The size of the task that awaits Liverpool’s Director of Football Strategy Damien Comolli was never more apparent than last night. Whilst youth needs nurturing and progressing, a match ending midfield quartet of Eccleston and Shelvey in addition to the more experienced duo of Maxi Rodriguez and Lucas Leiva betrayed an alarming lack of depth within the Liverpool squad, especially at a stage when they were chasing the game.
Whilst opportunities will come, supporters of the Anfield club can only look on with envy at the depth of squad at many other Premier League Clubs. This is, of course, no startling revelation, but it has been stark in its evidence this week. Sunday saw proof that the Liverpool can compete on ‘any given Sunday’ with any side in the division. Whilst they ceded a great deal of second half possession to Chelsea, nobody could dispute Liverpool’s superiority in every facet of the game.
Last night, however, was frustratingly familiar especially given the bright start that they made to the match, Fernando Torres confirming his welcome return to form with another well taken goal. Thereafter, the Reds were second best all over the pitch and can possibly count themselves fortunate to escape with a draw.
Roy Hodgson will justifiably complain that he had several internationals missing in the form of Agger, Kyrgiakos, Johnson, Cole and Babel. The latter apart, they would not necessarily have been the names called for to turn last night’s fixture. Whilst his options may have been minimal, Hodgson yet again bore the frown of a man unsure of his next move, a familiar sight this season.
My personal opinion is that he got it tactically wrong last night, and that there was certainly no need to drop off so consistently deep against Wigan, despite the fact that they played very well on the evening. Most alarming was the fact that we won no second balls, especially in what was such a condensed area between the back four and midfield, an indictment either on the awareness and anticipation of the midfield or their failure to keep their shape. If you are going to defend deep, your only opportunity to win is by winning the second ball and launching a counter-attack.
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“Hodgson, I fear, still needs to grab the fact that he is manager of one of the biggest clubs in the country, a squad that boasts a string of internationals and down the spine of the team includes three of the best in the world in their respective positions in Reina, Gerrard and Torres. The name or aura of Liverpool does not guarantee success….”
I think he knows all to well how big a club Liverpool are, I mean, who does not know that simple fact? Trouble is, our big club has a small squad and when some of the vital players of that small squad are tired or not available, as you say, the name/aura of Liverpool is not worth Toffee (pardon the pun).
Liverpool is like a big red Ferrari filled with 95 octane fuel, it needs a decent services & better fuel vicar!
🙂
YNWA
I don’t buy the argument about crippling lack of squad depth. Yes, we don’t have the luxury of a $100m bench, but Hodgson’s not exactly dealing with a pub side either. With this squad, we had enough representatives at the world cup final to put out an entire starting XI and still have two leftover on reserves. Only one other squad in the world can boast that quality – Barcelona.
This squad is not title-quality yet, but 4th for this set of players should be the bare minimum, not an aspiration to be proud of at the end of the season (which I’m sure Roy will treat as one of Liverpool’s great victories if we achieve it). Fact is, give this set of players to another manager, and all of a sudden you’ll see that this rabble of internationals can beat Wigan again.
The size of Damien’s task is one thing. I’d say more important than that is the immediacy of John Henry’s task re: Roy Hodgson.
Hodgeson tactics work when we’re the underdogs. It’s no coincidence that Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal have been our best performance’s but in games where we have to take the game to the smaller teams those tactics don’t work.
Jovanovich and Ngog were left on the bench (and Pacheco didn’t even make it that far again) when he brought on Shelvey & Ecclestone remember – neither of which were given much chance to succeed by being played so out of position in an under-performing team.
We don’t have much of a squad for this silly 4411 formation, but we do have a squad that would suddenly look a lot stronger if we switched to a 433
Roy still insists on leaving our joint top scorer out of it. What has he got against the kid? I’d look for another club if I was Ngog. And yet again pacheco fails to make the bench even. He is not even considered good enough for a game at wigan? This is madness.
pachecco was too lightweight to play against wigan he would of been ineffective
The squad is skinny, true, but Hodgson played a big part in that by loaning out some good players. How he let Aquilani go is beyond me. It’s not as if we are blessed with an over supply of gifted, creative midfielders. In fact, Aqua is precisely the type of player that could have been injected into the game against Wigan, not the likes of the plodding Poulson. Don’t forget, to secure Konchesky – another plodder – Hodgson let go a couple of very talented reserve players. I agree with the previous comment, where’s Pacheco?? Has he been frozen out, same as Agger? God, the more I see and read of Hodgson the more I want to see the back of him. Take action, John Henry. Please.
Hodgson had said that Aquilani was too good to sit on the bench. That was the first decision that made me start questioning the common sense of our new manager. Well it looks likes he’s has got what he wants now and has nobody on the bench that he wants on the pitch
It is beyond everyone I think why Pacheco is not given an opportunity. I think the word to describe Roy’s approach at the moment should be “timid”.
I have nothing against the man who is a good coach, he is but it is about the time that he tries an approach fit of Liverpool and not of Fulham or Blackburn.
Faster we remove Roy faster we move up the table as simple as that.
apart from the occasional apologist for Roy (almost seems contrived at times) he has to be the least supported manager of LFC that I can remember. Even the days of Sourness didn’t seem as dark as this.
In pacheco and Pedro(barca) I see same player just that one is given time on the pitch to build his confidence. Things has to change or by dec LFC back in relegation zonne
we won’t be back in the relegation zone. We won’t enter this watered down title race as we should do either though 🙁
Just finished watching the dismal performance against Stoke,who as a team,showed guts,determination and the desire to play at 110% for the whole game.Not pretty,but simple effective stuff to knock over a Liverpool team who seem to have thought that after the Chelsea win that all will be ok now.LFC needs to drastically revamp the 1st team come Jan,too many so called big name stars on big salaries not performing.As in any other job,such a shame that players remuneration in football is`nt performance related.Mid table finish at best for LFC this season on this and other similar sub standard performaces.