The Sunday Mail
Brendan Rodgers’ overhauled team has lost its way this season and the void created by the departure of Luis Suárez for Barcelona becomes greater by the game.
1 Case of misplaced team identity
BRENDAN RODGERS’ philosophy has not changed since an irrepressible Liverpool side fell just short of winning the Premier League last season, but the subsequent overhaul in personnel has yielded an unrecognisable style.
Opponents knew what to expect from Liverpool last term – swift, penetrating attacks, rapid transitions into the final third, outstanding movement throughout the forward line (not only the inevitably missed Luis Suárez) and well-rehearsed set pieces – but frequently struggled to contain the onslaughts.
Rodgers’ ideal of a visit to Anfield becoming “the longest 90 minutes of an opponent’s life” neared fruition.
A few months on and Liverpool appear unsure of themselves.
A counter-attacking team with a striker in Mario Balotelli, who does not make the right runs to suit his teammates?
A team that sends more crosses into the box for Balotelli and thereby reduce the effectiveness of Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho or Adam Lallana?
“There is a real belief in our way of working and our way of playing,” the Liverpool manager said at the end of last season. Not now there isn’t.
The void created by Suárez’s departure for Barcelona is becoming greater by the game. Yes, it is early days.
Yes, a squad containing eight new faces needs time to adjust, but the summer transfer policy ran contrary to Rodgers’ statement in May before Suárez was sold that he “would rather have one or two absolute top players than seven that might not help us. It’s about the quality.” The disruption is running deep.
2) Weaknesses in defence
The failing that contributed to Liverpool’s title slip has not been remedied despite a further outlay of £32 million on defenders this summer (Dejan Lovren, Alberto Moreno plus a loan fee for Javier Manquillo).
Liverpool have spent £66 million on defenders since Rodgers arrived at the club, including the £9 million goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, but the collective mistakes are on repeat and the organisation is questionable.
Lovren was supposed to correct the lack of leadership in central defence – the cause of Rodgers’ misgivings about Daniel Agger before the Dane’s transfer back to Brondby in August – but the vulnerability remains glaring and Basel were the fourth team to score from a set piece against Liverpool in nine matches this season. Lovren has identified communication with the Spanish full-backs Moreno and Manquillo as a problem but Mignolet’s failure to command his penalty area has sown uncertainty and prompted Liverpool’s interest in Víctor Valdés’ recovery from a cruciate injury.
3) Balotelli should be Plan B
Events have conspired against a pre-season desire not to blather on about Suárez after every Liverpool setback.
A major factor has been the loss of Daniel Sturridge to a thigh injury sustained in an England training session that he advised Roy Hodgson did not suit his post-match recovery routine.
The Champions League defeat to Basel was Liverpool’s sixth game without a striker whose ability to stretch defences, creating space and opportunity for the likes of Sterling and Coutinho in the process, is essential to the Rodgers approach. So too Sturridge’s pace and finishing ability.
In the England striker’s absence Balotelli has offered little to dispel the notion of a desperation signing.
A “calculated risk” was how Rodgers described the £16 million addition from Milan.
Against Ludogorets Razgrad in the opening Champions League game he looked a risk worth taking, otherwise he has appeared unsuited to Liverpool’s established style.
Balotelli’s reputation for selfish, indifferent performances has been unfounded.
Work rate has not been the problem. It is his touch, finishing and link-up play that are causes for concern. He appears more suited to the “Plan B” role that Rickie Lambert was supposed to provide.
4) No rebuilding in central midfield
Not for the first time, Steven Gerrard’s suitability as a holding midfielder is under scrutiny after Basel easily picked holes around Liverpool’s central midfield last Wednesday.
Five days earlier the 34-year-old thought he had put that debate to bed, at least for a while, following an influential performance and goal against Everton in the Merseyside derby. Whenever the focus falls on Liverpool’s central areas it invariably rests on Gerrard, and Rodgers’ pre-match assertion that the club must see “how he feels” over a contract extension, having indicated it was a foregone conclusion only a few months ago, marked a shift in emphasis.
But the issues are wider. Jordan Henderson was also on the margins and bypassed easily against Basel.
Rodgers spoke afterwards of the desperate need to have Joe Allen and Emre Can back from injury when neither have featured regularly when fit (Can, admittedly, only arrived in the summer but was overlooked for the out-of-favour Lucas at the start of the season, having been withdrawn at half-time in the final pre-season friendly against Borussia Dortmund).
Lucas was told he was free to leave in the summer but no proven defensive midfielder arrived. It is not, as has been the case for much of his Liverpool career, all on Gerrard’s shoulders.
5) Friction within the squad
It was interesting to hear Rodgers’ appeal to the collective after the defeat at St Jakob Park.
“It is vitally important we get back to playing as a team,” he said. That was the huge advantage we had over the last 18 months and it is important we work together as a team.
”That line came in a lament over Liverpool’s technical work this season, specifically the lack of it, but followed a night when Balotelli ignored the manager’s request to go to the travelling supporters after the final whistle, Coutinho angrily exchanged words with Rodgers during the game and blanked his manager when substituted, and Gerrard was involved in another dispute with Mignolet after a mistake on the edge of the area.
They are all signs of understandable frustration but following Mamadou Sakho’s walk-out when told he was not in the match day squad against Everton on Saturday, and Lambert’s admission that his fitness regime needs looking at as he struggles to adapt to a lesser role with his boyhood club, the harmony that went hand-in-hand with a winning team last season was not in evidence in Switzerland. : BY Andy Hunter – Guardian.
