Brendan Can’t Continue to Ignore Liverpool’s Defensive Crisis

After conceding another 6 goals over the course of the last 4 games, Liverpool have returned to the slump that snatched away a first Premier League title last season and is now threatening to ruin this season before it’s even begun.

Another thing that has remained the same, is Brendan Rodgers’ inability to solve the problem, or steadfast refusal to move away from the ‘we attack as a team, we defend as a team’ mantra.

In modern football, all of the best sides attack and defend as teams, which is why goal-scoring centre backs, attacking full-backs and strikers who defend from the front are such a huge subject for discussion.

If you have a right-back that can chip in 5-10 assists a season and can defend solidly, he’s probably worth a fortune. Likewise, if you have a striker that will hassle and chase centre-backs and goalkeepers whilst they’re in possession, it’s a massive boon for his team and generally means that striker is well worth taking a look at.

But what hasn’t changed is that a striker’s first job is to score goals, and a defender’s first job is to defend. Are Liverpool’s defenders doing that at the moment? No. Resoundingly, no.

A point has been made recently that, as the holding or defensive midfielder, Steven Gerrard is not right for the role and the club need an ‘out-and-out’ defensive midfielder to properly screen and protect the defense. This much is very true. But while I’ve been a vocal critic of Gerrard’s inability to successfully fill this role, the captain can’t take the blame for Sakho, Skrtel, Lovren, Johnson, etc. being unable to clear simple crosses, head the ball somewhere other than straight back to an opposing player, and have a scarily poor tackle success rate.

So, we have two conclusions with regards the defence: either they’re all awful players and defenders, or there is a problem with the coaching. Many have a favourite/least favourite, where our defense is concerned, and many still point to Dan Agger leaving as a huge mistake. But many more have long been crying out for a dedicated defensive coach, whether than be Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypia or giving Steve Clarke a cheeky phone call.

The fact is, we all saw how awesome Martin Skrtel was for Slovakia against Spain; we all watched Lovren for Southampton last season and his impressive, leader-like performances at the World Cup, and many of us have wondered why Sakho can’t simply replicate his PSG and France displays for us. Put simply – these are top quality centre backs (and yes, Dan Agger was too) but something is wrong much deeper down.

Following on from the shambles that was Liverpool’s defence during the mid-to-late 90’s, Gerard Houllier made the signing of an unassuming unknown called Sami Hyypia and thus, Liverpool’s defensive strength of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s was reborn for a decade. But Houllier, and Benitez after him, did not just rely on top quality defenders, they trained the life out of those players to have some of the best defensive records during those years, and the treble-winning year, the Champions League win and almost winning the Premier League were all based on a rock-solid, reliable defence.

They also had amazing defensive coaches.

Under Rodgers, Liverpool, while unable to ‘defend as a team’, seem unable to grasp the very basic foundations of defending. And this is the major concern: a back four consisting of any of Manquillo, Moreno, Enrique, Skrtel, Sakho, Lovren, Toure should be able to keep clean sheets. There is inexperience at full-back, sure, but those are some quality centre backs (on paper), solid at the very least. But there is a distinct lack of organization and leadership.

Since Brendan took charge, Liverpool have never looked particularly convincing at the back. And if anybody remembers his Swansea side when they first stormed they Premier League, they too looked susceptible at the back and often let themselves down in the exact way Liverpool continue to do, even now.

In mid-week, Liverpool scraped through but for a time the defence looked fairly comfortable. Save a typically Glen Johnson individual error, there probably would’ve been a clean sheet – the second in two games. All of this almost happened with Henderson and Lucas in front of the defence though, as the pair worked hard to hunt down any

opposition players with the ball.

At Chelsea, they typically have Matic and Oscar in front of their defence and, as we saw at Old Trafford at the weekend, they have a pathological hatred of conceding goals; to that team, keeping a clean sheet feels almost as good as scoring 5 goals and this is something that Liverpool need to find a balance with.

So, if the club are to continue to build on last season’s success then a man with a proven track record, either in his playing career or off the field, is required, at least in the interim to help get the notion of defending individually across, otherwise Liverpool will continue to concede daft goals and see this year fizzle out before it even begins.

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