His cameo gives me a great deal of hope for the future

Apologies if I am reading too much into his cameo appearance yesterday, but Liverpool’s new midfielder Raul Meireles gave me some cause for optimism in an otherwise drab display by the Reds yesterday. I feared the worst the instant I saw both Lucas Leiva AND Christian Poulsen starting the match in central midfield. No doubt, the thinking from Roy to play both was down to the opposition we were playing. Birmingham City were unbeaten in 17 home league matches before the encounter with the Reds yesterday and Alex McLeish’s side are known for their physicality and their ability to close down the opposition. Hodgson obviously felt that a big combative presence in midfield was needed to ensure that the Reds kept it tight; the strategy however failed as after a promising first ten minutes, it became clear that Liverpool’s attack was toothless.

The lack of forward runs and dynamism in midfield led to both Torres and Gerrard being isolated up field, leading to a lack of creativity and any real attacking threat. Liverpool’s two most attacking players were on the periphery for significant portions of the match due to no fault of their own. The criticism of Torres, in my opinion, was overly harsh for this reason, although he certainly wasn’t at his sharpest during the match. The blame should not be purely put on Lucas or Poulsen’s door either though. As holding midfield players, they have a job to protect the back four and therefore their forays into Birmingham’s attacking third were limited by their roles. What typified the majority of the display for me was an apparent loose pass from Torres, which was actually intended for Lucas, but the Brazilian refused to venture near the opposition penalty area.

In some respects though, the decision to play both Lucas and Poulsen was somewhat enforced. The absence of Joe Cole meant that it was logical that Gerrard would revert to playing the withdrawn striker’s role and it wasn’t surprising to see Meireles not starting considering he would have been thrown into the deep end in a difficult match. In this regard, it is too early to judge Roy Hodgson’s Liverpool. With the return of Cole against Manchester United next week, and the inclusion of Meireles from the start, we will be in a better position to make an informed judgement as to where Liverpool stand.

Roy Hodgson’s decision making could be questioned on Sunday though. He left it until very late on to change anything despite the lack of potency in the attacking third. Jovanovic and Maxi played mostly very narrow while Lucas and Poulsen’s refusal to get forward meant that when Gerrard did get on the ball his options were very limited. Players converged in the centre with very little movement, meaning Reds attacks were static and without any real opportunity of cutting open Birmingham’s defence. This all changed when Meireles came on the pitch. It allowed Steven Gerrard to revert to a position in central midfield where he could pull the strings, and Meireles playing in a more advanced role had the freedom to pass the ball around with pace, and get the Reds attack moving quicker to open up gaps in Birmingham’s defensive line.

As a box to box midfield player, I would expect Meireles more often than not to play more withdrawn in central midfield alongside Gerrard or Poulsen. It is quite obvious for any Reds fan to see in the last year that when Gerrard plays near Torres and we have two defensive midfielders in the middle, there is no one directing play, Alonso style, providing any service. With either Gerrard or Meireles playing that role with Cole further forward, it gives me some cause for hope for the future.

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