Certainly there are good and bad points to this strategy. The good points are self evident really; a pass and move style, with greater fluidity and greater pace in passing moves, opens gaps in opposition defences and encourages players to move the ball forward and create more goalscoring opportunities. This has had a massive effect in recent matches with eight goals in the last two home matches. Although high scoring wasn’t unheard of under Benitez, there are greater possibilities in Dalglish’s setup for opening up the opposition.
The only real bad point to the approach is that the Reds will have less possession of the ball. The Reds’ defensive line still sits pretty deep, in a similar vein to under Roy Hodgson, and with the fluidity of formation, the desire to get the ball forward sometimes will inevitably mean losing possession, and sometimes in dangerous areas in your own half. There is no reward without risk however, and despite Newcastle having greater possession yesterday, they lacked the Reds killer instinct.
Players such as Shola Ameobi and Peter Lovenkrands were not afforded any real clear cut chances, and with Dalglish’s Liverpool far more incisive in possession, as long as we keep nullifying the threat of the opposition attack, we will keep picking off teams just like we did with the Magpies yesterday.
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Its all down to a hard working midfield, supporting the forwards when on the attack and supporting the defence when under attack. they work hard in the midfield and need backup on the bench to ring the changes when needed, hence we are looking at Adam and kenny would like to keep Aquilani.
your half correct mate but must realise the reason we have less possession is because of the quality of the players not the tactics. Alonso, Mascherano compared to Lucas and Spearing. Once we get world class centre mids and very good winger the possession will be higher and attacks even more fruitful. Also worth noting is despite the brilliance of Suarez he tends to lose the ball quite often, which albeit is not always his fault (bad pass to him or a quick pass on) does effect possession stats. Kenny knows possession is key, he admires arsenal and barcelona as much as anyone and will be looking to create a similar system with a pass and move ethos. Expect to see a turan, nasri type player purchased for the wing, a clever tricky player that keeps possession very well with a keen eye for goal and pace.
against “bigger” teams, this lack of possesion could be a problem..
one reason for this is that kenny is playing two defensive midfielders in the centre of midfield..they can huff and puff in the middle but neither lucas or spearing is reknowned for their passing or the ability to keep possesion.. when we have a full strength squad, i wud like to see just one defensive mid being played along with a ball playing, box to box centre midfielder..
I thought the biggest change was Suarez. Even without Gerrard u can see most the time Suarez usually tracked back to help the midfielders to provide the killer passes to Kuyt or Mareiles
Guys, I think you have missed one fundamental factor .. they have changed the way the mid-field works all together adopting a more Barcelona fluid style where defensively two men press the opponent with the ball and the rest cut out all the options. This takes a lot more energy as the whole team needs to work as one, rather than three separate units/lines. This also protects the young lads as there are always two players closing the opposition down.
This means opposing teams tend to get to half way and then pass it backwards as there are no options going forward and due to the pressure from two men – however they retain their possession ration.
Offensively, once Liverpool get the ball – the mid-field rush forward sometimes ahead of the attack to support them and to get an attempt on goal ASAP. They dont tend to do twenty passes on the half way line (which would increase their possession stats)- its a lot more decisive like the Scum was with Ronaldo. Best of both worlds which is why we are keeping clean sheets whilst at the same time looking very strong going forward and scoring lots of goals – especially from mid-field.
If we continue this and add a little bit of additional quality I believe we can really make things happen next season.