Quantcast
Featured

LFC still finding their feet

|
Image for LFC still finding their feet

Swansea LFCTHANK God it’s over! Tedious is what it is; tedious and pointless. You dull your way through it, chewing the furniture and checking the calendar. Are we there yet?! Thankfully, we are; it feels like a small eternity, even though it’s been only a couple of weeks.

I am of course talking about the timing of the international break. Three weeks into the new season is obviously the ideal time. Yes, that sounds about right. Great for those who have had a rough start and need to regroup; not so great for those who have gained momentum right from the off.

After Swansea last night, all of Liverpool’s first four league games so far have had something about them making them a bit different from what you would expect to see from Liverpool FC this season. There have been good football in patches, but we haven’t yet fully seen the LFC I think Brendan Rodgers is aiming for.

Stoke is Stoke, no matter what everyone says. It’s not quite yet walking and talking like a gazelle…if you know what I mean. Liverpool played well for about 70 minutes, before the opponent starting Stoking themselves and the Stokeness reached a familiar level.

United are also more or less still United; besides, the games against them aren’t exactly the ones you use to measure and look for something that can be identified as a Liverpool performance. There’s too much heat in those games to make any sort of conclusions. And then there was the case of the early goal.

The first half against Aston Villa looked more like what I envision as a Liverpool away performance. That’s where we saw the measured and controlled approach. The second half not so much, and although I don’t think the shift in initiative and game pattern was by choice alone there were some highly tangible pragmatism behind the way Brendan Rodgers chose to shut up shop. We didn’t play badly though – we just played differently.

Swansea should have been the first real indication of what we should expect as our default 90-minute game throughout the season. There were no parked bus, no extra defensive precautions and no naturally added fuel due to the opponent being who they are. In theory it should have been more of a pure footballing contest, and therefore the first indication of where the team stands on the development ladder. However, again, a differing Liverpool performance between both halves still leaves us wondering.

So far we have seen a more dogged and organised Liverpool, rather than the easy-on-the-eye stuff we attribute to a Rodgers team. It’s been a combination of the two obviously, but picking just one I think most Liverpool fans would say we have seen the gritty version so far rather than the more flamboyant. Which is fine at this stage of the season, when it’s all about the points; not to mention a hugely welcome characteristics to have. After three clean sheets there must have been a certain level of confidence growing among the group – a level we probably weren’t even close to being at this time a year ago. Unspectacular solidity shouldn’t be underestimated, and it gives us a good platform to build on.

However, now comes the more tricky phase: developing our attacking game further while maintaining the defensive solidity. Some of it will come as the season progresses through the everyday practice and teammates gelling, but given the fact that there now is another first team defender to integrate in Mamadou Sakho it’s not necessarily an easy exercise. The next few games leading up to the away trip to Arsenal should be a good opportunity to see if we are on a similar level attacking wise to what we came to expect during the last few months of the previous league campaign.

Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com

Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook

Share this article

12 comments

  • aaron says:

    I want the second half to mirror the first, as most people.

    Suarez back very soon, this should help.

    Shelvey! Have a kip mate… you deserve it..

  • pino pino says:

    Brendan Rodgers want to garner as many points as he could until our strongest and great uruguayan comes back.Not until then teams will not fear us, because they know that little cout is our only creativity.By the way we suppose to buy ben arfa and schniederlin as cover 4 couti and lucas respectively thank u.

    • U Dog says:

      LOL…it will be worse. He will attract controversy.

    • stevie says:

      the great uruguayan who wanted to leave you mean? he said too much over the summer and will want to go again in january. your intelligence needs examining if you want him playing for us again. no loyalty

  • T. Rambutan says:

    Some idiots said LFC can win the title this session under BR after 3 matches. Time for reality check. BR must be sacked or LFC are going to end up in midtable again.

  • Steven Nig. says:

    B.R have already drawn the match against swansea city because of not secure the deal of Christian Eriksen as cover up for coutinho or even as a competitor. We still have some distance to cover if we’re going to be in top 4. YNWA.

  • Raam says:

    Guys. T.Rambutan is a place in Malaysia where a big Psychiatric Hospital is located. So ignore this person’s comments. Obviously he is looking for his cellmates in this forum. Poor soul. As a M.U supporter like many of his kind,cant accept the fact that LFC is above everyone else(at the moment at least).

  • Denis D says:

    The thing is with B Rodgers that annoys the hell out of me and i hope most fans is when we have a lead and the other team are pushing for a draw, wouldn’t it be common sense to bring on more pace, speed to stretch opposition and instead of drawing 1 1 or 2 2 , making game safe with 2 0 or 1 3 with counter attack.

    Aspas is a technically better player than Borini, but both of them lack any real class quality or any serious threat and rarely create or stretch teams. So Sterling should have been brought on instead of Aspas and Moses should have been kept on pitch with Sterling to keep Swansea pegged back.

    In January, The owners need to give B Rodgers £45-£55M as he needs to bring in 4 players to help us maintain Top 4 Pursuit.

    GK: A Mccarthy(23) Of Reading to compete and cover Mignolet. We do not want Mignolet becoming complacent like P Reina did over the last three seasons as there was no real class quality competition for his place, no matter what clangers or mistakes he made if he was fully fit and injury free he played. ( For £4-£7M) Mccarthy and Mignolet could compete with one another for the next 10 years at club

    DM: M’Vila(23) Of Rubin Kazan to compete and cover Lucas Leiva and offer some class, quality defensive cover in the middle of the park. So Lucas does not gte complacent as at the moment he is still off the pace and struggling to get back to the form he had last season before he was Injured. M’Vila would push Lucas week in week out for the No 1 position of protecting back 4 ( for £9-£15m)

    RW / RWF: J Montero(23) Of Monarcas Morelia in Mexico should be brought in to compete and cover Sterling and to bring more class, creativity, goals, pace, speed and trickery to the attack. ( for £4-£7m)

    LW / LWF: B Arfa(26) Of Newcastle should be brought to club to be No 1 Left winger at club, he would show IBE the ropes and he would be a match winner also. B Arfa should be brought to club at all costs for £12-£16M

    With these players we can push on and finish the season on a high:

    And these players fully fit would make our First team very strong: Defensively and Offensively

    4 2 3 1

    Mignolet
    Johnson Skrtel Agger Enrique

    M’Vila Gerrard

    Montero Coutinho Arfa

    Sturridge Or Suarez

Comments are closed.