Improvement in temperament, mentality and midfield needed

LAST weekend’s performance against Newcastle should be teaching Liverpool one thing and one thing alone – you cannot take a win for granted, even if the previous meeting had ended in a 6-0 sweep over them.

The two goals conceded on their own were slightly dubious as far as faulting anyone definitively. Cabaye was allowed to run on and shoot, but if he was to be closed down, a number of other questions might be raised; such as what happens if a defender goes ahead to constrict the space available for him and he just finds one of his teammates through the space left vacant.

If a goal was to be conceded that way, then the decision to break formation and close Cabaye down would have been criticised. At least that’s the only explanation which may come to mind in explaining why he was allowed to run on and have a go.

The second goal was from a free-kick and it was only scored from because Liverpool defenders weren’t tenacious enough in their marking. There weren’t many other telling opportunities other than that though, were they?

The problem here is a lack of concentration, or rather a break in concentration at crucial moments. On your day, you tend to get away with them, otherwise not so much.

The fact that Yohan Cabaye was allowed to even get the ball and make the run through the middle before getting near the final third was because the players further up had been sloppy in possession. If they weren’t sloppy, then they certainly lacked the conviction in the way they played their passes.

There has been a tendency among teams who have been successful off late, of holding on to the ball until they see a pass with some potential to threaten the opposition defence. If there isn’t one, then the ball is kept in the middle, while others move around to find some space which could possibly be opened up wide enough, to make a deep enough incision.

It’s the way Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea have played in the past and may do so again in his second spell at Stamford Bridge. Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United had also deployed this – sense would probably be a better word than philosophy.

It’s the preference of not wanting to give the ball away, or risk giving it away, unless there’s a genuinely good chance it’ll end up giving the defenders a bit of a runaround.

Liverpool haven’t done that. Not so far, or for the past few seasons for that matter. Not consistently anyway. They have shown glimpses of it every now and again (the first half against Crystal Palace comes to mind as an apt example) only to then let their minds wander away for the rest of the match.

Playing sloppy passes, sometimes even deep inside opponents’ halves, which still gives possession away and opens up the opportunity for someone in their midfield or forward line to make a run and find acres of space themselves. It’s all about temperament and mentality for Liverpool at the moment.

Those jokes doing the rounds on the internet of Liverpool players suffering from altitude sickness due to being at the top of the table may have been meant from a purely comedic perspective, but it seems like there may be a harsh reality finding equal validity right alongside.
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The home defeat against Southampton was needless and it wouldn’t have happened had the players not been too complacent. This feeling of awe and disbelief after winning the first 3 games of the season, was coupled with a sense of surrealism at being part of the team making a perfect start to the campaign.

Those first 3 wins were a bit of a false positive because they were more a reflection of the oppositions failing to take advantage of Liverpool’s frailties, while Daniel Sturridge managed to get a goal early in the game for 1-0 lead.

Following the Southampton game, the attack had also begun to flourish with more than a goal a game. Not to mention Luis Suarez’s return and the partnership he’s formed with Sturridge.

Defensively though, Liverpool look extremely fragile even now. Mamadou Sakho looked very clumsy on the ball against Newcastle and even Steven Gerrard as well as Victor Moses and Jordan Henderson weren’t as calculated with the ball as they can be.

Liverpool’s problem has been losing the ball in high areas and being caught quickly by fast moving midfielders who only take a few passes to put the defence on the back foot.

Gerrard isn’t the physical presence he used to be and Lucas is just coming back in to the side. Neither of them did much to give the Newcastle players with the ball just ahead of the box, much to worry about.

That’s where the defenders were called in to question with the dilemma.

‘Should I go and close him down, or back up and try to shown him outside or on his wrong foot? Surely if I lunge ahead and he finds a pass around me, there’ll be an open space where I would’ve been two seconds ago.’

Cabaye’s goal might have been the first of the game, but it already left the defenders with no answers to what they could have done or could do if the situation was to present itself again. Truth be told it was a bit of an outrageous goal as well, given the fact that an inch either way and it would either have been stopped by Mignolet or gone out for a goal kick. Even the space it went through after Cabaye struck it was just about enough for the ball to whistle through without a touch from anyone else.

Another centimetre either way and it would’ve either hit someone, or at least had the sting taken out of it. That’s his luck, and he’s had it before against Liverpool as well, when he scored another outrageous one at Anfield last season.

Had the midfield done its job of backtracking and hustling him in the first place, a repetition might have been avoided. That’s where teams win and lose matches these days. Two goals were scored by Liverpool by the final whistle. The two conceded however – that’s where the midfield needed to do the hustling it very blatantly didn’t…or couldn’t…or haven’t been told.

Either way, it’s hurt the team and cost 2 points…last Saturday.

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