Where should finger of blame point for latest set-back?

THE Redmen slumped to a disappointing defeat on Saturday and in all honesty, disappointing is a polite way to put it; it was a shambles from start to finish.

Paul Machin the host of the Redmen.tv shows said Rodgers should have made the team walk home.

Yet I can’t help feel in saying that to his team, Rodgers would have felt he should walk home too.

It was a huge mistake starting Allen before Lucas. There’s no hiding from it, however according to some journalists Lucas told Rodgers he wasn’t fit to start.

Still, there’s Henderson on the bench, with a half-fit Allen, he’s the obvious choice.

I won’t hear of any negativity towards Joe Allen. His dip in form has coincided with his injury, yet last week he came on and made a positive impact. Let’s not forget in his first two months in a red shirt, he was arguably the best player if you leave out Luis Suarez

Other players as well as Joe Allen have struggled in their first season with the Reds: Jan Molby, Ian Rush, Lucas Leiva – all came good. Molby is now one of the most decorated players in our history. Indeed Rush was actually told by the great Bob Paisley that he was off in the summer. One goal turned around his fortunes.

In my mind, you can’t blame Joe Allen for the performance of Skrtel, Agger, Johnson, Enrique, Downing and Sturridge.

All were poor on Saturday, all of them bar Enrique are fully fledged experienced internationals. Yes, they had more work to do, but all failed to do their jobs, all failed to turn up to the party that would have been four Premier League wins on the bounce.

Indeed Martin Skrtel seems to be etching his signature slowly onto a transfer out of Anfield with every appalling performance at a time.

As I pointed out last week, Liverpool haven’t put that type of run together since 2009 under Rafa.

Some people have pointed out that having a poor midfield didn’t allow the team to play, yet the stats show that we sat deep allowing Southampton to smother us, and when the ball did come towards the back four, they panicked and looked slow to react. Too much defending happened inside the box.

In the recent performances we’ve pressed high and dispossessed the opposition in the midfield. Our final third passing has also been better than at St Mary’s.

If you compare this set of stats to the match against Spurs, we won the midfield battle yet poor defending almost cost us the game; you can see the difference is clear

If you compare this to the last time we beat Southampton you’ll see we attacked them in midfield and won the game through some good defending and a moment of genius from Agger.

Compare again to the perfect game against Swansea. Beautiful direct passing, tackles won in the centre of the park with both fullbacks pressing and cutting inside.

No amount of tactical analysis can ratify what happened on Saturday, but something needs to be done to prevent the same mistakes happening again and again.

I’ve wrote many times on this site about mentality and Saturday showed this again.

Players should always give 100% in a Liverpool shirt, and when they don’t play well effort should cancel out the form. That’s a winning mentality which is something I thought we might have been starting to build.

Players like Dirk Kuyt, Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypia and Mascherano were all brilliant for Liverpool FC and all had bad days. But they always gave 100% and always put their bodies on the line for the cause. That’s why they’re legends at our club.

Liverpool missed a true leader on the pitch on Saturday; Gerrard whilst being club captain is less influential than Jamie Carragher. And when Carra leaves there will be a hole bigger than his mere position on the pitch to fill.

I know most of you who read these articles believe Rodgers should go. The fact of the matter is now is not the time for that. We need to see what next year brings. Personally I think he’ll prove you wrong and seeing our form this year I believe this is just another blip on the rocky road back to success.

One thing is for certain, Rodgers has some more thinking to do both tactically and in the transfer market; a good defensive coach wouldn’t go amiss either!

Follow me on twitter @JohnRitcie84
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