Two things worried me about the starting line up that Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson opted for in tonight’s match against FC Utrecht. 1) Starting both Christian Poulsen and Lucas Leiva in central midfield would inevitably lead to a lack of creativity and 2) Starting four central midfield players in Meireles, Cole, Poulsen and Lucas would lead to a lack of width. On both counts I was proved right by the final whistle.
On the first count, it beggars belief for me that with both Joe Cole and Raul Meireles, both experienced international playmakers, you opt to play them both out of position while opting to play two holding players in midfield. There would be less to complain about if both Poulsen and Lucas did their defensive duties well but the pair, especially Lucas, lacked any real bite in the tackle tonight. At one point Lucas messed up a simple short ball and fouled his opponent in a dangerous area just outside the penalty box while trying to rectify his mistake. Without being too harsh on Lucas though, the rest of the team were hardly at their most alert on the ball either, and although the slippery surface did play a part, the team found it very difficult in general to keep possession, especially in the second half.
The second point is even more perplexing and although I am fully aware that Roy Hodgson likes to play 4-4-2, tonight was not the night to play it, especially without a recognised winger on the pitch. Most Reds fans would agree that Roy doesn’t have the best wide players at his disposal at the club but to play none of them, in a 4-4-2, just doesn’t make any sense. With the players we had available, Meireles should have replaced Gerrard in central midfield while Cole could have played off Torres. For the wingers I would have opted for either Ryan Babel or Dirk Kuyt on the right with Milan Jovanovic on the left. At least then there would have been a semblance of balance to the team.
As it was, the whole 90 minutes saw Meireles and Cole cutting in field to help out Torres and Kuyt while Poulsen and Lucas just sat in midfield without contributing much creatively. For me such tactics suggest Roy Hodgson really doesn’t know what his best midfield is, trying players in different positions (Cole switched from attacking midfield to left wing, Meireles from attacking midfield to right side) to see if he can find the right combination. Another worrying comment came from Clive Tyldesley on commentary who said he asked Roy whether Torres would be happier playing alongside another striker, and Roy replied “I don’t know.” For a manager with three and half decades in management, surely he should know what a player like Torres is capable of.
To add to this troubling lack of certainty over personnel, Roy failed to change anything in the second half until he took off one of our most creative players in Joe Cole, and put on Maxi Rodriguez on the left hand side; another player playing out of position. At the moment, things are just not good enough from the manager and the players, and while Roy is trying to find his feet at the club, we are slipping further and further back from those at the top of the league table. Roy, find your best team and tactics quickly or your spell as manager could be briefer than you had anticipated.
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I stopped reading after around a paragraph of the article. Playing Lucas and Poulson holding tonight was completely acceptable, away in European competition against more than adept opponents.
The problem was not playing merieles and cole out of position, it was more there inept performances that was the problem. Raul had his first bad game for Liverpool tonight, gave it away almost every time he recieved it. Cole is not good enough simple as, definately not good enough to play as playmaker, or classical number 10! The only place we can afford to have his wastefulness is shoved out on the left, where he can afford to be peripheral, as he almost always is.
Kuyt was also terrible tonight again.
On a more positive note, Torres’s attitude looked far better than recently and Johnson showed a slight upturn in form. Kelly done really well considering he was shoved in an unfamilier position against a very dangerous opponent.
I also thought this was one of Skrtel and Poulson’s better recent performances.
We were lucky to escape with a draw, we should have lost the game and but for woeful finishing by Utrecht and a goal line clearance we would have. yet again the opposing goalkeeper hardly had a save to make.
If you play 6 defenders with 2 midfielders out of position and a striker who has proven time again that he can’t play up front with Torres then how can you expect to win a game?
The tactics and after game comments from Hodgson are more baffling than some of Rafa’s and I didn’t think that was possible.
The clock is ticking for Roy. He has a small club mentality and doesn’t suit a club like Liverpool.
Poulson?, now weve got TWO Lucas’s!.
HODGSON O U T !!!!!!!!
Its so easy to criticise, what formation would you have played? You mentioned Babel, hes hardly set the world alight and nor has Jovanovic although he is still finding his feet. Roy cant win, he plays 4-3-2-1 at home and is accused of being negative. He plays a 4-4-2 away from home but ie denegrated ofr that too
Roy is in a lose-lose situation. If he puts out Jovanovic people come out and claim that he is not good enough and ineffective, if Roy leaves him out you claim he should have played him. He can do nothing right, because some people out there expect him to work wonders with a very limited squad (when it comes to depth), which he has inherited from one Rafael Benítez. You may remember that Rafa managed a seventh placed finish with this squad plus Mascherano, who is, according to some of the experts on the web, the best player in his position world-wide. So, and now you come out and think he should have done this and that. Maxi did nothing in a Liverpool shirt so far. Why would you pick him? I am with Roy on this one. I liked the interchange we have witnessed tonight with Meireles found on the right, then in the centre, then at the back. Same with Kuyt. What let us down tonight were some sloppy dangerous passes and the lack of a trained left-back.
Happier? A manager should know whether his main striker would be happier with someone else besides him? What is he? Manager of a football team or Torres’ psycho-analyst? Fickle football fans.
Hodgson has not got a bleeding clue, simples
Roy is approaching every game as though he is still at Fulham. Too defensively minded.
LUcas has shown in previous games he can shine when he’s allowed to push forward, yet he’s played in a holding position where he’s ineffective at best.
We need to be playing a 4-1-4-1 system, with something like the following;
Reina
Johnson – Caragher – Agger – Konchesky
Poulsen
Maxi – Gerrard – Meireles – Cole
Torres
Or at the very least, Gerrard in the “holding role” and Cole & Meireles centre with Babel on the left.
We need plyers who can run at defenders and scare the crap out of them. Babel can. Jovanovic is essentially a left sided Kuyt. Works hard, but is generally shite. I love Kuyt, but he adds too little to the team.
We need a manager who isn’t scarred to shout at the players. A team like Liverpool shouldn’t be happy with a point against even a side as good a Utrecht. Two years ago, under Rafa, we’d have destroyed them before half time.
Forget the board room bullshit. Roy needs to demand more of his players. God knows they’re capable of it.
Exactely what I was thinking put cole behind torres & meireles in the center to link up the play. Seems obvious to me?
if you throw central midfielders on the wings, then they will cut inside. this means that the two wingers act like attacking midfielders, and the two centre mids act like holding defensive players because they have no space to move into going forward.
lucas and poulsen were locked into a defensive position as a result of meireles and cole cutting inside and limiting their space.
at least employ kuyt to the right wing where he does a decent job for netherlands as well as the ones hes been doing for liverpool.
yeah fair enough 2 holding midfielders is understandable away from home. but what i find ridiculous is moving two gifted attacking midfielders onto the wings, constricting the teams shape. yeah johnson can act as a wing-back, but kelly isnt a wing-back and will cause a loss of balance, especially as he faced a tough player on the wing. so the team acts like this:
Torres
Cole Meireles
Lucas Poulsen
Johnson
Kelly Skrtel Carragher
Yer fair point boris we were very narrow, Roy, however hasn’t really got any other options
NO WIDTH – NO WINGER – ENOUGH SAID. Blackpool will put us to the sword pon Sunday if we continue to play BORRING FOOTBALL.
I think Roy just needs time, there will be teething problems. i have faith. People keep saying should have played Babel bla bla bla, i used to rate him so much but since he has had a few oppurtunities he has done nothing! very dissappointed. we need 2 proven wingers
We just keep talking while team performance is going down day after day.Let take action same as chelsea when they kick out scolari when they were not god.OUT ROY and keep KING or oneil
hodgson out before we lose Torres
Blimey!, started to read the newspaper during our, yet predictable, bag of garbage. All the fuss about cole signing for us, chelsea soon got rid. Poulson & Lucas, dreadful, no leftback, at such a huge club, unbeleivable! Meireles, wasted out on the right, Kuyt, good worker, that’s all you can say. No wingers or pace, 1 striker. Hodgson made one decent signing in Meireles, sticks him out of the centre, has a bad game. What happened to our passing game? Remember the old joke, where the opposition would ask for a ball at half time ‘cos liverpool was playing with the match ball! Also what is Sammy Lee doing? has the coaching become outdated or stale? Look what happened at Bolton, got them relegated! I know Roy needs time, but how long? It’s just as if Rafa is still there, nothings changed, just a few more average players arrived, the substitutions(maxi for Cole) look familiar to Rafas.
Absolutely spot on. I agree with everything said.
It was one of the most shoddy performance one could see. We are going from BAD TO WORSE, Against a side like FC Utrecht we played like we were playing against Barca or Man U. Lucky we didn’t lose again. If Lucas and Poulsen are our Central midfielders, God bless us. I seriously feel our Manager is clueless and trying out different methods of Tribe lucky to be 7th again. Everything appears to be in a mess. The manager has to take the responsibility and understand our aspiration. After all He is the Manager of LFC , the most successful English club to date.