The worry for me seems to be the lack of a cohesive partnership in the centre of our defence.
Against Spurs a few weeks ago, they had their best moments when they went direct against us, and it didn't seem as if Sakho and Lovren were on the same page.
One incident in that game had them both going for the same ball, and missing it. Only a good save by Mignolet prevented Chadli from equalising for Spurs.
Against West Ham on Saturday, it seemed to be the same problem. There appears to be no communication. Sakho and Lovren going for the same ball. And Lovren takes a crack to the head.
It is not a defensive partnership (yet!) and they just don't seem to know each-others game. Maybe it is something that will come in time, but at the moment it simply isn't working.
These two were bought (for a combined £37m) to form the bedrock of our defence, and Skrtel, despite his goals last season, was the man who would be dropped to accommodate Lovren, and our defensive problems would be solved. It hasn't happened and at the moment it doesn't look like a partnership at all. Can it be coached? Will playing together more establish a partnership between them? I don't know, but at the moment, we have two players playing in the heart of our defence who look like complete strangers to each other.
We badly miss the movement of Sturridge, which allows the midfield runners of Henderson and Allen to get in to the box and cause the opposition problems. Again, if you assess the Spurs game, you'll see the first two goals came from when Sturridge drifted to the right and fed Henderson to square for Sterling, and when he drifted to the left and fed Allen who made a burst forward.
This isn't happening at the moment, and that's because without Sturridge, we are unable to stretch teams and allow the midfield runners to get in to the gaps created between the centre-back and full-back. This isn't a criticism of Balotelli. They are different types of player, and Balotelli's movement did improve on Saturday, but his game does not mean he'll find himself out on the flank and playing a ball in to Henderson or Allen who have seen the space he has created.
The Gerrard situation is a worry. Regardless of whether you think he has the legs for 3x 90 minute games in 7 days, sadly, I think is game awareness is not at the level it needs to be if he is going to play the "holding" role. That is the biggest worry. He just seems to switch off. Maybe it is related to his fitness and he can't get back in the positions he needs to be in. Downing had the measure of him, just like Agbonlahor did the week before, and he wasn't able to influence the game whatsoever. Rodgers will have to decide how much longer he can persist with Gerrard at the base of the "diamond" as at the moment our 2 (already shaky) centre-backs are being offered little protection in front of them, and he isn't influencing the game ahead of him either.
The Borini situation is strange really. Yes, many had been crying out for Balotelli to have someone along side him, and he did OK when we came off the bench on Tuesday. But I must admit, I thought it was a strange decision to start him. Whilst it is clear that Sterling is best just off the front at the tip of the "diamond", I wondered (in hindsight) if we would have been better starting Sterling alongside Balotelli and maybe played Coutinho just off the pair of them - Play Sterling in the Sturridge role and allow him to peel off to the right or left to create space for Henderson (and Lucas?!!) to move in to. As I say, it was hindsight, but I did find starting Borini a strange decision, and sadly, for all his willing, and effort, the quality doesn't appear to be there. I was surprised we didn't bring Markovic on with Jenkinson and Reid on a booking towards the end of the game, but went with Lambert, which is a like-for-like change. We didn't improve after that substation, and West Ham seemed comfortable. West Ham had 5 at the back so I guess Rodgers thought we wouldn't be able to get round them with Markovic and thought Lambert would allow us to be more direct.
Sterling was, by far our best player. If we were going to snatch an equaliser, it was going to come either from Sterling, or created by him. It took us a long time to get him in to the game, but he is absolutely electric when he gets on the ball.
All-in-all, it was a hugely disappointing performance by us on Saturday. I can't remember us having a sustained period of pressure in the first half, and even after we scored to make it 2-1, we didn't trouble them enough or start to get them edgy and worried.
This seems to be systematic with how our season has started. Because of our defensive frailties, we have fallen behind early in our last two games (which we didn't do often last season) and we seem to be struggling to recover after we have gone behind.
