Good to see such positive comments. We drew, and people are acting as if we won. Completely down to the way we played, and the way we took the game on. There was a spell of about 15-20 minutes before the first goal where we played the best football I’ve seen a Liverpool side play in years. That’s not hyperbole, it was genuinely uplifting, and I’m not ashamed to say Skrtel’s header had me off my seat.
Interestingly, check out Coates’ role in the first goal. Somebody find the video online will you? He is there solely to create the space in behind for Skrtel to run into. He doesn’t even make an attempt at getting near the ball, and completely manhandles his opponent into the 6 yard box to open the space behind for Skrtel to storm into. A very clever, well worked set-piece that had come straight from the training ground. Watch the clip again, it’s really interesting.
I thought Coates was good too. I know he dawdled on it a bit, but he’s positionally impressive. Covering Skrtel’s arse when Balotelli rolled him in the first half was good, and what we were coincidentally missing last week when Long got in behind. He’ll do ok. He’s a yard off premier league pace, but then so was Jaap Stam when he first came to England. It only takes Anelka burning you once in the Charity Shield before you learn your lesson and get on your toes a bit earlier.There's definitely something there you can work with.
To wrap up on the individual players bit; Gerrard was immense. What game were some of you watching? That’s stamping your authority and leadership on a game of football. Tackled, chased, harried, demanded the ball. You’ll forgive him the odd pointless cross, if he’s actually trying to take the game on.
Allen’s a fucking Rolls Royce by the way. You'll forgive the 'I told you so' when he's that cunting good. For 15M we’ve got one of the best midfielders in Britain. Get used to him cos he’s going to be the centre piece of our side for the next 10 years too. How reassuring is that btw? A gem of a midfielder and he’s walked in like he owns the fucking place after 90 minutes of football and 2 weeks of training.
And Sterling. We’ve got a fucking player here. Everyone’s touched on what he did so I’m not going down that path; it’s what he does next that interests me. He’s going to get marked a lot tighter, there’s going to be increased expectation on him, he can’t shirk his defensive role, and he can’t think he’s made it after 90 minutes of great football. There’s also a touch of arrogance about him which is a great thing IF he uses it in the right fashion. Cristiano Ronaldo is arrogant. But so’s Jermaine Pennant. The other thing he has to start doing is to roam across the pitch a bit more. Not with the ball, but to pick it up. We saw against Hearts that their full-back had figured him out after 15 minutes, if he’s to take his game to the next level he has to go and roam into areas where he’s not as comfortable and look to lose opponents better. He won't always be able to beat a full-back in a one-on-one, he has to learn to find space and lose his marker too.
Anyway, the style. Once we’d figured out the 3-5-2, and started pressing them higher up the pitch and making their 3 at the back make a choice with the ball at the feet, we looked a lot more dangerous. From about the 15th minute on we looked far better, cos the game opened up. We increased the distance between our back 2 and our front 3 considerably - and lengthened our playing area considerably too. Getting the Suarez-Borini-Sterling front 3 to push up onto their back 3, meant the middle of the ground opened up. That sole tactic opened about 20 more metres of space up and all of a sudden Shelvey and Gerrard starting receiving the ball in space, and higher up the pitch. Peior to that we’d been in confined spaces, playing sideways, and long balls to Suarez and Sterling were our only out.
Shelvey and Gerrard need space. Allen could play in a phone box, so it doesn’t matter to him, but for the former two to influence they need space in front of them and options. They played better triangles than I thought they would, and clearly the lesson of last week when our 3 midfielders were far too far apart had been learned. The difference of Shelvey today and Shelvey on Thursday wasn’t ability or attitude, but space. He had none on Thursday, but after 15 minutes yesterday he had plenty. He’s not good enough yet to work his way into games that aren’t set up for him, but on days like yesterday where you’ve got 5 metres and a team not totally desperate to tackle you, he can play. I suspect he may struggle against weaker teams that come and park the bus, but against a team that keeps their front 2/3 relatively high, he’ll always have room to do something in midfield.
You hear Rodgers talk a lot about control. Rafa used to do it too. By that they mean controlling the middle of the park, controlling ownership of the ball, but significantly – controlling which midfield drops first. City’s 3 in the middle retreated at about the 15 min mark, and couldn’t get back up the ground until late in the game. Mostly because one of them had to help Toure against Sterling, and the other (usually De Jong) was too scared of letting Suarez get in the hole so they dropped deep and the gap to Tevez and Balotelli grew. They missed Barry in that respect. He keeps the ball moving, and keeps possession well. He’s hardly Xavi, but he’s important to their structure.
I thought City were shapeless, and too reliant on their quality players (Tevez, Yaya) to try and drag them out of a hole. They got lucky cos we handed them 2 goals, and to be honest we’re not gonna get a better chance to beat them than this one cos they were way off par. But, we’re a brand new side, with brand new players, playing a brand new style of football, and within the 2nd week it looked like it could work. I’ll take the short term pain, the mental back-passes, the uncomfortable looking right flank (Kelly and Borini never gelled once) and the striker out of form, cos if you have a system and look like a football team that can fucking play football, then you’ll wear the bumps of individual error or shitness every day of the week.
That was far and away the most excited I’ve been watching a Liverpool team play in years, and we still only drew. We’re younger, fitter, have bought incredibly well, have a better style, structure, and approach to playing the game than I could dream for.
Heh, and in Allen and Sterling we’ve got a 22 year old and a 17 year old who we can build a fucking club around.
Good times.
