In nearly every successful championship winning side, there has been a semblance of balance to how the team lines up formation wise. It is critical to have attacking threats from all areas of the pitch to win a league title. Sides that lack such balance tend to focus attacks heavily on one side of the pitch or the other, depending on their strengths, and it can help opposition defences predict where the avenue of attack is coming from, making it easier to defend.
Liverpool in recent years have been a prime example as to how balance can overly affect a team’s performance. It was no coincidence that Liverpool’s best league season under Rafa Benitez came when the Reds finally attained a decent left sided midfielder. Balance doesn’t necessarily mean the same as giving a side width on both sides though as although Albert Riera was a left winger, he didn’t always stretch the opposition full back, and during the 2008/09 season, there weren’t many assists from Riera pumping crosses into the box. What Riera did give the Reds though was something different, an extra problem for opposition defences to worry about in a different area of the pitch.
Rather than necessarily focusing their attentions on Yossi Benayoun or Dirk Kuyt on the right hand side or Alonso or Gerrard in the middle, they also had to think about Riera, as well as the threat of Fabio Aurelio coming from deep. It not only stretched defences to provide holes for through balls, it also provided space for the likes of Gerrard and Alonso to work their magic and get at the opposition backline.
In the 2009/10 and for the first part 2010/11, the absence of Riera or any real attacking threat from the left played into opponent’s hands and only with a resurgent Maxi Rodriguez in the second half of the season, along with Glen Johnson at left full back, did this begin to change.
Daniel Agger is also Left footed.