IT may sound a bit a daft at first. Surely, the logical thing would be to focus heavily on the defence before next season – both in terms of personnel and organisation – and leave the attack as it is right now. After all, Liverpool FC are one of the most high-scoring teams in the league, as well as more or less topping the charts for chances created and shots on goal per game.
Fixing the problem should be done by going straight to the core: Set pieces, crosses, midfield presence. Sounds relatively concrete and easy, right?
In theory, defending is much easier than attacking. It’s easier to destroy than to create, so why not do just that?
But the games against Southampton and Aston Villa have got me thinking. I’m quite fluctuant that way; one or two games is all it takes for me to turn away from one solution to another.
In football you rarely see teams who are really good at both defending and attacking. It’s usually either/or, and sometimes neither. I was thinking about this as I watched Malaga v Borussia Dortmund; the only team I could think of who are really good both ways – rock solid at the back while playing brilliant attacking football – was Bayern München. Even Barcelona and Real Madrid have their flaws when we get really picky about things.
Barca excel at keeping the ball and patiently wait for the opportunity, sometimes exposing themselves at the back. Real Madrid always maintain their defensive balance and leave the attacking to their brilliant front four – but they are not what you would consider a great possession team.
To me it comes down to philosophy and, derived from that, playing style. A team is by nature either attack-minded or defensive-minded and attacks either by keeping the ball, or by letting the opponent have the ball – waiting for the opportunity to launch counter attacks. Generally speaking, that is.
Brendan Rodgers has a philosophy that means Liverpool will never be a defensive-minded team while he’s in charge, and I don’t think we will ever see anything close to the defensive solidity we saw under Gerard Houllier and Rafael Benitez. They were both cautious managers who saw defensive solidity as the main priority, which naturally was reflected in the football we witnessed. Solid, but rarely spectacular. Nothing wrong with that; I’m just trying to create a point.
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So, about the abovementioned games. For the record, I didn’t see the final 35 odd minutes of the Villa game, and will therefore base this on the first 55. My main concern was – as it has been before this season – what we do in transition after losing possession. To me the big issue isn’t how we handle crosses or set-pieces, but rather how we deal with our offensive marking (controlling the opposing attackers while attacking ourselves).
I thought Agbonlahor and Benteke were given too much space in the immediate transition after we lost the ball, and this gave us some unnecessary problems. With the way our fullbacks are instructed to support and join the attack, our central defenders and midfielders have a huge responsibility in this phase of the game, and I sometimes think they are a bit guilty of switching off. At least that’s how it looks.
My imagined solution to this (as the title says) is to become an even better attacking unit. If we become even better at keeping the ball in the opposing half, and thereby pushing our opponents further back and forcing them to defend deeper and with more bodies, this transitional problem should – if not completely disappear – at least be reduced to a degree of not being an issue anymore.
Manchester United and Barcelona are both very good at this, and interestingly none of them play with a destroyer in midfield. Both these teams rely on midfielders (Carrick and Busquets) who are tactically very astute and read the game brilliantly, and also central defenders who are very good in one on one situations as well as knowing when to push up and when to fall back. And generally being well-drilled teams, of course. Sure enough, they both get caught out now and then, but when playing on the front foot most of the time this has to be expected.
Something always has got to give, and I believe this is the way forward for this LFC team next season. Find the players who can help us become more comfortable in possession and even more creative in the final third, add a solid and dominant central defender, and many of our defensive worries should be ironed out.
Feel free to disagree or discuss, either in the comments section or on Twitter @ChristerEikrem.
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I agree with u…..in my own openion, we need a strong defensive midfielder who can win d ball for them and can see a pass like what mascherano was doing during his time with the club and a good central defender who is good on the ball as well as set-piece situation. We also need a creative winger who can score goals like Ben Arfa, Hince or matiens of PSV and a qualitative number 10 like Ereckson of Ajax to create goal scoring chances for our striker and can also cheap them in as well.
Foe me, I think playing with a destroyer (lucas) is no doubt de best thing for rogers with his attacking mind/team. But when playing a 433 formation, our 2 other midfielders must be very mobile. They are the ones to closedown the opposition attackers quickly . It really sucks when we allow the Opponent to carry the attack directly to the defenders most of the time, with no fullbacks as they aren’t back from attacking. when de fullbacks are attacking, our central/defensive midfielders should be defensive minded.