What did we learn from yesterday? Agger’s no left back and we need players

I agree with Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson that the 3-0 scoreline against Manchester City was harsh on the Merseysiders. Apart from the goals, Pepe Reina had very little to do and in fact the Reds had just as many attempts on goal as City. There is no hiding away from the fact though that Liverpool were poor last night. Poor defensively as well as a lack of penetration in the final third, Roy has a lot of work to do on the training pitch. Roy said as much after the game:

“They scored the goals at the right time. The second goal from the corner kick in the second half made it an uphill task for us. We stuck at it and we were a bit unlucky not to get one back when (Joe) Hart made an incredible double save. We lacked a cutting edge and the organisation I would have liked.”

Certainly the controversy surrounding Javier Mascherano didn’t help but the standard of the display was pretty abject. Some of this maybe down to the formation and the players that Roy decided to use in it. While Man City picked three defensive midfield players in a five man midfield, Roy went with only Lucas and Steven Gerrard. It seemed a pretty positive decision at the start of the match with both David Ngog and Fernando Torres picked to start at front but the two strikers hardly got a sniff of the ball.

This wasn’t down to a lack of possession, the Reds did pretty well keeping the ball for large portions of the match, it was the lack of speed and general penetration in their attacking moves that was really evident last night. The big reason for this I believe is the lack of pace on the wings or the absence of a genuine winger. If you choose to play 4-4-2 as Roy chose to last night, you have to ensure you have players on the wings who can go past defenders with pace. In Jovanovic and Kuyt this is certainly not the case. This is no dig at either the Serbian or the Dutch international, they are converted strikers who can play wide, but they are a lot happier in a 4-3-3 where they can play narrower and can link up with a lone front man. Both Kuyt and Jovanovic will tend to cut in field to get involved in play rather than take on the opposition full back. Roy had Duff and Davies at Fulham, the Reds’ wide players are not similar in any sense.

The worst part of the performance though was the defensive display, and Daniel Agger was cruelly exposed by Adam Johnson as being a make shift full back. Time after time both Johnson and Milner got the best of Agger; it is situation that must be rectified by signing a new full back and moving the Dane back into the centre of defence alongside Jamie Carragher where he is more comfortable. For the first goal, both Kuyt and Gerrard were caught out of position with Barry and Milner allowed free runs into the box, while Agger was out jumped by Micah Richards for the second. Skrtel’s rash challenge for the penalty summed up the Reds defensive display.

They are all individual errors though, and something which can be corrected in time by Roy having enough time on the training pitch to instil his system and organisation. He will have learned a lot about his players last night. The big lessons will be that he does need reinforcements, at left back and in the wing department if he wants to play 4-4-2 again. He says he is concerned about  buying the “wrong players” before he has had time to fully assess his squad, but the obvious deficiencies in last night’s match should surely suggest to him that certain areas of the pitch need strengthening before the end of the transfer window.

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