Compared to last season i'd say there are a few things that make our attack worse this season.
1. Movement and formation
Our front 3 last season was Sterling, Sturridge and Suarez, all players that are versatile. They can all go in behind, go wide and go deep and get the ball and rotate positions. This makes it really difficult to defend against.
This season Suarez is gone and Sturridge has been injured. Sturridge is our best player when it comes to movement off the ball and exploiting space, and he is one of the few players we have that make those runs on a consistent basis.
Balotelli as a lone striker is going to deep for my liking, and makes the job for the opposition CBs way to easy. They get all the play in front of them and no threat in behind, which is what most CBs want. Lambert is also a player that is no threat in exploiting space. This also leaves Coutinho less effective since the space he wants the ball in is already occupied by the striker, and he can't use one of his strengths which is through balls. Borini has decent movement and runs in behind, which is one of the reasons he should probably play more. Balotelli should also develop his movement off the ball, though he's not the quickest he is fast enough to be a threat if the movement is right. Kind of like Suarez, not the fastest but fast enough to be a threat.
Henderson seems to be playing more of a holding role this season, which leaves him less effective. We need those runs from midfield, an example of what i mean below.
Jordan Henderson's off the ball running vs Hull City
https://www.youtube.com/v/GqMI8dB13Dc
Gerrard is also being marked a lot more this season than he was last. When he was moved back last season he was really effective, but now he's at times being man marked(Agbonlahor vs Villa). We also don't have Suarez anymore as our main man and a outlet, so marking Gerrard stops our flow of play.
About 3.30 into this video is the MNF analysis of Gerrard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiuKZHR8lBg2. Relation
When it really clicked in our team last season they had played together for a really long time. You could really tell that SSS moved together like a unit, they switched positions and had a really good understanding. This takes time to develop. In sports psychology you have different models of team dynamics. One of them has 4 stages, forming, storming, norming, performing. Last season we were at the performing stage, which is were you want to be. But introducing so many new players has set us a step or two back, but with time and good leadership we will be back to performing pretty soon.
There is also a model which measures the productivity of the team. Actual productivity = potential productivity - losses attributable to faulty group processes. There are two kinds of losses, motivation and coordination. The coordination is where we are lacking right now, and is why were performing badly against teams with lower potential productivity than us, but also lower in losses due to coordination and motivation.
3. Pace of the ball
We are also playing too slow and moving the ball at a low tempo, this was also a problem in Rodgers first season here. We had the ball a lot, but struggled to create chances. This leads me to believe there is a lack of coordination and understanding in the team. Once the players develop their understanding and their roles in the team, and they are able to do what Rodgers want from them this will improve.
My solutions:
1: Develop the understanding between players and tactical understanding
2: More players attacking space and not wanting the ball at their feet (especially front line and midfielders)
3: Higher tempo
4: Find a way to make Gerrard more effective or playing a different way
We also need to fulfill the potential of our wide areas. Instead of crosses from out wide we need to get them into positions like Enrique for Susos goal against Boro. Kind of like how Man City attack with their full backs, with Moreno and Manquillo we have that option now. Crosses from out wide are mostly useless, but get inside the opposition box. Thats were crosses can be really effective.
Opposition teams are also defending deep against us at times, and we need to improve and find a way to break down these teams. Suarez could do it with his brilliance, now we need to find another way.
We have a lot of potential in the team, and when we start to fulfill that potential we will be really good. Our attack carried the team last season, when its not good enough to do that at the moment we're struggling to get results because our defense isn't good enough.