Former Liverpool striker John Aldridge believes that the formation used by Roy Hodgson against Birmingham City was too negative. He wrote in his column in the Liverpool Echo:
“When I looked at the team sheet before Liverpool took on Birmingham on Sunday, one question immediately sprang to my mind – how are we going to score a goal? St Andrews has, of course, become something of a bogey ground for Liverpool but I was worried after the starting line-up was unveiled that we would struggle to secure a first win there since May 2004 and, sadly, that proved to be the case. To my mind, it looked as if we were relying on Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres conjuring up a moment of magic or making a set piece count. Other than that, there was nothing and, for that reason, it was no shock Ben Foster remained untroubled in Birmingham’s goal.”
Aldridge believes that there was just no creativity in the Reds team:
“Basically, Liverpool are crying out for someone to provide invention down the flanks; we have not had a proper left-winger since John Barnes was in his pomp and a search that has lasted almost 20 years is still on going. Maxi Rodriguez and Milan Jovanovic didn’t offer any width at Birmingham but, again, they didn’t get great service either; I’ve seen the midfield axis of Lucas and Christian Poulsen twice now and I don’t think it is working – they are far too similar.”
Couldn’t agree more such a lack of pace and creativty which is why I would like to sell the likes of Aquilani£13.5m,Insua£4.5m,Babel£9m,Lucas£7m,Degen£1m,El Zhar£1m,Itandje£1m and buy Keisuke Honda£12m to play right wing and Ashley Young£18m to play left wing, two pacey crative inverted wingers would be fantastic and I think Joe Cole and Raul Meireles will add a lot of creativity and prove to be very good signing’s, I would also like to see Lassana Diarra who is available at a knockdown £9m and would be able to fill Mascherano’s boots which I can’t see Poulsen or Lucas doing and if at all possible a quality back up striker for Torres