posts in here.

What are people's thoughts on the diamond midfield if we had better-performing (or just better) full backs.

As a hypothetical scenario, if we were to swap out Flanno and Johnson for say Shaw/Moreno and Alves, what would the net effect be?

I am just wondering if it's a formation we'll see more of in the future when Rodgers has more of a chance to tweek the personnel (thought this about 3-5-3 too).

[robertobaggio37]

These are the games in which champions are forged, and if not this season, then sometime in the next three seasons could see Liverpool crowned Premier League champions. And the basis of it all is being sown in this part of the season, where a run of 7 wins on the trot has pushed Liverpool into the last 7 games as true contenders for the title, in only the second year of Rodgers' reign. As much as Liverpool were the focal point of the game, Sunderland themselves played their part with a solid, structured and disciplined tactical plan.

Shape

Liverpool played the Diamond 4-4-2 that has been common in the last few games, and although it has its critics, the shape of the team was less problematic than the tasks performed within the shape, because after all, formations are neutral. Sunderland lined up in a pre-match predicted 5-3-2, which looked more like a 5-2-1-2 in terms of roles of the players. It was designed to keep things tight and close, and was clearly a ploy by Poyet to keep the game defensive until the second half, and then add the quicker and more energetic attackers onto the field at the right time. The plan was almost working - in conjunction with some very bad refereeing - until the free kick before half time. The second goal in the second half probably made sure of the points for Liverpool, despite the brief comeback from Sunderland. However, the way we played, more than the formation itself, added to the nerves and frustration for much of the match. Three key factors are obvious from how we played.

Lack of a left side

If we look at the average positions, parsed out for the formations each team played, then we can see one of the main areas that caused us problems was our almost complete lack of a left-sided attack:



With Joe Allen working hard but lacking any real quality in his touches, and being predominantly right-footed, together with Flanagan's lack of forward movement and Suarez and Sturridge drifting more to the right and central zones in the attacking third, there was very little balance in the attack across the field. This made defending for Sunderland's back five easier, especially for their central defenders, who put on a very disciplined performance. One of the overriding principles of defending is to make play predictable by forcing the ball to one side, and locking it in on that side by cutting off the inside passing lanes. We made Sunderland's job easier by overplaying our attack on the right side, and we effectively left ourselves relying on individual moments of brilliance to create chances, which didn't really happen for us, save for the free kick and Sturridge's goal. Without that balance in attack, we lacked any kind of creativity and improvisation as a group, and the result was a very nervy performance that got bogged down with a lot of midfield possession.

Suarez and Sturridge

Part of the "making play predictable" mantra for defenders was helped by the fact that, collectively, Suarez and Sturridge had possibly their least cohesive game all season. Rather than performing well as individuals, but not connecting as a pair, they actually got in each other's way, and this, coupled with Henderson and Johnson's combinations on the right side (they had the most touches of the ball of anyone on the Liverpool team, individually), meant that we had four players operating in the same attacking zone, with the end product not amounting to very much. Add Coutinho to the mix as well, and we ended up with 7 defenders defending 6-7 attackers in a single area of the field for the most part, with little penetration. In fact, for probably the first game this season, we didn't have a single through-pass in the entire game that was completed. Given that this is a huge part of our attacking threat, this represented both a failure on our part to make our possession dominance count, and a triumph of sorts for a well-organised Sunderland defence.

The Gap Between the Lines

The problem with our possession dominance is that in order to maintain it, we had to create depth behind the ball - especially to compensate for our lack of attacking width. This gives the defenders a little extra time to possess the ball without immediate pressure. The trade-off is that there is space between midfield and defence in which a canny team can operate and exploit. Thankfully, Sunderland were intent on playing a defensive game up until the last 15-20 minutes. Had they played their more thrusting game like they did in the last quarter, they might have had a lot of joy. The switch to 4-3-3 from them and the overloading of Liverpool's left side, with the resulting switch to 4-5-1 for us, only served to emphasise the spaces between our back line and midfield, with Gerrard uncharacteristically (compared to recent performances) foregoing his defensive role to try and push the team forward on attack:



The substitution of Sterling (as opposed to what would have been the more obvious substitution of Lucas for Allen, say) was designed to give Liverpool more impetus going forward, to exploit the increasing risks that Sunderland were taking in the search of an equalising goal. Unfortunately, momentum was with them and the tactical adjustment Rodgers made didn't really gel, especially with Suarez having an off-day and Coutinho being on another level to the rest of his team-mates. Thankfully, apart from a dangerous free kick needlessly given away by a disappointing Johnson, Sunderland couldn't capitalise on Liverpool's below-par performance, and the title-tilt maintained it's run with Spurs at Anfield to come at the weekend.

Overall

It was a "professional" performance by Liverpool, but by no means was it an "ugly" win. The most possession, the most passes, better passing accuracy, most shots, most shots on target and two goals all point to a performance that was enough to win the game but nothing much more. It was the kind of performance that, for title-winnin teams, gets looked back on as a "defining game". It could very well turn out to be - more than United, more than Arsenal, more than Southampton - the defining game of the final run of games. The day Liverpool ground out a win by only scoring two goals.

Fucking brilliant read. Thank you.

[tuaz]

Every week I learn so much just from the posts here.

For me, this game had nice movement and passing outside the box, but once inside, perhaps because of the crampedness from them parking the bus, there was not enough patience.

For instance, I felt Coutinho would do wonders with the ball outside the box, then once he had dribbled in would dawdle, holding on too long before releasing it because he was trying to create (besides a shot for himself) a killer pass/cross to another team mate in the box for an immediate shot at goal.

So many times I thought a better option would have been to be patient, pass the ball out and probe again since the box was so crowded, but no, his next pass had to lead to a try on goal.

From POP's analysis, it looks like passes may not have been on because Sturridge and Suarez were too close together in the box on the right and just not clicking together.  So why not pass to, say,  SG just outside?  Also, LS and DS seemed to get in each other's way esp in the box, and I didn't see them working together as they have in other matches.

Could be the players were just trying too hard.

That said, I'm glad we had that sort of game now, with Sunderland, when the stutters and mistakes wouldn't cost us points. It almost did but ultimately we won and the lessons learnt will help in the team in the coming matches, esp this Sunday.

[Hank Scorpio]

Thought we were good for 70 minutes.  Not brilliant, but more than good enough to win this match.  My only issue is the lack of shots on target.  This related in particular to the 1st half.  I think our first shot on target was the Gerrard free kick.  But generally our shooting was poor with Johnson, Coutinho and Sturridge blazing over from distance.  The fact that we were restricted to long-range efforts tells its own story because Sunderland gave up space in the middle of the pitch to restrict our penalty box activity.  It frustrated us for long periods but it’s nice to see that our quality finally shone through with a great free kick.

On that point and something that PoP alluded to.  Our passing patterns and Sunderland’s tendency to sit deep often left a lot of room for one of the points of the diamond.  But that meant Joe Allen often found himself in space.  He’s done a fantastic job there but on this occasion we required a little more quality from him and it was lacking.  In this game we needed him to play quicker passes and penetrate the space he had been afforded.  He wasn’t laboured in possession but he just did the regular job of recycling the ball.  We needed a little more.

Yesterday in another thread I discussed the possibility of playing a more attacking player as one of the points.  I thought a player like Konoplyanka could provide an attacking outlet from the point, making us all that more unpredictable.  Imagine Coutinho playing as one of the points with a refined #10 at the tip *drools*.  This is all hypothetical but as Coutinho gets more experience you hope he develops a little more tactical awareness to play that role.  I’d imagine more sides will come to Anfield to sit deep so we may need to call upon him or Sterling together with new signings to open up gaps.
 
In general, you can only be pleased with that performance bar the nervy 15 minutes.  It’s one of those games that could have ended up 4 or 5 nil if it had not been for unintended blocked shots, the crossbar or bad refereeing.  But we had to play out the last 15 in a different manner.  It’s good to see we could successfully adapt.  That’s what football is all about.  Successfully adapting to an ever-changing environment.  We may pummel sides 70% of the time but that won’t be enough to win the league.  We need to be able to manage games and we successfully did that in the last 15 despite a scary moment from the free kick, which was totally avoidable, but again you hope we learn.  Point is this could have ended badly but it didn’t.  Onwards and upwards reds.

[007.lankyguy]

Really enjoyed that Lankyguy.

(The article he posted I mean. Not some random lanky guy.)

Thanks mate

[tuaz]

Thought we were good for 70 minutes.  Not brilliant, but more than good enough to win this match.  My only issue is the lack of shots on target....

Agree about the lack of shots on target.

My previous post wasn't clear, but when I said Coutinho tried too hard to make killer passes in the box when none was really on, I meant that these passes often weren't successful and were instead intercepted or cleared away. My impression was there were fewer shots in general, not just shots on target.

[No Appreciation of Liverpool Opposition]

snip

Watching the game from a shitty stream I noticed something that probably is wrong, that at time sunderland were playing with 4 at the back when the ball was in the middle. Dropping one of their midfielders into the back to play d. Or was this actually them dropping one of their wing backs in and the other one jsut marking further up the field? Regardless I think the right side thing is very true as our best attack came from the two cut backs on the left side. I think the fact that Cardiff last week were so unbalanced, their left side so much weaker than their right, left us attacking the same side we did Sunday. 

Looking ahead to Sunday though I think we will again be lopsided in attack, with Danny rose the key target for weakness in the spurs defense.

[exiledinyorkshire]

Great posts from POP and lankyguy.

I thought the way that Sunderland set up was excellent. They certainly made it difficult for us, particularly with pushing up as a three for our first phase of build up. All in all it was their set up that destroyed the quality in the game as a whole.

That we still found a way through is a testament to the quality on the ball that we posses. Certainly wasn't poetry in motion, but an adequate answer to the crafty question posed by Poyet.

[fowler9_god]

Edit

[Robinred]

Watching the game from a shitty stream I noticed something that probably is wrong, that at time sunderland were playing with 4 at the back when the ball was in the middle. Dropping one of their midfielders into the back to play d. Or was this actually them dropping one of their wing backs in and the other one jsut marking further up the field? Regardless I think the right side thing is very true as our best attack came from the two cut backs on the left side. I think the fact that Cardiff last week were so unbalanced, their left side so much weaker than their right, left us attacking the same side we did Sunday. 

Looking ahead to Sunday though I think we will again be lopsided in attack, with Danny rose the key target for weakness in the spurs defense.

But that assumes he's the weaker defensively of the full backs. IMHO he's not, particularly if Walker is out.

[Resurrected]

Some great insight on here. I can't really add much more to what's already been said but i would like to give my thoughts on the way we set up and particularly the omission of Sterling from the starting eleven.

First of all, credit must go to Gus Poyet for the way in which he set Sunderland up. He obviously realised that if he tried to play any sort of open attacking game at Anfield, then there was only going to be one winner. Therefore, by keeping his defenders deep, he denied us any space behind them in which we could utilise our own pace and quality. In addition, by keeping 2 defensive midfielders tight on the defense and flooding the midfield, he could deny us attacking possession and space between the lines. And it worked very well.

I believe that Rodgers planned for this, and set us up accordingly. We needed the extra man in midfield to help contain the Sunderland midfield five but we also needed players with great technique who could find space in the central attacking third and who could open up their defense with speed of thought. Therefore, Coutinho was a must and it was no surprise that he had an outstanding game. Because of this, there was no real place for Sterling because his main asset, his speed, would have been largely neutralized. Bringing him on late in the game for Sturridge, when Sunderland were pressing forward, didn't change our shape but allowed us some relief by offering a different kind of threat, should Sunderland commit too many men forward.

It wasn't our greatest performance, but it was never likely to be when a team parks the bus like that. But over all, i thought Brendan both managed the game and countered Sunderlands tactics exceedingly well.

[Angelius]

Some brilliant posts so far, lads.

I don't think I'll be able to go through matches separating rationale from emotion (not that I was any good at that before any way) through the end of the season. I'm just too nervous about the outcome of the game these days for me to analyze the quality of the performance in any meaningful or rational way. With seven games to go, I believe performances will matter less and less. Results are the most crucial thing now. Subsequently, the thing that matters most now in achieving results is MENTALITY. That word again.

I'll say this though. I expected this sort of match to take place through the end of the season. In fact, I expect a couple more games at the very least to have a similar script as the Sunderland game. Since Old Trafford away (or even Southampton away really), people on these boards have been talking about fourteen game winning streaks and whatnot. And even though it is our job as supporters to dream, I always thought and continue to believe that there are going to be blips and slip-ups in our performance along the way. Not just from us but all the top-tier teams in general. It's just been that kind of season. Furthermore, looking at where we are and where we have been, it's only logical to assume that bad performances and results are just going to happen between now and the end of the season.

Think about it. We are a fucking young team where a majority of our squad are kids who have never really been in a team that has sustained a title challenge before. We also have a very young manager, who despite being a seasoned vet in terms of coaching and having achieved staggering results this season, is also someone who has never managed a team who has sustained a league title challenge before. Both are bound to get somethings wrong. May it be dip in performance levels of the players or getting tactics wrong by the manager. It's just bound to happen. It's only natural.

The buck doesn't stop there either. We are now considered significant title challengers. Even though we're undoubtedly underdogs in the title race, the teams now facing us through the end of the season are going to set up differently against us. The Sunderland game is a prime example of what I expect to continue to happen. Expect a lot of low blocks with eight players behind the ball for 90 mins through the end of the season now. Tottenham will probably do the same. West Ham, Newcastle, Palace. All the same. Shit, I'd even bet that Chelsea is going to come to Anfield and put 8 men behind the ball. It's bound to happen. It's only natural.   

You know what I didn't expect though? Us to actually win games like yesterday. I expected a draw and at worst, a loss. That would've signaled a more natural progression of the Liverpool story for this season. But no, we fucking won! With that, that word comes out to the fore again again. MENTALITY. We won when most things weren't going for us. Suarez and Sturridge were probably not at their best. The diamond formation probably looked the weakest since it's been employed. We conceded and had a nervy 30 minutes where Sunderland could've equalized. The referee having a bit of a mare. Shit, one of those is enough for it to be a recipe for disaster let alone the lot of them together. But we won, we fucking won!

That's 7 games we've won in a row now. Like POP has said before, most title-winning teams have had a 7 game winning streak at some point during the season. We just had it. I think that's significant. Very, very significant. Performances are going to fluctuate from now to the end of the season. How can they not? You can't be at your best all the time. But the ability to get results despite not being at your best? That's a different kind of beast. That word again. MENTALITY. We definitely seem to have it. We have to maintain that more than anything else through the end of the season.
 

[MerseyMania]

Great Great OP.

[Henry Kissinger]

I know this has been said many times before about the RAWK Round Table but the one thing I enjoy the most is the positive slant that always shines through, add to this the intricate dissection of both teams' play and it is a shining beacon in a sea of turds.

It's been mentioned that now that teams have realized that they can't come to Anfield and take three points like they felt they could in the past (Anfield Fortress stages a welcome return), they've now - to a man - decided that parking the bus is the best way to stifle our forward play and maybe nick a point. With this in mind, would it be a good idea to buy some players for the wing for when teams try to stifle the centre of the field?

Just reminded me of when United under Ferguson would rip teams who tried to park the bus apart from the wings when the centre was too congested. They had options across their midfield whereas at present we don't possess that to the same degree. I'm aware it's early days into Rodgers reign here and I'm sure he has this under his radar. Just thinking out loud.