For RobGomm
Interesting game, probably the best 90 minutes we've played all season, and a few little tweaks that make for very interesting viewing, if intentional, for anyone interested in the tactics of the game.
The Team ShapesLiverpool played a 3-1-4-2, which had certain effects we will look at in a bit. But ostensibly, we played a 3-5-2 that was designed to control midfield more than hit on the break. This contrasted with West Brom’s 4-2-3-1 which played more like a lopsided 4-4-2 or 4-3-3, with Sessegnon playing more like a forward, but switching with Anicheve too, while Amalfitano played deeper and tucked in:
Billy Jones added attacking impetus on the right side for them, and as proved late in the game, he could do some damage with his runs from deep.
Liverpool, as mentioned, changed the shape of the midfield a little, and this allowed the midfield to gain more ground in the centre, allowing the whole team to push on and hunt the ball at times:
The arrows in the diagram indicate the movement of the midfield “four”, and show how they could press as a unit when needed, while offering attacking support to the two forwards, who had free reign to move as they saw fit. This ability to press as a group helped Liverpool to dominate large sections of the game, and dictate the tempo from the first whistle to last. The most interesting part of the game, though, was the defensive shape. More on that later.
Pressing – Although Liverpool under Rodgers is not a pure pressing team, they did hunt for the ball as a line, pushing Suarez and Sturridge onto West Brom’s central defenders, leaving the midfield to press their fullbacks and midfield two:
Essentially, the game was turned into a series of 1v1 battles, and quality won out. West Brom were allowed to push into certain areas, with the continuing trend for allowing the opposition to shoot long with the idea that Mignolet can be trusted to handle these long shots for the most part. As it was, they only got three shots in the box, which Mignolet handled relatively well. Apart from the penalty, and the Anelka chance (and one more perhaps), Mignolet was relatively untroubled in goal for most of the game.
The Lucas Role – The important part of the game came in two connected parts. Firstly, Skrtel playing like a pure sweeper meant that he played to his strengths, and Mignolet’s weakness in coming off his line was covered. But the next move was the key to it all. Lucas played almost as a traditional stopper, with central defensive duties allied to his midfield role. He sat off, and patrolled the area across the space in front of the defence. This was helped by the fact that we play three defenders behind him, as opposed to two. With two central defenders, the controlling mid has to either cover the width of the field on his own, or drop into a split central defence, which might create some of its own problems. With the three defenders, though, the width was covered by the outside defenders, and the middle covered by the central defender, which meant that Lucas had a smaller corridor to work in, meaning less energy expended. What helped, though, is that Gerrard was largely cleared of that area, and there was no confusion as to the division of labour in the midfield area. Lucas was the defensive shield, and it suited him down to the ground – he didn’t have to hesitate or guess if Gerrard was able to cover the space, so his reading of the game was clearer – which meant he could position himself properly without stepping on anyone’s toes:
This allowed the wingbacks to push forward and act as wide midfielders almost, turning the 3-1-4-2 into an almost old school 4-4-2, the way it was played in the 80’s. This helped Lucas too, in that the old Brazilian 4-4-2 was often played with a sweeper, fullbacks, and a midfield/central defence stopper behind the central midfield, and he is surely aware of that type of formation:
This has some implications for the Arsenal game, in that playing Lucas purely defensively and as zonal marker for Giroud frees Skrtel up to cover any through passes they attempt (Arsenal have the most through balls per game in the league and it’s a major part of their attacking patterns). This puts a bit more pressure on the central midfield, but with Henderson’s legs covering for Gerrard, and Gerrard’s passing releasing Suarez and Sturridge as well as the wingbacks (who are now functioning more like wide midfielders), we could create a lot of problems for Arsenal playing this way. Additionally, it’s possible Rodgers has been gearing the season so far towards this game (with a small dose of fortune and happenstance), as one method of team-building is to pick a target in the future and play and prepare towards that, even if you take each individual game as a separate step towards the bigger goal. This was the reasoning behind the switch towards the continental style of play in 1973 – playing a style that would succeed in Europe, but would also benefit the domestic games. While it doesn’t seem that Rodgers is thinking that far ahead, it is reasonable to speculate that the Arsenal game has been in his mind for a while, and perhaps we will see this 3-5-2 for that game, and after that, revert back to a four man defence for the next target? It remains to be seen. What is clear, though, is that this method of playing is a lot different than the rest of the league is used to, and it might give the team an edge they didn’t have before.
