Although there were many good aspects from the Wolves display on Saturday, including the performance of Andy Carroll, the fact remains that the Reds looked overly exposed at times at the back, and despite the Reds having chances to win the game more comfortably, they could have been pegged back by Mick McCarthy’s side in the second half.
Wolves decided to go 4-5-1, as they did last year when they beat the Reds 1-0. Again, like last season under Roy Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish opted for 4-4-2 and the difference between a 1-0 defeat last year and the 2-1 victory this season was due to the quality of attacking play from Liverpool, and the likes of Luis Suarez in the team.
What was strikingly similar between the two matches though was how exposed the backline was to Wolves’ attacks. There were too many times when they got behind Liverpool’s midfield and managed to get at the likes of Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel. You can criticise our back four all you like, but if they are afforded little protection they will buckle under the strain at some point.
That is why, despite not being absolutely fantastic against Wolves, a lot of credit must go to Lucas Leiva. At times against Wolves, he was putting out more fires than he could handle but he was doing the job of two to three men on Saturday as he was afforded no help from the likes of Charlie Adam or Jordan Henderson.
It is one of the consequences of playing 4-4-2 against a five man midfield that you will be outnumbered sometimes, but what is required in such circumstances is for the 4 men in midfield to ensure they track back. For this reason, I feel it should be said that Adam and Henderson need to do a lot more defensively, as well as offensively. Particularly Adam, who is supposed to be Lucas’s partner in midfield.
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Very good analysis by the writer. I just hope we can act to fix the problems we have with enough time to challenge for the top spot soon
The problem with Henderson: I am unsure if he is a man or woman. He is built like a woman, behaves like a woman, runs as if he wears a skirt, waves his hands like a woman and nags his team mates like a woman. He is incredibly lazy and should not be playing in a man’s league.
Maybe so, but you are a pathetic creature who sounds like someone who has never gone outside their childhood home. Fool!
3phd i agree henderson is crap and will cause so much pain to this team,if this man is worth 16 million then jimmy case must have been worth 60 million in comparison,henderson needs to grow a pair of balls and stop prancing round the pitch like a big girls blouse doing f..k all!
3phd ur an idiot……..u know nothing u plastic chimp, go support manure or someone else, call yerself a liverpool fan, you`re a feckin disgrace, hang your head in shame…
KK should drop his flops and let Dirk Kuyt and Bellamy play or we’ll going to lose points and KK his job. Carroll, Henderson, Adam are not good enough at this point to wear LFC shirt.
Spot on. Adam seems like a player that you’d hate to play alongside in midfield as he’s too lazy to do the donkey work and only seems interested when we’ve got the ball. He needs to put in more work defensively or we’ll be punished by good sides.
If we play Adam throughout this season we will not get top 4 he is far too lazy, doesn’t work hard enough. Henderson at lease works very hard, he will improve he just has no confidence at the moment because all of you so called ‘fans’ putting him down all the time. Gerrard and Lucas will be the best CM partnership in the league no question in my mind
Fans will stop putting Henderson down when he does something
well said Stan………..dont call them fans tho, they`re just fickle chimps……..all you plastics getting on hendersons back obviously know nothing about footy apart from what you`ve picked up from fifa 11 on your xboxes….muppets
i think we all forgot about spearing … we got some decent performances with him by lucas side last year… until we get steven fit enough KK should consider him as lucas partner
Great analysis there David on the problems in our midfield. I think Henderson will step up to the mark given time, although he is a centre midfielder to me rather than a right sided midfielder. Adam on the other hand is I’m afraid a bit like Pacheco, a luxury, he was forgotten for 18 months at Rangers (that made me question him when we were chasing him) and while his passing is good I don’t rate him in a 4-4-2 and believe we’ll have to play 4-5-1 to accomadate him. Finally some of the comments are really negative our role as supporters is to support, analyse yes, be critical if players continually under perform, but not abuse.
while patience is a virtue a worrysome picture is unravelling fast.Every friday on LFC.TV site pictures of happy campers are shown with statements of intent for the week-end game and then misery.Rifts in the changeroom are slowly getting out.The midfield as we know it is in a vaccum and Suarez alone is not going to paper over the cracks.Losing to a top 4 rival 4-0 is problematic.Mental strengh = belief is missing.Leaving proven winners on the bench tardy subs and an appeasing job to the money NOT well spent we are not really walking the talk. YNWA
Could have sworn I’ve seen this ‘article’ already!
Ah, there it is:
‘COULD THIS BE LIVERPOOL’S HARDEST WORKING MAN?’ posted tuesday 27th on thisisfutbol.com.
Getting great mileage, aren’t you?