I completely disagree with Yorkykopite. For me, the reason Gerrard improved (and that was a marginal improvement only) in the second half was because Henderson seemed to drop deeper alongside him and start helping out with tackles and opposition midfield runs. In the first half Henderson was trapped between a rock and a hard place; press the opposition and he was doing on his own and leaving gaps, sit and he was going to be over run. Behind him Gerrard just sat deep and was ineffective at combating the younger, more mobile midfielders. He was horribly static and offered little to influence out of possession of the ball. Rodgers has to stop persisting with this idea that Gerrard can play DM at this stage of his career. He was given the run around in the first half by Bournemouth's midfield, arriving late to every dire situation, or watching as players sashayed past him. Bournemouth had so much time and space in front of the back four is part of the reason they looked so dangerous. Second half, henderson dropped in beside Gerrard and shut that avenue down. I hope its the last we see of this 'inverted triangle' with Gerrard on his own at the base, its killing the backline which is horribly shaky.
Not that they do themselves any favours. I know they are a second choice backline, but Cissohko was so busy playing WWE he forgot to play football. I know Kelly is just back from injury, but he looked leaden and was targeted all game long. Skrtel and Toure were busy hot air ballooning, lots of shouting and pointing and hoicking balls to no one. At the other end of the pitch I thought the front four did well off the scraps they were offered. Moses was impressive, preceding the goal with some surging runs that totally swung the momentum of the game. Coutinhio tried to put his foot on the ball and control the game, while Suarez was everywhere, at one point tracking back to help out the RB... prompting me to wonder where the midfield had gone.
A lucky result if you ask me, if Bournemouth hadn't panicked a few times when in decent positions, it could very easily have been a defeat. The nub of the problem for me (and has been all season) was the midfield. There are far too many Gerrard apologists out there, to my mind, a great servant of the club but he is now not able to cover the hard yards and his continued inclusion is detrimental to the side, I no longer care what people say, the evidence is there to my mind. When Gerrard was injured and Allen, Lucas and Henderson played together, the midfield and defence looked much better, much more solid and mobile. As soon as Gerrard came back, the problems returned and even Rodgers seems unsure what to do with him, trying to get him to become an English Pirlo at the tail end of his career. Gerrard was a swashbuckling player in his prime, not a thoughtful tactician with surgical precision and metronomic passing.
Bournemouth was a chance to see if Alberto could play in a midfield to give the whole thing some solidity. His exclusion now means that Liverpool will face Everton, with their five man midfield, with just Henderson and Gerrard. They will be overrun and Liverpool will lose. If Allen is back from injury, it will be more or less the same, since Gerrard and Allen are not a good combination. Liverpool are missing a proper DM without Lucas. In the near future Gerrard needs to be deployed further forward or moved to the bench. But for now, all the Bournemouth game did was fill me with fear for Tuesday.