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Time for a change of pace against Swansea

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LFC celebrateALL in all, it’s hard to complain about the Reds start to the season. 3 wins from 3, 9 points from 9; it’s certainly been the start we all dared not dream for, particularly considering the last of those 3 wins was against our bitter rivals, Manchester United.

So it’s a case of so far, so good? Well, yes and no. While the pure stats read 100% positively for Liverpool, it has so far been a case of ‘a game of two halves’ in all three league games – and the cup game, as well – with Liverpool coming out of the blocks ready to tear into the opposition, only to lose their way in the second half and run the risk of conceding and undoing all of the first halves good work.

It was a theme of our first season under Brendan as well, with Liverpool often succumbing late on to a period of sustained pressure. It has been a different matter this season – so far – though, with Liverpool’s new-found solidity and bottle helping see them through these rough patches.

Against Stoke, Villa and United, Liverpool we’re seemingly forced to drop deeper and deeper as the second half wore on but it seems now that that was as much by design as anything else and credit must go to the manager, the coaching staff and not least of all, the players, for managing to put those theories into action.

However, despite having spent the 2 week international break comfortably top of the league we now have a run of games which requires a different type of Liverpool performance.

It was easy to understand adopting a second-half ‘safety first’ approach against a side such as Stoke who have haunted us many a year and it was an admirable performance, in the end. Against Aston Villa, we were playing a side in great form, who relied heavily on their speed, pace and the power of Benteke so their was no question we’d need to play deeper once we’d taken a very early lead.

Likewise, against Manchester United, we were up against the league Champions, so it was surely only expected that, after going ahead, we’d come under long periods of pressure.

Against Swansea though, we’ll be facing a different proposition. This is a side who have progressed well under manager Michael Laudrup who has built upon the foundations laid by Brendan Rodgers but their start to the season has been poor so far, with just 1 win from their opening 3 they currently sit 18th in the league.

At the Liberty on Monday Liverpool must take the game to the Welshmen and really press them high up from the off. We’ve seen a very new side to Liverpool this season and we all like it but it’s time to reintroduce the side that were scoring for fun in the second half of last season, starting at Swansea.

That game kicks off a run of league fixtures which run through the rest of September, through October up until we face Arsenal away on November 2nd which are all easily winnable and in order to come through that series unscathed, with as many points as possible I believe that we need to ensure that the rock-solid defensiveness we’ve shown thus far needs to be coupled up with that familiar silky-smooth attacking play that saw us make a habit of scoring 4 or 5 goals on a number of occasion last season.

With Sturridge hopefully able to make the game, Coutinho back to his best, the introduction of Victor Moses on deadline day and Luis Suarez’s return only just over a week away we have the catalysts there to really help us play some incredible football and to regain top spot after Saturday and Sunday’s fixtures that’s what we’re going to need to start doing again.

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I'm a 32 year old Liverpool fan, living in the heart of the City Centre. I've supported the club since the day I was born and have been writing articles for L4L for over 3 years, writing close over 350 articles in that time. My favorite player of the past generation is Sami Hyypia.

I am the current editor for L4L, with my day job being in R&D for the NHS.

13 comments

  • seyi omodun says:

    1 love liverpool kip it up ok we’ll maki it kipon

  • #1 fan ( I think ) says:

    I was thinking the same thing, tonight is the night to separate our goal difference from the rest and start building momentum

  • Allweather says:

    I belive we will win this game tonight by God grace.

  • abubakar abdulmajeed says:

    pls manager br should try as much as posible 2 play henderson in all matches cos that guy is a fantastic player and should keep suarez from goin to other clubs if and only he want liverpool to make top 4 finish this season.

  • pino pino says:

    BR pls play hendo in the middle of the park so that our midfield will stop leaking unless u want a draw or a lose SIMPLE

  • Odoh says:

    U talk as if u knw anytin

  • akash says:

    this game is tough than united one,for sure.chances of draw are more!!!

  • Tanjung R. says:

    Time to face reality. We will not achieve top 4 this session under BR. Sack BR now.

  • Denis D says:

    B Rodgers needs to fix up, When we lost Coutinho.

    He should have brought on Sterling instead of Aspas as Aspas was a waste of a sub and was poor in possession and came on through the middle. And Sturridge went out wide, why do that? Put a striker bang in form scoring goals with pace, speed to burn for a young spanish who seems will struggle in league. Aspas is like Borini, Descent movement, Good mobility, quite quick but Aspas has a better football brain and better technique.

    But both rarely stretch teams and both lack creativity, The money spent on Allen(£15m), Alberto(£6.8m), Aspas(£7.7m)Assaidi(£3.5M) and Borini(£10.5M) is £43.5M.

    Do you think club will make even half of that when they are sold in future?

    Looking at the Adams, Carroll and Downing s

    With that £38.5M pounds Rodgers could have brought in better players.

    How club sold shelvey to Swansea for £5M, but brought J Allen from them for £15m is quite alarming shocking and ludicrous.

    B Rodgers needs to strengthen these 4 positions in January:

    1: GK 2: DM 3: RW / RWF 4: LW / LWF

    And then we will have good chance of Top 4 this year: And here are the players needed:

    1: GK: A Mccarthy(23) Of Reading for £3-£7M to compete and cover Mignolet ( C Q C F P)

    2: DM: M’Vila(23) Of Rubin Kazan for £12-£16m to compete and Cover Lucas ( C Q C F P)

    3: RW / RWF: J Montero(23) Of Monarcas Morelia in Mexico for £4-£7M to compete and Cover Sterling ( C Q C F P)

    4: LW / LWF: B Arfa(26) Of Newcastle for £12-£16m to compete and cover IBE
    ( C Q C F P)

    C Q C F P means Class, Quality Competition for Places

    Those 4 players will bring more class, depth,quality, mobility, pace, speed to Squad and would be would be worth their Value for now and future

    • T. Rambutan says:

      LFC must change manager first before adding any players.

    • Ozred says:

      Oh and there it is like clockwork. Dennis d sits and waits for us to miss out on all 3 points and then starts up his pointless pot shots again.

      We all know that we need more quality but that’s all you can focus on.

      Firstly, of all those players, the only one that would make a difference possibly to our starting 11 would be B Arfa. The price range you quoted for him isn’t realistic and for what he’d cost, there would be far better out there, what’s definately missing is a first class link from midfield to attack.

      What we really need to do is invest significantly into that area – hence the move for Mkhytarian. There’s plenty out there and i’m sure if we’re in a position come January, this will be adressed.

      Between Sturridge, Suarez, Coutinho, Mosis we have for quality players that can fill the wing roles but cover is needed in the case of injury. This should be secondary for the current need for an attacking mid – Eriksen… Hurts watching him play for Tottenspoof.

      You don’t just find your $100m in one single transfer window. It will take time but with the addition of a star attacking mid, we’ll be getting very close.

      Suarez – top 3 – 4 strikers in the world
      Sturridge – establishing himself as one of the best strikers in the league
      Johnson – the best right back in the league
      Coutinho – Gets better all the time and soon to be world class
      Agger – World class cb
      Sakho – World class cb
      World class attacking mid (January Signing)
      Gerrard – best his best but still a great

      That gives us 8 world class players and doesn’t factor in Lucas, Mosis and the tonne of young talent we have coming through.

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