Brendan has said that Liverpool learned from the Villa game (he might have added that we learned from the game at Goodison as well). I really hope that’s true and that the differences in performance (and, crucially, result) weren’t simply a mirror-image of the differences in personnel between Everton and Villa, not to mention the latter’s, shall we say, ‘unique’ ability to be as effective on the road as they are ineffective at home. I don’t know, to be honest, and frankly I can’t be arsed being too analytical after a night like that. Certainly Liverpool looked a lot stronger against Villa after the comparatively slow target man-type Holt came on for Agbonlahor, who had obliterated the Liverpool back-four with his pace in the early part of that game. Once he came off, that was kind of it for Villa as an attacking force and you’d be entitled to wonder whether the similarly uninspiring and enforced Naismith-for-Lukaku change (the latter having scored twice and generally caused utter consternation against Liverpool in the first Derby this season) did for Everton in a similar manner.
Nonetheless, there was definitely something different about how the home side approached this game, and it doesn’t take much of an imagination to picture Rodgers looking at Everton’s marauding full-backs and pinpointing it as a weakness that could be completely and mercilessly exploited to the fullest with the pace of Sturridge, Suárez and Sterling, together with the vision and creativity of Coutinho (especially with a young centre-back lining up on the right). On that point, maybe Martinez stuck to his principles a little too rigidly and should have adopted a slightly more defensive approach, but then it worked for him at Old Trafford and the Emirates. Nor are Everton the most mobile through the middle. Sturridge and Suárez tormented Alcaraz and Jagielka all night, and the sight of them chasing and failing to catch the Uruguayan in a straight footrace over more than half of the Anfield pitch was telling. Similarly, Barry and McCarthy struggled to come to grips with the speed and imagination of the home side. Barry, in particular, threw in some clumsy challenges that called to mind a player who just couldn’t handle the pace of his opponents.
It’s also clear that Liverpool were determined to give their opponents less space in midfield than they had afforded Villa, although the necessity for such a change would have been painfully obvious to anyone who had watched Benteke, Agbonlahor and Weimann run amok ten days earlier. As a result, Liverpool (and not for the first time under Rodgers – see Manchester United earlier in the season) dropped deeper for long periods in a game at home and were content to allow their opponents the lion’s share of possession. The thing is, if you go back and look at the United game from the start of the season, Liverpool could get very little going on the counter in an attacking sense in the second-half. Granted, Sturridge was carrying an injury and Suárez was suspended, but it was backs-to-the-wall stuff for a long time and we all said that Rodgers’ team would need to develop the ability to break on opponents before they could truly challenge for the top-four. Well, wow. The sight of Sktrel, of all people (twice), and Flanagan winning balls on the edge of their own box, then stepping out with confidence and proceeding to maraud forward with intent told you all you needed to know about how far this team has come. I know it was 4-0 at the time, but Skrtel was in the Everton penalty area when Howard took down Sterling. Martin Skrtel. I swear, I was having visions of that Tony Adams goal for Arsenal (also against Everton) back in 1998 when he went running through the middle and finished with a glorious left-foot volley (had that happened, I think the away end would have collapsed in on itself).
To be honest, in a season that’s seen Liverpool use variations of 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 4-4-2 and 3-5-2, play both possession football and counter-attacking football, and withstand the long-term absences of, at various times, Sturridge, Suárez, Gerrard, Coutinho, Johnson, Lucas, Agger, Sakho, Enrique and Allen, often having to use players out of position, the ability to adapt has become one of the most impressive (and exciting) features of Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool. With a relatively poor bench, and therefore little in the way of personnel to engineer an overarching ‘Plan B’ if it was needed, and against a team that had only lost twice all season, Liverpool were as clinical and merciless as I’ve ever seen them. Fuck it, it was beautiful. With an identical team to the one that disappointed for large portions of the game against Villa, enough tweaks were made to ensure that it wasn’t about to happen again and it led to Liverpool’s biggest Derby win in 32 years while missing arguably the entirety of their first-choice back-four (Johnson, Agger, Sakho, Enrique) and a key performer in midfield (Lucas).
There’s nothing more terrifying than a team that can beat you in a number of different ways, that can change tactical approaches and pinpoint your weaknesses almost imperceptibly. You want to play possession football? Ok, play possession football, but be careful not to leave the backdoor unlocked because we’ll destroy you on the break. You want to park the bus? Well fuck, thanks for all the possession, Suárez and Coutinho with the ball at their feet for 90 minutes, are you mental? Liverpool aren’t there yet, clearly the squad needs improvement and defensively there will still be question-marks, and City, Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea are all to come at Anfield. I still believe that Rodgers, at financial disadvantages of varying degrees to at least five of his rivals (e.g. each of City's front-six against Spurs last night, and substitute Jovetic, cost over £20m - with a full-strength team, Liverpool have one player who cost that much) and working with owners who are determined to find reason in madness (i.e. value in the transfer market), has arguably the toughest task that any Liverpool boss has ever had, but inside 18 months, I personally couldn’t have imagined this level of improvement. And regardless of how many injuries Everton had or how badly we played for large periods against Villa, my gut-feeling is that past Liverpool vintages would have lost the Villa game 1-2 and drawn 0-0 with Everton. That’s not happening anymore and it’s exciting, isn’t it?
