Newcastle are a team we should be beating, they are a team we should be able to create chance against, they are a team that has alan Pardew at the helm - not one you'd ever associate with tactical brilliance or innovation. Yet Liverpool lumbered up to St James Park with a display that was doomed to failure from the start, and was compounded by any sort of adaptation mid-game (something Pardew managed after around 5 minutes.)
We set up with a pretty standard 4231 as we have for most games this season, the slight twice was what we saw v's Swansea, a flat back 3 when in possession, but instead of Johnson on the left as the slotting in fullback come center back he was doing it on the right, and a pretty standard 4321 in defence. Sadly the innovation stops there, it was a poor tactical choice - for a number of reasons.
1) It meant our best attacking outlet (Sterling) was left completely isolated out on the right - Johnson hardly got forward and neither did any of our midfielders move across to create any overloads or overlaps. Sterling was completely ineffective and the most touches he got was trying to outjump their fullback time and time again when we lumped the ball forward to him. Sterling has some interesting statistics;
Yet we stuck him out on the right and wondered why we had no threat from the front 3.
2) We spent the majority of the game passing it between the 2 center backs, Johnson and then Gerrard.. We'd do this for around 30 seconds, go nowhere and jump it forward, any ball that went forward to Allen/Coutinho/Henderson was simply returned to sender, we didn't play any triangles, we didn't pass and move, we played static, slow and predictable football. I believe the plan was to have Allen and Gerrard collect the ball from the back, move forward and find Henderson and Coutinho playing in-between the lines ahead.. Sadly Pardew quickly got this was our plan and instructed his team to drop off, press only in their half and let us have the ball at the back.. It worked, we looked devoid of ideas and ended playing Pullis esk hoof ball to one of our shortest players (Sterling) and Balotelli who wants the ball into his feet.
3) 1 up front, it's near maddening to see the same formation week in week out when it is obviously not working - any joy we've had this season has come when we've played 2 up front, yet we persist with Balotelli (who has NEVER been a lone target man) on his own with not a single team mate within 15 yards of him for the majority of the game. It's tactical stupidity, irrespective if he is the right or wrong transfer buy, work with what you have not what you wish you had. I feel sorry for Mario, yes he's missed some easy chances, but on the whole he's being expected to change his entire game for no other reason bar stubborness by the manager.
The sad thing about watching Liverpool now is how far we have fallen and knowing there is the possibility until some pride is swallowed and some hard decisions are made we haven't finished our decent into mediocrity.
I'm hugely disappointed that Rodgers has gone back on what he said in his early days - players will play based on merit, if a player is out they must earn their place back and basically wait for the chance to do so.. Yet Johnson, a player whose last decent game was over 3 years ago, a player who is NOT being offered a contract, waltzes (sorry strolls) back into a starting position, compared with the player he's displaced - Manquillo - arguably our player of the season so far, a young lad who played around 3 first team games last season, doesn't speak our language, in a new league, yet looks a freaking excellent defender who puts it all on the line multiple times throughout a game.. If I were him I'd be livid Johnson is starting over me - especially when Rodgers bleets to the press how you have to earn your place, what he says and does are two very different things it seems. Similar to Skrtel who is a complete liability of a defender and such the opposite of what we require at the back, yet he displaces Toure who had an excellent game v's Swansea - he was fearless on the ball, he commanded the backline and played front foot football on the ball and without. If I were a player looking to join our club I would now have doubts - there are players who are above the "rules" said imposed by the manager himself. It's the most frustrating things about Rodgers - this reliance on players you know and can see with your own eyes as not being the standard we require.
Defensively we lack a leader - we needed to have played Toure, Lovren was a bag of jittery nerves and tries to impress to hard he takes daft risks when 1 v 1. Moreno was unlucky for the goal, but really was left horribly exposed by Lovren trying to be action man and gambling on a ball - you want your defenders to play it simple, 1 man each, cut out the passing lanes and be solid and dependable - we need to play as a team not as a collective of 4 strangers.. It's not helping our confidence shot goalkeeper who looks like he doesn't know if he's coming or going at times.
Rodgers I hope has a long and hard look at himself after Newcastle, he seems to be in this stubborn rutt of wanting to prove this 4231 tactics will come good - Albert Einstein once said "Madness is trying the same thing over and over expecting different results" I feel that every time I watch us lineup and throughout the game itself. Where has this confident, innovative young manager? The guy that thought fuck convention I'll play 442 with 2 strikers and attack teams of the park? The guy who yanked Suso after 30 minutes, changed the game and got the result? I've yet to see any sort of tactical switch ingame, we replace like for like with substitutes for the most part, and set up the same most matches.
The less said of his love struck teenager's obsession with the 70's heart throb pop star relationship with Gerrard the better. He needs to make a hard decision and tell Gerrard he won't be starting every game, Gerrard has a lot to offer, but playing him every single minute is killing the team. The very fact Gerrard came out with that article in the press questioning certain aspects of the club is like a slap in the face, he should lead by example, not mouth off to the press when we need inspiration.. The tone of the game was set in the first 3 minutes when he bottled a 50/50, he looks like a man unhappy with the world - if that's the case give him some time off, bring him on with 15 minutes to go and a point to prove.. Learn to manage a legend, or become a myth yourself..
